Robert Körnli (1903-1974) from Grenchen in the canton of Solothurn worked professionally as a mechanic in an industrial company. In addition, he was a full-blooded amateur musician: brass band, folk music, finally the alphorn. In the Northwestern Swiss Yodelers Association he was involved for decades as a juror and instructor. He is known mainly as a composer for alphorn. From the 1930s until his death, he created about 170 pieces.
Körnli’s work bears witness to the development of the alphorn in the 20th century. Until the 1960s, he wrote mostly solo tunes. During this period, compositions increasingly take the place of freely improvised individual performances. Later he concentrated on polyphonic pieces, which were not graded at yodel festivals until 1972. In the last years of his life, Körnli then composed several pieces called “Choral”. The word originally comes from church music (Greogorian chant) and describes a slow, monophonic melodic form which is intended to create a solemn, dignified mood; in the context of alphorn music, since Körnli, this has meant pieces for large formations.
Körnli had a clear idea of how alphorn music should sound: slowly progressing, pure harmonies – largely without alphorn Fa or Bb – in a fromally clear pattern. Many elements are repeated: phrases with an upbeat at the beginning and a fermata at the end, rising and falling dynamics, intro and closing sections. He likes to use the combination of a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note or a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note (probably played as trioles / swing). The pieces usually begin with the instruction “ruhig” (calm), “gross im Ton” (big in tone), “breit” (broad) or “tragend” (carrying). These can be seen as general instruction for playing Körnlis pieces. It is the aesthetics of intellectual national defense.
At the end of the 1980s, the Northwestern Swiss Yodelers’ Association took the initiative to document Robert Körnli’s work as completely as possible. Hans-Jürg Sommer invested hundreds of hours in the collection and restoration of the numerous loose sheet music. In 1992 these were reproduced as facsimile in the book “Vo de blaue Jurabärge – Alphorn- und Büchel-Melodien von Robert Körnli 1903-1974”. Only a few copies of this book are still in circulation – none is repertorized in Swiss libraries. Individual pages are passed around the alphorn blowers as photocopies of photocopies.
The aim of the project here is to make the work of Robert Körnli accessible again to as large a circle of alphorn players as possible. To do this, I reset all the pieces. The sheet music should thus gain in readability and with the appropriate programs rendering to audio or further processing is also possible (here a tutorial). In addition to the sheet music in pdf, I provide Musescore files (
MuseScore is a widely used open source music editing software); also available are the libraries in MusicXML and Midi. When setting the pieces, I had to make certain (subjective) decisions: Choosing from several versions of the same piece, interpreting unclear notation on repetitions, dynamics and tempo. I have given more weight to the most direct usability possible than to the meticulous historical documentation; I have written out repetitions and adapted line breaks to the structure of the pieces. In spite of all care I assume that I have made mistakes while setting; I am grateful for corresponding feedback!
The sheet music material is published here with the kind permission of the heirs of Robert Körnli. You may download it for personal use without restriction. However, the works are protected by copyright until 2044 and their use (performances, recordings) must be reported/licensed to SUISA.
