Bible Encyclopedias
Horn (Instrument)

Key of

Crook.

Actual Sounds of Range of Useful Harmonics.

Length of

Crook in

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French horns are made with either two or three valves. To the first valve is attached sufficient length of tubing to lower the pitch of the instrument a tone, so that any note played upon the horn in F Table of Principal Crooks now in Use.' The practical aggregate compass of the natural horns from Bb basso at the service of composers therefore ranges (actual sounds) from or with 3 valves (g - to from By means of hand-stopping, i.e. the practice of thrusting the hand into the bell in order to lower the sound by a tone or a semitone, or by the adaptation of valves to the horn, this compass may be rendered chromatic almost throughout the range.

The principle of the valve as applied to wind instruments differs entirely from that of keys. The latter necessitate lateral holes bored through the tube, and when the keys are raised the vibrating column of air within the tube and the ambient air without are set in communication, with the result that the vibrating column is shortened and the pitch of the note raised. The valve system consists of valves or pistons attached to additional lengths of tubing, the effect of which is invariably to lower the pitch, except in the case of valve systems specified as " ascending " tried by John Shaw and Adolphe Sax. Insuperable practical difficulties led to the abandonment of these systems, which in any case were the exception and not the rule. The valves, placed upon the U-shaped slides in the centre of the horn, are worked by means of pistons or levers, opening or closing the windways at will, so that when they are in operation the vibrating column of air no longer takes its normal course along the main tube and directly through the slides, but makes a detour through the extra length of tubing before completing its course. Thus the valves, unlike the keys, do not open any communication with the ambient air. Even authoritative writers 2 have confused the two principles, believing them to be one and the same.

1 The measurements are for the high philharmonic pitch a"=452'4. V. Mahillon, " Le cor " (p. 32), gives a table of the lengths of crooks in metres.

2 Robert Eitner, editor of the Monatshefte fiir Musikwissenschaft, published therein an article in 1881, p. 41 seq., " Wer hat die Ventil while the first valve is depressed takes effect a tone lower, or as though the horn were in Eb. The second valve opens a passage into a shorter length of tubing sufficient to lower the pitch of the instrument a semitone, as though the instrument were for the time being in E. The third valve similarly lowers the pitch a tone and a half. It will thus be seen that the principle applied in the crook and the valve is in the main the same, but the practical value of the valve is immeasurably superior. Thanks to the valve system the performer is able to have the extra lengths of tubing necessary to give the horn a chromatic compass permanently incorporated with the instrument, and at will to connect one or a combination of these lengths with the main tube of the instrument during any interval of time, however short. The three devices, crooks, valves and slides, are in fact all based upon the same principle, that of providing additional length of tubing in order to deepen the pitch of the whole instrument at will and to transpose it into a different key. Valves and slides, being instantaneous in operation, give to the instrument a chromatic compass, whereas crooks merely enable the performer to play in many keys upon one instrument instead of requiring a different instrument for each key. The slide is the oldest of these devices, and probably suggested the crook as a substitute on instruments of conical bore such as the horn.

The invention of the valve, although a substantial improvement, trompete erfunden," in which, after referring to the Klappenwaldhorn and Trompete (keyed horn and trumpet) made by Weidinger and played in public in 1802 and 1813 respectively, he goes on to state that Schilling in his Lexicon makes the comical mistake of looking upon the Klappentrompete (keyed trumpet) and Ventiltrompete (valve trumpet) as different instruments. He accordingly sets matters right, as he thinks, by according to Weidinger the honour of the invention of valves, hitherto wrongfully attributed to Stolzel; and in the Quellenlexikon (1904) he leaves out Stolzel's name, and names Weidinger as the inventor of the Klappen or Ventil, referring readers for further particulars to his article, just quoted, in the Monatshefte. ... was found to fall short of perfection in its operation on the tubes of wind instruments so soon as the possibility of using the three valves in combination to produce six different positions or series of harmonics was realized, and for the following reason. In order to deepen the pitch one tone by means of valve i, a length of tubing exactly proportional to the length of the main tube must be thrown into communication with the latter. If, in addition to valve i, valve 3 be depressed, a further drop in pitch of I Z tone should be effected; but as the length of tubing added by depressing valve 3 is calculated in proportion to the main tube, and the latter has already been lengthened by depressing valve i, therefore the additional length supplied by opening valve 3 is now too short to produce a drop of a minor third strictly in tune, and all notes played while valves i and 3 are depressed will be too sharp. Means of compensating slight errors in intonation are provided in the U-shaped slides mentioned above.

