Popular Ballads (vol. i., 1882), with an introductory note on similar
legends. See also H. L. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, vol. i., where
the relation between Havelok and Horn is discussed; Hist. litt. de la
France (vol. xxii., 1852); W. Söderhjelm, Sur l’identité du Thomas
auteur de Tristan et du Thomas auteur de Horn (Romania, xv., 1886);
T. Wissmann, “King Horn” (1876) and “Das Lied von King Horn”
(1881) in Nos. 16 and 45 of Quellen und Forschungen zur Spr. und
Culturgesch. d. german. Völker (Strassburg and London); Reinfrid
von Braunschweig, a version of the legend of Henry the Lion, edited
by K. Bartsch (Stuttgart, 1871); and a further bibliography in
O. Hartenstein, Studien zur Hornsage (Heidelberg, 1902).
HORN (a common Teutonic word, cognate with Lat. cornu;
cf. Gr. κέρας). The weapons which project from the heads of
various species of animals, constituting what are known as horns,
embrace substances which are, in their anatomical structure
and chemical composition, quite distinct from each other; and
although in commerce also they are known indiscriminately as
horn, their uses are altogether dissimilar. These differences in
structure and properties were thus indicated by Sir R. Owen:—“The
weapons to which the term horn is properly or technically
applied consist of very different substances, and belong to two
organic systems, as distinct from each other as both are from the
teeth. Thus the horns of deer consist of bone, and are processes
of the frontal bone; those of the giraffe are independent bones
or ‘epiphyses’ covered by hairy skin; those of oxen, sheep
and antelopes are ‘apophyses’ of the frontal bone, covered
by the corium and by a sheath of true horny material; those
of the prong-horned antelope consist at their basis of bony
processes covered by hairy skin, and are covered by horny
sheaths in the rest of their extent. They thus combine the
character of those of the giraffe and ordinary antelope, together
with the expanded and branched form of the antlers of deer.
Only the horns of the rhinoceros are composed wholly of horny
matter, and this is disposed in longitudinal fibres, so that the
horns seem rather to consist of coarse bristles compactly matted
together in the form of a more or less elongated sub-compressed
cone.” True horny matter is really a modified form of epidermic
tissue, and consists of the albuminoid “keratin.” It forms, not
only the horns of the ox tribe, but also the hoofs, claws or nails
of animals generally, the carapace of the tortoises and the
armadilloes, the scales of the pangolin, porcupine quills, and
birds’ feathers, &c.
Horn is employed in the manufacture of combs, buttons, the handles of walking-sticks, umbrellas, and knives, drinking-cups, spoons of various kinds, snuff-boxes, &c. In former times it was applied to several uses for which it is no longer required, although such applications have left their traces in the language. Thus the musical instruments and fog signals known as horns indicate their descent from earlier and simpler forms of apparatus made from horn. In the same way powder-horns were spoken of long after they ceased to be made of that substance; to a small extent lanterns still continue to be “glazed” with thin transparent plates of horn.
HORN (Lat. cornu; corresponding terms being Fr. cor,
trompe; Ger. Horn; Ital. corno), a class of wind instruments
primarily derived from natural animal horns (see above), and
having the common characteristics of a conical bore and the
absence of lateral holes. The word “horn” when used by
modern English musicians always refers to the French horn.
Modern horns may be divided into three classes: (1) the short horns with wide bore, such as the bugles (q.v.) and the post-horn. (2) The saxhorns (q.v.), a family of hybrid instruments designed by Adolphe Sax, and resulting from the adaptation of valves and of a cup-shaped mouthpiece to instruments of the calibre of the bugle. The Flügelhorn family is the German equivalent of the saxhorns. The natural scale of instruments of this class comprises the harmonics from the second to the eighth only. (3) The French horn (Fr. cor de chasse or trompe de chasse, cor à pistons; Ger. Waldhorn, Ventilhorn; Ital. corno or corno di caccia), one of the most valuable and difficult wind instruments of the orchestra, having a very slender conical tube wound round in coils upon itself. It consists of four principal parts—the body, the crooks, the slide and the mouthpiece.
(a) The body is the main tube, having a bore of the form known as trunco-conical, measuring approximately 7 ft. 4 in. in length, in which the increase in the diameter of the bore is very gradual in proportion to the length, the cone becoming accentuated only near the bell. In the valve horn the bore is only theoretically conical, the extra lengths of tubing attached to the valves being practically cylindrical. The body is coiled spirally, and has at one end a wide-mouthed bell from 11 to 12 in. in diameter having a parabolic curve, and at the other a conical ferrule into which fit the crooks.
