crafts were in their infancy, were made straight, being then known as the bus1ne or straight trumpet (busaun or posaun lll Germany), and the long norn, Herhorn, slightly curved 1 From two medieval representations of instruments l1ke the Roman cornu one m1ght be led to conclude that the instrument had been reved and was 1n use from the 14th century. A wooden bas-rel1ef on the under part of the seats of the choir of Worcester cathedral, ” sa1d to date fro1n the 14th century, shows a mus1c1an 111 a robe with long sleeves of fur playing the horn (fig. 4). The tube w1nds from the mouth

ss§ 7p§ ff) in a circle reaching

== * "»- Ba.

sis ss' 1- ;2, d2:S

1 'Y across the shoulders

3 Q, I' = » " th the bell stretchl!5

E (, 1ng out horizontally

g ~< H Q over h1s left shoulder V ' I'he tube, of str11tly

§ 2 conical bore, is made

E ' " 111 three pl&C€S, the

joinés lgeing strengthener

y means of

Flo. 4.*M&dl&'Hl FIG. 5 -Medieval two rings The other C1rcular Horn. Circular Horn, 1589. example is Ger1nan, and figures in the

arms of the c1ty of Frankfort-on-Main.“ Here 1n the two opposite corners are two cherubs playing immense cornua The bore of the instruments (fig 5) is of a calibre sugrfgles-t1ve of the contra bass tuba, the c1rcle formed lb of a diameter su c1ently large to accommodate the youthful performer 1n a sitting posture; the bell is the forerunner of that of the modern saxophone, shaped like a gloxinea; the mouthpiece IS cup-shaped. It lb possible, of course, that these two examples are attempts to reproduce the classic instrument, but the figures of the musicians and the feeling of the whole scheme of ornamentation seem to render such an explanation improbable. Moreover, Sebast1an Virdung,4 wr1t1ng on musical instruments at the beg1nn1ng of the 16th century, glV€S a drawing of a comu coiled round tightly, the tubing being probably soldered together at certain po1nts '1rdung calls this instrument a Jegerhorn, and the short l1unt1ng-horn Acherhorn (Ackerhorn-the synonym of the modern Waldhorn). The scale of the former could haye consisted only of the first ei ht harmonics, including the fundamental, which would be easily oitained on an instrument of such a large calibre. l/lersenne, ' a century and a quarter later, gives a drawing of the same kind of horn among his cars de chaise, ut does not in h1s descr1pt1on display his customary intimate knowledge of his sub]ect, it may be that he was dealing at second-hand with an 1nstru1nent of wh1ch he had had little practical experience Praetor1us° glV&5 as Iagerhorn only the s1mple forms of crescent shaped horns w1th a single sp1ral, the spirally-wound horn of Virdung IS replaced by a new instru1nent-the Jagerlrumrnet (huntsman's trumpet)-of the same form, but less cumbersome, of cylindrical bore excepting at the bell end and having a crook inserted between the mouthpiece and the main coils. The tube, which could not have been less than 8 ft long, produced the harmonic ser1es of the cavalrv trumpet from the 3rd to the 12th. The restrictions placed upon the use of the cavalry trumpet would have rendered It unavailable for use in the hunting-field, but the snake-shaped model, as Praetorius describes 1t, was a decided improvement on the horn, although 1n1erior in resonance to the cavalry model. Here then are the materials for the fusion of the tru1npet and hunting horn into the natural or hand-horn of the 17th and 18th centuries There is evidence, however, that a century earlier, 'L e. at the end ol the 15th century, the art of bending a brass tube of the delicate proportions of the French horn, which IS still a test of fine workmanship, had been successfully practised. In an illustrated edition of V1rg1l's works published in Strassburg in 1502 and emanating from Grun1nger's office, Brant be1ng responsible for the illustrations, the lines (Aer: v11i 1-2) “ Ut belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce hxtuht . et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu ” are illustrated by two soldiers, one with the sackbut (posaune, the descendant of the buccina), the other with a horn wound spirally round his body in three COIIS, which appear to have a conical bore from the funnel shaped mouthpiece to the bell which extends at the back of the head For illustrations see autotype facsimile of Utrecht Psalter, 9th century; Br1tish Museum, Add MS. 10.546, Ps 150, 9th century; Add '/IQ 24, 199, 10th century; Eadwine Psalter, Trin Coll Camb, 1 1th century, and Cotton MS., Nero, D IV,8th century; also Edward Buhle, op cuf., pl ii and pp 12-2 .

