The most extensive source of horn music from the first half of the 18th century is a manuscript collection of the Academic Chapel, now held in the University Library of Lund, Sweden. Many of the composers represented in it were connected in one way or another with the Dresden court. The copyist may well have been a horn player who had visited that city.
List of the Horn Concertos in the Lund Collection
The Wenster collection lists 18 concertos for horn. The numbers follow the original numbering of the collection:
- No. 1 Schultz – Concerto ex Dis for horn, transverse flute, violin and basso → (ROM 018)
- No. 2 Anonymous (Hoffmann) – Concerto ex Dis for horn, 2 oboes and strings → (ROM 013)
- No. 3 Quantz (C. G. Fischer?) – Concerto ex Dis for horn and strings
- No. 4 Anonymous – Concerto ex Dis for horn, 2 oboes and basso → (ROM 019)
- No. 5 Förster – Concerto ex Dis for horn and strings → (ROM 341)
- No. 6 Anonymous – Concerto for horn, oboe d’amore and basso → (ROM 020)
- No. 7 Graun – Concerto ex D for horn, oboe d’amore and basso → (ROM 181)
- No. 8 Graun – Trio ex D for horn, violin and b.c. → (ROM 182)
- No. 9 Quantz – Concerto for horn, oboe and strings → (ROM 021)
- No. 10 Knechtel – Concerto ex D
- No. 11 Knechtel – Concerto ex Dis → (ROM 377)
- No. 12 Förster – Concerto ex Dis
- No. 13 Anonymous (Hampel?) – Concerto ex D for horn and strings → (ROM 184)
- No. 14 Röllig – Concerto ex Dis for horn and strings → (ROM 022)
- No. 15 Röllig – Concerto ex D for horn and strings → (ROM 023)
- No. 16 Graun – Concerto ex D for horn and strings → (ROM 024)
- No. 17a Reinhardt – Concerto ex Dis for horn and strings → (ROM 025)
- No. 17b Gehra – Concerto ex D for horn and strings → (ROM 026)
No. 17a: Reinhardt
Concerto ex Dis major for Corno concertato, 2 Violins, Viola and Basso
This concerto contains decidedly virtuosic leaps into the low register as well, a skill that Hampel, as second horn player of the Dresden court orchestra, is said to have mastered in particular. It is thus one of the “low” Baroque concertos and should still offer second horn players a rewarding solo piece today.
Unfortunately, very little about the composer can be found in the sources. An Andreas Reinhardt was engaged in Schwerin on 20 October 1750 as premier horn player. Whether the spelling of the name is correct may be doubted.
Walter’s music lexicon lists a Johann Christian Reinhardt. He was the son of a shoemaker and was born in Leipzig on 24 December 1691. When he was ten, noble patrons paid for two years of oboe lessons. At sixteen he entered the service of Count Wackerbart in Dresden as a page. He held this post for ten years and then worked for the same nobleman as a musician for another seven. In 1724 he moved to the Polish prince Lubomirsky Spisky, and in 1725 to Prince Radzivil. From that year he was a chamber musician in the princely service of Ernst August.
