Johann Gottfried Schuncke (1777 - 1861)

• Exercice

Beside the Variations for 2 Waldhorns and Orchestra there shall be introduced a small methodic work of Johann Gottfried Schuncke, the excellent first hornist at the Court in Württemberg. It is an exercise for horn with piano accompaniment. It was a common way of composing such exercises that virtuoso studies got piano accompaniment such as the horn school by Frederic Duvernoy, where several etudes have got a piano part or basso continuo. The same way of instrumentation leads us to Johann Rudolph Lewy, who published 12 Etudes for horn about 1830 which have been played until today. These pieces were also with piano accompaniment but unknown today. 

The present work is very virtuoso, maybe even for encore. It is structured in theme and eight variations. If one considers the work played with the natural horn one gets an idea and respect for the workmanship of Gottfried Schuncke. The assumed composition date lies about 1820. The manuscript was saved in1945 by the descendent Michael Schuncke, who is managing a very interesting Familienarchiv. Mr. Schuncke took several works from his family property with him and one early valve horn from the year 1830. The rest got lost in the last days of the war. Unfortunately, there was a fire in the main archive (Crailsheim) in 1945. 

Bibliographical information can be found on the following pages: The family Schuncke and Variations.

tone range in this work

Horn in E

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