Metallic Mutes Used in the Eighteenth Century

Author(s): Christian Ahrens

Source: The Galpin Society Journal , Apr., 2007, Vol. 60 (Apr., 2007), pp. 220-223, 119
Published by: Galpin Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25163904

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 The Galpin Society Journal

Notes & Queries

Metallic Mutes Used in the Eighteenth Century

As artefacts of historical mutes for strings other metals. Due to the very restrictive guild laws of
and brass are so few in number, any written the time it was impossible for the court metalworker
sources describing them in some detail are to have used wood, as the use of this material was
highly valuable. Some newly identified documents,1 reserved for the court carpenter. Therefore, there
part of the archival collection of the Thuringian court can be no doubt that the ten violin mutes purchased
chapels in Gotha and Sondershausen,2 reveal some by the Sondershausen court in 1738/1739 really
significant information pertaining to this matter. were made of metal. This inference is backed up by
The so called chamber bills [Kammerrechnungen] another entry from 1765, which gives more detailed
of the Sondershausen court for the year 1738/39 (as information:4
in Gotha, the Sondershausen fiscal year begins and
ends on September 29, Michaelmas Day), include the 1 Thlr. 21 Gr. Vor 15 st?ck st?hlerne Sordinen
following undated entry [prices are given in Thaler so unter die Capellisten vertheilet
(Thlr.); 1 Thlr. equals 24 Groschen (Gr.)]:3 worden, so Violinen und Bratzschen
[Bratschen] spielen
10 Gr. Dem gertler [G?rtler] vor 10. [for 15 steel mutes, given to those
D?mpffer auf die Violinen chapel musicians playing violins and
[to the metalworker for 10 violin violas]
mutes]
In the light of this, one also needs to consider
A G?rtler, comparable to a silversmith or other additional bills for mutes: in 1726 the court paid
metalworker, was a craftsman working with brass or 12 Gr. 'vor 8. me?ingene D?mpfer' [for eight brass

1 I wish to thank the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung for supporting my archival research in 2005 and 2006. The sources
concerning the Gotha court chapel are stored in the Thuringian public record office Gotha (in the following referred
to by the abbreviation TSG); those pertaining to the Sondershausen court chapel are held by the Thuringian public
record office at Rudolstadt (in the following referred to by the abbreviation TSR). I wish to thank both archives for
granting me their permission to access the documents and publish the data.
2 Both courts, located at a distance of c. 40 miles, collaborated closely in the realm of musical activities: for example,
they would exchange sheet music and musicians. Also, they seem to have coordinated their efforts at purchasing new
and unusual instruments [such as the verillon (a type of carillon with glasses instead of bells), pantalons, and serpents]
and incorporating them into musical practice.
3 All entries rendered here are listed under the special section 'Expenses for the Court Chapel' and are there-fore
quoted by date only if indicated.
4 TSR, chamber bills Sondershausen - Bills 1764/65: June 15, 1765.

220
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 Notes & Queries 221

Figure I.French Horn (Johann Gottfried Haltenhof, Hanau, 1761; Museum Bochum, Sammlung GrumbtSG 809) probably
showing traces of the use of metallic mutes. See also the detailed photograph in the colour section. Whether or not these
mutes were made following the description (brass covered by leather) given by Cramer has yet to be determined; the traces
seems to indicate that the metal was in direct contact with the inner side of the bell. (Photograph by Renato Meucci)

mutes],5 and among the 1731/32 bills, there is the for two violins coming from Cremona,7 this is by no
following undated entry: means a negligible price. A common oboe, at that
time, could be purchased for less than 2 Thaler. The
8 Thlr. 8 Gr. Vor etliche D?mpfer auf die Violinen Sondershausen sources considered here lead to two
[for several violin mutes] conclusions:

It cannot be excluded that, by this description,
metallic mutes for string instruments were meant.
Anyway, there is nothing in the bills for purchases
of mutes which prove the use of other materials, so
possibly musicians did not use them at all.
The entries in the Sondershausen chamber bills
prove that brass mutes were sold at 1 to IVi Gr.,
while steel mutes cost more than twice as much,
i.e., 3 Gr. Considering that in 1725 a common
violin manufactured by a local maker would sell for
5 Thaler6 and that in 1765, the court paid 20 Thaler
1. The evidence shows that metallic mutes were
used only for violins and violas, but not for cellos
and viol?nos (double basses coming in different
sizes and tunings). Either the bass instruments
were always played without mutes - which seems
highly unlikely to me - or the players used mutes
made of different material, e.g., wood, horn, bone,
ivory etc.
2. On the one hand, every violin and viola player
possessed only one mute; on the other, mutes
would only be purchased for instruments which

5 TSR, chamber bills Sondershausen - Bills 1726/27: December 20,1726.

6 TSR, chamber bills Sondershausen - Bills 1724/25: January 31, 1725.
7 TSR, chamber bills Sondershausen - Bills 1764/65: March 27, 1765. It is not clear whether the term 'Cremoneser
violin' meant a violin made in Cremona or a violin made after a Cremonese model.

