A Brief History of the Horn

From hunting calls echoing in the woods to majestic solos in the orchestra hall, the powerful sound of the horn has always moved the human heart. It has been the call of both Shepherd and ing ali!e. "his instrument is aptly named #horn$ for the earliest forefathers of the instrument were e%actly that. &rimitive civili'ations around the world found the hollowed horn of an animal or a conch shell with a hole made in the small end useful for producing a loud sound. (arly artifacts date bac! as far as )*** B.+. in Sumeria, and ,*** B.+. in the Assyrian or &re-Aryan Indus .alley civili'ations. "he Horn shares this origin with the +ornet, "uba, and (uphonium whose conical bore shape set them apart from "rumpets and other brass which have a cylindrical bore. "he latter of these is found chiefly in man-made instruments, where as the former, the conical bore, is a shape found in nature. Because of its natural shape, a conical-bore instrument produces a more mellow, less abrasive tone with a timbre more similar to that of the human voice. "hroughout history, horns could be seen and heard in battles, religious ceremonies, watch towers, or at the local ba!ery. (ven in ancient /ree! paintings, we see "riton, son of &oseiden the Sea /od, blowing on his conch shell. In the Bible, the 0ewish #shofar$ were used to topple the walls of 0ericho and horns of this type were used in many religious ceremonies of the Israelites and other peoples in that area. As world travel and trade increased, noble !nights of 1estern (urope ac2uired or were given #oliphants$ from Africa and India. "hese were elephant tus!s, hollowed and intricately carved. "hey were e%pensive and became a status symbol... some even became famous, li!e the legendary Horn of 3oland. Horns li!e the 4ordic #5ur$ in 6*** B.+. or the 3oman #Buccina$ much later, in 667 A.8., are !nown to have been used chiefly as signal devices. "hese were rather large but were also curved so that they could be wrapped around one9s torso and carried more easily in that way. Shepherds and sailors could be seen carrying such horns to warn their comrades of danger or call for help. Small horns were used by /erman butchers announcing the departure of the :et'gerpost, an early version of the postal system where letters and news were delivered by the butchers traveling from town to town. "he origin of the modern names for the Horn as well as its use as a musical instrument for art music, as opposed to music that is utilitarian for use in ceremony or battle, can be traced to about 6** A.8. in the 3oman (mpire. .ase paintings display chamber

performances on the #cornu$, a curved metal instrument. "he 3oman name is undoubtedly the origin of its Italian name #corno,$ or in French #cor$. 4ot all horns were made of metal, however. 3omans had another similar instrument called a #lituus, much li!e the #cornu$ but made of wood rather than metal. "he trend of building horns of wood continued for some time and led to one of the most famous ancestors of the modern horn, the Swiss Alp horn. "hese were made by cutting down a large tree branch, dividing it in half, hollowing out each half, and binding them bac! together. Alp horns were once used as signaling devices but came into popularity as musical instruments as well. "his type of instrument was impractical, however, because it was too bul!y to be easily carried and its range was limited to a few notes, played mostly in the low range of the instrument. By the middle of the seventeenth century, conical horns made of metal were being used in a few places in (urope. "hese horns were still 2uite long but the metal could be bent into a circular hoop so they could be easily carried on foot or horsebac!. &erhaps the most notable use of these early instruments was at the +ourt of .ersailles under 5ouis ;I.. "he cor de chasse, or hunting horn, could vary widely in length of tubing used and how tightly it was coiled. It might be a very large hoop that could be worn around the body or a very small coil of metal that could be held in one hand. "hese instruments were primarily for outdoor use at this time, used as signaling devices for the hunt also occasionally brought into the concert hall. About this time +ount Fran' Anton .on Spor! <6==,-67)>? of Bohemia was sent off by his father on a /rand "our for educational purposes. "he +ount was both an avid hunter and an amateur musician. So, when he came to the court of ing 5ouis, he became 2uite enamored with the cor de chasse. So much so that, upon his return home, he sent two of his vassals bac! to 5ouis9 court to learn the art of playing the #French$ Horn. After studying in France, 1en'el Sweda <6=)>-676*? and &eter 3@llig <6=A*67,)? came bac! to Bohemia and taught others the Horn and later became directors of +ount .on Spor!9s wind ensemble. :any musicians and huntsmen came to learn from Sweda and 3@llig and too! the techni2ues bac! to their home countries. "rumpet players began to double on horn to ma!e themselves more mar!etable. +omposer9s such as 0ohann Sebastian Bach began to use the #cor de chasse$ in their orchestral scores and the French horn grew in popularity. In its early orchestral use, melodic lines on the horn were played primarily in the upper range of the harmonic series, called the Bclarino9 <#clear$? register. In this range the partials of the instrument9s harmonic series are close enough to allow it to play many notes. It9s lower range, however, was limited because partials were so wide apart that very few notes were accessible on the instrument below its written +A. Some players did speciali'e in low playing, however, as low parts were an important compliment to the high horn lines. Besides having only a limited range of notes, seventeenth century horn players had to carry a great deal of e2uipment because they would need a different horn <with a different length of tubing? for each !ey that the had to play in. A solution to this was devised however. "here is no one ac!nowledged inventor of the system, but a bill from :ichael 5eichnamschneider, .iennese horn ma!er, in 67*) is one of the first evidences of horns being made with crooks. +roo!s were sections of tubing which could be

