DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HORN HORN 429
approximates more than the otliers to regular
musical performances, and furnishes the link
between the use of the horn as a signal and as
a melodious instrument. These airs are many
and various, named after royal personages or
distinguished hunters. Donner du, cor is the
term for sounding the horn.^
[The players of these hunting airs and calls,
and the companies who heard them, thus became
practically acquainted with the possibilities
of their instruments both in melody
and harmony. Towards the close of the 17th
century the coiling of the huntsman's horn,
which was sufficiently large to be worn obliquely
round the body, resting on one shoulder and
passing under the opposite arm, was modified
so as to give the proportions of the orchestral
horn as we now know it. The records of the
Eoyal Theatre of Dresden show that there were
two horns in the orchestra in 1711. It was
introduced into the Imperial Opera at Vienna
from 1712 to 1740, and it appears that its use
was then discontinued for a time. In France
it was introduced into the orchestra by Campra
in the opera ' Achille et Deidamie' in 1735,
and probably before that date by Lnlli ; in
1759 Eameau used a couple of hunting-horns
in one of his operas. The horn was, however,
first used in England as early as 1720 by the
opera band in the Haymarket, in Handel's
* Radamisto.'
It may be noted that the only horn of which
Praetorius gives an illustration in his Syntagma
(published in 1618) is the closely coiled Jagertrommet.
The horns of that period, whether
coiled thus closely, or in a wide circle to go
over the shoulder, were not differentiated so
distinctly from the trumpet as they subsequently
were, and we find that about a century
elapsed from the time of Praetorius to the time
when, after modifications of the conical bore
and of the mouthpiece, the instrument was
fitted to take its place in the orchestra with its
general proportions established substantially as
we now have them.]
It was much objected to when first heard in
the orchestra, as coarse and vulgar ; and severe
strictures were indulged in at the introduction
of a rude instrument of the chase among more
refined sources of sound, such as the violins
and oboe. [In 1717, Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu referred to the fondness of the
Viennese for it, and said she considered it as
a ' deafening noise.'] It is remarkable how sub-
sequent experience has reversed this hasty judgment
; the smooth tender tone peculiar to the
horn contrasting admirably with its orchestral
companions, and forming a firm foundation for
harmony in chords and holding notes.
In consequence of this prejudice, when the
horn was originally transferred in Germany
1 In EngUahwesay 'aound the horn,' ' wind the horn ; Tennyaou
'
('Locksley HaU'), 'aouud upon the bugle horn.'
from the hunting-field to the orchestra, it was
suggested to introduce a mute or damper into
tlie bell, for the purpose of softening the tone ;
this was at first made of wood, and afterwards
of card-board. It was the custom to produce a
like effect in the oboe by filling the bell, made
globular for the purpose, with cotton-wool ; a
plan which suggested to Hanipl, a celebrated
horn-player at the court of Dresden, about the
year 1770, to do the same with the horn. To
his surprise, the insertion of the pad of cotton
lowered the pitch of the instrument by a semitone.
Struck with the result, he employed
his hand instead of the pad, and discovered
the first and original method by which the
intervals between the harmonic series of open
notes could be partially bridged over. The
notes thus modified have since been termed
'hand-notes,' and the instrument itself the
'hand-horn.' Sir John Hawkins mentions a
concerto played by an artist named Spandau
with the help of the hand notes in 1773,
' attempering the sound by the application of
his fingers in the different parts of the tube.'
[Before describing in detail the rationale of
these ' ' stopped or
' ' hand notes, it will be
convenient to define the general characteristics
and capabilities of the typical ' hand horn ' as
now used.
The horn in F, which appears to have been
its pitch when it was first introduced into the
orchestra, and which is still the pitch in which
it is most used, is a tube of about 12 feet in
length. At the end in which the mouthpiece
is inserted its diameter is about a quarter of an
inch, and the conical expansion, which, iu
proportion to its length, is much more gi-adual
than on instruments of the bugle type, rapidly
increases, or flanges out, at the bell mouth to
a rim of about eleven inches diameter. The
general lines of the cone are hyperbolic, but a
certain portion of the tubing is cylindrical,
owing to the provision to be made for changing
the pitch by crooks or slides. The mouthpiece
is about five-eighths of an inch across inside the
rim, and its ' cup ' is of a deep funnel-shape, in
this respect dift'ering greatly from the cup of
the trumpet mouthpiece, which is almost hemi-
spherical. The mouthpieces of bugles, cornets,
and saxhorns are intermediate in character
between these two. (See Mouthpiece.)
Such an instrument as described is capable
of giving the notes of the harmonic series up
to about the sixteenth, although tlie prime is
practically useless, and those above the twelfth
are difficult. Although the horn as pitched in
F is more used than in any other key at the
present time, it is seldom built in this key,
owing to the need of changing both to higher
and to lower pitches. As a means of effecting
slight changes of pitch for tuning purposes the
instrument is fitted with a pair of slides connected
by a U-shaped bow, and in some cases