Recently, during score reading class, we worked on Beethoven’s symphonies. One of the themes was devoted to the role of French horn and trumpet. Composers, having only a narrow range of sound at their disposal, had to be up to use these instruments in the right way. The invention of the valve solved the problem. And it happened thanks to Fryderyk Blühmel, a musician from the prince’s castle in… Pszczyna. Yes, it is in our Pszczyna. Luckily, the castle is still standing.
But few people know that, for example, such an English horn was most likely built in Wrocław, then under German direction.
There are still such forgotten stories that could be an impulse to recreate traditions and build a cultural environment around them. Forgotten inventors, artists and their works. Meanwhile, the entire collection of Polish archival recordings is sold for pennies to a foreign label. There, they are put back on a shelf and becomes unavailable.
If we do not take care of the remnants of the former glory, exterminated by the wars and communism, it will be very difficult to create a new one. And it will be building on quicksand.