added to or removed from the horn in order to change its length. "his meant that players could change !eys much more easily and only had to carry one instrument. "hey did have to have a separate coupler in order to attach the mouthpiece once the croo! was in place but it was still less trouble than carrying multiple horns. :any musicians during this time sought to ma!e improvements to the horn9s design and techni2ue. Cf particular significance is Anton Hampel. Hampel was engaged with the court orchestra of 8resden, /ermany in 67)7. "he horn players of 8resden seem to have been particularly innovative, which may have been due in part to their unusual situation. In 8resden, the "rumpet /uild had forbidden doubling on the horn which lead to the development of a separate group of musicians who were horn specialists e%clusively. "his lead to much e%perimentation with new possibilities for the instrument. Around 67A*, Hampel wor!ed with instrument ma!er 0ohann 1erner to create what they called the BInventionshorn9. "his instrument was constructed such that the lead pipe was fi%ed in place. Further along the tubing was bent upward and cut so that a croo! could be added appro%imately where one would find the main tuning slide on a modern horn. "his made the changing of croo!s much easier since the lead-pipe and mouthpiece could remain in place. "he one drawbac! in the design was that the positioning of the croo!s made it difficult to attach very long croo!s, thus limiting the number of !eys which could be easily used. French instrument ma!ers later circumvented this problem by ma!ing croo!s which included the leadpipe and mouthpiece receiver. "hese were just as easy to interchange as Hampel9s but could be made more easily in any length desired. Hampel is credited with another important advancement in horn playing, although it is li!ely he was not the only one to have been e%perimenting with it. A low horn specialist, he would have been hindered in his wor! by the limited note vocabulary of the instrument. Cne can imagine his e%citement when, while e%perimenting with a way to mute the horn by inserting things into the bell, he found that he could also change the pitch. He went on to devise a system of using the hand to close off the bell in whole or in part and in this way was able to produce nearly every note of the chromatic scale. "he techni2ue has come to be !nown as Bhand-stopping9 or simply Bstopping9. Hampel shared his techni2ue with colleagues and the system 2uic!ly became standard practice. +ombine innovations in techni2ue and instrument design brought the horn into the spotlight anew. "he later part of the eighteenth century saw much heavier use of the horn throughout (urope. 1ith better instruments and the ability to play a full range of notes by stopping, the horn player could now be much more fle%ible. :ore composers wrote for the horn, not only as a member of the orchestra but now also as a solo instrument. :ore music meant more jobs and the emergence of a greater number of career hornists. :ost notable among these were /iovanni &unto and 0oseph <or Igna'? 5eutgeb. &unto, whose real name was 0an .Dclav Stich, was a student of Anton Hampel and probably the horn player for whom Beethoven wrote his Sonata fur Horn, Cp. 67. His career seems to have been mainly as a touring virtuoso. 5eutgeb held positions in .ienna and Sal'burg in addition to touring as a soloist. He was a good friend of 5eopold and 1olfgang :o'art. 1.A. :o'art9s E concerto9s for horn were written for his friend.

