The fourth horn solo in Beethoven 9 has been the subject of much speculation over the years. It is a topic I looked at in depth in an article that was published in The Horn Call Annual 8 (1996). What drives some of the speculations is the passage is so extensive and soloistic — did Beethoven have some special player or instrument in mind? It is very unique. But, as you read this article further, you will see that it clearly was written for the natural horn and was playable by the better players of his time.
Wild speculation about valved horn
The wildest and most persistent speculation is on the topic of could this passage possibly have been written for the valved horn? The invention of the valve having been first publicly been noted in 1814, just ten years before the premiere of Beethoven 9.
A good example of one of the root sources for the speculation that Beethoven 9 could have been valved horn is this quote from Richard Hofmann (1844-1918) from his book Praktische Instrumentationslehre [Practical Instrumentation] of 1893. Of this solo Hofmann wrote,
Until recently it was understood that Beethoven had only made use of wald-horns [natural horns]–(without ventils [valves]); but this cannot have been the case, for we find (1) the low G (not playable on the wald-horn); (2) Beethoven never used long successions of tones in a key with many sharps or flats as the signature. Oral tradition has it that at the time of Beethoven, Levi a fourth-horn player in Vienna possessed a recently discovered ventil-horn; on the ground of this discovery it was imagined that all horn passages could be played with equal quality of tone. Probably for this reason Beethoven (who could scarcely have heard it himself in his greater and later works) wrote the difficult passage for the 4th horn in E-flat. The whole part lies badly for the player, and in view of the tone there seems no doubt that the second half of the solo is better on an E-horn.
Before going any further, Hofmann is wrong! The solo is very playable on the natural horn. It is not even that hard. If you read on in Hofmann he additionally notes how the solo could be divided between two players, the first seven bars being performed as written and the conclusion performed on the E crook; presumably implying that an early player might have done that same thing to play the solo by changing valves on a valved horn. Among others, the late Louis Stout also perpetuated this idea in his The Horn: From the Forest to the Concert Hall video. This idea is for sure, unfortunately, still bouncing around out there in the horn world.
It’s for natural horn
Again, the short version is Hofmann is incorrect; he did not understand the natural horn — but Beethoven did understand it very well. This is a natural horn part. I cover a number of angles on this in my longer article, but this is the essential one, quoting myself from 1996:
There is nothing in this solo which exceeds the technical demands which could be reasonably requested of a skilled performer of the natural horn. For comparison, the difficult written A-flat major scale is given in several exercises in the Domnich Méthode, and the low written G1 is seen in several other period works, including Beethoven’s own Horn Sonata, Op. 17, written early in his career for the virtuoso Punto. While not a true harmonic available on the horn, it was a “factitious” tone certainly well known among hornists and possessed a clear tonal color. While one could perhaps argue that the solo might sound better on the valved horn, the fact is that this is idiomatic, if virtuostic, low horn writing for the natural horn and well within the bounds of the technique of a conservatory-trained natural hornist….
Putting it another way, any low horn player who had worked through a good portion of any classic natural horn method successfully with a competent teacher should be able to play the Beethoven 9 solo. Imagine if natural horn was all you had ever played and you were proficient enough to be a leading player in a major metropolitan area of the day? The Beethoven 9 solo might be a surprise as it showed up on your stand, but if you had worked on pieces such as the Weber Concertino and practiced your scales and arpeggios daily, really, it would not have been a problem to play this on natural horn. There should be no controversy on that point.
Was it written for a specific performer?
The other point of huge speculation is was the solo passage written for a specific player? As I wrote in my 1996 article, “The first important musical work with which the name of E. C. Lewy is associated with is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Long-held tradition has it that E. C. Lewy performed the fourth horn solo on the first performance of this work in 1824 on the valved horn. Is this a myth?”
Eduard Constantin Lewy (1796-1846) was a talented horn player, who at the age of fourteen was accepted into the horn class of Heinrich Domnich (1767-1844) at the Paris Conservatory. After military service and several years as a touring musician based in Switzerland, E. C. Lewy was called to Vienna in 1822 by composer and conductor Conradin Kreutzer (1780-1849) to serve as solo horn at the Kärntnertor Theater, and went on to a have a distinguished career in Vienna. In addition, E. C. Lewy toured and performed extensively, and was, along with his son Richard Lewy (1827-1883) and his brother J. R. Lewy (1802-1881), an active early performer on the valved horn.
As I was really interested to examine this angle in depth, the following is from the 1996 article. For the source citations, see the published version in The Horn Call Annual.
In looking at the possibility of E. C. Lewy being the first performer, one must first ask if he was a low horn player. From the positions he held in Vienna one might conclude that he was a high horn player, being described as solo horn at the Kärntnertor Theater and principal horn of the orchestra of the Imperial Hofkapelle [Fetis, ibid]. This may not be the case. Many of the great horn soloists, such as Punto, were low horn players. It is also known that E. C. Lewy performed the Weber Concertino in Vienna in 1824 [Pizka, 276], which is written in a very idiomatic style for performance by a virtuoso low horn player of the period. It seems probable that E. C. Lewy was primarily a low horn player (although he undoubtedly performed high horn parts as well and possessed a very wide range), and as a part of his busy career in Vienna well could have performed the fourth part on the Beethoven premiere.
It is not, however, known if he in fact did perform on this concert. A special orchestra was formed for the occasion, but not only are the names of nearly all of the performers lost to history, even the exact composition of the orchestra is unknown [Blandford, part 2, 127]. The premiere occurred on May 7, 1824 at the Kärntnertor Theater, and a much later source states that Conradin Kreutzer “presided at the pianoforte” [ibid]. That the concert was held at the theater which employed E. C. Lewy and that the individual responsible for bringing him to Vienna was also involved makes the tradition seem more possible, but that he actually performed on this concert is fundamentally an oral tradition which can not be today proved or disproved.
Finally we ask if the part could have been written specifically for E. C. Lewy. This again is only speculation. While the solo was clearly written to require virtuoso technique from the fourth hornist, it does not necessarily follow that Beethoven wrote the part for any specific virtuoso performer. As W. F. H. Blandford concluded in his detailed study of this topic, the notion that this part was written specifically for E. C. Lewy “involves the supposition that Beethoven, in poor health, practically stone-deaf, full of worries, financial, legal, and otherwise, for some years previously out of touch with orchestras and orchestral players other than his personal friends, should have so far interested himself in a new-comer to Vienna, and a talent that was probably out of his power to appreciate, as to write a special part for him” [ibid, 128]
It would also be helpful with regard to the possibility of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony having been performed on the valved horn in its premier to know exactly what year E. C. Lewy began to perform on the new instrument. Clearly the Lewy brothers were among the first artists to perform regularly on the valved horn, performing joint recitals utilizing the instrument by 1826 [Tarr, part 2, 199]. There is no way to say if they utilized the valved horn in 1824, however, and the use of this instrument has been shown unnecessary in terms of the technical requirements of the solo.
The invention of the valve in 1814 however marked the beginning of a revolution in horn technique. While some composers would quickly champion the new instrument, the fourth horn solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is playable on the natural horn and was certainly written for this instrument.
Any good natural hornist could have played it
To close, others have addressed this topic in recent years, and I’d just add this thought. Beethoven 9 was performed in many locations (London, etc.) not long after the premiere, and there is no mention of them having to bring in special players with valved horns. I’ll go back again to the basic thought that this solo passage is completely idiomatic for the natural horn, and very playable by a fine natural hornist of the time. No need for special performers or instruments.
He notes that the bell should “face away from the torso to make certain that the sound can come through without interference.”
