Dennis Brain: A Life in Music

Chapter 11: Horns, Mouthpieces, and Embouchures

189 Horns, Mouthpieces, and Embouchures C H A P T E R 11 Dennis Brain owned and experimented with no fewer than eleven horns varying in form, functionality, and tonal characteristics, most of which he ultimately disposed of for one reason or another. He often visited the Alexander firm in Mainz, Germany, which built a number of horns for him to his specifications. In 1951, he adapted an Alexander single B-flat Model 90 that he had earlier purchased and experimented with, replacing his French-type Raoux-Millereau. He used the Alexander almost exclusively for the remainder of his life. Brain reveals his relentless pursuit of the ideal horn in his publication The French Horn, printed after his death: “As a point of interest, I must confess that I am at the moment negotiating for the manufacture of a five-valved instrument of my own design.”1 Alexander ceased manufacturing this horn after Brain’s death. The instrument , termed the “Brain Model,” was kept in a warehouse for several years until a player in the Munich Bach Orchestra worked with Alexander and completed the instrument. The horn was a B-flat/high E-flat descant, thus with a secure high range. The leadpipe reportedly fit directly into the inner rotary valve. The bell was yellow brass and the main body was gold brass. The stopping valve was operated by the little finger. Although fabrication of the horn was finally completed, its design differed significantly from that intended by Brain, and it is doubtful that he would have liked the result.2 Brain’s transformational move from the narrow-bore, small flare bell French instrument to the wider-bore, larger flare bell German instrument in 1951 effectively closed an era of British horn playing characterized by the clean, pure, light, yet softer tone so characteristic of the French 190 Dennis Brain: A Life in Music instrument. However, to most, Brain retained the same musical quality of tone and technical prowess on his German Alexander as he did on his French Raoux horn. Brain’s “All-Risks” Policy (No. 51136728) listed several of the many horns he owned at the time of his death. (Pl. 1) He purchased other horns from Alexander during his lifetime for experimental purposes and promotional interests through his association with the firm. The instruments discussed here belonged to him at some time during his life. Raoux-Millereau Horn The type of horn that Brain used during his student days and the years with the RAF was undoubtedly influenced by his father’s preference for the Frenchstyle horn. Aubrey Brain gave Dennis a French Raoux piston horn similar in design to his own, an 1865 Raoux manufactured by Labbaye. Pettitt reports: When, in 1933, the London Philharmonic replaced the London Symphony as the “pit” orchestra at Covent Garden, a number of brand-new Raoux horns were found under the stage. They were no use to the LPO so they were sold; Aubrey bought two of them—one for himself and one as a spare, possibly for either of his two sons should they want to take the instrument up. He found a use for one of them sooner than he imagined when he succeeded in backing his car over his original instrument, completely flattening the crook.3 When Dennis was still a student at St. Paul’s School in London, already beginning to consider a career in music, Aubrey, recalling the “spare” Raoux horn, said, “I’ve found another instrument; would you like to see what you can do with it?” It was the “twin” of Aubrey’s own, which he had bought from Covent Garden in 1933.4 The reference to the “twin of Aubrey’s” is more correctly interpreted to mean a Raoux-Millereau and not another Raoux-Labbaye, the manufacturer of Aubrey’s horn. The fact that Brain’s instrument prior to 1951 was a RaouxMillereau is documented by Alan Civil when meeting Brain in the early 1940s and comments by Morley-Pegge, Cousins, and Meggs (an officer at Capital Records).5 (Pl. 2) The Raoux design is of the early French school. It originally appeared as a natural horn, to which fixed and detachable pistons were later added. The instrument has a small-to-modest bore diameter typically in the order of about 11mm as measured at the tuning slide. It also has a smaller bell flare than its German counterpart. Horns...