Though small five- and six-part Harmonien were probably the most common wind ensembles until after 1800, the best-known example of Harmoniemusik is the wind octet. The octet of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, sometimes with double bass or contrabassoon, was popularized by Emperor Joseph II during the 1780s. Joseph’s ‘kaiserlich und königlich Harmonie’ (k. k. Harmonie) was assembled in 1782 from wind players from his Burgtheater. Many similar groups subsequently appeared in the courts of other Viennese nobles such as Prince Alois von Liechtenstein, and further afield, particularly where Viennese influence was felt or Joseph’s favour courted.
The k. k. Harmonie was renowned throughout the empire…
Read moreRobert Percival discusses his new arrangements of Beethoven’s incidental music to Goethe’s play Egmont.
Read moreEmily Worthington and Robert Percival discuss the place of military “Bands of Music” - the English equivalent of the Austro-German Harmonie - in civilian life in the late 18th century.
Read moreRobert Percival talks about the origins of the arrangement and some of the discoveries and decisions he’s made in turning Czerny’s manuscript into a critical edition for our performances and recordings
Read moreAustin Glatthorn’s research focuses on the negotiation of music, politics, spectacle, and representation in Central Europe in the years around 1800. Specifically, he is interested in music at the crossroads of the old and new regimes, exploring the ways in which music articulated cultural and national identity during a seminal period of transformation in European (music) history. In this guest blog, he writes about how the disruption of the Revolutionary Wars contributed to the growing popularity of Harmonien.
Read moreA look at Decline and Fall, our new programme exploring some of the politically-loaded music produced during the decline of the Holy Roman Empire.
Read moreOur first tour of 2018 is upon us and we thought we'd share some thoughts on the sextet repertoire we'll be enjoying playing to lovely audiences in Stamford, Skipton and York...
Read moreOur 2017–18 season's programmes range from intimate chamber music to arrangements that chronicle the grand sweep of European history...
Read moreAugust might seem like an odd time for an end-of-year roundup. But for musicians, the sight of September looming on the horizon always has the whiff of 'back to school' about it.
Read moreRobert returns to the question of what a properly dressed, fully-historically informed Harmonie should wear; and are female players of historical instruments really an anachronism?
Read moreHow do you dress an 18th-century wind band... particularly when it's full of women? Robert Percival explores the highways and byways of Harmoniemusik fashion...
Read moreIn May 1810 the Viennese publisher S. A. Steiner’a Viennese publishing house Chemische Druckerei announced a new Journal for Harmonie, consisting of arrangements of works of “recognised and famous” masters, who he claimed would be correcting their own compositions
Read moreThough there are many fabulous original works for Harmonie from the late-18th and early-19th centuries, Boxwood & Brass spends much of its time playing arrangements. Why do we do it? Clarinettist Emily Worthington gives a player's perspective.
Read moreIt could be a question in a pointless TV quiz: which Beethoven symphony was the most frequently performed in Vienna in his lifetime; was it a) the Eroica, b) the Fifth, or c) the Ninth? In fact, it was none of these. The most frequently performed symphony was the Seventh Symphony. Composed in 1811-12, it lay unperformed for the best part of two years until...
Read moreThis year has seen a good number of new Harmoniemusik releases. We thought it would be useful to put them all in one place, for your perusal! Happy shopping...
Read moreStuck for last-minute gift ideas? Give the gift of Harmoniemusik for Christmas! We've pulled together our personal top 5 CDs from some of the big names in Harmoniemusik. Being Boxwood & Brass, however, we've combined our favourite ensembles with a bit of a 'repertoire explorer': so, no Mozart serenades here (much though we love them), but plenty of new sounds for curious ears...
Read moreBoxwood & Brass’s Tausch odyssey started innocently enough, with a concert in September 2015 at the lovely St Peter’s Church in Streatham where we were ensemble-in-residence. We were fielding a slightly smaller team than normal, and needed to find repertoire for 2 clarinets, horn and bassoon. A bit of research led us to a Kunzelmann edition of ‘5 Stücke’ by Franz Tausch...
Read moreLast Friday night Boxwood and Brass went to the ball!
We were invited by Sally Munday-Webb of Brackley Town Council to provide the music for their inaugural Georgian ball. This event, which we hope will become a regular fixture in the Boxwood and Brass calendar, was part of the very exciting plans to restore Brackley's beautiful Georgian Town Hall...
Read moreHow late can 'Historically-Informed Performance' (HIP) go? Well, pretty late. In 2014, as part of my British Library Edison Visiting Research Fellowship, I was lucky to be able to spend time studying an extraordinary collection of recordings made by the wind quintet of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for the German Polydor label during the 1920s.
Read moreWhilst it may appear to have been quiet lately on the B&B blog, it certainly hasn't been quiet with B&B in general!
We spent the first week of April in the Shropshire town of Ludlow. Renowned today as a destination for foodies, Ludlow is the perfect place for B&B history geeks...
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