Schmidt (brass instrument maker)
Schmidt was a family of brass instrument makers .
Background: LA Schröder
Leopold August (Mathias) Schröder initially worked as a self-employed instrument maker in Koblenz from 1812 to 1822 and relocated his workshop to Cologne in 1822 .
In 1847 he filed an unsuccessful patent application for a new valve design. In 1911 it was reported that the company "LA Schröder" had built a high-flat trumpet , but it remains unclear in which phase of the company's history this happened.
FA Schmidt senior
Friedrich Adolf Schmidt (born March 31, 1827 in Colochau ; † February 22, 1893 in Cologne) took over the workshop of LA Schröder in 1848. However, it has been detectable in Cologne since 1846. The company name was later changed to FA Schmidt .
Friedrich Adolf Schmidt developed the characteristic "Cologne model" of the trumpet and horn , as well as the short "Kölner Druckwerk " and the "Altkölner Druckwerk". Further inventions were the Echocornet in (1853), the Echomachine in (1853) and in 1859 with patent no. 9960 the echo sheet . He took part in the instrument exhibition in London in 1852. At the instrument exhibition in Vienna in 1873, a trumpet with four valves, a euphonium and the echo machine were also presented.
Three sons of Friedrich Adolf Schmidt also became instrument makers:
- Carl Friedrich Schmidt (born March 7, 1852 in Cologne, † March 5, 1924 in Weimar), specialist in horns
- Leopold August Schmidt (born October 27, 1855 in Cologne, † 1921 in Cologne) and
- Friedrich Adolph Schmidt junior (* in Cologne), specialist in trombones
LA Schmidt
Leopold August Schmidt took over the company from his father after his death in 1893. It was continued under the name LA Schmidt until 1938. Leopold August's widow Helene officially became the owner in 1930. In 1938 the inventory was sold to the Alexander Brothers company in Mainz.
At an exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1902 , Leopold August Schmidt presented a mouthpiece with a screw rim, an invention of his own. The mouthpiece was further developed by trumpeter Carl Höhne in 1906/07 and manufactured by another company on his behalf.
FA Schmidt junior
Friedrich Adolph Schmidt junior is mentioned as an instrument maker in Adorf in 1881 , and in the same year at a trade exhibition in Halle (Saale) , where he received an award. Between 1892 and 1908 he worked in Berlin. He became known as a specialist in trumpets and trombones.
Friedrich Adolph Schmidt also built slide trumpets based on the Gnädig patent from 1908. He used the Suchy telescope hole.
CF Schmidt
Carl Friedrich Schmidt (born March 7, 1852 in Cologne, † March 5, 1924 in Weimar) learned the craft of making instruments from his father before setting up his own business in Berlin in 1878. In 1883 he moved to Friedrichroda and in 1888 to Weimar . In addition to various regiments, he also supplied the chapels of the court theaters in Weimar , Mannheim , Braunschweig , Dessau , Altenburg , Kassel , Coburg and Pest as well as the St. Petersburg Conservatory and even as far as Moscow , Amsterdam and Chicago . The general importer for the United States and Canada was the Carl Fischer company in New York.
Schmidt was given the title of “Grand Ducal Saxon Court Musical Instrument Maker” on April 20, 1896 by the Court Marshal's Office in Weimar. The shop in Berlin was named CF Schmidt until 1927 and the workshop in Weimar until 1934. In 1900, however, both shops were initially merged in Berlin. From 1919 the company was again managed in Weimar under CF Schmidt, musical instrument manufacturer , and from 1926 under the name CF Schmidt, musical instrument factory . The company name appears for the first time in 1929 with the addition Co. in the address book, but on the instruments already from 1919. The workshop can be traced in the Weimar address book until 1949/1950. It existed until the death of the last owner Johannes Kirchberg (1961). (Kirchberg began his apprenticeship at CFSchmidt in Weimar in 1890)
Carl Friedrich Schmidt was a specialist in the construction of horns. His double horn model was widely used until the 1940s. It is still being built by other manufacturers today (SW Lewis, Karl Hill / Kortesmaki, George McCracken). It is characterized by the funnel shape, the rotary valves and the transverse Perinet switch valve for B / F tuning. Schmidt is said to have supplied valves to the United States for Boston Musical Instruments and the original CG Conn 6-D horn model .
Patent No. 12814 of July 28, 1880 provides screwable connecting bridges in order to use the same rotary valve machine for trumpets, flugelhorns , pistons and similar instruments.
A comparable system is used today e.g. B. used by the companies Thein, Dowids and HAAG. It enables a flexible use of the trumpet, with which the sound character can be varied, but also for trying out horns of different shapes and material thicknesses.
CF Schmidt scales are still used today by instrument makers as the basis for their funnels. Its horns are known for their beautiful sound, but also for their wolf tones and the ergonomically inconvenient pump switching valve.
In America, CF Schmidt's horns are popular. In terms of sound, they differ significantly from the dark and soft-sounding American models from Conn , King and the widely built Holton . With their narrow scale lengths, they are said to have been the model for the horns made by Carl Geyer in Chicago, although Geyer built his models using the "button construction". Geyer said that Schmidt's secret lies in the shape of the lead pipe to the B valve and the shape of the funnel. He also used the funnel shape for some of his own horn models. Cazzani and Kalison in Milan also rebuilt the CF Schmidts model with the horizontal pump valve.
The Hill company also offers an American replica, which is much easier to handle. The Périnet switch valve is also designed in such a way that it cannot tilt, as is often the case with the originals.
The Yamaha Corporation also produced a replica of the C.-F.-Schmidt horn more than 20 years ago with the model 863 .
The original bore of the Schmidt horn corresponds to that of the Vienna horn.
Famous horn players like Wilhelm A. Vakenier (* 1887 in Rotterdam), first horn player in the Boston Symphony from 1923 to 1953, played on CF Schmidt horns. Vakenier's teacher Adolph Preus already had contacts with CF Schmidt.
Employees and students of the Schmidt family
Josef Monke
After LA Schmidt's death, his colleague Josef Monke opened his own brass instrument factory in Cologne on February 28, 1922. He had worked at LA Schmidt from 1904 to 1911 from 1912 to 1921.
Albert Kley
Albert Kley (* 1870; † 1935) was a brass instrument maker in Berlin from 1914 to 1935. He had learned from Carl Friedrich Schmidt in Weimar after 1888 and between 1895 and 1906 worked for G. Eschenbach in Berlin. After Schmidt had shifted his weight to the workshop in Berlin in 1899, Kley worked for him for some time before moving back to Eschenbach. Shortly before 1914, Kley became self-employed.
gallery
- Patent 12814
CF Schmidt patent 12814 text
CF Schmidt patent 12814 drawing
- Logos of the company CF Schmidt
Logo 1
1888 to April 1896 or 1930–1937
C.F.Schmidt / Weimar
Logo 2
1888–1896
C.F.Schmidt / WEIMAR / in front of / BERLIN
(formerly in Berlin)
Logo 3
1900 to 1918
C.F.Schmidt / Grossherzogl. / Saxon. Hof instrument maker / BERLIN, SW19 / earlier / WEIMAR
Logo 4
from 1919
C.F.Schmidt / & Co. / WEIMAR / earlier / BERLIN
Logo 5
C.F.Schmidt / & Co. / Weimar
swell
- William Waterhouse : New Langwill Index. Dictionary of Musical Wind-instrument Makers and Inventors. Thomas Bingham, 1993
- Weimar City Archives
- Cologne City Archives