Sigismund von Neukomm’s 'Requiem à la memoire de Louis XVI' (1815) ('Resonances of Waterloo' 2018 CD).
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 32A
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- St James’s Church, Bermondsey, London.
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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5 - Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Sigismund von Neukomm’s ‘Requiem à la memoire de Louis XVI’ (1815) is the major element of a recording devoted to the music that followed the Napoleonic wars. The Requiem, which received a high-profile performance in St Stephen’s Cathedral at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, was significant for presenting a fully chromatic ensemble of brass, predating the development of the valve. A solo part for keyed trumpet was played by Anton Weidinger, well-known through the concertos of Haydn and Hummel. The keyed trumpet subsequently fell into obsolescence as sophisticated designs of valved instruments became dominant. Nonetheless, this marked a turning point in the history of the trumpet, departing from its custom of representing war, power and heroism, to facilitate expressive playing.
The process of producing the recording involved a specially convened ensemble of brass players from the Wallace Collection playing on period instruments at a pitch standard A4 = 430Hz, alongside the 1829 Bishop organ at St James’s Church, Bermondsey. Studying the keyed trumpet (by Rainer Egger, after Alois Doke c. 1823), as one of a handful of specialist players worldwide, has been essential to my understanding of this repertoire and informed my approach to performing and leading the ensemble. The timbre and balance exemplify a sound-world distinct from that of the modern instruments designed to favour homogeneity and consistency.
The recording and a subsequent public performance with students of Trinity Laban Conservatoire in 2018 in turn contribute to my research into art-music for brass instruments from 1815 to the present day. In addition to further commercial recordings (‘Origin of the Species Revisited’, 2020), conference presentations to the Historic Brass Society and the Galpin Society (July 2017), I am completing a monograph on the subject of the modern brass ensemble, which will be published by Boydell and Brewer in 2022.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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