Johann Wilhelm Hertel: Concerto à 5, ed. Justin Bland

for Trumpet [in D], 2 Oboes, & 2 Bassoons

Full Score & Instrumental Parts

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£8.00

The German violinist, keyboard player, and composer Johann Wilhelm Hertel was born on 9 October 1727 in Eisenach. His early musical instruction was from Johann Heinrich Heil (1706–1764), a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. By the age of twelve, he accompanied his father Johann Christian Hertel (1697–1754), a gambist, violinist, and composer, on harpsichord during concert tours. Johann Wilhelm studied violin with Carl Höckh (1707–1773), the Konzertmeister in Zerbst, from 1742 to 1743, and entered service as both a violinist and harpsichordist in the Strelitz Hofkapelle in 1744. In 1754, he became the Hofkompositeur in Schwerin, and worked periodically as an organist and church music director in Stralsund between 1759 and 1760. Duke Christian Ludwig of Mecklenburg, Hertel’s employer, transferred Schwerin’s Hofkapelle to Ludwigslust in 1767, but relieved Hertel of his post so that he could remain in Schwerin, where he died on 14 June 1789. 

Hertel’s expansive output is comprised of both vocal and instrumental works. Unsurprisingly, he composed extensively for both keyboard and violin, with his oeuvre including fifteen keyboard concertos and nine violin concertos. Other concertos include three for flute, ten for oboe, three for bassoon, two for cello, three for trumpet, written for Johann Georg Hoese (1727–1801), first trumpeter of Schwerin’s Hofkapelle, one for trumpet and oboe, and the present concerto for trumpet, 2 oboes, and 2 bassoons. (While the instrumentation of the present work is unusual, it is not unique. Two examples include wind pieces by [?Johan] Brösel, also edited by the undersigned and published by Septenary Editions in 3 Parade Stücke—catalogue number SE1-008.)

Unlike the three solo concertos with strings and the double concerto for trumpet and oboe, which are all in three movements, the present work is in four. The range of this work is similar to that of the other concertos, extending from the 4th to 18th partial of the harmonic series, or written C4–D6 (while the first solo concerto uses the same written range, the range of the other two concertos and the double concerto is tone narrower, extending from the 4th to 16th partial, or written C4–C6). In the three trumpet concertos with strings, Hertel requires the trumpet in all movements; in contrast, this work, along with the double concerto, offers the trumpeter a chance to rest his lips during the second movement.