Christian Ahrens

Fiktion und Realität

Die Privilegien der Trompeter und Pauker

Since its publication, Johann Ernst Altenburg’s Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Pauker-Kunst (1795) has determined our perception of trumpet and drum guilds and their position in society. According to extensive source material in central Germany, it can be proven, however, that these musicians were not generally accorded special prominence and that their financial and social status was average, situated in the middle range. They enjoyed special rights and privileges only when serving in an official military capacity or for governmental and political functions. Thus, Altenburg’s description of privileged trumpeters and drummers has less to do with reality and more to do with fiction. Furthermore, sources prove that the dissolution of trumpet “guilds” beginning around 1750 was brought about not by musicians from the cities but rather by those in the military (Hautboisten), and that this change came to fruition according to the express will of the prevailing rulers, not in spite of them. This was even true for the electors of Saxony, who were nominally the highest patrons of all trumpeters in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

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