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 222 The Galpin Society Journal
were in actual use. This given, the bills provide bills. Another possible explanation would be that
some information about the number of string mutes were supposed to be purchased from the lump
instruments in the Sondershausen court chapel sum that would be handed to the primary violinist
at that time: In 1726, there were eight violins and ('Concertmeister') at the beginning of each year, from
violas, ten in 1738/39, and in 1765, their number which the latter was to buy strings and any other
amounted to as much as fifteen. The assumption supplies for all string players in the court orchestra;
that in 1726 there were two violas (and six violins) the organist, in charge of all keyboard instruments at
leads to the inference that the two violin parts court, and the lute player received separate budgets
were played by three violinists respectively at for the maintenance of their instruments.
that time; in 1738/39, by four; and in 1765, by six There is indirect proof that in Gotha musicians
musicians. used metallic mutes on their violins and violas:
two bills from 1738 record the purchase of metallic
According to Johann Joachim Quantz,8 one has to mutes for French horns ('Waldh?rner').12
add to these instruments one to four cellos and one
to two viol?nos9 (also, one or more bassoons). The 5 Thlr. Vor zu ein paar neuen Waldh?rnern
string ensemble of the Sonder-shausen chapel then die D?mpffungs=Instrumente
totalled between ten and twenty musicians from 1726 zu machen dem Eisenschneider
to 1765. This number considerably exceeds both the Gr?ffenstein
number of musicians included on the court's payroll, [to the metalworker Gr?ffenstein for
according to the chamber bills,10 and the number of making the mutes for a pair of new
instruments in the court inventory which probably horns]
dates from the 1720s.11 Therefore the conclusion that
either other court employees served as musicians 2 Thlr. Vor in 2. Waldh?rner die D?mpffung
when the need arose, or other local musicians (such zu ver?ndern, dem Schlo?er
as the 'Stadpfeifer') were called upon when necessary, Gr?ffenstein
seems sensible. [to the metalworker Gr?ffenstein for
altering the mutes for two horns]
It was rather surprising to me that I did not come
across any source that would prove the use of metallic Further, it is astonishing that a document dating
mutes for strings at the court during my research from 1740 proves that wooden mutes for trumpets
in the Gotha archives. This is striking, given that were purchased in Gotha:13
innumerable documents concerning not only the
purchase of instruments and related supplies (such 12 Gr. Vor an vier neue Trompeten
as strings, reeds, rosin), and also minor repairs, have gemachte Drech?ler Arbeit
been retained. Whether or not this lack of evidence [for carpenter's work {on four mutes}
concerning metallic mutes suggests that violinists for four new trumpets]
and violists in Gotha used mutes made from other
materials remains an open question, but it is highly Could it be that metallic mutes were used for both
unlikely that they would not have used any mutes at violins and horns, but not for trumpets? Or was there
all. Also, one needs to consider the possibility that a change to wooden mutes because of their innate
mutes were purchased from other funds, so that sound qualities, which seem to be fundamentally
any such expenses would not appear in the chamber different to those of metallic mutes?

8 See Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung, die flute traversi?re zu spielen, (Berlin, 1752; third edition
1789 / Reprint, Kassel etc. 1953), p. 185.
9 See footnote 34 of my article 'The Inventory of the Gotha Court Orchestra in 1750' in this journal for an explanation
of this term.
10 See Karla Neschke, Johann Balthasar Christian Preislich (1687-1764. Leben, Schaffen und Werk?berlieferung,
(Oschersleben, 2000), pp. 40-45.
11 See K. Neschke, op. cit. pp. 74f. The document cited by the author is undated, but the script strongly suggests the
date given above. One has to assume that some musicians playing in the Sondershausen court chapel used their private
instruments (as can been proved for Gotha).
12 TSG, chamber bills Gotha - Bills 1737/38; Bill 1: March 3, 1738; Bill 2: October 11, 1738.
13 TSG, chamber bills Gotha - Bills 1740/41: November 21, 1740.

