photo by Sedge Le Blang, courtesy of the New York Philharmonic.

Joseph Singer was principal horn of the New York Philharmonic (1943-1974) and taught at Juilliard (1970-1974), but he is also known for his book Embouchure Building for French Horn. He was an influential player and teacher. His tenure of 31 years as solo horn is a record for the New York Philharmonic. He was a cousin of Arnold Jacobs.

Singer was born in Philadelphia and started on violin at age six, changing to viola at age 15. He began his musical career as a viola player with the Detroit Symphony (1927-1933). He started playing the horn while in Detroit, playing extra with the symphony just a year and a half after taking it up, and later studied with Bruno Jaenicke, Walter Macdonald, and Joseph Franzl. He started in the Boston Symphony as seventh horn in 1933, then became third and alternate first horn and continued under Koussevitzky until 1943, when he was appointed principal horn of the New York Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński. Over his long career in New York, he performed a number times as soloist with the orchestra and was also active in chamber music ensembles.

Before becoming a member of the Juilliard faculty, Singer taught at the New York College of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and (as guest faculty) Brigham Young University.

Singer had absolute pitch and exactness for rhythmical subdivision. His years of playing viola in Detroit provided insights for analytical teaching. He continued to play viola occasionally and believed that his experience as a string player proved a good foundation for the horn. He taught concertos and orchestral excerpts, but no etudes; he said, "Practice them at home if you like, but don’t bring them to the lesson!" He instructed his students to check scores to correct notes or articulations that were incorrect in the current excerpt books. He played a Wunderlich double horn, and also a Paxman.

Singer was a Class "A" amateur ham radio operator and built his own radio-phonograph. He repaired electronic equipment and was interested in traveling, photography, and cars.

Dale Whitman wrote a tribute to Singer for the April 1979 issue of The Horn Call. Other material was generously shared by the New York Philharmonic Archives. The photo is by Sedge Le Blang, courtesy of the New York Philharmonic.

Alfred Edwin Brain, Jr., son of A.E. Brain Sr., brother of Aubrey Brain, and uncle of Dennis Brain – all distinguished horn players – immigrated to the US and influenced horn playing in Los Angeles.

Alfred (known as Alf) started to learn the trumpet when he was six, but changed to the horn at age 12 and studied with his father. He (and his brother Aubrey) studied with Friedrich Adolf Borsdorf at the Royal Academy of Music. Alf was first horn with the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow for three years, during which time he married Gertrude Levi (1907). Returning to London, Alf became principal horn of the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood. He and his section gave the first British performance of the Schumann Konzertstück in 1909, and he an Fred Salkeld gave the first London performance of the Beethoven Sextet for two horns and strings.

Alf became the most sought-after horn player in London and took over as principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1913 when Borsdorf retired. He was injured during World War I at the French front and received the British War Medal and Victory Medal, finally being discharge in 1919 and returning to London. He soon had a monopoly of the first horn chairs of the leading orchestras.

Alf was not happy in his marriage, so he emigrated in 1922 with his daughter, Olga, to the United States to join the New York Symphony under Walter Damrosch. Conductor Walter Rothwell heard Alf play and in 1923 invited him to become principal horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he stayed for 15 years. Artur Rodińkski asked Alf to be principal horn in Cleveland; Alf stayed with the LAPO but occasionally commuted to Cleveland. He married Straussie Sherrand in 1932; they were married for 34 years.

Film sound tracks were being developed when Alf arrived in LA, and he began to play at MGM in 1927. He can be heard in many films, including Ben Hur and King Kong. His influence in LA was incredible; although he did not like giving lessons, horn players would go to him for "consultation lessons." One of his students was Vincent DeRosa. He was the first call player for recording sessions; if Alf were available, no one else was considered. Alf left the Philharmonic at age 60 to become a full-time studio session player, "the father of studio playing" according to James Thatcher.

Alf was a natural player and a powerful player whose sound projected. He arrived in LA playing on a piston-valve Courtois F horn with a small mouthpiece. He later played a rotary-valve Schmidt F horn and eventually a five-valve Alexander B-flat/A. Like Dennis, he had a strong jaw and small, even teeth and used quite a bit of mouthpiece pressure. His phrasing was much admired and attributed to his having sung as a boy in a church choir. He was a master of the soft attack.

