Beethoven and Bellon

Beethoven's Funeral as painted by Franz Stöber (notice the trombones in the front of the procession)

Today in class we listened to two early works for brass ensemble: Beethoven's Drei Equali and Jean-Francois Bellon's Brass Quintet No. 1. Beethoven wrote his Equali in 1812 in Linz, Austria for the celebration of All Saints Day. The Equali were arranged for trombones, male choir and organ in a setting of Miserere for Beethoven's own funeral in 1827.

Here is an excerpt from Beethoven’s Equali: A New Perspective, an article by Howard Weiner from The Historic Brass Society, an excellent resource for your research:

Ludwig van Beethoven's Equali for four trombones are anything but spectacular masterpieces, yet they have become a staple of the modern trombone repertoire. The reason for this is obvious: The Equali represent the only contribution to the trombone quartet repertoire by a major composer. However, even decades before they were discovered by trombonists, the Equali found wide dissemination as a result of the great fascination the composer and his death had for the music-loving public. Indeed, the Equali, in the version for voices performed at Beethoven's funeral, were published repeatedly starting already a few months after the sad event. But what is an equale,' and what was its actual function? Why were Beethoven's Equali considered suitable to be performed at his funeral? Beethoven wrote the Equali in Linz in 1812; how did they get to Vienna, to surface there again, just in time to embellish musically the funeral procession of their creator in 1827?

Jean Francois Bellon

The twelve brass quintets by Bellon are the earliest brass quintets written. They were originally scored for flugelhorn in E-flat, piston valve cornet, horn, trombone and ophicleide. Published in Paris in the 1850's they are charming and seem influenced by the style of Rossini. Here is a link to the sheet music (at Editions BIM) for the twelve brass quintets by Jean Francois Bellon. As the newly published score explains, "this new edition refers and fundamentally adheres to the original printed instrumental parts, issued without full scores in the 1850's. A full score for each quintet has been reconstructed to permit better analysis of the music."


 Bellon's biography from from Editions BIM:

Born in Lyon, France on 30 May 1795, Jean Bellon concluded his musical schooling at the Conservatoire de Paris, probably as the student of Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831) in violin (Premier Prix in 1823) and Anton Reicha (1770-1836) in composition. He subsequently became concertmaster of the Concerts Musard, and conducted various Parisian orchestras. 

As composer, his name is mentioned in several articles published by French musical journals, essentially in connection with his chamber music. Apart from his 12 brass quintets and some pieces for strings, few of his works are to be found today. Immortalized in a portrait by Ed. Hébert (1812-1890) and printed by the major French publisher, Richault, Jean Bellon was without doubt a notable personage of Parisian musical life in his day, as would suggest the dedicatees of his quintets. He died in Paris on 2 March 1869, six days before Hector Berlioz.

From Classical Plus:

Jean-François Bellon was a Paris-based violinist and composer. As a result of the Waterloo War in 1815, his training at the Paris Conservatoire was delayed, so it was at the advanced age of 28 that he won the violin prize there. While at the Conservatoire he also composed pieces for fellow students.  

Bellon went on to play in many popular Paris orchestras of his day, and was also the inventor of a type of mute for the violin and cello, which he patented, and examples of which are still kept in the Paris Conservatoire Museum. He became the leader of the Musard Orchestra in Paris and it was probably drawing on the brass section of this orchestra that he was able to form an ensemble to perform his Quintets.  

As a violinist however, his writing for brass is typical of string chamber music, particularly the string quartet, a quality which not only led to more individually sculpted part-writing for each instrument than was common in contemporary brass chamber music, but also the influence of string articulation and phrasing in Bellon’s score markings.