The timbre of the natural horn is mellow, sonorous and rich in harmonics; it is quite distinctive and bears but little resemblance to that of the other members of the brass wind. In listening to its sustained notes one receives the impression of the tone being breathed out as by a voice, whereas the trumpet and trombone produce the effect of a rapid series of concussions, and in the tuba and cornet the concussions, although still striking, are softened as by padding. The timbre of the hand-stopped notes is veiled and suggestive of mystery; so characteristic is the timbre that passages in the Rheingold heard when the magic power of the Tarnhelm reveals itself sound meaningless if the weird chords are played by means of the valves instead of by hand-stopping. The timbre of the piston notes is more resonant than that of the open notes, partaking a little of the character of the trombone, which is probably due to the fact that the strictly conical bore of the natural horn has been replaced by a mixed cylindrical and conical as in trumpet and trombone.

The form of the mouthpiece (q.v.) at the point where it joins the main bore of the tube must also exercise a certain influence on the form of vibration, which it helps to modify in conjunction with the conformation of each individual horn-player's lip. In the horn the cup of the mouthpiece is shaped like a funnel, the bore converging insensibly into the narrow end of the main conical bore without break or sharp edges as in the mouthpieces, more properly known as cup-shaped, of trumpet and bombardon.

The brilliant sonorousness and roundness of the timbre of the horn are due to the strength and predominance of the partial tones up to the 7th or 8th. The prevalence of the higher harmonics from the 10th to the 16th, in which the partial tones lie very close together, determines the harsh quality of the trumpet timbre, which may be easily imitated on the horn by forcing the sound production and using a trumpet mouthpiece, and by raising the bell, an effect which is indicated by composers by the words " Raise the Bells." 1 The origin of the horn must be sought in remote prehistoric times, when, by breaking off the tip of a short animal horn, one or at best two notes, powerful, rough, unsteady, only 1 See Hector Berlioz, A Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration, translated by Mary Cowden Clarke, new edition revised by Joseph Bennett (1882), p. 141.

an octave higher than the modern horn in Eb (which measures some 13 ft.), but on the lur the fundamental Eb can be reached owing to the wider calibre of the bore.' Among the Romans the wind instruments derived from the horn were well represented, and included well-developed types which do not differ materially from the natural instruments of modern times. The buccina developed directly into the trumpet and trombone during the middle ages, losing no characteristic of importance but the bent form, which was perforce abandoned when the art of bending hollow tubes was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. The name clung through all the changes in form and locality to the one type, and still remains at the present day in the German Posaune (trombone). There were four instruments known by the name of cornu among the Romans: (I) the short animal horn used by shepherds; (2) the longer, semicircular horn, used for signals; and (3) the still longer cornu, bent and carried like the buccina, which had the wide bore of the modern tuba. But whereas on the buccina the higher harmonics were easily obtained, on the cornu the natural scale consisted of the first eight harmonics only. The cornu, although shorter than the buccina, had a deeper pitch and more sonorous tone, for, owing to the wider calibre of the bore, the fundamental was easily reached. In the reliefs on Trajan's Column, where the two instruments may be compared, the wider curve of the buccina forms a ready means of identification. In addition to these was (4) the small instrument like the medieval hunting-horn or post-horn, with the single spiral turn similar to one which figures as service badge in many British infantry regiments,' such as the first battalion of the King's Own Light Infantry. A terra-cotta model, slightly broken, but with the spiral intact, was excavated at Ventoux in France and is at present preserved in the department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum, having been acquired from the collection of M. Morel.

