Introduction
"Greetings from Heaven or Demonic Noise?
A History of the Wagner
Tuba" by William Melton
The following 8 essays are abbreviated versions prepared by wagner-tuba.com of the articles which were
written for and first appeared in 'The Horn Call' (Journal of the International Horn Society) commencing with the
August 2001 issue.
William Melton received the Harold Meek
Memorial Award in the same year for the first article in
the series. Here follows a short biography of the Author:
Born in Philadelphia in 1954, and brought up in Los Angeles, William Melton
studied horn with Ron Wise, and then with Sinclair Lott at UCLA.
After
graduate studies in music history, he decided to play horn professionally.
Since 1982, he has been a member of the Sinfonie Orchester Aachen, an
historic German orchestra that celebrates its 150th anniversary this
year, and counts Wüllner, Busch, Karajan, and Sawallisch among former
chief conductors.
Above: William Melton holding an antique Viennese bore Wagner tuba in F
This en-semble and Melton's participation in the quartet "Die
Aachener Hornisten" occupy his performing life.
The quartet has performed
in Australia, the Middle and Far East, has recorded with West German
Radio, and been televised prime-time on Germany's Channel 1 /ARD.