Carl August Müller

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Carl August Müller (born January 11, 1804 in Adorf / Vogtland ; † January 27, 1870 in Mainz ) was a German court instrument maker and brass instrument manufacturer . In the course of his life he developed, invented and improved types of instruments. Some of these are still used today.

Live and act

In his native Adorf, which is now part of the Musikwinkel , Müller was probably a student of the instrument maker Johann Gottlieb Roth senior. (1787-1864). In the 1820s he emigrated from the Kingdom of Saxony to Mainz to work as an instrument maker. In the first few years in Mainz he worked at the Schott factory until he finally went into business for himself in 1827 with the company CA Müller Musikinstrumenten-Fabrik , in order to manufacture instruments under his own name. However, he continued to manufacture instruments for Schott until after 1830.

Trumpet with three valves and "Neumainzer Druckwerk", C. A. Müller (approx. 1833)
Three-valve French horn ("Altmainzer model") by C. A. Müller (1827–1833)

As early as 1830 he added a third valve to the valve horn and valve trumpet , making him a pioneer in this field. This Müller design is still valid today. In the same year the horn received a third valve for the first time. Müller first introduced the Mainz model (later the Altmainzer model ) in Mainz, which was already developed in a similar form by Johann Gottlieb Roth senior. was built in Adorf. The next model he developed in the early 1830s was the Neumainzer machine , a modified design for the valves made by the instrument makers Kail and Riedl.

Müller maintained personal contact with the music theorist and lawyer Gottfried Weber , who, as the founder of the magazine Cäcilia, published reports on Müller's work.

One of Müller's goals was to make all common woodwind instruments of the same quality in metal. In 1840 the first success seemed to be on the horizon, as can be read in the following advertisement, which CA Müller published in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung and the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik :

Display of brass instruments

“For a number of years I have been busy with experiments, which had the purpose of representing all wind instruments made of wood in the same quality, also in metal.
My various efforts have finally been crowned with the desired success. A clarinet that has just been made, made entirely of brass, on which there is nothing but the little head of wood, was not only found here in Mainz by all experts as satisfactory and excellent in every respect, but was also tested by name in Darmstadt and checked by the gentleman Kapellmeister Mangold and concert master Schlösser, as well as extremely flattering certificates of recognition issued by the trade association for the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
The particular advantages of my instruments over those made of wood consist primarily in the soft and supple tone, which can be swollen easily from the quietest piano to the strongest forte, and whose formation is generated by the air gap of the double tubes that I use. Furthermore, in the most perfect purity, which is by no means subject to any temperature, finally such instruments are never subject to putrefaction, and the holes can never be dug out. By making my invention known to all the artists concerned, for whom the ever greater education of their instrument is at heart, I also offer myself to manufacture all kinds of wind instruments such as flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, etc. and guarantee the lowest possible prices for them Faultlessness and duration of the same. Mainz, August 13, 1840 "

- CA Müller, court instrument maker.

For his achievements, which strongly promoted the development in the field of musical instrument making, he was appointed Grand Ducal Hessian court instrument maker . In 1851, instruments from his manufacture were shown at the first London World's Fair .

Müller lived and worked in Mainz until his death in 1870. The company CA Müller Musikinstrumenten-Fabrik , which was initially run by Müller's descendants ( C. A. Müller Nachf. Fabrication of brass instruments, lyre and bell trees ), later passed to Friedrich Max Enders ( Max Enders, formerly C. A. Müller ). The glory of the company could also be maintained under his leadership. The company founded by Müller competed at times with the Mainz-based company Alexander Brothers .

The keyed trumpets No. 1839–1841 manufactured by Müller were acquired by the well-known instrument collector Paul de Wit (1852–1925) around 1893 from Ferdinand August Müller, the manufacturer's son, and exhibited in Leipzig. In 1905 de Wit sold his entire inventory to the Cologne paper manufacturer Wilhelm Heyer (1849–1913). The instruments have been exhibited in the Musical Instrument Museum at Leipzig University since 1926 .

family

August Müller was born on January 11th, 1804 in Adorf as the son of Johann Adam Müller and his wife Johanna Magdalena Müller, born. Hertel (1770–1853), born and baptized Carl August Müller in Adorf. In 1832 he married in Mainz in the church of St. Ignaz Katharina Wagner, with whom he had lived for several years. Her daughter Caroline Josephine Auguste Müller (1826–1885) and her husband, the Mainz businessman, photographer and emigration agent Philipp Müller (1822–1867), were the grandparents of Frankfurt City Director Adolf Dannhof (1880–1956), who in turn was Edith's father Dannhof (1906-2001) was. Edith Dannhof was married to a grandson of Heinrich Siesmayer and son of Philipp Siesmayer .

See also

literature

  • Friedel Keim: The big book of the trumpet; Instrument, history, trumpeter lexicon . Schott, 2005
  • Günter Dullat: Brass instrument making: stages of development and technology . Verlag Bochinsky, 1989, ( The Musical Instrument , Volume 48)
  • Musical Conversations Lexicon: An Encyclopedia of the Entire Musical Sciences , Volume 10. L. Heimann, 1878
  • Christoph Reuter: Tone color and instrumentation: history, causes, effect . P. Lang Publishing House, 2002
  • FGK Zamminer: Music and musical instruments in their relationship to the laws of acoustics . 1855
  • W. Heyer, G. Kinsky: Wilhelm Heyer Museum of Music History in Cöln: small catalog of the collection of old musical instruments . Breitkopf & Härtel, 1913
  • Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987
  • Herbert Heyde: Trumpets, trombones, tubas . 1980

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987, Google Books
  2. ↑ Carl August Müller - Horns .
  3. ^ Trumpets, trombones, tubas (Dr. Herbert Heyde, 1980) Google Books
  4. ↑ Friedel Keim: The big book of the trumpet: instrument, history, trumpeter lexicon . Schott 2005, Google Books
  5. ↑ General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes - Conversations-Lexikon . Volume 8, 1866, Google Books
  6. ^ Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987, Google Books
  7. ↑ Günter Dullat: Metallblasinstrumentenbau: stages of development and technology . Bochinsky 1989, Google Books
  8. ^ Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987, Google Books
  9. ^ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, p. 211 Google Books
  10. ↑ "Dick Martz 'Collection of Strange and Wonderful Horns"
  11. ^ Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987, Google Books
  12. ↑ Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau , Volume 36, 1915.
  13. ^ Herbert Heyde: The valve wind instrument . 1987, Google Books
  14. ^ Eva-Maria Duttenhöfer: The Alexander brothers: 200 years of musical instrument making in Mainz: a contribution to musical instrument science . Schott-Verlag, 1982
  15. ^ Herbert Heyde: Trumpets, trombones, tubas . 1980, Google Books
  16. ↑ University Museum Leipzig
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Carl August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German court instrument maker of the Romantic period
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Adorf / Vogtland
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1870
Place of death Mainz