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 1, 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 1, valve 3 be depressed, a further drop in pitch of 112 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 1, 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 1 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the character of the trombone, which is probably due to the fact that the strictly conical bore of the natural horn has been replaced by a mixed cylindrical and conical as in trumpet and trombone.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 barely approximating to definite musical sounds, were obtained. This was undoubtedly the archetype of the History. 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: (1) 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. 1000 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 1.91 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 E♭ and easily produces the first eight harmonics of that key. It stands, therefore, an octave higher than the modern horn in E♭ (which measures some 13 ft.), but on the lur the fundamental E♭ can be reached owing to the wider calibre of the bore.[2]
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: (1) 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,[3] 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 horn-players) 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
- ↑ See Hector Berlioz, A Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration, translated by Mary Cowden Clarke, new edition revised by Joseph Bennett (1882), p. 141.
- ↑ 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), “Über altnordische Luren” in Vierteljährschrift für Musik-Wissenschaft x. (1894).
- ↑ See Major J. H. L. Archer, The British Army Records (London, 1888), pp. 402, &c.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ See Wilhelm Froehner, La Colonne Trajane d’après le surmoulage exécuté à Rome en 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 Traiansäule (Berlin, 1896, &c.).
- ↑ Ermanno Ferrero, L’Arc d’Auguste à Suse (Segusio, 9–8 B.C.) (Turin, 1901).
- ↑ 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.
