By the end of the first half of the 19th century, the valve horn achieved a general acceptance among the hornists and it was not a speciality anymore, but the tool for the alldays.1 Still, not all composers trusted in its abilities and they did not ask for it in their compositions until 1835. These kinds of times when a new instrument has already a good quality which could have been used, but the people have fear to use it, is a great circumstance for people who have the personality, the courage and a high artistic level to build a career with the new equipment, use it as a curiosity. These musicians usually have the ‘role’ to convince other musicians, and composers that their new tool is usable and it is worth it to involve it in their works.
In the history of the valve horn these important people were Joseph Meifred (1791-1867),2 who was also the first valve horn professor at the Paris Conservatoire, the Schuncke family3 and the Lewy brothers. Eduard Constantin Lewy (1796-1846, Saint-Avold4) and his younger brother Joseph Rudolf Lewy (1802-1881, Nancy5) were two of the most famous valve horn players in their time. The most important first valve horn pieces were possibly written for them, or they were the one who performed it for the first time or did the trial runs of the pieces.
Eduard got general music lessons from his father, later in 1810, he started his studies in the Paris Conservatoire. At the age of 16, he joined to the military, where he worked as regimental bandmaster and trumpet major until 1822, when Conradin Kreutzer6 invited him to the Orchester des Hofoperntheaters in Wien.7 Afterwards, he spent his entire life in Vienna until his death in 1946. During these years, E.C. Lewy became the professor of the Wiener Konservatorium (1829) and member of the Wiener Hofkapelle (1835).8
The older Lewy had an important role in Joseph’s life and career. He went to study in Duvernoy’s class in Paris as well, and after Eduard brought him to Basel to play the viola and the horn in the same orchestra where he played.9 Later on, according to Morley-Pegge in 1822,10 according to the older, and maybe more credible source, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,11 and to the Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien,12 in 1826,he accepted his brother's invitation to the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna. But Joseph Rulof did not stay here in the rest of his life as his brother, in the 1830s he became a travelling virtuoso, and performed in Germany, England, France, Russland, Sweden.13 In 1837, he got the principal horn position in the Dresdner Staatskapelle;14 Joseph stayed in this position until his retirement in 1851.15 16
The reason why I say that they have the most important and special role in the spreading of the valve horn, that the very first pieces written for the instrument were dedicated to them, or they did the first performance/trial, or they were around at least; whether we are talking about chamber music pieces, or solo pieces, or orchestral parts. Despite the assumption that the 4th horn solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the first solo and horn part intended for the keyed instrument by a major composer is possibly not right, since the composer could not have heard the valve horn, since he was deaf at the time when it was invented, even the solo is absolutely playable on the natural horn and contains typical low horn movements, and the part does not have any other place where the 4th horn would need to use the valves.17 Anyways, we do not have to go much further from 1824, when the Orchester der Kärtnertor Theater, neither from Vienna.
