The Vauxhall Band

Horn

In 1753, German musician Anton Joseph Hampel (1710-1771) invented movable slides (crooks) of various length which changed the key of the horn. In the 19th Century, valves where invented, and through the century they slowly replaced the crook system, leading to the development of the modern French Horn. 

Having been designed as an outdoor instrument, the horn was perfect for Pleasure Gardens. It was featured on the stage in concertos, symphonies, and songs, as well as more informally; A small band of horns could be hired to play during supper after the concert at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and tea could be taken at Islington Spa to their accompaniment. Bands of horns and clarinets also performed at Marylebone Pleasure Gardens, and at Finch’s Grotto Gardens.^[2]Sadie, Stanley. “The Wind Music of J. C. Bach.” Music & Letters, vol. 37, no. 2, Oxford University Press, 1956, pp. 107–17, http://www.jstor.org/stable/728946. p.2

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London’s Premiere Horn Players in the 18th & 19th Centuries

His use of “stopping” the horn was criticised by the British press, probably due to the novelty, but he remained a very popular performer, and was invited by George III to tutor the horns in his private band.

Punto was born Jan Václav (or Johann Wenzel) Stich in Zehusice, near Cáslav, in what is now the Czech Republic. After a disagreement with his employer Count Josef Johann von Thun, which resulted in the threat of the loss of his front teeth, and subsequent end to his horn career, Stich fled to Italy and changed his name to Giovanni Punto. He was also known as “Ponta”, “Ponto”, and “Ponté”.^[4]Highfill, Philip H., JR, Burnim, Kalman A., Langhans, Edward A. – A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, & Other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800. … Continue reading

Punto performed across Europe, and his fame was far-reaching. Leading theatre manager, composer, and tenor Michael Kelly, who became Punto’s close friend in London, spoke of “Monsieur Ponté, first French horn player to the King of Prussia, and a very fine performer“.^[5]Kelly, Michael – Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, of the King’s Theatre, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. 1826

While in Coblenz in 1772 Dr Charles Burney noted: “The elector has a good band, in which M. Ponta, the celebrated French horn from Bohemia, whose taste and astonishing execution were lately so much applauded in London, is a performer.“^[6]Burney, Charles – The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces. Or, the Journal of a Tour Through Those Countries to Collect Materials for a General History of … Continue reading 

In 1801 the critic of the Prague Neue Zeitung wrote that Punto “…showed unparalleled mastery of his difficult instrument, and his execution was such that the best connoisseurs had never heard its like. His phrasing was always essentially vocal both in the upper and lower registers. In rapid or slow cadenzas he would introduce double and even triple chords. plus variations contained musical effects that were entirely novel, and his playing enriches our fatherland with what has long been reported and is now proven, namely the tame of having given a great genius to music”^[7]Highfill, Philip H., JR, Burnim, Kalman A., Langhans, Edward A. – A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, & Other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800. … Continue reading

In 1778 Mozart wrote the horn part in his Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds in Eb Major for Punto, enthusing: “Punto bläst magnifique” (“Punto blows magnificently”), and Punto was the horn player for whom Beethoven wrote his Sonata for Horn and Piano Op.18. 

Punto used a silver horn built in 1778 in Paris by Lucien-Joseph Raoux.

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Pierre-Joseph Pieltain (b.1751)

Belgian horn player Pieltain joined the band of the Prince of Wales in 1786. In 1791 he was in the band at the Pantheon for the operas and ballets, and played at the Professional Concerts at the Hanover Square Rooms. Charles Burney listed Pieltain among the horns in the Handel Memorial Concerts at Westminster Abbey.^[8]Doane’s Musical Directory – 1794

Brother of violinist Dieudonné Pascal Pieltain, Pierre-Joseph studied with the great Bohemian horn player Giovanni Punto, who also visited London.

Pieltain was depicted with other musicians (including Vauxhall Gardens oboist Johann Fischer, and Dr Charles Burney himself) in an engraving by James Bretherton (above).

He lived at No 43, Frith Street, Soho, London.

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Giovanni Puzzi (1792-1876)

An eminent soloist, chamber and orchestra member, Italian horn player Puzzi became the UK’s most celebrated horn player of the 19th century.

As a child prodigy in Italy, Puzzi had caught the attention of Napoleon, and was given a place in the Chapelle de l’Empereur. Following the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the Duke of Wellington invited Puzzi to live in London. 

Firmly establishing himself as a leading player in London, Puzzi became Principal Horn of the Italian Opera at the King’s Theatre, performing alongside the renowned horn-playing Petrides brothers, Joseph and Peter.^[12]Strauchen, E. Bradley – Giovanni Puzzi and Horn Playing in London’s Orchestras in the 1820’s. He was also a member of the Concerts of Ancient Music, and the Philharmonic Society. Puzzi acquired a notable reputation as a master of the chromatic late hand-horn technique, performing as soloist in his own arrangements with this technique. 

