A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Flügel Horn

by William H. Stone

FLÜGEL HORN. The German name for instruments of the Bugle family. Originally, say the dictionaries, a hunting horn (Waldhorn, Jagdhorn), used by the huntsman whose duty it was to watch in the Flügeln, or paths cut through the wood, and give a signal on the approach of the game. The Flügel horn now used in the English and German armies is a B♭ cornet with pistons and a horn mouthpiece. The pistons have superseded a clumsy kind of keys, from which it used to be called Klappenhorn. The name is also applied to several instruments in the Alto, Tenor, and Bass clefs.

[ W. H. S. ]