- frist edition -
Mengal, Martin Joseph, * 27. January 1784 in Genth, + 3. July 1851 in Genth.
Mengal took violin lessons among Prévôt and Gauthier at the same time. With 12 years he appeared publicly as a violin soloist for the first time; he took the place of 1st hornists at the theatre of his hometown a year later. He already made the first composition attempts at this time.
He studied 1804 at the Parisian Conservatoire with F. Duvernoy (horn) and at Catel (harmony), supported by the prefect Faitpoult because of his special musicality. Then he stepped into the grenadier regiment of the imperial guard and moved to Italy, Austria and Prussia with this. After every campaign he went back to Paris to continue his musical studies. He won 1807 the first price for Mr. and the second for harmony, returned to Paris definitely to the completion of its armed forces duty. It finished its compositional education with Anton Reicha.
Mengal worked as hornist in the orchestra of the Théâtre de l'Odéon; to that it belonged to that one of the Théâtre Feydeau as the first hornist for thirteen years. Its operas date from this time. He applied 1824 for the director position for the orchestra of the Grand Théâtre to Brussels, but Hanssens was preferred to him; he was assigned the same authority in Ghent to 1825 himself.
Later, he mixed up the director position with it the conductor whom he provided to 1830. Mengal was working in the Société de Sainte-Cécile also as the first hornist and conductor and 1828 was honoured through the city of Antwerp for its game. After the revolution of 1830 he directed the opera orchestra in Antwerp and was appointed to that on the same position to The Hague. Definitely, he swept back 1835 to his hometown where the management of the new Conservatoire was assigned to him. His most important pupils were F. A. Gevaert and K. Miry.
The brothers Mengal have often been mistaken for one another. There is Martin-Joseph Mengal (1784 - 1851) and his younger brother Jean Mengal ( 1796 - 1878). Both have been famous horn players.
His brother Jean was taught by the Parisian horn player Domnich. He and his brother won the first prize at the Conservatoire (Jean 1814, Martin 1809). Jean had been the first horn player at the opera house in Paris and composed for his instrument. Sometimes compositions get mixed between the brothers. These trios, edited by Robert Ostermeyer, are certainly composed by Martin-Joseph Mengal.
The manuscript for this first edition of the 23 trios for three horns is kept by the library of the Conservatorium in Gent. The composition belongs to the time before 1820,when Mengal stayed in Paris. Some of the pieces ( e.g. No 13) show parallels to the 25 duos for two horns by Joseph Kenn (ROM 69). It could be possible, that Mengal played the duos and used some ideas for his own composition.