Puzzi took up the post of Professor of Horn at the newly-formed Royal Academy of Music in London in 1823.

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Willem Spandau (1741-1806)

Dutch horn player and composer Spandau came to London in 1773 to perform at the King’s Theatre, Covent Garden Theatre, and the Haymarket Theatre. He also played a concerto for two horns with Giovanni Punto.

Charles Burney attended the London concerts, and was full of praise for Spandau’s technique, correct intonation and chromatic mastery of the range. Spandau played in the band of the Stadholder of the United Provinces in the Netherlands, and Burney had previously heard him performing in The Hague, noting that Spandau was the first to make artificial notes agreeable.^[14]Herbert, Trevor; Wallace, John; Cross, Jonathan, Editors – The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments. Cambridge University Press, 1997. p.112

“I found Mr. Spandau, who has since been heard with so much pleasure in London, at The Hague. Through his diligence, taste, delicacy, and presentation, he managed to get his French horn, an instrument which, because of its roughness, could only be endured in the open air or in a large building, to be heard just as gently and pleasantly, as a human voice”.^[15]Burney, Charles – The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Provincesteenth-Century Musical Tour In Central Europe And The Netherlands Vol-II

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Henry Charles Jarrett (1816-1888)

Jarrett performed on the horn at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 1840, 1841, and 1845.^[16]http://www.vauxhallgardens.com/vauxhall_gardens_musicians_page.html He also performed in Philharmonic Concerts, and at The Adelaide Gallery.^[17]Barlow, Helen – Brass and woodwind players’ routes into the music profession

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Thomas Attwood, senior (1737-1813)

Father of Thomas Attwood junior, the composer who studied with W.A. Mozart, Attwood senior performed as a horn player in the Prince of Wales’ Band of Musicians^[19]F. G. E. “Thomas Attwood. (1765-1838).” The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, vol. 41, no. 694, Musical Times Publications Ltd., 1900, pp. 788–94, https://doi.org/10.2307/3368298., at Westminster Abbey, and with the Academy of Ancient Music.^[20]Barlow, Helen – Brass and woodwind players’ routes into the music profession

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Adam Rathgen (fl.1760-1780)

Rathgen performed on the horn, oboe, and clarinet at Marylebone Pleasure Gardens.^[21]Barlow, Helen – Brass and woodwind players’ routes into the music profession

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Henry Platt (1795-1871)

Platt was 1st Horn in the Opera Concerts, the Philharmonic Society, and the Royal Academy Concerts. He was Professor of Horn at the Royal Academy of Music.^[23]Barlow, Helen – Brass and woodwind players’ routes into the music profession

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Daniel Frederick Price (1768-1813)

Price played the horn at the Covent Garden Theatre Oratorios in 1795 and 1796^[24]Highfill, Philip H., JR, Burnim, Kalman A., Langhans, Edward A. – A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, & Other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800. … Continue reading, and Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens.^[25]Barlow, Helen – Brass and Woodwind Players’ routes into the music profession

He lived at Duke’s Court, St Martin’s Lane, London.

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Samuel Saunders (1759-1801)

Sadler’s Wells equilibrist and slack-wire artist Saunders was not an average horn player. In 1781 he balanced a drinking glass on his head with the wire in full swing, and with a French horn on his lips, sounded a minuet without using his hands, simultaneously performing a “continual Summerset on the Wire, while fireworks are playing from different parts of his body.”^[26]Highfill, Philip H., JR, Burnim, Kalman A., Langhans, Edward A. – A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, & Other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800. … Continue reading

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Bibliography & Credits

Researchers – Laura Piras and Adrian France
Contributor – Ursula Paludan Monberg

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Burney, Charles – The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces. Or, the Journal of a Tour Through Those Countries to Collect Materials for a General History of Music. 1771.

Burney, Charles – The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Provinces. 1773

Kelly, Michael – Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, of the King’s Theatre, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. 1826

Highfill, Philip H., JR, Burnim, Kalman A., Langhans, Edward A. – A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, & Other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800. South Illinois University Press, 1975. Volumes: 9, 12 & 13

The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, vol. 41, no. 694, Musical Times Publications Ltd., 1900, pp. 788–94. F. G. E. “Thomas Attwood. (1765-1838)”. Read the full article here

Barlow, Helen – Brass and woodwind players’ routes into the music profession. Read the full table here

Herbert, Trevor; Wallace, John; Cross, Jonathan, Editors – The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Martz, Richard J – Reversed Chirality in Horns, or Is Left Right? The Horn, on the Other Hand. Read the full paper here.

Sadie, Stanley. “The Wind Music of J. C. Bach.” Music & Letters, vol. 37, no. 2, Oxford University Press, 1956, pp. 107–17. Read the full paper here.

Strauchen, E. Bradley – Giovanni Puzzi and Horn Playing in London’s Orchestras in the 1820’s. Read the full paper here

David Coke‘s excellent website

Historic Brass Society website

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