New music for old instruments: rediscovering the serpent and bass horn

The concept of new music for old instruments is not, in itself, new. Since the expressionist and modernist compositional eras of the early and mid-twentieth century, composers have been experimenting with instruments from previous generations, from Leoš Janáček with the viola d’amore, to Iannis Xenakis with the harpsichord. More recent examples can be found in Wolfgang Mitterer’s inwendig losgelöst (2006) for baroque orchestra and new music ensemble, and Evan Johnson’s Wolke über Bäumen (2016) for baroque violin. What can be observed in all of these cases is the bias towards string and keyboard over wind instruments, and in particular the complete absence of brass instruments. Brass instruments themselves tend to be the last family of instruments encountered during a composer’s training, and so it is perhaps to be expected that their predecessors follow in suit. Looking towards the lower brass, the tuba family, as the youngest member of this grouping, is both under-explored and ill-defined, placing it in a particularly extreme position.

My work to date as both a performer and researcher on these instruments has shown me not only the unique sonic resources presented by historical members of the tuba family, but also the potential for new creation that can be enabled by exposing composers to sounds that they have not been aware of previously. A 2023 research scholarship from the Berlin Senate Government enabled me to create resources outlining the musical and technical parameters of these instruments, allowing new generations of composers the possibility of creating music for these instruments, thereby opening up an aesthetic world that has been lost for over a century. With this project, I am realising this potential by commissioning two Swedish composers to produce new works for myself on serpent in duo with another historical instrument, the viola d’amore. The latter will be performed by world-renowned violist and fellow researcher into modern music on historical instruments, Marco Fusi.

This project will enable development of the sort of performer-composer relationships which are essential for the creation of new music. These will be built upon my existing research, using the acoustic knowledge that I have outlined alongside audio-visual demonstrations as a base upon which the individual composers' aesthetical and technical imaginations can be realised. This process will culminate in a premiere performance (alongside four solo pieces for serpent and bass horn, commissioned from an international selection of composers, supported by a pending application to the Sten K Johnson Foundation) that will take place in the framework of the Lund Contemporary Festival in February 2025. These pieces will then be recorded at the Inter-Arts Centre in Malmö soon thereafter.