Horn melodies from a time of upheaval
Charles Gounod wrote the «Six mélodies pour le cor à pistons avec accompagnement de piano» for a famous horn player and horn maker.
For decades, Edition Kunzelmann, formerly Edition Eulenburg, based in Adliswil, has rendered outstanding services to the cultivation of the wind repertoire, especially the horn repertoire. The impressive new edition of the Six mélodies by Charles Gounod bears witness to this impressive diligence.
These catchy pieces, which are not too difficult to play, were already published in 1982 by Editions Billaudot Paris, edited by the solo horn player of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Edmond Leloir, in a three-volume edition. It is to be welcomed that all Six mélodies now available in a booklet. The dedicatee of these works is the horn player and horn maker Marcel-Auguste Raoux from the famous Raoux dynasty.
The editor of the present edition, Simon Scheiwiller, presents a meticulously prepared revision report. His foreword provides interesting information about the historical context surrounding the hesitant, controversial transition from the natural horn to the first instruments with piston-valves in Paris around 1840.
As an old friend of the art of letterpress printing, the reviewer is delighted to hold such a lovingly designed music book in his hands.
Charles Gounod: Six mélodies pour le cor à pistons, edited by Simon Scheiwiller, GM-1981, Fr. 29.30, Edition Kunzelmann, Adliswil