For all its popularity, the horn still found harsh criticism in many places. "hough handstopping allowed hornists to play notes otherwise unattainable, it drastically changed the character of the sound for those notes from the horn9s open, full, voice-li!e 2uality to a very muffled and, in some cases, bu''ing sound. "his problem plagued horn players for many years. A solution was finally offered by two clever /erman musicians, who, after long e%perimentation, both completed a valve system around 6>6>. Heinrich St@l'el, a horn player in the band of the &rince of &less, designed a double piston valve, similar to what is now called the #.ienna$ valve. At the same time, Friedrich BlFhmel, an amateur horn and trumpet player, had been wor!ing on a type of rotary vlave. For some time, it was thought that these valves were simply a way of changing !eys without the aw!ward use of croo!s. However, writings by St@l'el and BlFhmel themselves indicate that both men were see!ing not to replace the croo!s, but to replace the old system with one which would allow the player to play chromatically by altering the natural overtone series with valves. In this way any pitch could be produced without sacrificing the horn9s rich tone 2uality. So hand-stopping was no longer the only way to alter pitch on the horn, although it remains an important techni2ue and is often called for in modern music where a muted sound is desired.

"he valve revolutioni'ed not only horn playing, but eventually the techni2ue of all brass instruments. It also changed the way composers wrote for the horn. Cne of the first wor!s we !now of for the valved horn was a #+oncertino for ) 4atural Horns and +hromatic Horn$ by /eorg Abraham Schneider, which premiered in 6>6>. "his wor! is relatively un!nown today however. "he first wor! by a major composer was Schubert9s #Auf 8em Strom$ in 6>,>. 5iterature of the late nineteenth century began to be written primarily for the valved horn. "here were still some arguments among hornists and critics about the 2ualities of the valved horn. Henri ling, renowned nineteenth century horn professor, comments in his Horn Schule that croo!s should still be used to put valved horns in the right !ey because of tuning problems with the valve combinations re2uired when transposing music on the F horn. As more refinements were made, however, most such problems were corrected and valved horns became the standard, though many players still study the natural horn to augment their training. "oday French Horns play in the +oncert Band, Crchestra, and chamber ensemble. "hey can be seen in the opera hall and the ja'' band. Hornists such as 0ames "hatcher and "homas Bacon can be heard in the scores of many popular films and there have been many well !nown modern Horn solo artists, such 8ennis Brain and Barry "uc!well. Cutstanding orchestral horn players are too many to name but perhaps the most famous player and teacher of the Horn is &hilip Far!as, who held the position of principal horn

of the +hicago Symphony Crchestra, where he played with such distinguished colleagues as Adolph Herseth <trumpet? and Arnold 0acobs <tuba?, and later served as professor of horn for many years at Indiana Gniversity at Bloomington.

SourcesH 3. :orley-&egge, The French Horn: Some Notes on the Evolution of the Instrument and its Technique <5ondonH (rnest Benn ltd., 6I=*?. urt 0anet'!y and Bernhard BrFchle, The Horn, translated by 0ames +hater <&ortland, CregonH Amadeus &ress, 6I>>?. 0ohn Humphries, The Early Horn: A Practical Guide <+ambridge Gniversity &ress, ,***?. 8r. 0ohn J (ricson KHeinrich Stoel'el and (arly .alved Horn "echni2ue,K The Historic rass Society !ournal I <6II7?H =)->,. 4ew Lor!H "he Historic Brass Society. 8r. 0ohn J (ricson, K1hy 1as the .alve InventedMK The Horn "all ,>, no. ) <:ay, 6II>?H )A-E*. "he International Horn Society.