2 See John Carter, Specimens o?Anc1ent Sculpture and Pamtlngs (London 1780-1794), i p 53 (plates unnumbered); also reproduced Ill H Lavoix, H1 to1re de la musique (Paris, 1884) See ]0st Amman, op. at

4 llunca getulschl und ausgezogen (Basel, 1511), p. 30 The names are not given under the drawings, but the above is the order in which they occur, which is probably reversed “ Harmome umverselle (Paris, 1636), p 24S 5 Syntagma Muszfum (Wolfenbuttel, 1618), pl xii No 11, p 39 RN

horizontally over the left shoulder (fig 6). The the perfor1ner's head and shoulders to pass the length of the tube could not there lore h than 16 ft lOl1g, equivalent to the horn 1n C or Bb basso. In the same book (pl C(Cl) IS l

e is ample room for

through the circle:

ave been much less

another horn, smaller

disposition of the coils a

horn 1n front

These horns were no

for war Ill con]unction

Brant could not have

ments, and must have

least drawings of them

d1ffer1ng shghtly IH the

nd held like the modern

t used for hunting but

w1th the draw -trumpet

imagined these 1nstruseen

the originals or at

the mstruments probably

emanated from the fa1ned worlcshops of Nuremberg, being 1nte11ded mainly for use in Italy, and had not been gent rally adopted III (lermany The s1gn1ficance of these drawmgs of natural horns in a German work of the dav n of the 16th century will not be lost it d1s poses once and for all of the oft-repeated fable that the hunting-horn first assumed its present form 1n France about 1680, a statement accepted without question by author1t1es of all countries, but without refere11ce to any piece yustqzcalwe other than the story of the Bohemian Count Sporken first quoted by Gerber, 7 and repeated in most musical works without the context The account wl11ch gave r1se to th1s statement had been published in 1782 in a book by Faustinus Prochaska S “ V1x Paris11s 1nfiandi cornua venatoria 1nventa ar S

QA

1

MTM

Hal

F i '“ >¢>~ E

F;—

FIG 6 ~fbp1rally

Co1led Horn from

Vlfgllyb V'ork(1502),

folio ccc

(.l'S¢3.

quum delectat11s

suav1tate cantus duos ex hom1n1bus Slbl obnoxns ea institucndos cu1'av1t. Id pr1n<ipium apud nos art1s, qua hodie Bohem1 excellere putantur." In a preceding passage after the count's name, Franz Anton, Graf von Sporken, are the words “ anno saecuh super1or1s octogesimo quum 1ter in externas provincials suscepisset, " &c. There is no reference here to the 1nvent1on of the horn 1n Par1s or to the folding of the tube spirally, but only to the manner of el1cit1ng sound from the instrument Count Qporken, accustomed to the medieval hunting fanfares in wh1ch the tone of the horn approximated to the blare of the trumpet, was merely struck by the musical quality of the true horn tone e1111ted in Paris, and gave France the credit of the so-called invention, w l11ch probably more properly belonged to Italy. The account published by Prochaska a hundred years after, without reference to the source from wh1ch It was obtained, finds no corroboration from French sources Had the French really made any substantial improvement in the hunting horn at the end of the 17th century, transforming it from the pflml tlV€ instrument into an orchestral instrument, It would only be reasonable to expect to find some evidence of th1s, considering the importance attached to the art of mus1c at the court of Louis XIV, whose musical establishments, la Chapelle l/Iusique, § ' la Mus1que de la Chambre du Roi and la Mus1que de la Grande Ecurie included

the most brilliant French artists. One would expect to find horns of that period by French makers among the rel1cs of mus1cal1nstrume11ts in the museums of Europe This does not seem to be the case. Moreover, in Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédze (1767) the information given under the headmg trornpe on cor de chasse grand et petzt is very vague, and contains no hint of any special n1er1t due to France for any improvement 1n construction Among the plates (vol v, pl vii) is given an 1llustrat1on of a horn very s1m1lar to the instruments made in England and Germany nearly a centuiy earlier, but with a funnel-shaped mouthpiece Dr ]ul1us Ruhlmanu states that there are two horns by Raoux, bearing the date 1703, '° in the Bavarian National Museum 1n Mumch, ” but although fine examples, one in silver, the other in brass (fig 6) by Raoux, they turn out on inquiry 12 to bear no date whatevcr Ruhlmann's statement in the same article, that in the arms of the fam1ly of Wartenberg-Kolb (now extinct), which goes back to 1169, there is a hunting-horn co1led round 1n a complete c1rcle is also m1slead1ng. 7 Hzstorzschlvzographzsches Lexicon zler Tonkuusller (Leipzig, 1790-1792 and 1812-ISI4).

5 De saecularzbus Lzberalzum Arlzunz in Bvhernza et Moraua fatzs comrnentarzus (Prague, 1784), p 401

• See Ernest Thoinan, Les Orzgmes de Ia chapelle rnuszque des

souverazns de France (Paris, 1864), F ] Féus, “ Recherches sur la musique des ro1s de France, et de quelques prmces depuis Ph1l1ppe le Bel jusqu'a la fin du regne de Louis XIV, ” Revue muszcale (Paris, 1832), xii pp 193, 217, 233, 241, 257, Castil-Blaze, La Chapelle muszque des ro1s de France (Paris, 1882), Michel Brenet, “ Deux comptes de la chapelle musique des ro1s de France, ” Intern Mus Ges, Qmbd vi, 1 pp I-32, ] Ecorcheville, “ Quelques documents sur la musique de la grande écurie du roi, ” Intern Mzcs. Ges., Smbd 1i 4(L€11')7l§ , 1901), pp 608-642 “' Neue Zeuschfzfl f. Musck (Leipzig, 1870), p 309 “See Dze Slzrnrnlung der Musckrnslrumerzte des bazercschen Nat. Muveurn by K A Bierchmpfl (Munich, 1883), Nos 105 and 106.

2 Communication from Dr Georg Hagen, assistant dire(tor