The lituus, or cavalry trumpet of the Romans, consisted of a cylindrical tube, to which was attached a bent horn or conical bell, the whole in the shape of a J. The long, straight Roman tuba was similar to the large, bent cornu so far as bore and capabilities were concerned, but more unwieldy. All these wind instruments seem to have been used during the classic Greek and Roman periods merely to sound fanfares, and therefore, in spite of the high degree of perfection to which they attained as instruments, they scarcely possess any claim to be considered within the domain of music. They were signalling instruments, mainly used in war, in hunting and in state or civic ceremonial. Vegetius (A.D. 386) describes these instruments, and gives detailed instructions for the special traditional uses of tuba, buccina and cornu in the military camp: " Semivocalia sunt, quae per tubam, aut cornua, aut buccinam dantur. Tuba quae directa est appellatur buccina, quae in semet ipsam aereo circulo flectitur. Cornu quod ex uris agrestibus, argento nexum, temperatum arte, et spiritu, quem canentis flatus emittit auditur. 4 It will be seen that Vegetius demands a skilled horn-player. These service instruments may all be identified in the celebrated bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column 5 (fig. 1) and of the Triumphal arch of Augustus at Susa.6 Interesting evidence of a collegium cornicinum (gild of hornplayers) is furnished by an altar stone in the Roman catacombs, erected to the memory of one " M. Julius victor ex Collegio Liticinum Cornicinum," on which are carved a lituus, a cornu and a pan's pipe, the cornu being similar to those on Trajan's Column.

All three Roman instruments, the tuba, the buccina and the cornu, had well-formed mouthpieces, differing but little from the modern cup-shaped form in use on the trumpet, the trombone, the tubas, &c. 7 It would seem that even the short horn in the 4th 2 See Victor Mahillon, Catal. descriptif des instruments de musique, &c., vol. ii. p. 388, No. 1156, where an illustration is given. See also Dr August Hammerich (French translation by E. Beauvais), " Uber altnordische Luren " in Vierteljahrschrift fiir Musik-Wissenschaft x. (1894).

See Major J. H. L. Archer, The British Army Records (London, 1888), pp. 402, &c.

4 De re militari, iii. 5 (Basel, 1532). The successive editions and translations of this classic, both manuscript and printed, throughout the middle ages afford useful evidence of the evolution of these three wind instruments.

5 See Wilhelm Froehner, La Colonne Trajane d'aprbs le surmoulage execute a 1861-1862 (Paris, 1872-1874). On pl. 51 is a cornu framing the head of a cornicen or horn-player. See also the fine plates in Conrad Cichorius, Die Reliefs der Traiansaule (Berlin, 1896, &c.).

Ermanno Ferrero, L' Arc d'Auguste a Suse (Segusio, 9-8 B.C.) (Turin, 1901).

7 See the mouthpiece on the Pompeian buccinas preserved in the museum at Naples, reproduced in the article Buccina. The museums of the conservatoires of Paris and Brussels and the Collection Kraus in Florence possess facsimiles of these instruments; see Victor Mahillon, Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 30. Cf. also the pair of bronze Etruscan cornua, No. 2734 in the department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum, which possess well-preserved cup-shaped mouthpieces.

barely approximating to definite musical sounds, were obtained. This was undoubtedly the archetype of the modern families of brass wind instruments, and from it evolved the trumpet, the bugle and the tuba no less than the horn. The common characteristics which link together these widely different modern families of instruments are: (I) the more or less pronounced conical bore, and (2) the property possessed in a greater or lesser degree of producing the natural sounds by what has been termed overblowing the harmonic overtones. If we follow the evolution of the animal horn throughout the centuries, the ultimate development leads us not to the French horn but to the bugle and tuba.

Before civilization had dawned in classic Greece, Egypt, Assyria and the Semitic races were using wind instruments of wood and metal which had left the primitive ram or bugle horn far behind. Even in northern Europe, during the Bronze age (c. moo B.C.), prehistoric man had evolved for himself the prototype of the Roman cornu, a. bronze horn of wide conical bore, bent in the shape of a G. One of these instruments, known among the modern Scandinavian races as luurs or lurs, found in the peat beds of Denmark and now preserved in the Museum of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen, has a length of I. 91 m. (about 6 ft. 4 in.). The U-shaped mouthpiece joint is neatly joined to the remainder of the crescent-tube by means of a bronze ring; the bell, which must have rested on the shoulder, consists merely of a flat rim set round the end of the tube. There is therefore no graceful curve in the bell as in the French horn. An exact facsimile of this prehistoric horn has been made by Victor Mahillon of Brussels, who finds that it was in the key of Eb and easily produces the first eight harmonics of that key. It stands, therefore, century was provided with a mouthpiece,' judging from a carved specimen on an ivory capsa or Pyxis dating from the period immediately preceding the fall of the Roman Empire, preserved among the precious relics at Xanten.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, when instrumental music had fallen into disrepute ar-. had been placed under a ban by the church, From Conrad Cichorius, Die Relief?: der Traiansaule, by permission of Georg Reimer. FIG. 1. - Roman Cornua and Buccina.

