Instrumentbesättning i svenska blåsoktetter före c:a 1920

Abstract

This article presents the instrumentation of Swedish wind octets, a type of small wind ensemble which flourished between approximately 1870 and 1920. Extant partbooks, scores and letters have been used as source material. There is a long tradition of wind music at courts, from the medieval musica alta over through the ”hautboists” to the Harmonie–Musik and its successors: early military
music is regarded as a link in this courtly music tradition. In Sweden, as in the rest of Europe, wind ensembles and bands with professional musicians from regiments and theatres played an important role in the dissemination of new music during the 19th
century. In the 1890’s the Swedish wind octet usually consisted of a combination of woodwind instruments (flute in D flat or in earlier times E flat and two parts for clarinet in B flat, of which the first was either doubled or played divisi), brass instruments specific to Sweden (soprano cornet in E flat, ”alto” horn E flat , two ”tenor” valve trombones in B flat and a bass tuba) and percussion (drums, triangle etc.). In early octets, an alto horn, a tenor horn or French horn was often used instead of the second tenor valve trombone. From the turn of the century and onwards (as early as the 1880’s in certain areas) a ”piston” (a cornet à pistons or a B flat trumpet of central European type) was often added to the ensemble (”octet with a trumpet”). The octet was not simply a Swedish brass sextet with two additional clarinets , as has often been maintained, since it included a flute but excluded the Swedish B flat cornet. Attention has previously been drawn to the manufacture of brass instruments in Sweden, but flutes and clarinets were also built by local craftsmen. Swedish clarinet players preferred the German Müller and Oehler systems to the Boehm system until well into the 20th century. The partbooks used by professional musicians were handwritten, not printed . Musicians and band leaders copied arrangements, or rearranged music for their own ensembles, and different arrangements of the same piece of music can thus be found. In this article two versions of the Finale from act two of Verdi’s Aida are compared.