What sounds go better with a chilly winter afternoon in the woods than alphorns? Last Sunday, three musicians positioned themselves in front of the Church of St. Clemens in the World Forest. In front of her are her instruments, each unique in its construction and sound. When the alphorns sound, a reverent silence sets in: “The sound goes straight to the heart, I can feel it all over my body when playing,” says Gottfried Herrmann. He forms that with Wienke Eilers and Marco Moosbauer Freising Alphorn Trio.
The three have been performing together for six years, continuously perfecting their playing on the extraordinary instrument. This consists solely of wood, no technology is built into the natural instrument: “It creates an earthy and unique sound,” says Herrmann. The head of the “3klang” music school is actually used to much smaller instruments such as the violin or trombone. The alphorn with a length of 3.80 meters and a weight of five kilograms takes on a different dimension. Only a few people in the region master the instrument, which is particularly widespread in Switzerland and the Alps. An alphorn trio in Upper Bavaria – that’s rare, Gottfried Herrmann is sure.
The path from Wienke Eilers to the Alphorn is just as extraordinary. She originally comes from the North Sea island of Langeoog. Through a voluntary social year at “3klang” she got to know the instrument. Like her colleagues, she already mastered a number of wind instruments, which gave her a small lead on the alphorn. Gottfried Herrmann emphasizes: “If you learn the instrument from scratch, it takes two to three years to master it well.”
The trio plays traditional alphorn pieces wherever the group is needed. “We prefer to perform outdoors, like in the world forest. Otherwise in churches, the sound is so great there. Or at Christmas markets,” says Herrmann. Driving the almost four meter long alphorn around in the car? “It’s possible,” he laughs. “But only because you can disassemble the alphorn into three parts.” Herrmann is always careful with his instrument, after all he had it specially made. About an alphorn maker who has to climb high into the mountains to do it: “The stone pine grows above 1800 meters. The alphorn maker selects the best wood and then dries it for a few years,” says Herrmann. The effort has its price, a hand-made alphorn costs several thousand euros.
A handmade alphorn costs several thousand euros and it has to be made of stone pine. Then it sounds best.
(Photo: Marco Einfeldt)
It’s worth it for Herrmann, the Swiss stone pine horns simply have the best sound. As a brass player, he is used to playing wind instruments, he knows exactly how to use his breathing and mouth to get a decent sound out of the instrument. A feature that Alphorn trio distinguished: “We try to play very cleanly,” he says. Because the alphorn is a natural instrument, the higher you climb the scale, the more unclean the tones become: “Here you have to practice very meticulously and experiment a lot with your lips in order to play the upper tones cleanly.” This is one of the reasons why every performance in front of an audience always triggers a certain tension in him, there is always the question of whether the trio can also play the natural tones cleanly. “But it’s always a positive tension.”