The Paris Conservatoire solos, both the sight-reading works and the longer contest pieces, are the first extended series of compositions for woodwinds, brass, and harp in music history. While composers such as Mozart, Weber, and Robert Schumann contributed a few significant works for these instruments, the Conservatoire solos were composed annually for each instrument beginning in the 1830s. The wealth of musical treasures resulting from this systematic accumulation of works represents the core ...