First Edition
Anton Joseph Hampel came from Bohemia. His name also appears in the sources as Hampl, Hampla and Humple. Information on his year of birth varies between 1700 and 1711. In 1737 he was employed as 2nd horn player at the Dresden court orchestra. Moritz Fürstenau reports in his work on the court orchestra, published in 1861, that he came to Dresden together with his brother Johann Adam Hampel, who was a violist. From 1757 to 1766 he played 1st horn and then switched back to the 2nd position. He died in Dresden on 30 March 1771.
Among others, Hampel was the teacher of Johann Wenzel Stich, known as Giovanni Punto. His horn method and his technique of stopping and muting notes on the horn had a decisive influence on the playing technique of his time. He collaborated with the Dresden instrument maker Johann Werner, and it is said that, following Hampel's idea, Werner was the first to fit a tuning slide (Inventionszug) into the valveless natural horn, around 1753. This slide allowed the instrument to be tuned better and more precisely. It is also reported that Hampel developed various mutes (sordinos) for the horn.
Only a few of Hampel's compositions have survived. His pupil Giovanni Punto published a horn method, "Seule et vraie méthode pour apprendre facilement les éléments du premier et du second cor", with the note that it was based on Hampel's work and completed by Punto. The Dresden State Library held, under Ms. 30 qu4°, a piece titled "Lection pro Cornui, Sigr. A. J. H.", which, however, is now considered lost due to war.
The source for this edition has now been found in the Paris National Library (BNF).
The trios 34–61, edited here in first edition as Volume 2 under Hampel's name, carry no numbering in the source. In Nos. 34–37 no pitch is specified. In Nos. 38–43, the 1st and 2nd horn are marked "in F or Dis", the 3rd horn "in D or C"; Nos. 44–51 call for 1st and 2nd horn in F and 3rd horn in C. The source then contains a second set of copies of Trios 38–42, marked solely for 1st and 2nd horn in F and 3rd horn in D. This second copy was consulted for comparison in preparing this edition. In Nos. 52–61 the horns are in a matching, but not specifically prescribed, pitch. No. 52 surprisingly calls for mutes (sordinos); Nos. 55–57 call for "echo", possibly achieved with mutes as well. After No. 37, the 1st horn part notates the opening (8 bars) of a further trio, which was never completed. No. 61 is an Adagio that survives only in the 1st horn part and is included, edited, in the score presented here.
