Hermann Neuling - Solos

The Bagatelle für tiefes Horn und Klavier by Hermann Neuling is without a doubt the most famous of low horn works.[i] Originally published in East Germany, it remained unavailable and unknown in the west until Manfred Klier suggested its use as the required solo for a low horn audition being held by the Berlin Philharmonic in November 1984.[ii] By this point the music was also out of print, so a photocopy of Klier’s original horn part was prepared and sent to the candidates, resulting in a single week of preparation without a piano score or any idea of how the work might actually sound. Nonetheless, the resulting performances were relatively well received by the orchestra and the Neuling Bagatelle has gone on to become the standard low horn solo in both audition and recital settings and today it is both well-known and frequently performed throughout the world. The Bagatelle is both loved and despised amongst horn players, and audiences, for the difficulties that it showcases within its somewhat quirky and humorous nature, and yet none can argue its necessity or high profile for all other low horn pieces are inevitably judged in comparison to it. It is essentially a five-minute showpiece of low horn techniques juxtaposed with Romantic inspired lyrical melodies that are constantly being restricted and interrupted by more challenging technical ideas, such as wide intervals as well as rapid arpeggios and scale runs. Although written in modern harmonic language, the rapid leaps around the register and arpeggio runs are certainly reminiscent of the traditional cor basse writing for natural horn where the reliance on the harmonic series necessitated that style of writing. One of the great musical challenges with this work is in the interpretation. For audition purposes a strictness of tempo and evenness of notes in terms of their dynamics, tone and articulation seems crucial, essentially creating the feeling of a fairly disciplined march. Musically however, the character of the piece seems to demand a little more freedom and exuberance. It is through this contradiction, and the somewhat comical forays into the low register that humour is created; as the piece “wants to be played with romantic rubato but cannot ultimately shake its military rigidity and lack of soul.”[iii]

Although largely unknown, Hermann Neuling is also responsible for a further solo option in his Konzert-Cadenz for Horn and Piano, which is based freely after Henri Kling’s Characteristic Etude No.31.[iv] The Neuling version is even more dramatic than the original etude, containing quite different playing instructions, dynamic markings and articulations for some of the material that would otherwise be the same, and also includes a complete piano part. The accompaniment is quite sustained in nature around the technically challenging flourishes of the solo horn part, including some accented and tremolo chords, and creating a recitative-like quality. Neuling also adds a four bar piano interlude at bar twelve, in addition to some rapid accompanying lines and a slightly humorous final chord that is rather high in the piano’s range and certainly far above the final sustained pedal F played by the horn. Overall, the range extends from pedal F up to high a’’.

[i] Hermann Neuling, Bagatelle für tiefes Horn und Klavier (Leipzig: Pro Musica Verlag, 1956). Three recordings available: J. Bernardo Silva with various artists, Lunar Songs, Afinaudio IRFC.04.072, 2006; Jesse McCormick and Susan McCullough with Tamara Goldstein, It’s All Relative, Independent Release, 2008; Denise Tryon and Julie Nishimura, So Low, Bridge Records 9945, 2015. Also arranged as a horn quartet: Hermann Neuling, Bagatelle for Horn Quartet Ed. Brian Brown (unpublished, 2013).
[ii] Born in 1935, Klier had joined the orchestra in 1959 having previously played in the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Private correspondence with Fergus McWilliam, who won the audition, 23/01/2014.
[iii] Private correspondence with Fergus McWilliam, 23/01/2014.
[iv] Hermann Neuling, Konzert-Cadenz for Horn and Piano (Leipzig: Edition Pro Musica, 1954). Also available in a version for Tuba and Piano.