the art of playing upon such highly-developed instruments gradually died out in western Europe. With the disappearance of the civilization and culture of the Romans, the skilled crafts also gradually vanished, and the art of making metal pipes of delicate calibre and of bending them was completely forgotten, and had to be reacquired step by step during the middle ages from the more enlightened East. The names of the instruments and representations of them survived in MSS. and monuments of art, and as long as the West was content to turn to late Roman and Romano-Christian art for its models, no difficulties were created for the future archaeologist. By the time the Western races had begun to express themselves and to develop their own characteristics, in the 11th century, the arts of Persia, Arabia and the Byzantine Empire had laid their mark upon the West, and confusion of models, and more especially of names, ensued. The greatest confusion of all was created by the numerous translations and glosses of the Bible and by the attempts of miniaturists to illustrate the principal scenes. In Revelation, for instance (ch. viii.), the seven angels with their trumpets are diversely represented with long tubas, with curved horns of various lengths, and with the buisine, busaun or posaune, the descendant of the buccina.

We know from the colouring used in illuminated MSS., gold and pale blue, that horns were made of metal early in the middle ages. The metal was not cast in moulds but hammered into shape. Viollet-le-Duc 2 reproduces a miniature from a MS. of the end of the 13th century (Paris, Bibliotheque du corps legislatif), in which two metal-workers are shown hammering two large horns.

The early medieval horns had no mouthpieces, the narrow end being merely finished with a rim on which the lips rested. The tone suffered in consequence, being uncertain, rough and tremulous, where fore it was indicated by the neume known as quilisma: " Est vox tremula; sicut est sonus flatus tubae vel cornu et designatur per neumam, quae vocatur quilisma. "3 During the middle ages the bugle-horn or bull's horn was exten FIG. 2. - Medieval Hunting-Horn with the sively used as a Tablature in use in the 24th Century. signal instrument on land and sea (see Bugle), by the night-watchmen in cities, in the watch tower of the feudal castle and by foresters and 1 See Bock, " Gebrauch der Horner im Mittelalter," in Gustav Heider's Mittelalterliche Kunstdenkmdler Osterreichs (Stuttgart, 1 8581860).

2 Dictionnaire raisonne du mobilier francais (Paris, 1889), ii. p. 246.

3 Engelbertus Admontensis in De Musica Scriptores, by Martin Gerbert, Bd. ii. lib. ii. cap. 29; and Edward Buhle, Die Musikalischen Instrumente in den Miniaturen des fri hen Mittelalters, pt. i., " Die Blasinstrumente " (Leipzig, 1903), p. 16.

huntsmen. The hunting-horn was generally represented as small in the hunting scenes which abound in illuminated MSS. and early printed books; it was crescent-shaped and was worn slung by a leather strap over one shoulder and resting on the opposite hip. When played it was held with the wide end curving upwards in front of the huntsman's head. A kind of tablature for the horn was in use in France in the 14th century; an example of it is here reproduced (fig 2) from a 14th-century French MS. treatise on venery. 4 Only one note is indicated, the various calls and signals being based chiefly on rhythm, and the notes being left to the taste and skill of the huntsman. The interpretation 5 of the Cornure de chasse de veue seen in the figure is as follows: First line=. 4 J J Second line= JJ J J w In the first poem is given a list of these signs with the names by which they were known in venery.

In the 16th century in England the hunting-horn sometimes had a spiral turn in the centre, half-way between mouthpiece and bell' end; the extra length was apparently added solely in order to lower the pitch, the higher harmonics not being used for the hunting calls. In George Turbevile's Noble Arte of Venerie (1576, facsimile reprint, Oxford, 1908) the " measures of blowing according to the order which is observed at these dayes in this Realme of Englande are given for the horn in D. One of these, given in fig. 3, is the English 16th-century hunting call, corresponding to the 14th-century French Cornure de chasse de veue given above.

From Turbevile's Noble Arte of (1576), by permission of the Clarendon Press. FIG. 3. - Hunting Call.

The hunting-horn, whether in its simplest form or with the one spiral, was held with the bell upwards on a level with the huntsman's head or just above it.6 A horn of the same fine calibre as the French horn, 3 or 4 ft. in length, slightly bent to take the curve of the body, was in use in Italy, it would seem, in the 15th century? It was held slanting across the body with the bell already slightly parabolic, at arm's length to the left side.