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 Notes & Queries 223
Up to now we have had little substantial was quite common also in other parts of Germany
information concerning the sound quality of metal and other European countries, remains subject
mutes and their differences to that of mutes made to further inquiry.15 While this question remains
from other materials.14 Also, we do not know for to be solved, it seems clear that the sound of
what specific musical purpose (if any) metal mutes strings and French horns played with such mutes
were used during the eighteenth century. In any was greatly different to the 'con sordino' sound
case, it seems likely that it was decided to combine we are familiar with nowadays. As far as I am
mutes of the same material for strings and French aware musicians devoted to historically informed
horns in order to give both of them an analogous performance practice do not use metallic mutes,
tone colour. Whether or not the use of metal mutes but perhaps they should experiment with this
during the eighteenth century stemmed from a practice.
specifically local tradition which was practised in
only some Thuringian court chapels, or whether it CHRISTIAN AHRENS

New Information About Orphicas

Not much new data on orphicas has emerged
since my article 'Orphicas, Genuine, Less
Genuine and Fakes' in GS/LVII (2004), and
the deluge of letters about instruments I had missed
that some expected never materialised. As far as I
know, there is only one more instrument, which
is not far from my home, as often happens. In the
Nydahl Collection at the Stiftelsen musikkulturens
fr?mjande, Stockholm is an unsigned orphica, Klein
model, with a keyboard compass of c-a3 (3% octaves)
and a primitive Viennese action without kapsels, like
the orphica in the Hamamatsu Museum of Musical
Instruments, Hamamatsu, Japan. It is made from
cheap wood, stained black, and the wedge dampers
are missing. The keyboard naturals are covered with
ox bone, the sharps are black stained wood. Its volute
is adorned with a bronze rosette of a flower-shaped
ornament (similar to the Hamamatsu instrument),
and two small bronze rosettes are placed over the
keyboard. Its length is 1230mm, width 360mm,
height 105mm, length of the trunk 725mm, natural
key width 19.5mm, sharps 9mm, octave span 141mm.
There are two wooden pins (at the back wall and right
wall) for a band to hang the instrument. On the back
of the front board (to the left) there is a handwritten
inscription in ink: orphica /1793; and in the middle
a square printed paper label decorated with floral
ornament is placed: (R?par? par) / G. HELBIG
/ (mars 1947- +). The tuning pins, which are not
original (i.e their heads are square, not rectangular),
are arranged in four rows. The instrument is single
strung throughout - the strings are not original.
The keyboard has no frame. The instrument could
have been made at the same workshop as the one
in Hamamatsu Museum, and was maybe originally
covered similarly in red velvet, as it is not carefully
finished. A short reference can be found in: A
complete list of keyboard instruments in Stiftelsen
musikkulturens fr?mjande (Nydahl Collection) in
Stockholm, G?ran Grahn ed., (Stockholm, 1988),
p. 6, item 25.
My article on prince Joseph Poniatowski's orphica,
written originally in 2000 for The National Gallery
in Poznan, Poland, is scheduled for publication in
Studia Muzealne XXI, but the date when this will be
published has not yet been fixed.
Dr Klaus Martin Kopitz from Berlin has recently
made a very interesting discovery about the orphica.
He has found an letter by Franz Gerhard Wegeler
in the Berlin State Library which mentions two

14 See E. J. Hipkins and Frederick Corder, 'Sordino', in: Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. IV, London,
1921, p. 622-623. Concerning metallic mutes for violins see David D. Boyden, The History of Violin Playing from its
Origins to 1761, (London, 1965), p. 322. Knowledge about the usage of metal mutes in earlier times seems to have been
widely lost, for neither in the New Grove Dictionary (see David Boyden, Clifford Bevan/Janet K. Page, Mute, Internet
Edition, accessed October 4, 2006), nor in the MGG2 (which has no special entry for mutes; only in the articles on
violin ('Violine'), French Horn ('H?rner'), trumpet ('Trompete'), and trombone ('Posaune') respectively) are mutes
briefly mentioned.
15 Metallic mutes for horns are mentioned by Ludwig Gerber (Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Historisch-biographisches
Lexicon der Tonk?nstler, (Leipzig, 1790-92), p. 549 ), a short description is given by Carl Friedrich Cramer, in his:
Magazin der Musik, (Hamburg, 1783 und 1786: Reprint, Hildesheim New York 1971), vol. I, 2, pp. 1401f.

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 Colour Section 119

CHRISTIAN AHRENS
Metallic Mutes Used in the Eighteenth Century.

Figure 2. Detail of French Horn (Johann Gottfried Haltenhof, Hanau, 1761; Museum Bochum,
Sammlung Grumbt SG 809) probably showing traces of the use of metallic mutes. Whether or not
these mutes were made following the description (brass covered by leather) given by Cramer has yet to
be determined; the traces seems to indicate that the metal was in direct contact with the inner side of
the bell. (Photograph by Renato Meucci)

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