“While our knowledge of the tone of the hand-horn is on fairly safe ground because of the number of extant examples to which we may refer, we are still very much in the dark when it comes to the horn for which Bach and Handel wrote” (Fitzpatrick 47).
“Horn-playing as we know it came from Austria and Bo- hemia, not, as is commonly supposed, from France. It is abundantly clear from contemporary orchestral lists that the first hornists of any importance were Bohemians; and from both court inventories and from surviving specimens it appears that the first makers of orchestral horns worked at Vienna and Prague. The horn had indeed attained to a considerable degree of development as an instrument in France by the late seven- teenth century, and it was in the form of the cor-de-chasse of this period that the horn came to England, where it was known as the French horn” (Fitzpatrick 48).
With the change of attitude in hunting in society in Bohemia, particularly Saxony, the horn became more of an instrument, and less of a status symbol. Around 1706, bohemia saw its first stages of professional horn playing with Johann Theodorus Zeddelmayer, becoming the first court hornist. (Fitzpatrick 50-51).
In the 1740’s, the horn becomes a widely accepted solo instrument (Fitzpatrick 51).
A great challenge comes in the performance practice of hand horn in that they were made in different keys, and thus having different qualities. Mouthpieces of the instruments must also be taken into effect, as they had not been developed yet. (Montagu 427).
color –
“have broad rims similar to the trumpet mouthpieces of the time, a feature which bears out the fact that honists did double on the trumpet. Contrary to the commonly-held view, however, the cup of each is deep, straight-sided and conical, and produces a distinctly horn-like tone, even when the instrument is held upright” (Fitzpatrick 54).
“…and what instrument could better call up a picture of God marching into the world than the horn in the Quoniam of the B minor Mass?” (Fitzpatrick 55).
“The mouthpiece underwent a noticeable change as a result of hand-stopping as well. Because it was now not necessary to press the mouthpiece against the lips in order to obtain the altissimo register's chromatic scale, the broad rim gave way to a narrow rim which greatly increased the sensitivity of the lips and enhanced the now-characteristic dark, gentle tone“ (Fitzpatrick 57).
Thesis -
“Above all, the revival of the early horns would refresh our memory as to what the horn in its purest form actually sounds like. It would give players on the modern horn a tonal model upon which to base their concept of sound; and perhaps such a rebirth of the true horn would erect a firm barrier against the mechanised degeneration which daily threatens to engulf the horn completely. For if we were to lose the horn as we have known it, with all its risks and inimitable perfections, our musical life would be very much the poorer” (Fitzpatrick 59).
Works Cited
Fitzpatrick, Horace. "The Valveless Horn in Modern Performances of Eighteenth- Century Music." Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association (1965): 45-60. JSTOR. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.
Montagu, Jeremy. "Hand-Stopping Technique on the Horn." Early Music 5 (1977): 425- 27. JSTOR. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.
Things that I want to use that I haven’t yet acquired, but intend to:
Walshe, Robert C. "Hand horn Technique as a Teaching Tool." 73.
Walshe, Robert C. "Hand Technique and the Hand Horn." 57-61.
Danner, Gregory. "Heinrich Domnich's Méthode de Premiere et Second Cor: Lessons in Musicianship for Today's Student." 47-49.
Janetzky, Kurt. "Metamorphoses of Possibilities." 78-88.