The huntingand post-horns were favourite emblems on medieval coats of arms, more especially in Germany 8 and Bohemia. It is necessary at this point to draw attention to the fact that the French horn is a hybrid having affinities with both trumpet and primitive animal horn, or with buccina and cornu, and that both types, although frequently misnamed and confused by medieval writers and miniaturists,subsisted side by side,evolving independently until they merged in the so-called French horn. Both buccina and cornu after the fall of the Roman Empire, while Western arts and 4 Le Tresor de venerie par Hardouin, seigneur de Fontaines-Guerin (edited by H. Michelant, Metz, 1856); the first part was edited by Jerome Pichon (Paris, 1855), with an historical introduction by Bottee de Toulmon.

5 As worked out by Edward Buhle, op. cit., p. 23.

6 See Turbevile, op. cit., also J. du Fouilloux, La Venerie (Paris, 1628), p. 70; cf. also editions of 1650 and of 1562, where the horn is called trompe, used with the verb corner; Juliana Bernes, Boke of St Albans (1496), the frontispiece of which is a hunting scene showing a horn of very wide bore, without bell. Only half the instrument is visible.

7 See " ` Reliure italienne du xv e siècle en argent nielle. Collection du Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild, Vienne," in Gazette archeologique (Paris, 1880), xiii. p. 295, pl. 38, where other instruments are also represented.

8 See Jost Amman, Wappen and Stammbuch (1589). A reprint in facsimile has been published by Georg Hirth as vol. iii. of Liebhaber Bibliothek (Munich, 1881). See arms of Sultzberger aus Tirol (p. 52), " Ein Jgerhornlin," and of the Herzog von Wirtenberg; cf. the latter with the arms of Wurthemberch in pl. xxii. vol. ii. of Gelre's Wappenboek ou armorial de 1334 a 1372 (miniatures of coats of arms in facsimile), edited by Victor Bouton (Paris, 1883).

_ t i z;zZ ZI ZZI it ! MAI R= !> __ ^ f, / ¦'!?f / /!?1¦ ???¦?f1 /¦/Y/ ¦/ilt?-! Third line= J crafts were in their infancy, were made straight, being then known as the busine or straight trumpet (busaun or posaun in Germany), and the long horn, Herhorn, slightly curved.' From two medieval representations of instruments like the Roman cornu one might be led to conclude that the instrument had been revived and was in use from the 14th century. A wooden bas-relief on the under part of the seats of the choir of Worcester cathedral,' said to date from the 14th century, shows a musician in a robe with long sleeves of fur playing the horn (fig. 4). The tube winds from the mouth in a circle reaching to his waist, passes under the right arm across the shoulders with the bell stretching out horizontally over his left shoulder. The tube, of strictly conical bore, is made in three pieces, the joints being strengthened by means of FIG. 4. - Medieval FIG. 5. - Medieval two rings. The other Circular Horn. Circular Horn, 1589. example is German, and figures in the arms of the city of Frankfort-on-Main. 3 Here in the two opposite corners are two cherubs playing immense cornua. The bore of the instruments (fig. 5) is of a calibre suggestive of the contrabass tuba; the circle formed is of a diameter sufficiently large to accommodate the youthful performer in a sitting posture; the bell is the forerunner of that of the modern saxophone, shaped like a gloxinea; the mouthpiece is cup-shaped. It is possible, of course, that these two examples are attempts to reproduce the classic instrument, but the figures of the musicians and the feeling of the whole scheme of ornamentation seem to render such an explanation improbable. Moreover, Sebastian Virdung, 4 writing on musical instruments at the beginning of the 16th century, gives a drawing of a cornu coiled round tightly, the tubing being probably soldered together at certain points. Virdung calls this instrument a Jegerhorn, and the short hunting-horn Acherhorn (Ackerhorn - the synonym of the modern Waldhorn). The scale of the former could have consisted only of the first eight harmonics, including the fundamental, which would be easily obtained on an instrument of such a large calibre. Mersenne, 5 a century and a quarter later, gives a drawing of the same kind of horn among his cors de chasse, but does not in his description display his customary intimate knowledge of his subject; it may be that he was dealing at second-hand with an instrument ofi which he had had little practical experience. Praetorius 6 gives as Jagerhorn only the simple forms of crescentshaped horns with a single spiral; the spirally-wound horn of Virdung is replaced by a new instrument - the Jeigertrummet (huntsman's trumpet) - of the same form, but less cumbersome, of cylindrical bore excepting at the bell end and having a crook inserted between the mouthpiece and the main coils. The tube, which could not have been less than 8 ft. long,'produced the harmonic series of the cavalry trumpet from the 3rd to the 12th. The restrictions placed upon the use of the cavalry trumpet would have rendered it unavailable for use in the hunting-field, but the snake-shaped model, as Praetorius describes it, was a decided improvement on the horn, although inferior in resonance to the cavalry model. Here then are the materials for the fusion of the trumpet and huntinghorn into the natural or hand-horn of the 17th and 18th centuries. There is evidence, however, that a century earlier, i.e. at the end of the 15th century, the art of bending a brass tube of the delicate proportions of the French horn, which is still a test of fine workmanship, had been successfully practised. In an illustrated edition of Virgil's works published in Strassburg in 1502 and emanating from Griininger's office, Brant being responsible for the illustrations, the lines ( Aen. viii. 1-2) " Ut belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce Extulit: et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu " are illustrated by two soldiers, one with the sackbut (posaune, the descendant of the buccina), the other with a horn wound spirally round his body in three coils, which appear to have a conical bore from the funnelshaped mouthpiece to the bell which extends at the back of the head ' For illustrations see autotype facsimile of Utrecht Psalter, 9th century; British Museum, Add. MS. 10,546, Ps. 150, 9th century; Add. MS. 24, 199, 10th century; Eadwine Psalter, Trin. Coll. Camb., 11th century, and Cotton MS., Nero, D.IV., 8th century; also Edward Buhle, op. cit., pl. ii. and pp. 12-24.

