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Phylicia Morris

40B-Beginning Brass

October 4, 2012

French horn History

When ancient races roamed around the earth, simplistic musical horns were

made up of the natural horn of an animal, wood, glass, or ivory. Over the course of

centuries, various materials used for the construction of horns have proved undesirable

due to their ill-design of sound production and lack of durability. From the 12 th to the 16th

century, metal had become the primary compound in the making of these brass

instruments. When the first early horns (hunting horns) were cased in metal, they had

the shape of the original animal horn. However as centuries passed, instrument

makers have tweaked and altered its design; gradually adding more wound tubing

ended up creating what we know as the brass instrument family of today. It was around

the 17th century when this plain instrument we know as the hunting horn had branched

off and evolved into what we know today as the "Natural" or "Stopped" horn.

The natural horn (also known as the Wald horn) looks just like a French horn that

is missing its valves. It is one of the oldest brass instruments in existence. In the early

1800s, this instrument was usually only made of brass. Today, modern manufacturers

use different combinations of brass and other various metals specially designed to

improve the tonal quality and durability of the more advanced valve-version of this

instrument; the French horn. This instrument would then receive a polishing and then a

lacquer coat to prevent corrosion and add durability. The instrument itself consists of

carefully wound tubing which (starting from the lead pipe) measures about 5/16 of an
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inch in diameter and gradually dilates out, creating the signature 'Bell' shape with a

diameter of about 11 inches.

Compositions modulating into different keys proved to be a problem for horn

players back then. To remedy this problem, players would either have to use a different

horn for each key change or the instrument’s tubing had to be altered by attaching extra

tubing called crooks (smaller or larger depending on key needed). In addition with the

crooks, shorter tuning slides were also utilized as an aid to correct the player’s

intonation. Between 1690 to 1710, two brothers by the name of Michael and Johannes

Leichnambschneider, were working on putting in permanent crooks in horns that way

the player can switch and play in different keys on the instrument seamlessly. Despite

the fact that the instrument can now play in other keys fluidly, it was still limited in its

range. Around 1750, Anton Joseph Hampel, a Bohemian horn player from Dresden,

Germany remedied part of this problem by adding the advance technique of

handstopping to fill in some of the spaces between the overtones in the overtone series.

In 1814, a horn player by the name of Heinrich Stölzel would come up with an

idea that would improve the horn’s ability to hit notes in the overtone series and

ultimately revolutionize the creation of brass instruments. He introduced the idea of

adding two air-tight valves onto the instrument which would ultimately give the player

more range. He originally had the idea of using three valves but the intonation on the

first few prototypes were mediocre at best; limiting him to only use two. The first valve

would lower the pitch a whole step and the second, a half step. Both together would

lower the tone one and a half steps. Friedrich Blühmel, an instrument maker from Berlin,

Germany experimented with rotary valves and began to work with Kastenventile (also
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known as box valves). The experimentation of box valves was later abandoned since

Stolzel’s tubular valves were much faster and smoother to use on the horn. He and

Stolzel decided to pair up and apply for a joint grant for the tubular valve design; they

both received their joint patent for the valve design later in 1818. Unfortunately for

Blühmel, in 1828 he was denied a patent for his design of the rotary valve, but the

patent for this valve was later received by Joseph Reidel in 1832.

The valve horn’s sound quality and range improved even more with the

introduction of the third valve in 1819 by Müller of Mayence and Sattler of Leipsic. Both

horn makers were influenced by Stölzel's idea of the three valves design. The third

valve lowered the horn one and one-half tone; this introduction of the third valve on

brass instruments has remained the standard today. Despite the improvements on key

changes and range on the horn, these valve/rotary systems were still sluggish and had

problematic air leaks. Finally in 1838, Francois Perinet, a Parisian instrument maker,

fixed these issues with the invention of his version of the piston valve (appropriately

named the Perinet valve). He was the one who decided to have the inlet tubing on a

different level than the outlet tubing with the use of springs sitting in the bottom of the

outlet tubing.

This revolutionized the Vienna horn in the early 19th century and other brass

instruments. The piston valve has been continually used in the creation of modern

instruments like that of the Bb trumpet. The two valve systems (rotary and piston)

invented and developed in the in the 1830's have remained virtually unaltered. This

ultimately led up to German double horn designer Edmund Gumpert and German horn

maker, Eduard Kruspe’s development of the first F-Bb double horn in 1897. They
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added more tubing and the 4th valve on the horn to give it the ability to change from the

low F overtone series to the higher Bb overtone series. Originally, this instrument was

discredited for its intonation problems and the fact that the F-Bb full double horn was a

“freak” horn. Over time and many subtle tweaks, this horn has become the respected

and recognized standard horn used in our orchestral society today.