Forgotten Romantic Works for Horn –
series researched and annotated by William Melton

A treasure trove of music for horn was produced during the Romantic era, the beginning of which saw the introduction of the valved horn. Municipal orchestras, military bands and salon music flourished in middle Europe during the 19th century. The massive demand for new compositions naturally included music for horn, and many composers followed the lead of Schumann and Wagner in writing for the new valved instrument.

The series "Forgotten Romantic Works for Horn" was initiated to rescue worthy compositions that were lost in the sheer mass of production, works that have long been out of print. As the composers have often been forgotten along with their works, each title in the series begins with an extensive biographical preface to facilitate notes for concert programs.

William Melton (b. Philadelphia, 1954) was a horn pupil of Sinclair Lott (a protegé of Alfred Brain and Otto Klemperer) and a graduate student in historical musicology at UCLA. He has been a career hornist with the Sinfonie Orchester Aachen in Germany since 1982. He is also a charter member of two horn quartets, ”Die Aachener Hornisten” and ”The Rhenish Horns”, and has toured with them in hundreds of performances on three continents. Melton has twice won the International Horn Society's ”Harold Meek Award” for scholarly articles, he translates books from the German for Schott Music International, and is the author of ”Engelbert Humperdinck: An Odyssey through Wilhelmine Germany”, which will be published shortly by Toccata Press (London). The series ”Forgotten Romantic Horn Works” is the fruit of Melton‘s two decades of research into the music collections of the major libraries of Germany.


The Horn Call (International Horn Society)
...This intriquing series represents an interesting contribution to our repertoire. Melton has used his expertise and passion for his work in musicology to unearth some unusual and appealing historical compositions. In his thorough fashion, he provides extensive and fascinating notes...
(The Horn Call, February 2008)