2 See John Carter, Specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Paintings (London, 1 7 80 - 1 794), i

p. 53 (plates unnumbered); also reproduced in H. Lavoix, Histoire de la musique (Paris, 1884).

3 See Jost Amman, op. cit. Musica getutscht and ausgezogen (Basel, 1511), p. 30. The names are not given under the drawings, but the above is the order in which they occur, which is probably reversed.

5 Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636), p. 245.

s Syntagma Musicum (Wolfenbiittel, 1618), pl. vii. No. 11, p. 39.

horizontally over the left shoulder (fig. 6). There is ample room for the performer's head and shoulders to pass through the circle; the length of the tube could not therefore have been much less than 16 ft. long, equivalent to the horn in C or Bb basso. In the same book (p1. ccci.) is another horn, smaller, differing slightly in the disposition of the coils and held like the modern horn in front.

These horns were not used for hunting but for war in conjunction with the draw-trumpet. Brant could not have imagined these instruments, and must have seen the originals or at least drawings of them; the instruments probably emanated from the famed workshops of Nuremberg, being intended mainly for use in Italy, and had not been generally adopted in Germany. The significance of these drawings of natural horns in a German work of the dawn of the 16th century will not be lost. It disposes once and for all of the oft-repeated fable that the hunting-horn first assumed its present form in France about 1680, a statement accepted without question by authorities of all countries, but without reference to any piece justificative other than the story of the Bohemian FIG. 6. - Spirally Count Sporken first quoted by Gerber, 7 and Coiled Horn from repeated in most musical works without the Vi r i l's Works context. The account which gave rise to (1502), folio cccviii. this statement had been published in 1782 versa.

