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The Joe R. & Joella F. Utley Collection of Brass
Instruments
Highlights of the Collection...
The Joe R. & Joella F. Utley Collection of more than 500
brass
instruments is a splendid assemblage of cornets, trumpets, and related
instruments that Joe and Joella collected in a remarkably short period of
time. Roaming the globe in a tireless effort to assemble an inclusive
collection that would tell the story of high brass instrument-making
during the past 400 years, they exceeded even their own dreams.
The Utley Collection is rich in European instruments from the 17th, 18th,
and 19th centuries. An ornately decorated cornetto from the
Rothschild Collection in Vienna and a cornettino--both with fingerholes like a woodwind, but played with a
cupped mouthpiece--are masterpieces in ivory. Both date from about
1600.
The great brass makers of the Imperial City of Nürnberg are
represented by half a dozen instruments from the hands of Johann Wilhelm
Haas (the earliest is dated 1681), Johann Leonhard Ehe, Wolf Magnus Ehe,
and Cornelius Steinmetz. A pair of small, 17th-century timpani complement
the natural trumpets.
There is an outstanding group of instruments by notable craftsmen working
in England during the first half of the 19th century, among them Charles
Pace, William Sandbach, Joseph Greenhill, and members of the Köhler
family. Lavishly decorated presentation instruments include a hallmarked
silver bugle by Rudall, Rose, Carte & Co., "Presented by the Countess
Amherst to the 33rd Company of the Kent Rifle Volunteers, 1861," complete
with original tassles, it rests in its own special box.
Adolphe Sax, the leading maker in Paris at the time, is represented by
quite a few notable instruments, among which are an alto trompette de
cavalerie made in 1862, a hunting horn made in 1866, and a trompette
á l'angle made in 1854.
The great European instruments are complemented, as one would expect, by
equally important 19th-century American brasses built by Isaac Fiske, John
Stratton, and other leading figures of the day. A rare, over-the-shoulder
cornet in E-flat by E. G. Wright combines three rotary valves with five
clapper keys.
Filling what had been a major gap in the Museum's holdings, the Utleys
have also documented the work of the great individual American trumpet
makers who made many of the instruments played by professional musicians
in the second half of the 20th century: men like Vincent Bach in New
York, Elden and Donald Benge in Chicago, Dominick and Christopher
Calicchio in Los Angeles/Hollywood, David Monette in Portland, and Renold
Schilke in Chicago.
In addition to three Monette trumpets already in the collection, the
Utleys commissioned Monette to build a highly decorated flumpet, a
cross between a trumpet and a flugelhorn that Monette first created for
the jazz legend, Art Farmer. Charles Schlueter, principal trumpet of the
Boston Symphony, uses one to play the offstage post-horn solo, when the
BSO performs Mahler's Third Symphony.
Finally, the collection also includes a wide variety of brass instruments
brought back by the Utleys from their travels to India, the South Pacific,
and elsewhere. There were lots of adventures, and they have marvellous
stories to tell.
About the Collectors...
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Joe R. Utley (1935-2001)
Joe R. Utley bought his first trumpet in the early 1950s from his employer, Dick McFarland, in Elk City, Oklahoma, for whom he repaired instruments. This Conn Connstellation 28B trumpet, with serial number 396,510, was built in 1951 and is still part of the collection (NMM 6789). Joe played this instrument throughout his high school and college years in student concerts featuring ambitious works such as Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major.
Joe Utley can be seen holding this trumpet in a photo taken in the early 1950s. |
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Joe R. and Joella F. Utley
Born and raised in humble surroundings in western Oklahoma, the Utleys
both received BA degrees from Oklahoma City University and MD degrees from
Washington University in St. Louis. Joe also has an MBA from Duke
University and Joella is finishing her MM at Converse College. They did
their residencies in San Francisco, were on staff at the University of
Kentucky Medical Center, 1972-1977, and the University of California, San
Diego, 1977-1983, and then went into private practice in Spartanburg,
South Carolina, with academic ties to the University of South Carolina
School of Medicine.
Well-read, widely traveled, and forever curious, the Utleys are true
"Renaissance" people with a multitude of interests that range from
maintaining their roots with the land to their love of music. Joella
plays the piano, and Joe played the trumpet, while in school and again
with the Spartanburg Symphony. Summer weekends often found them across the
border in North Carolina, attending concerts at the Brevard Music
Center.
The Utley Foundation and the Museum continue to pursue mutual plans and shared
dreams for the future, collaborating to publish a definitive history of
high brass instruments--based primarily on examples from the Utley
Collection--and to establish the Utley Institute for Brass Studies, within
the Museum, to serve as an international center for brass performance and
scholarship.
Leadership is provided by Sabine Klaus, the first Joe and Joella
Utley Curator of Brass Instruments and Professor of Music, who joined the
Museum staff on November 1, 1999. A native of Reutlingen, Germany, Dr.
Klaus received her Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen. She has
had extensive experience at both the Stadtmuseum and the Deutsches Museum
in Munich, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg, and the
Technisches Museum in Vienna; held an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and, since December 1996,
worked at the Historisches Museum in Basel, Switzerland, where she was
cataloging the Bernoulli Collection of Brass Instruments.
A selection of instruments from the Joe & Joella Utley Collection are
on display in the first floor of the Museum. Others are available
for examination by
appointment (see access
guidelines).
