History of 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.

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 à 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 (pictured right) 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 Röllig became the source from which horn playing in all of Bohemia and Germany grew.

Crook and Hand Horns

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.