Alf was famous as a host, and gave large parties, cooking all the food himself. His nephews, Dennis and Leonard, visited while on tour with the RAF orchestra in 1945. Horn players from the LA Philharmonic and others from the LA area were present at a party for his nephews and others from the RAF. It was during this visit that Alf gave Dennis a horn mouthpiece that Dennis used for the rest of his life.

Alf was out-going and had a great sense of humor, telling stories, making up limericks, and playing practical jokes. He would climb up on the roof of his house to play the Siegfried horn call to greet his guests. He was also generous, always helped young horn players, and never spoke ill of others. He asked the film score orchestrators to write for eight or more horns to provide more work. When the Los Angeles Horn Club was formed in 1951, the members unanimously elected Alf as the first president.

Leighton Jones wrote "Alfred Edwin Brain (1885-1966): A Forgotten British Horn Virtuoso?" in the October 2004 issue of The Horn Call.

The German Franz Friedrich Paersch spent most of his career playing in Manchester and, with his London-based compatriot, Adolf Borsdorf, was one of the pre-eminent horn players in England of the day.

Franz Paersch, the son of an inn keeper and farmer, first showed musical talent singing principal tenor in the choir of his local church. He then studied the horn with Friedrich Gumpert at the Leipzig Conservatory and undertook military service. In 1879, he obtained an engagement as principal horn in the orchestra at the Buxton Pavilion in Derbyshire, a fairly lowly position, but his talent was already apparent and although he probably spent the winter back in Germany, he had returned to England by 10th May 1880 to play first horn in the season of concerts given by Hans Richter in London’s St. James’s Hall. He then returned to Buxton where his “masterly” playing was welcomed enthusiastically when he featured as a soloist with the orchestra there. On 22nd March 1881, his playing was commended for its “rare perfection” after a London concert conducted by Charles Lamoureux, and he made his solo debut in the capital the following June at a series of Promenade Concerts given at Hengler’s Circus, Argyll Street.

The death of Pierre Van Haute in 1882 left Charles Hallé, the Manchester-based conductor, looking for a replacement first horn. It is said that he first heard Paersch’s playing when the Buxton Orchestra played in Manchester, and by October 1882, he had appointed him as his principal horn, a post he would hold until January 1917. Paersch was joining an established section: Alexander Preatoni, Thomas Reynolds and Callisto Beltrami had played together for several years and with Paersch as their leader, they would form an ever-present team until Reynolds and Beltrami retired in 1900. Playing for Hallé’s orchestra was far from a full-time position and many of the orchestra’s players, including Paersch, also played for the Liverpool Philharmonic Society’s concerts and there, in 1905, he was singled out for praise by Sibelius, who had conducted him in a performance of Finlandia. He also played in London at the Covent Garden Grand Opera Season from 1883 until 1914 and continued to perform at the concerts conducted by Hans Richter. Paersch also played in less high-profile orchestral concerts in the north of England and served for many years as first horn at the Birmingham Festival, sharing the role on occasion with Adolf Borsdorf. Towards the end of his career, he was also in demand as soloist in the Quoniam from Bach’s Mass in B minor.

Paersch was a frequent performer in chamber music and featured occasionally as a soloist, though the range of his repertoire was quite narrow. He gave numerous performances of Beethoven’s Horn Sonata, and occasionally played the “Andante from the Mozart horn concerto” (probably K417) with piano accompaniment and Mozart’s Romance (the second movement from the Concerto in E-flat K447). With orchestra, he performed Emil Titl’s once-popular Serenade for flute and horn and in chamber music he gave countless performances of Beethoven’s and Hummel’s Septets, and Schubert’s Octet, but his speciality was Brahms’s Horn Trio, which he played in public on at least 20 occasions.

His first known performance of the Brahms took place at London’s St. James’s Hall, on 8th June 1888 when he played it with Charles Hallé at the piano, and Hallé’s wife, Mme Norman-Neruda on violin. In February 1891, he played it with the great violinist Joseph Joachim and the pianist Fanny Davies, but a review of a performance in Leeds in 1894, with pianist Leonard Borwick and the violinist C. Rawdon Briggs gives us one of the best descriptions of Paersch’s playing:

Ever since this eminent artist became a member of Sir Charles Hallé’s Band, his remarkable fine horn playing has been a special feature of their performances. It is not going too far to say that there is no other horn playing now before the public whose playing is more refined, or so free from flaws. The horn is the most human of instruments and, on the humanem est errare principle, slips are more excusable in the horn-player than almost any executive musician. But Mr Paersch has passed scatheless through such ordeals as Beethoven’s Septet and the Adagio of the Choral Symphony, and his faultless playing had the advantage of being more in evidence than usual in Brahms’s music. His perfect intonation and refined tone blended most charmingly with the other instruments, and it is difficult to imagine a more finished performance than yesterday’s.

