Ornaments

Part 1

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Performance once depended as much on informed invention as on written notes, and early horn concertos still carry that forgotten freedom in plain sight.

By Peter Damm

Part 4

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Changes and modifications of tempo

Tempo, dynamics and cadenzas expose how much an 18th-century horn concerto once depended on choices that modern notation and instruments can easily obscure.

By Peter Damm

Part 1

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

As editions, instruments and traditions diverge, Haydn’s trumpet concerto becomes a lens on notation, style and the shifting meaning of performance.

By Alfred Willener

Ornamentation of baroque music for brass

Baroque ornamentation forgotten? Without it, performances become dull and repetitive. This article argues for a return to style, freedom, and creative interpretation.

By Marc Meissner

Part 2

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

André, Wobisch, Dokshitzer, Stringer and others reveal how tempo, phrasing, ornamentation and cadenzas reshape Haydn's trumpet concerto.

By Alfred Willener

Why pretend to be Mozart?

Reply to Bernhard Krol

Should a cadenza imitate Mozart? Peter Damm argues for stylistic fidelity without imitation—at the heart of a debate with Bernhard Krol.

By Peter Damm

Part 2

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Essential ornaments

Natural horn technique left little room for excess: Peter Damm sets 18th-century ornamentation against the practical limits of range, style and notation.

By Peter Damm

The French Hunting horn, its history, its technique and its music

Centuries-old hunting signals still shape performance today, where technique, ritual and oral tradition preserved a musical language unlike any other brass practice.

By Daniel Bourgue

Part 3

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Deliberate divisions

Improvisation, articulation and ornament were once inseparable: Peter Damm recovers an 18th-century horn practice later narrowed by increasingly precise notation.

By Peter Damm