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The French horn (so called to distinguish
it from the ENGLISH HORN, a member of the OBOE family) is
the developed European orchestral member of the true horn
family. The instrument is classified technically as a lip-vibrated
aerophone, characterized by a conical bore and funnel-shaped
mouthpiece, as opposed to the cylindrical bore and cup-shaped
mouthpiece of the TRUMPET family.
Descended from primitive animal-horn prototypes (for example,
the biblical SHOFAR), short, curved horns were used in medieval
Europe primarily as signal instruments, especially for the
hunt; they could usually be relied on only for the rhythmic
sounding of a single pitch. In the late 16th and 17th centuries
the horn, from this time usually made of brass, was lengthened
and coiled--first in a small, spiral coil, later in a wider,
open loop. By the late 17th century in France the cor de chasse
("hunting horn") emerged with a wide, flaring bell
and a tube length of up to 4.37 m (14 ft), the obvious prototype
of the modern instrument. Responsive to a greatly increased
number of its natural overtones, the cor de chasse possessed
a wide enough range of pitches for use in the orchestra of
the early 18th century.
The addition of "crooks" (curved extensions to the
tubing of various lengths) and the technique--attributed to
the Dresden virtuoso Anton Joseph Hampel--of altering the
pitch by stopping the bell with the hand made the horn still
more complete melodically in its middle ranges, thus greatly
increasing its versatility in the orchestra of the classical
period of Haydn and Mozart. Also at this time (the late 18th
century) the cup-shaped, trumpetlike mouthpiece was abandoned
for the funnel-shaped mouthpiece of the modern horn, resulting
in a smoother, less raucous sound.
During the early 19th century valves were added (patented
in 1818 by Heinrich Stolzel and Friedrich Bluhmel in Berlin)
to vary the playing length of the tube, yielding an instrument
virtually chromatic (proceeding by semitones) throughout its
range. Although it was slow to be accepted, the valve horn
prevailed by the end of the 19th century. The modern French
horn is usually pitched in F, and has three valves and a tube
length of about 3.75 m (12 ft). The great demands on the resources
of the horn have led to the widespread adoption of the "double
horn," in which a separate set of coils for a horn in
B-flat is added to a horn in F, a fourth valve acting as a
switch between the two sets of coils.
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