When I was researching music to include in the book I am writing and refining at the moment (about the natural trumpet), I kept finding myself on Uppsala University’s website browsing the the database of digitised manuscript images from the Düben collection. The Düben collection is an extensive collection of musical manuscripts from throughout Europe. It was compiled in Stockholm by members of the Düben family, most notably Gustav Düben the elder (c.1628 - 1690). The collection was donated to the Uppsala University Library in 1732 by his son, Anders von Düben).

During the first lockdown I made editions of some works from the Düben collection, and George Clifford and I even multi-tracked one of them for a remote music-making YouTube collaboration during the first lockdown.

Finally, when lockdown conditions finally allowed, Will Russell came up to visit me. He was looking for a project idea for Spiritato’s next CD, and I suggested music from the Düben collection as a possible theme. He was keen on the idea and began fundraising for the project. About one year later, there we were, with the record label (Delphian), recording in a church just south of Hampstead Heath (All Hallow’s Church, Gospel Oak). The recording sessions involving trumpets took place on 28th and 29th of September 2021.

We began the first session by recording the D. Prentzl - Sonata a 2. instromenti Trombetta [Clarino] è fagotto. Con Basso Continuo - using my edition.

The pitch for the project was predominantly A=415Hz but the bassoonist, Inga Klaucke, and I decided to play this piece on instruments at A=465Hz. In lieu of using a 465Hz organ just for this piece, we transposed the continuo parts up a tone to accommodate our decision to use high pitch and low pitch simultaneously, simulating the common (historical) pitch difference between chorton and cammerton. The decision to use high pitch instruments alongside 415Hz continuo instruments was driven by the implied early, Dulcian-esque, style of this piece. It is a remarkable work for both clarino and fagotto. The transposition did not seem to cause any intonation problems; except for one of the wolfs of the sixth-comma mean tone that we were using was on the A#. Fortunately, we had an expert harpsichord and organ tuner, Keith McGowan, on hand at all times and he was able to rectify this issue very expediently, and under time-pressure; a brilliant and indispensable professional.

In the afternoon we recorded Clement Thieme’s Sonata ab 8 - 2 Violini 2 Trombetti e 4 Viol di Braccio, again using my edition. It was fantastic to hear the two violin and four, yes FOUR, viola parts played by real-life musicians (as opposed to Sibelius sounds, or remote recordings). I think the recording of this work will (hopefully) be one of the highlights of the resulting CD.