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 from 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 during a recording of Bruckner's 9th
Symphony with the Sinfonie Orchester Aachen. This
recording includes the latest reconstruction of the symphony's 4th
movement, including much new material for the Wagner tubas, and
is available as a super audio CD from www.CovielloClassics.de - Click photo to enlarge
This ensemble and Melton's participation in the quartet "Die
Aachener Hornisten" occupy his performing life.
The quartet has performed
in Australia, the Middle/Far East, has recorded with
W. German
Radio, and televised prime-time on Germany's Channel 1 /ARD.
Melton commutes to work daily from an ancient farmhouse
in east Belgium, where he lives with his wife Lynn (a mezzo-soprano at
the Aachen Opera), their 3 daughters, and black cat Loki (who, with Melton,
watches NFL football games with great interest, if only to nibble at
the cheese on the nachos).
