Horn Paraphernalia - Odds and Ends

What is Natural about that Horn?

Nowadays there is plenty of concern over whether a product is natural or not. When an item has been modified by man it is often considered dangerous, and the horn was no exception to this when it underwent chromatic modifications in the nineteenth century, although the danger perceived was concerned about potential detrimental changes to the music. Notes outside the key of the music are called "chromatic" - not only were the trumpets and horns of the Baroque period limited to the key of the music, but they were also limited in other ways. It is strange to think that the loud instruments associated with pomp, nobility and the military, the horns and trumpets were handicapped by having large gaps in their range where no reasonable notes could be produced. The only way that composers could write music that sounded good on these instruments was to write music for them in the register and key where they had notes to play. These available notes are known as the natural harmonics, and they are more numerous (and have greater excitement and risk) in the upper register of the instruments. The instruments were pitched in keys low enough for these notes to be obtainable by human lips, so most of them are about twice as long as their modern counterparts which achieve the same pitches using lower harmonics.

There is not much that is natural about the alloy of brass: it is a mixture of copper and zinc, sometimes with additional small quantities of other metals. Brass tube is usually held together on the joints by lead solder (nowadays lead substitute). These metals are man-made mixtures, but the alloys have been around for a long time now. In the case of brass instruments they are designed to emulate and improve the acoustic qualities found in nature in the form of animal horns, hollowed out logs and certain sea-shells.

The horn and trumpet were first considered real members of the orchestra in the Baroque period, predominantly towards the end of the seventeenth century. At this time some skilled players were able to achieve a few chromatic notes by bending the existing natural harmonics with the lips. It was a rare technique that could do this well, and the search was on to provide the instruments with a greater range of notes. Although today we would describe those instruments as being natural horns or natural trumpets, in those days they were without the qualifying term "natural" because as yet there was no need to distinguish them from any other type.

In Bach's music we occasionally find the term Corno da tirarsi or Tromba da tirarsi. This means Slide Horn or Slide Trumpet. Few examples of slide trumpets from this period exist, and no examples of slide horns survive, but it shows the attempt to add to the range of notes of these instruments.

The first chromatic notes regularly achieved on the horn were not down to the inventiveness of manufacturers, but players. In the mid-eighteenth century it became known that chromatic notes were obtainable by putting the hand inside the bell of the horn. The notes played with the bell uncovered by the hand were called the "natural notes", and the covered ones "hand-stopped". Trumpet players also adopted this technique for a while, and instruments were developed to accommodate this.

Although there was some opposition to the adoption of this technique, it was largely considered a good thing, particularly for horns, and there was a great deal of concern when the possibility of losing those characteristic stopped sounds became real with the invention of valves in the early nineteenth century. So great was this opposition in France that the valve horn class was abandoned after its introduction at the Paris Conservatoire in 1833, and horn classes were confined to the Hand Horn from 1864 to 1897. At this time the terms used for the valveless horn included Cor Simple, Natural Horn, Wald Horn, Inventions Horn and Hand Horn, whilst those with valves were known as Piston Horn, Ventil Horn and Cor a cylindres. The worries that with the invention of valves the horn would be played without hand-stopping slowly diminished over time, but for those who like to hear the works of the masters with their stopped notes and high harmonics, period instrument orchestras have revived this possibility.

Myths and misconceptions

Over the years a number of myths have been created about the horn and its history. Very often these have been given credence by being published in books written by well qualified people. Without intending to diminish the achievements of these illustrious researchers, here is a sample of these assertions followed by a correction...

"French Horn...The modern horn was developed in France (hence the name)" - Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, OUP 1980

The term "French Horn" has been around much longer than the valved horn, and has been in use since at least 1681/2 when William Bull advertised himself as "one of His Majestie's Trumpeters-in-Ordinary and Trumpet-maker...where any gentlemen may be furnished with Trumpets, French Horns..." Surely Bull himself did not invent the term, but used it to describe what the public already knew before then. Maybe the first horns in England were brought over the channel from or via France, but it is interesting that the horn is only referred to as being French in the English language, other languages describing it by its association with the hunt, e.g., Corno da Caccia; Cor de Chasse; Jagdhorn; Waldhorn; or simply Corno; Cor or Horn. Any suggestion that the term Although there was some opposition to the adoption of this technique, it was largely considered a good thing, particularly for horns, and there was a great deal of concern when the possibility of losing those characteristic stopped sounds became real with the invention of valves in the early nineteenth century. So great was this opposition in France that the valve horn class was abandoned after its introduction at the Paris Conservatoire in 1833, and horn classes were confined to the Hand Horn from 1864 to 1897. At this time the terms used for the valveless horn included Cor Simple, Natural Horn, Wald Horn, Inventions Horn and Hand Horn, whilst those with valves were known as Piston Horn, Ventil Horn and Cor a cylindres. The worries that with the invention of valves the horn would be played without hand-stopping slowly diminished over time, but for those who like to hear the works of the masters with their stopped notes and high harmonics, period instrument orchestras have revived this possibility. derives from it being fitted with piston valves, which were the most popular valve type in France, is clearly a subsequent misnomer.

"Natural horns were played using hand-stopping technique after 1750."

