Revival of an Instrument

On his relentless quest for undiscovered or forgotten compositions, Ludwig Güttler found important compositions for corno da caccia stemming from the Baroque and Early Classic period. Corno da caccia is a brass instrument that has its origin in the horn, which was developed from a hunting signal instrument. At the beginning of the 18th century it was one of the most popular brass instruments because of the softer sounds it produces and the virtuosity that can be acquired on it. Owing to their high pitch, the numerous concerts that were composed back then can nowadays only be played partly on today’s widely used wood horns. So, in order to make these old compositions sound again adequately in modern concert halls, Ludwig Güttler inspired Friedbert Syhre, an instrument maker from Leipzig, to create corni de caccia with valves in various basic tones so as to resemble the sound of the old instruments. The corno da caccia has literally become Güttler´s second life and limb instrument. With this newly-developed instrument he was able to recover many valuable compositions.