After the turn of the century, Paersch continued to play in the orchestra and elsewhere, though his appearances were perhaps less frequent than they had been in the 1890s and his last known performance in chamber music took place in Liverpool in February 1914. Paersch continued to play first horn in the Hallé until his third horn, the Belgian Ray Meert replaced him in January 1917. After that, his name disappeared from the orchestra’s programmes, though the precise date of his retirement is not known as he never joined the orchestra’s Pension and Sickness scheme. Despite his German origins, he played on a French instrument by Raoux, and when that wore out, on an instrument modelled on Raoux’s horns by William Brown of Kennington, London.

As the obituary which appeared in the Musical Times quoted Hans Richter’s description of Paersch as “the greatest of horn players,” the question of why he remained committed to provincial Manchester, rather than moving to London, must be asked. The most likely answers were financial and family. He could get to London when he needed to, and his work in Manchester was handsomely rewarded: Hallé was well aware that his playing was out of the ordinary and in his early years with the orchestra, Paersch was paid £6 per week at a time when the principal cello received £5 and rank and file string players received £2 10s. In 1892, when financial constraints obliged the conductor to save money, and the rank and file players’ pay was cut to £1 per concert, Paersch received £3 per engagement. At around the same time, Paersch and many of the other leading figures in the Manchester area were appointed to teach at the Royal Manchester College of Music where the going rate for teaching was 7/6d per hour though Paersch received 10/6d.

Paersch’s reasons for staying in Manchester were also almost certainly influenced by his marriage to Manchester-girl Clara Elliott in 1893. It seems most likely that he met her through Willem Grosse, the Hallé’s principal clarinet, who was a lodger in her family’s home, and Paersch and his wife soon set up their own home at nearby 45 Bishop Street, remaining there until Franz’s death. Together, they had two daughters and three sons including Otto, who joined his father in the Hallé and then played the horn with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra.

John Humphries

Bruno Jaenicke came from the tradition of horn players born and trained in Germany and other European countries who emigrated to the United States and filled positions in major orchestras, often under music directors also from Europe. Jaenicke was principal horn in Boston, Detroit, and New York and was considered to be one of the finest hornists of his time.

Jaenicke was born in Dessau, Germany in 1887 and studied at the Sondershausen Conservatory in Dessau. He soon was playing extra for the Court Orchestra. He served in a military band in Stuttgart, then joined the theatre orchestra in Coblenz (1908-1809) and the summer season in the resort orchestra at Baden near Zurich in 1910. Next was principal horn (1910-1911) in Freiburg/Brisgavia (where Ifor James later taught), then principal horn of the Royal Chapel in Wiesbaden, where he succeeded Gustav Schulze and married Schultze's daughter.

It was while Jaenicke participated in the Munich Opera Wagner Festival as additional solo horn that he received a telegram from conductor Karl Muck inviting him to take a position of principal horn in the Boston Symphony Orchestra immediately if he could resolve his regular season contract with the Royal Chapel in Wiesbaden. Jaenicke was able to call on Joseph Himmer from Zurich to take over his contract, and he played for the BSO from 1913 to 1919.

After two hears with the Detroit Symphony (1919-1921), Jaenicke became co-principal with Franz Xaver Reiter with the New York Philharmonic, then principal from 1922 to 1943. He can be heard on a recording of Strauss's Ein Heldenleben under Willem Mengelberg. Jaenicke's two brothers-in-law, Robert and Adolph Schulze, played second and fourth horn with him in New York.

Jaenicke wrote a monograph called "The Horn" for a New York magazine. This entertaining article was reprinted in The Horn Call in November 1971 and again in August 2000. Here is a brief excerpt about the development of the double horn.

The success of this invention was complete, although not quite as easy as a conductor whom I know thinks. Let me tell you about him. One nice day, I played for him in order to get a position as first horn in his orchestra. I played the F horn then. He accepted me, advising me to use the double horn of which he had heard, "because," he said, "it is so easy. When you want a high note, you just press a button and there it is." The good man did not know that we have to set our lips in the same position when we play the high C on the F or the B-flat horn.

Hans Pizka wrote about Jaenicke in the November 1994 issue of The Horn Call.