This statement is both true and false. After Hampel's hand-stopping technique became publicly known around 1750 a number of successful horn players used the technique to great effect, perhaps most notably Punto and Leutgeb, but also a great number of horn players did not, for two main reasons: (1) because they had not yet heard of it and did not know about it (it took time for this kind of information to travel); or (2) because they did not like the sound of hand-stopped notes. Hand-stopping also existed prior to 1750 in a few isolated experiments and locations (in Dresden and possibly Leipzig), as is shown in Thomas Hiebert's excellent article in the 1992 Historical Brass Society Journal, Volume 4.

"Horns had tuning slides after 1750"

The first horns with tuning slides were manufactured soon after the middle of the eighteenth century, but despite the obvious advantages to intonation, they cost more and demand was slow at first. In around 1780, horn maker Raoux improved the design of his hand horns, probably taking advice from horn player Carl Türrschmidt, and made the tubes that lead into the tuning slide cross over each other on the body of the horn. After this date many horns are built with this configuration.

"Valve Horns were played in all music for horn after 1830."

1827 & 1828 were important years in the evolution of the horn because that was when horn players Levy, and then Meifred separately gave the first concerts on the valve horn. Despite the existence of valves on brass instruments from as early as 1815, manufacturers continued to make natural horns regularly for the rest of the century. There was resistance to accepting the new invention in many parts of Europe, particularly in France during the second half of the nineteenth century. Many writers and musicians felt that something was lost in the absence of even partially stopped notes on the horn. Consequently, many horn players continued to play, or at least study the natural horn throughout the nineteenth century.

"Initially in France valves were used only to change key or crook, but in Germany they were used chromatically"

A quick look at Joseph-Rudolph Lewy's Douze Etudes pour le Cor chromatique et le Cor simple (published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1850) will show that Lewy, who was based in Vienna and Dresden for most of his career, used valves as crook changes as well as to help make a "bright and distinct emission of the sound" (from Lewy's instructions for these études). Wagner shows a similar style of writing in his scoring for the horns in Lohengrin. Clearly in some orchestras in Germany hand technique was used in conjunction with the valves. In military bands where loud dynamics may have been necessary outdoors, hand technique may have been superseded by valve use earlier in the century in Germany.

"Historical mouthpieces are deeper and give smoother slurs"

Mouthpieces favoured by the professors who worked at the Paris Conservatoire such as Domnich, Dauprat and Gallay were deep and funnel shaped, as can be seen from the illustrations in their tutors. There are, however, many other shapes of horn mouthpieces that have been made over the last three centuries in different places. As for whether a deep funnel mouthpiece would give smoother slurs, it is probably fair to say that if it suits the player and horn then it will, but if the player or horn seem to require another shape, then it will not.

"Solo hand horn players played every piece on the same favourite crook"

Imagine that the player's favourite crook is the E crook. He or she is then asked to play Beethoven's Horn Sonata in F in a concert. Is the pianist required to transpose the piano part or does the horn player stop all the wrong notes? Would it be realistic to play any of Mozart's horn concerti on either an E or an F crook? As we know from Dauprat's method, an A crook can be successfully substituted for one in E in some passages, but it would be more trouble than it is worth to play most well composed works on the wrong crook.

"Leutgeb (or Leitgeb) was a cor basse player"

As listed above, Leutgeb played first horn in Salzburg at least until 1777 when he moved to Vienna. All Mozart's concerti were written for him to play. Two of them (K 417 & 495), in addition to the quintet (K 407) show confidence in writing for the horn up to high c''' and none of the surviving four go down into the low register in the way that we see Mozart write in the Piano & Wind Quintet (K 452) or Cosi fan tutte, or in the Octets for Winds.

"Playing natural horn is bad for the breathing technique on the valve horn"

Most playing on the natural horn requires playing on longer tubing than on the modern instrument - usually a third as much again, but sometimes more, rarely less. With a longer length a greater volume of tubing requires filling with air. This requires greater air control and sensitivity to balancing the resistance of the crook. Surely with practice this is likely to improve breath control rather than diminish it. The truth is that whichever instrument we practise most is likely to be the one that we play best.

"The Fourth Horn part in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was written for the valve horn"

First performed in Vienna in 1824, this clearly predates the first valve horn concerts of Lewy and Meifred. Beethoven had been thoroughly deaf since 1819, when he had to communicate by writing conversations, but his hearing had been failing since 1798 – well before the invention of the valve. He could not have approved of it on aural grounds and may never have heard of the valve in his lifetime. The question was fully answered by W. F. H. Blandford in the Musical Times in January, February and March of 1925 but people persist in believing the solo is too hard for the natural horn. Why, in that case, do they not argue for the Haydn (attributed) Double Horn concerto to be written for the valved horn, since in the first eight bars of the slow movement of that work we see written all the notes of the same Ab major scale between the two horn parts. Or if it is the low notes that cause disbelief, what about the low notes in Beethoven’s Sextet Op. 81b of 1794/5, or Haydn’s Symphony No. 51 of 1771-1773? Interestingly, it is now thought that it might not be a fourth horn solo, but a second horn solo, the two pairs of parts having been swapped over at some point. This would mean that the second pair would continue playing in the same key of Bb Basso throughout the work until the change over to D in the Finale, while the switch to Eb from D for the first pair is less of an adjustment.