(b) The crooks (Fr. corps or tons de rechange; Ger. Krummbogen, Stimmbogen, Einsetzbogen) are interchangeable, spiral tubes, tapering to a diameter of a quarter of an inch at the mouthpiece end and varying in length from 16 in. for the B♭ alto crook to 125 in. for the B♭ basso. Each crook is named according to the fundamental tone which it produces on being added to the body. By lengthening the tube at will the crook lowers the pitch of the instrument, and consequently changes the key in which it stands. Although the harmonic series remains the same for all the crooks, the actual sounds produced by overblowing are lower, the tube being longer, and they now belong to the key of the crook. The principle of the crook was known early in the 17th century; it had been applied to the trumpet, trombone and Jägertrummet[1] before being adapted to the horn. Crooks are merely transposing agents; they are powerless to fill up the gaps in the scale of the horn in order to make it a chromatic or even a diatonic instrument, for they require time for adjustment. The principle of the crook doubtless suggested to Stölzel the system of valves, which is but an instantaneous application of the general principle to the individual notes of the harmonic series, each of which is thereby lowered a semitone, a tone or a tone and a half, as long as the valve remains in operation. The body of the horn without crooks is of the length to produce 8 ft. C., and forms the standard, being known as the alto horn in C, which is the highest key in which the horn is pitched. The notes are sounded as written.
(c) The mouthpiece of the horn differs substantially from that of the trumpet.[2] There is, strictly speaking, no cup, the inside of the mouthpiece being, like the bore of the instrument itself, in the form of a truncated cone or funnel. Like the other parts of this difficult and complex instrument, the proportions of the mouthpiece must bear a certain undefined relation to the length and diameter of the column of air. The choice of a suitable mouthpiece is in fact a test of skill; the shape of the lip of the performer and the more special use he may wish to make of either the higher or the lower harmonics have to be taken into consideration. In orchestral music the part for first horns naturally calls for the use of the higher harmonics, which are more easily obtained by means of a somewhat smaller and shallower mouthpiece[3] than that used upon the second horn, which is called upon to dwell more on the lower harmonics.
(d) The tuning slides (Fr. coulisses; Ger. Stimmbogen) consist of a pair of sliding U-shaped tubes fitting tightly into each other, by means of which the instrument can be brought strictly into tune, and which also act as compensators with the crooks. On these tuning slides, placed across the ring formed by the coils of the valve-horn, are fixed the pistons with their extra lengths of tubing; as the connexion of the pistons with the body of the horn is made through the slides, the value of the latter as compensators will be readily understood. Those accustomed to deal with instruments having fixed notes, such as the piano and harp, hardly realize the extreme difficulties which confront both maker and performer in intricate wind instruments such as the horn, on which no sounds can be produced without conscious adjustment of lips and breath, and but few without the additional use of some such contrivance as slide, crook, piston or of the hand in the bell, in the case of the natural or hand horn.
The production of sound in wind instruments has a fourfold object: (1) pitch; (2) range or scale of available notes; (3) quality of tone or timbre; (4) dynamic variation, or crescendo and diminuendo. The pitch of the horn, as of other wind instruments, depends almost exclusively on Acoustics. the length of the air-column set in vibration, and remains practically uninfluenced by the diameter of the bore. In the case of conical tubes in which the difference in diameter at the two extremities, mouthpiece and bell, is very great, as in the horn, the pitch of the tube will be slightly higher than its theoretical length would warrant.[4] When, for instance, three tubes of the same length are sounded—No. 1, conical diverging; No. 2,
- ↑ See Michael Praetorius, De organographia (Wolfenbüttel, 1618), tab. viii., where crooks for lowering the key by one tone on trumpet and trombone are pictured.
- ↑ See Victor Mahillon, Les Éléments d’acoustique musicale et instrumentale (Brussels, 1874), pp. 96, 97, &c.; Friedrich Zamminer, Die Musik und die musikalischen Instrumente (Giessen, 1855), p. 310, where diagrams of the mouthpieces are given.
- ↑ See Joseph Fröhlich, Vollständige theoretisch-praktische Musikschule (Bonn, 1811), iii. 7, where diagrams of the two mouthpieces for first and second horn are given.
- ↑ See Gottfried Weber, “Zur Akustik der Blasinstrumente,” in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Leipzig, 1816), p. 38.
