Carl Bryan Ibaos

BMME 3
The origin of French Horn
Instruments made from animal horns have existed since ancient times - they were primarily used as
signaling devices. The horn as a musical instrument has only existed for several hundred years.

One of the earliest "horn-like" instruments, the lur, dates back to sixth century B.C. Made of bronze,
these horns were used on the battlefields by Scandinavian clans. It makes a loud, obnoxious sound,
just perfect for striking terror into the enemy camp.

hunting horn In Europe, horns gained popularity in the trendy sport of hunting. As this aristocratic
sport spread, horn-makers experimented with different shapes and sizes to increase the range of
notes possible. In 1636, French musical scholar Marin Mersenne wrote of four different kinds of
horns in his Harmonie Universelle: Le grand cor (the big horn), the cor plusiers tours, (the horn of
several turns), le cor qui n'a qu'un seul tour (the horn which has only one turn), and le huchet (the
horn with which one calls from afar). Horns such as the cor de chasse and trompe de chasse fall into
this latter category.

Shortly thereafter, the horn began to appear in the concert halls and theaters. Too raucous for
inclusion with the fine oboes and violins in the orchestra pit though, at first the hunting horns were
used only onstage in scenes depicting, naturally, the hunt. The horn at this point was not yet ready for
serious artistic endeavors - only as "special effects," to give flashy theatrics to stage productions.

Meanwhile in Bohemia, Austria and Germany a more refined school of horn playing was developing
under the auspices of Count Franz Anton von Sporck. The gentleman Count was, for all of his life, a
hunting aficionado. He even founded The Order of St. Hubert (the patron saint of the hunt). Then
while visiting France in the 1680's, Count von Sporck heard some cors de chasse at a hunt.
Immediately after hearing the French hunting horns, von Sporck instructed that two men of his
consort be taught to play the instrument. These two men, Wenzel Sweda and Peter Rllig became the
source from which horn playing in all of Bohemia and Germany grew.
 Crooks and Hand Horn
Beginning with the cor de chasse (French for hunting horn), the horn began its evolution into a
refined concert hall instrument. From early beginnings in stage settings depicting the hunt, Baroque
composers began writing more complex and artistic music for this horn. Yet, the corno da caccia
(Italian for hunting horn), was still a single, fixed length of tubing and its musical potential was limited
to the natural harmonic series.

The most useful range for melodic writing was in the upper harmonics (the "clarino" range) where the
natural harmonics are close together. It was still necessary however to switch horns if a composer
wanted the hornist to change keys. The impracticality of this soon led intelligent horn makers in the
early 1700s to the invention of the crook.

The crook was simply a section of coiled tubing that, when inserted into the horn would change the
overall length of the instrument. Changing the length would also change the pitch (the longer the
tube, the lower the pitch), allowing the same entire harmonic series, but now, in a different key.
Instead of carrying many instruments in different keys, horn players would only have to carry one
horn with a set of crooks of varying lengths. They could change the key of the instrument simply by

inserting a new crook.

The Valve

By 1815 several different Omnitonic horn designs were being manufactured. The horns pictured
here and on the previous page show only two of the many different types available then. The basic
idea was that via a mechanism of some type, a player could quickly choose from a built-in collection
of crooks, while still utilizing hand horn technique to play in any given key.
Intended as a solution to the problem of quick crook changes, the Omnitonic horn proved to be
both cumbersome and heavy. It was also short-lived. The Omnitonic horn was adopted mostly by
conservative players who were not confident with the budding new technology that would soon
eliminate the need for hand horn technique altogether - the valve.
 In 1816, Heinrich Stlzel and a wind playing colleague, Friedrich
Blmel, were granted a Prussian patent for the valve mechanism. A
later valve design of Stlzel's, a long stroke piston (known as the
Stlzel valve), inspired other instrument makers. Franois Perinet
developed a piston valve from Stlzel's model in 1839 that is the direct
predecessor to the modern day piston valve.
Stlzel's early piston valve horns also evolved into the horn that is
still used by players in the Vienna Philharmonic today.

The piston valve, which moves up and down, soon inspired another
development in horn technology. About 1832, the rotary valve, which
turns in a circle, was invented by Joseph Riedl in Vienna.
By the mid-1800s the valveless Waldhorn with a set of crooks was
being far surpassed by a single F horn with three valves and no extra
crooks. The valve could instantly change the length (and therefore
the pitch) of the instrument by simply pushing down the key and
activating the valve mechanism. At first, piston valves were more
common, but by the end of the 19th century, the rotary valve had
gained popularity over the piston. Playing with hand horn technique
was rapidly fading away.

Late in the 19 century, a German horn maker, Fritz Kruspe, was one
of the first to manufacture both "single" and "double horns" with
rotary valves. With the double horn, he crafted an instrument having a
fourth valve that routed the air through shorter tubing that changed
the entire pitch of the horn from F to Bb. Today, the double horn is
the most commonly used horn worldwide.

The Compensating Double --

Double horns were developed by Edmund Gumpert and Fritz Kruspe in the late 1800s. The first
double horns were based on a system of adding tubing which compensated for the different lengths
between the F and the B-Flat horns. Today we call them "compensating" double horns to distinguish
them from full double horns, which came about a short time later. The full double is by far more
popular today, but compensating horns are still used by some hornists. Compensating horns are
more difficult for some players to play in tune, but others prefer them because of their lighter weight
- a result of the fact that there is much less tubing in the compensating horn than in a full double.
In most compensating horns, when the thumb valve is pressed, it directs the air through a length
of tubing that produces the B-flat harmonic series, i.e. it is a B-flat horn. Each of the three valves,
when pressed, then direct the air through additional tubing to lower the pitch by the correct amount,
e.g. the first valve lowers it one step, second lowers it one-half step, and third lowers it one and a half
steps. The three valve slides are exactly the correct length to lower the B-flat horn the proper
interval.

When playing on the F horn side of a compensating horn, the air still goes through the B-flat horn
tubing as before, but now it also goes through an additional length of tubing that makes it the correct
length to produce the F harmonic series, i.e. now it is an F horn. Because the length of an F horn is
longer than a B-flat horn, there is another set of three short slides (one on each valve) to
"compensate" for the different length of the F horn. When using the three valves, the air travels
through the existing B-flat horn valve slides and the additional short, "compensating" slides
Foreign name of French Horn
ENGLISH- Horn
FRENCH- Cor
GERMAN-Horn
ITALIAN- Corno

Range of the Horn

Parts of the Horn