in a book by Faustinus Prochaska: 8 " Vix Parisiis inflandi cornua venatoria inventa ars quum delectatus suavitate cantus duos ex hominibus sibi obnoxiis ea instituendos curavit. Id principium apud nos artis, qua hodie Bohemi excellere putantur." In a preceding passage after the count's name, Franz Anton, Graf von Sporken, are the words " anno saeculi superioris octogesimo quum iter in externas provincias suscepisset," &c. There is no reference here to the invention of the horn in Paris or to the folding of the tube spirally, but only to the manner of eliciting sound from the instrument. Count Sporken, accustomed to the medieval hunting fanfares in which the tone of the horn approximated to the blare of the trumpet, was merely struck by the musical quality of the true horn tone elicited in Paris, and gave France the credit of the so-called invention, which probably more properly belonged to Italy. The account published by Prochaska a hundred years after, without reference to the source from which it was obtained, finds no corroboration from French sources. Had the French really made any substantial improvement in the huntinghorn at the end of the 17th century, transforming it from the primitive instrument into an orchestral instrument, it would only be reasonable to expect to find some evidence of this, considering the importance attached to the art of music at the court of Louis XIV., whose musical establishments, la Chapelle Musique, 9 la Musique de la Chambre du Roi and la Musique de la Grande Ecurie, included the most brilliant French artists. One would expect to find horns of that period by French makers among the relics of musical instruments in the museums of Europe. This does not seem to be the case. Moreover, in Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedie (1767) the information given under the heading trompe ou cor de chasse grand et petit is very vague, and contains no hint of any special merit due to France for any improvement in construction. Among the plates (vol. v., pl. vii.) is given an illustration of a horn very similar to the instruments made in England and Germany nearly a century earlier, but with a funnel-shaped mouthpiece. Dr Julius Riihlmann states that there are two horns by Raoux, bearing the date 1703,'0 in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich," but although fine examples, one in silver, the other in brass (fig. 6) by Raoux, they turn out on inquiry 12 to bear no date whatever. Ruhlmann's statement in the same article, that in the arms of the family of Wartenberg-Kolb (now extinct), which goes back to 1169, there is a hunting-horn coiled round in a complete circle is also misleading.

Historisch-biographisches Lexicon der Tonkiinslter (Leipzig,1790-1792and 1812-1814).

8 De saecularibus Liberalium Artium in Bohemia et Moravia fatis commentaries (Prague, 1784), p. 401.

See Ernest Thoinan, Les Origines de la chapelle musique des souverains de France (Paris, 1864); F. J. Fetis, " Recherches sur la musique des rois de France, et de quelques princes depuis Philippe le Bel jusqu'a la fin du regne de Louis XIV.," Revue musicale (Paris, 1832), xii. pp. 193, 217, 233, 241, 257; Castil-Blaze, La Chapelle musique des rois de France (Paris, 1882); Michel Brenet, " Deux comptes de la chapelle musique des rois de France," Intern. Mus. Ges., Smbd. vi., i. pp. 1-32; J. Ecorcheville, " Quelques documents sur la musique de la grande ecurie du roi," Intern. Mus. Ges., Smbd. ii. 4 (Leipzig, 1901), pp. 608-642.

10 Neue Zeitschrift f. Musik (Leipzig, 1870), p. 309.

See Die Sammlung der Musikinstrumente des baierischen Nat. Museum by K. A. Bierdimpfl (Munich, 1883), Nos. 105 and 106. Communication from Dr Georg Hagen, assistant director.

The horn (a post-horn) did not appear in the arms of the family in question until 1699, when the first peer Casimir Johann Friedrich was created hereditary Post-Master. The influence of such erroneous statements in the work of noted writers is far-reaching. Inquiries at the department of National Archives in Paris concerning Raoux, the founder of the after wards famous firm of horn-makers whose model with pistons is used in the British military bands and at Kneller Hall, proved fruitless. Fetis states that he worked during the second half of the 18th century. Albert Chouquet 1 states that he has seen a trumpet by Raoux, " seul ordinaire du Roy, Place du Louvre" dated 1695. The inscrip tions on the horns in ques tion are: For No. 105, a silver horn of the simplest form of construction in D, " Fait a Paris par Raoux "; for No. 106, a brass horn engraved with a crown on an ermine mantle with the initials C. A. (Carl Albert), " Fait a Paris FIG. 7. - Early Raoux Horn (Munich). par Raoux, seul ordinaire du Roy, Place du Louvre." Both horns measure across the coils 56 cm. and across the bell 272. They are practically the same as the cors de chasse now in use in French and Belgian military bands, the large diameter of the coil enabling the performer to carry it over his shoulder. The orchestral horn was given a narrower diameter in order to facilitate its being held in front of the performer in a convenient position for stopping the bell with the right hand. No. 107 in the same collection, a horn of German construction, bears the inscription" Macht Jacob Schmid in Nurnberg " and the trademark " J. S." with a bird. A horn in Eb of French make, having fleur-de-lys stamped on the rim of the bell, and measuring only 15 in. across the coils to the exterior edge of the bell - therefore a very small horn - is preserved in the Grand Ducal Museum at Darmstadt. 2 A horn in F# (probably F in modern high pitch), having the rim ornamented as above and the inscription " Fait a Paris, Carlin, ordinaire du Roy," readily gives the harmonics from the 3rd to the 12th. 3 The extreme width is 20 in. 4 Carlin, who lived at rue Croix des Petits Champs, died about 1780. The earliest dated horn extant is believed to be the one preserved in the Hohenzollern Museum in Sigmaringen, " Machts Wilhelm Haas, Nurnberg, 1688." 5 Another early German horn engraved " Machts Heinr. Rich. Pfeiffer in Leipzig, 1697," 6 formerly in Paul de Wit's museum in Leipzig and now transferred with the rest of the collection to Cologne, is of similar construction.

