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While the horn has many antecedents in earlier
civilizations--including instruments made of shell, bone,
or brass--it was not until the end of the 16th century that
the true precursor of the modern horn emerged. This was the
helical-shaped hunting horn, and its great popularity in France
is thought to be the reason that the instrument is known as
the French horn. Although the horn's characteristic burnished
sound is produced in the same way as the sound of other brass
instruments--by a player's creating a vibrating column of
air that courses through the length of the instrument's tubing--the
horn differs from the trumpet, trombone, and tuba in one significant
way: Instead of a cup-shaped mouthpiece, the horn has a funnel-shaped
mouthpiece that has a direct effect on both the production
and quality of the sound.
These simple early horns were used occasionally
by opera composers in the mid-17th century (including Pietro
Cavalli and Jean-Baptiste Lully), but they were also used
in a far more sophisticated way by the great baroque composers
of the 18th century (such as Handel in his 'Water Music' and
Bach in his 'Mass in B Minor'). Classical composers also wrote
masterfully for the instrument (such as Mozart in his four
'Horn Concertos' and Beethoven in his 'Horn Sonata').
Enabling the instrument to play in a variety
of keys were crooks, or pieces of tubing of differing sizes
attached to each other and to the horn, thereby changing its
length and its pitch (the longer the tubing, the lower the
pitch). Although various mechanical systems were devised in
the late 18th century to make it easier for horns to play
in various keys without the constant changing of crooks, it
was only in the early 19th century that the valved horn developed.
A system of rotary valves enables the horn player to embrace
the entire chromatic spectrum that lies within the instrument's
range. All keys can be played without the necessity of using
crooks.
Shortly after these instruments were introduced,
composers used them in tandem with the traditional instruments.
In the first opera to use valved horns, Fromental Halevy's
'La Juive', and in early operas of Wagner, these instruments
were used in pairs along with pairs of natural (valveless)
horns. By the late 19th century valved horns were the norm.
Among the notable pieces written for this instrument are Schumann's
'Adagio and Allegro' and Benjamin Britten's 'Serenade for
Tenor, Horn, and Strings'.
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From Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
© 1999 The Learning Company, Inc.
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