The Historically Informed Performance

I often see discussions on horn related websites about where to locate resources regarding the history of the horn.  Most individuals are directed to The French Horn by Reginald Morley-Pegge, The Horn by Barry Tuckwell, or online resources like Oxford Online’s New Grove Dictionary for Music and Musicians.  While these are great resources, they can be difficult to locate if you are not associated with an academic institution and are often very dense to read.  I have read several of these resources and have written a much shorter and more digestible history of the horn, which is based to reflect the research of Morley-Pegge.

Why is the History of the Horn Important?

Before we dive into the history of the horn, I think it is important to recognize why we study the history of our instrument.  Understanding the historical developments of our instrument will assist you in creating a more informed performance.  For example, if you are preparing a Mozart horn concerto, you would recognize that his concerti were composed between 1783 and his death in 1791.  This happens to occur during the golden age of the natural horn.  This knowledge could be utilized so that you practice the natural horn technique of the concerto.  This will further inform your valve horn performance of what notes to add a slight inflection to based on what was intended with the closed notes on the natural instrument.

The Very Beginning- The Horn as a Signalling Device

The development of the horn began in the 6th century BC with the creation of the Scandinavian Lur.  This instrument was intricately designed and was used as a signaling device during the hunt.  Later developments of this instrument were the Cornu of Etruscan and the Cor a Plusieurs. The horn appeared on the stage for the first time in Venice for a Cavalli opera in 1639 and later in Paris for the same opera in 1654.  The role of the horn at this point was purely theatrical and it was used to represent aspects of the hunt on stage. The horn later began to appear in the incidental music of Lully in 1664.

Introduction into the Orchestra and the Development of the Crook

The premiere of the Keiser opera, Octavia, in 1705 was the first orchestral score to include two horns.  At this time the hand horn technique hadn’t been developed and Keiser was confined to the open harmonic series in the key of the instrument.  This later changed in 1715 when crooks were invented in Vienna and the horn could now play in several different keys by simply changing the crook (length of tubing) that the instrument was keyed.

The Development of Hand Horn Technique and Early Valve Experimentation

The years 1750-1820 are considered the golden era of the hand horn.  Anton Joseph Hampel created the hand horn technique in the 1750s, which would lead to future virtuosic horn players like Giovanni Punto.  While the hand horn technique had remained active, people began to experiment with the creation of valves. The first person to attempt to create a valve was Kolbel in 1760 and his early valve included two ascending valves near the bell of the horn.  His valve had not gained popularity and Raoux had created a unique natural horn called the Cor Solo in 1780. This instrument was to be used primarily as a solo instrument and it only had crooks in the popular keys of F, E, E flat, D, and C.  Charles Clagget made another attempt on the valve in 1788, however, similar to Kolbel’s valve it never received popularity.

 

 

Valve Horn and the Omnitonic Horn

From this point forward, we see the development of two different instruments that occur simultaneously.  One of the instruments was the omnitonic horn. This instrument was used primarily by the French and it was a combination of several different crooks on one horn.  This meant that the horn player could change keys without removing or adding crooks, while still maintaining the hand horn technique. The first omnitonic horn was created by Dupont in Paris during the year of 1815.  This instrument had eight different tonalities and was further improved to add a ninth tonality in 1818. Charles Sax created a different omnitonic horn in 1824, which looked like an inventionshorn, however, it had several loops with nine different keys.  Another development of the omnitonic horn took place much later in 1847 by the inventor of the saxophone, Adolph Sax.  Adolph Sax’s omnitonic horn included three quick-change valves and two tuning slides.

 

 

The valve initially gained the most success in Germany and the first patent was given to Stölzel and Blühmel in 1818.  Stölzel was a horn player and it is unknown what instrument was played by Blühmel.  It is believed that Stölzel is the primary inventor of this valve with Blühmel improving Stölzel’s valve.  Eventually, Blühmel was bought out of the ten-year patent and Stölzel became the primary patent holder of the first proper valve.  In 1824, Shaw created a spring slide that would eventually lead to Uhlmann’s piston valve in 1830.  Three years prior in 1827, it is believed that Blühmel may have invented the first rotary valve, however, his request for a patent was denied because it was too similar to the previous 1818 valve.  In 1832 the first rotary valve was officially invented in Vienna by Joseph Riedl and the Berliner Pumpen valve was developed into what is now known as the present-day piston valve in 1835.  While there are various designs of many different valves, the rotary valve was primarily used in Germany and Vienna, while the piston valve was used in France and England.

The Double Horn

The invention of the valve eventually led to the creation of the double horn.  The first compensating double horn was invented by Gautrot and Marquet in 1858 and many years later, Kruspe invented the first full double horn in 1898.  This instrument was further developed to have a single change valve between the F and B flat sides in 1900.  In the same year, Schmidt of Berlin created a different full double horn.  Schmidt’s double horn featured a piston change valve and a full piston double horn was later created in 1912 by Blaikley. Experimentation continued to occur throughout the 20th century and the first full triple horn was invented by Paxman in 1967 and the first compensating triple horn was also invented by Paxman in 1975.

Wrapping it up

While there are occasionally conflicting dates regarding the history of the horn, this post is intended to be a brief summarization of the history of the horn based on the work of Reginald Morley-Pegge.  If you are interested in more in-depth information on the history of our instrument, here are some resources to check out.

• Early Valved Horn