Online Checklists of the Utley Collection
Articles About the Utley Collection
Margaret Downie Banks, "Brass Instruments from the Utley Collection
Fill Museum's Horn of Plenty this Harvest Season: Jeweled Cornet
a Hallmark of the Utley Collection, A Cornophone from the Utley
Cornucopia, 'Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun' with a Double-bell
Schediphon, Tortoise-shell is Key Element in Rare Bugle, More
to the Trompe de Lorraine than Meets the Eye," America's Shrine to
Music Museum Newsletter 26, No. 4 (November 1999), pp. 4-5 and 7-8.
Sabine K. Klaus, "Acquisition of a Superb Horn Built by Johann Karl
Kodisch in 1684 Helps Preserve a House Built in Germany in 1510,"
America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 28, No. 3
(August 2001), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Competing with Violins and Almost Like a Human Voice . . .
Two More Cornetti Added to Museum Treasures," America's National Music
Museum Newsletter 29, No. 4 (November 2002), pp. 3-4.
-------, "Educational Activities at the Museum's Satellite Facility in the Carolina Woods," National Music Museum Newsletter 30, No. 4 (November 2003), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Found in the Sunny South: A Trumpet by Johann Carl Kodisch, Imperial City of Nürnberg, After 1681," National Music Museum Newsletter 32, No. 1 (February 2005), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Haas & Haas: A Miniature Horn and a Natural Trumpet from
the Most Famous Nürnberg Workshop," America's Shrine to Music
Museum Newsletter 28, No. 2 (May 2001), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Keyed Trumpet by Joseph Greenhill" in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 27, No. 2 (January 2003), p. 55.
-------, "Miniature King Liberty Trumpet by H. N. White," in "Historical Instrument Window," Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (January 2007), p. 54.
-------, "Natural Trumpet in D by Johann Leonhard Ehe II" in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 27, No. 4 (June 2003), p. 68.
-------, "Over-the-Shoulder Cornet in E-flat by Elbridge G. Wright, Boston, ca. 1850," in "Historical Instrument Window," Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (June 2006), p. 41.
-------, "Pair of Inventions-Trompeten," in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 (March 2004), p. 56.
-------, "Persistent 'Detective Work' Sheds New Light on Two Precious
Ivory Cornetti in the Utley Collection," America's Shrine to Music
Museum Newsletter 28, No. 1 (February 2001), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Slide Trumpet by Charles Pace" in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1 (October 2002), p. 66.
-------, "'Tristan'
Trumpet by Gebr. Alexander," in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward
H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal 26,
No. 4 (June 2002), p. 64.
-------, "Trumpet in F and Cornopean in B-flat by John August Köhler," in "Historical Instrument Window," Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 31, No. 4 (June 2007), p. 60.
-------, "Trumpet in F by James Keat" in "Historical Instrument Window," Edward H. Tarr, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1 (October 2003), p. 76.
-------, "Trumpet with Six Independent Valves and Tubes in F by Adolphe Sax, Paris, 1868," in "Historical Instrument Window," Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2 (January 2006), p. 40.
-------, "The Utley Collection . . . New Jewels Include a Rare Keyed Trumpet by E. J. Bauer, Prague," National Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 1 (February 2004), pp. 1-2.
-------, "William Lander (1763-1843), Mere, Wiltshire. A Forgotten Music Instrument Maker Rediscovered," The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 57 (May 2004), pp. 3-18 and 195-203.
-------, "A Wooden Trumpet Built Exclusively for Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' is Added to the Utley Collection," America's National Music Museum Newsletter 29, No. 3 (August 2002), pp. 4-5.
-------, "Zwei
Elfenbein-Zinken aus Süddeutschland?" in Zur Geschichte von Cornetto
und Clarine. Symposium im Rahmen der 25. Tage Alter Musik in Herne 2000,
Christian Ahrens and Gregor Klinke, eds., (Munich and Salzburg: Musikverlag
Katzbichler, 2001), pp. 35-50.
André P. Larson, "Cornet in B-flat by F. Besson, London,
1883," South Dakota Musician 34, No. 2 (Winter 2000), cover
and p. 22.
-------, "In Memoriam [Joe R. Utley]," America's Shrine to Music
Museum Newsletter 28, No. 2 (May 2001), p. 8.
-------, "Joe & Joella Utley Donate More than 500 Rare Brass Instruments,"
America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 24, No. 4 (November
1999), pp. 1-3.
-------, "Rare Ivory Zink Bought at Rothschild Auction," America's
Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 26, No. 3 (August 1999), p.
7.
-------, "Schediphon by Josef Josefovich Schediwa, Odessa, The Ukraine,
1901," South Dakota Musician 34, No. 3 (Spring 2000), cover
and p. 20.
Clint Spell, "Circular Cornet in B-flat by Ernst Ferdinand Glier (1827-1870), Cochecton, New York, ca. 1860" in "Historical Instrument Window," Sabine K. Klaus, editor, International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 32, No. 2 (January 2008), p. 47.
Joe R. Utley† and Sabine K. Klaus, "The 'Catholic' Fingering--First Valve Semitone: Reversed Valve Order in Brass Instruments and Related Valve Constructions," Historic Brass Society Journal 15 (2003), pp. 73-161.
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