The horn must have been well known at this time in England, for there are 17th-century horns of English manufacture still extant, one, for instance, in the collection of the Rev. F. W. Galpin by William Bull, dated 1699.7 In 1701 Clagget 8 invented a contrivance by means of which two horns in different keys could be coupled and played by means of one mouthpiece, a valve or key opening the passage into the airways of one or the other of these horns at the will of the performer. Another horn of English manufacture about 1700 was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum in 1872, bearing No. 337 in the catalogue, in which unfortunately no details are given. Enough examples have been quoted to show that, judging from the specimens extant, Germany was not behind France, if not actually ahead, in the manufacture of early natural horns. Data are wanting concerning the instruments of Italy; 1 See Musee du Conservatoire National de Musique. Catalogue des instruments de musique (Paris, 1884), p. 147.

2 See Captain C. R. Day, Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments exhibited at the Military Exhibition (London, 1890), P. 1 47, No. 307.

See V. Mahillon, Catal. vol. i. No. 468.

See Captain C. R. Day, Catal. No. 309, p. 148.

For an illustration see Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments at South Kensington Museum 1872 (London, 18 73), p. 2 5, No. 332.

s See Katalog des musikhistorischen Museums von Paul de Wit (Leipzig, 1904), p. 142, No. 564, where it is classified as a Jagertrompete after Praetorius; it has a trumpet mouthpiece.

7 For an illustration see F. J. Crowest, English Music, p. 449, No. 12.

$ See Ignatz and Anton Bock in Baierisches by Felix J. Lipowski (Munich, 1811), p. 26, note.

they would probably prove to be the earliest of all, and as brass wind instruments are perishable are perhaps for that very reason unrepresented at the present day.

The horn at the present stage in its evolution was also well represented among the illustrations of the musical literature in Germany 9 during the first half of the 18th century, and references to it are frequent.

The earliest orchestral music for the horn occurs in the operas of Cavalli and Cesti, leaders of the Venetian Opera in the 17th century. Already in 1639 Cavalli in his opera Le Nozze Music. de Tito e Pelei (act i. sc. I) introduced a short scena, " Chiamata alla Caccia " 10 in C major for four horns on a basso continuo. An examination of the scoring in C clefs on the first, second, third and fourth lines shows, by the use of the note - r in the bass part and in the second tenor of the 5th harmonic of the series, that the fundamental could have been no other than the 16-ft. C; the highest note in the treble part is ---- --, the 12th harmonic of the 8-ft.

alto horn in C, now obsolete. It is clear therefore that horns with tubing respectively 8 ft. and 16 ft. long, which must have been disposed in coils as in the present day, were in use in Italy before the middle of the 17th century, fifty years before the date of their reputed invention in Paris.

In the same opera, act i. sc. 4, " Coro di Cavalieri " is a stirring call to arms of elemental grandeur, in which occur the words: " all' armi, ò la guerrieri corni e tamburi e trombe, ogni campo ogni canto, armi rimbombe." There are above the voice parts four staves with treble and C clef signatures above the bass, and, although no instruments are indicated, the music written thereon, which alternates with the voices but does not accompany them, can have been intended for no instruments but trumpets and horns, thus carrying out the indications in the text. The horn is here once again put to the same use as the Roman cornu, and associated in like manner with the descendant of the buccina in a call to arms. It may be purely a coincidence that the early illustration of a horn with the tubing wound in coils round the body in the Strassburg Virgil mentioned above was put to the same use and associated with the same instrument.

Cesti's operas likewise contain many passages evidently intended for the horn, although the instruments are not specified in the score, which was nothing unusual at the time. Lulli composed the incidental music for a ballet, La Princesse d'Elide, which formed part of Moliere's divertissement, " Les plaisirs de l'ile enchantee," written for a great festival at Ver

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