Beate Pokorny
Beate Pokorny | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1760s |
| Died | Unknown[1] |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Relatives | František Xaver Pokorný |
Beate Pokorny (probably born around 1760)[1] was a French horn player from Bohemia.[2][3] She may have been the daughter of the composer František Xaver Pokorný,[4] and she is one of the earliest known female horn players.[3][5]
Historical accounts
Few accounts of Pokorny are available.[2] The 1 January 1780[4] edition of the Mercure de France praises Pokorny's performance of a concerto by Giovanni Punto at the Concert Spirituel on 24 December 1779.[1][3] A pair of 1780 advertisements in The Morning Post allude to concerts in London by "two Miss Pokorny"[2][1] who both played the horn; a third advertisement indicates a concert for the benefit of the two Pokornys.[1] The identity of the second Pokorny is unknown.[2] Beate Pokorny is described as vituosic in two dictionaries, one from 1792 and the other from 1817.[3]
Analysis
According to musicologist Jan La Rue, the symphonies of František Xaver Pokorný have "exceptional" horn parts, which could be explained by having a skilled horn player as a daughter.[4] Imyra Santana of Panthéon-Sorbonne University comments that more than one family of the name Pokorny is known to have been highly musical, and argues that the presence of a second horn player, likely her sister, suggests she came from a family of musicians.[2] Santana also argues that she likely chose a concerto by Punto in order to demonstrate her virtuosity.[3]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Hoffmann, Freia (2008). "Pokorny, Pokorni, Beate". sophie-drinker-institut.de (in German). Sophie Drinker Institute. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Santana, Imyra (2019). "6. Les femmes et la pratique des instruments à vent au xviiie siècle" [Women and the practice of wind instruments in the 18th century]. In Traversier, Mélanie; Ramaut, Alban (eds.). La musique a-t-elle un genre ? [Does music have a gender?] (in French). Éditions de la Sorbonne. 35. doi:10.4000/books.psorbonne.83875. ISBN 9791035102845. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Santana, Imyra; Legrande, Raphaëlle (2014). Les Femmes instrumentistes au Concert Spirituel (1725–1790): le regard de la presse [Women instrumentalists at the Concert Spirituel (1725–1790): the perspective of the press] (Thesis) (in French). Retrieved 14 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 La Rue, Jan (1960). "Major and Minor Mysteries of Identification in the 18th-Century Symphony". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 13 (1/3). 15. doi:10.2307/830254. JSTOR 830254.
- ↑ Bridwell-Briner, Kathryn Eileen (2014). The Horn in America from Colonial Society to 1842: Performers, Instruments, and Repertoire (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Retrieved 14 July 2026.