Bach's Forgotten Tuba (well, sort of...)

[David Richoux]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science ... tten-horn/

In 1737-8, Johann Sebastian Bach composed and performed a cantata, “O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht” (”O Jesus Christ, light of my life”). Among the instruments called for in the score are “two Litui.” However, the Lituus is a forgotten instrument. No one has played or heard the instrument in modern times; there aren’t even illustrations of one.

So they made something up! Read the article and listen at the above link.

[Ace]

Those are interesting horns the designers came up with. I guess they wont stir up the usual questions like, "silver or lacquer?"

For a number of years, I was one of the clarini trumpeters in The Berkeley Bach Cantata Group. We did not run across the Bach work that requires litui, but did hit one that required a solo cornetto. Our first trumpet player actually had an old cornetto he had acquired in Germany. It was made of wood and had a thin black leather cover glued on the wood. He was an excellent player but, for me, the sound of the cornetto was an acquired taste.

[imperialbari]

Similar computer applications are known from Vienna and from Hannover. And bern coming up with an alphorn a fifth higher than their folksy variant hardly should be surprising. Doesn’t this one sound like the flugelhorn variant of the clarino?

Klaus