The years between 1814 and 1850 saw the introduction of the valved horn into music and many changes in horn technique, especially in the areas of the use of crooks, right-hand technique, transposition, and valves.
A general note for readers. As originally conceived, this article was much shorter and primarily linked to a series of pages on the former Horn Articles Online website. With that site going dark in 2025, this was expanded to provide the same general overview, but with any links staying within Horn Matters. As you read into it you will see the writing tone shift multiple times, as the content is based on different source materials that were written over a number of years. Much of this content is unique, and is presented here with the goal of providing a broad overview of the topic for my students and all interested in horn history.
People were looking for solutions to the “natural horn problem”
The simple fact was the natural horn could not play chromatically into the lower range and did not have an even tone color. It worked the best on simple diatonic passages that were mostly open harmonics.
This fact led to many experiments. As I wrote in an article published in the Historic Brass Society Journal 9 (1997),
One of the most interesting experiments is documented in an 1812 article in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, “Wichtige Verbesserung des Horns” [Important Improvement to the Horn], by composer and theorist Gottfried Weber (1779-1839). Christian Dikhuth, a hornist in the court orchestra in Mannheim, had applied a short trombone slide with a return spring to the horn, a feat which he had accomplished by 1811. The invention operated on the same principal as the English slide trumpet, which dates from the end of the eighteenth century [Tarr, vol. 3, 404]. The slide could be used to lower the pitch of the instrument by a half step and was pulled into an extended position by means of a clock spring mechanism unless held in by the performer; the slide was normally held in. No example of this design is known to have survived, but based on the published description, the instrument could be illustrated as below.
Weber’s review showed how this mechanism could be used not only to correct intonation, but also to produce a number of new pitches without stopping the bell with the hand. Other notes, previously available only by heavily stopping the bell, could now be produced by using the hands in conjunction, the left thumb operating the mechanism by means of a cord attached to the slide and the right hand lightly stopping the bell. While not making the horn fully chromatic, it was now possible to use much less coverage with the right hand and thus obtain a much more even tonal color.
The article goes on to show how the new device can be used to great advantage in the last movement of Beethoven 3.
Another “big idea” that did not catch on was the keyed horn. About those I wrote,
Several contemporary artists also tried to apply keys to the horn. Following up on his success with the keyed trumpet, the Viennese trumpeter Anton Weidinger (1767-1852) designed a keyed horn for his twelve-year-old son Joseph, who performed on the new instrument on a concert with his father on February 28, 1813, with other performances known in 1817 and 1819 [Dahlqvist, 17]. A report in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1815 also states that Schugt, a hornist from Cologne, had successfully demonstrated a keyed horn in the fall of 1813 [E., col 636-639]. Details of the construction of the instruments of Weidinger and Schugt are not known, but at least one nineteenth-century keyed horn survives which has three large keys in the region of the bell throat and bell tail. These could be used to raise an instrument pitched in F to F-sharp, G, and A-flat, but would not allow the placement of hand in the bell of the horn and would significantly alter the tonal color as well. [NOTE: This instrument is pictured Bruchle and Janetzky, 197.]
The idea of placing keys on the horn seems to have received little notice, as did the slide horn. These inventions are however quite significant historically from the standpoint of showing a desire in some quarters to improve on the natural instruments then in use by increasing their chromatic capabilities.
[See the original article for the citations in the above quotes.]
Addressing a popular myth on why valves were invented
A major point that has frequently been made in the existing literature on the early technique of the valved horn in Germany is the idea that the valve was invented only to make quick changes of crook. The available evidence simply does not support this theory, as only a few works dating from the mid-nineteenth century are seen to use this technique. It is abundantly clear that valves were originally seen by Heinrich Stölzel and others as a way to play chromatic passagework not before possible on the horn, and especially as a way to fill in the missing low range pitches of the natural horn without resorting to right-hand technique. See the following article for a key quotation on the topic from Stölzel himself:
The First Works for the Valved Horn
This section is based on materials published in The Horn Call Annual 8 (1996) and The Horn Call 28, no. 3 (May, 1998).
There are a pair of highly notable but generally unknown very early works for the valved horn that are know to have been performed in Berlin before 1820.
The first and most notable of these works is a Concertino for three natural horns and chromatic horn by hornist, composer, and conductor Georg Abraham Schneider (1770-1839). This work was premiered on December 14, 1818 [SEE UPDATE, below; October 16, 1818 is the correct date]; Pfaffe performed on the valved horn, as noted in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 21 (January 27, 1819), col. 63. This Concertino was performed again in March of 1819, as noted in AmZ 21 (April 18, 1819), with a third performance occurring on December 15, 1819, as recorded in AmZ 22 (January 19, 1820), col. 51. The second of these works, a Concerto for three horns by a hornist named Lenss, was premiered on November 26, 1819; Andreas Schunke performed the chromatic horn part, as noted in AmZ 21 (December 22, 1819), col. 874 [sources: Dressler, 66, and Tarr, 200].
Both of these important early works date from the period that Heinrich Stoelzel (1777-1844), the inventor of the valve, was active in Berlin and, unfortunately, are very likely not extant today. That the Schneider includes a part for the chromatic horn does, however, say something important: he saw the valved horn as a completely chromatic instrument (as had Stoelzel). This is yet another piece of evidence proving that the idea that the valve was invented as a mere crook changing device is a myth.
[See the original article for the citations in the above quotes.]
UPDATE
Besides pointing to an even earlier performance of the Schneider Concertino in Berlin (October 16, 1818–as published in AMZ for November of 1818, col. 790-791–Friedrich Bode performed the valved horn), publisher Robert Ostermeyer presents a good case that his new publication of the Concerto for 4 Horns and Orchestra in E-flat by Schneider (dated on the score 30 March 1817) is in fact the same work as the Concertino. At the very least he shows that the Concertino was performed at least four times before 1820; if it is the same work as his publication he has published (spring, 2000) it is a most interesting document. The work itself would appear to have be written for natural horns; the first part, while playable on the natural horn, is nevertheless a soloistic, obbligato line compared to the other horn parts, and thus may have been intended to demonstrate the unique ability of the valved horn to perform these lines without stopped notes.
Vienna Horns: The most familiar early valved horn type
Quite a variety of valve types were made during those early years of valved horn (with the very lax patent laws of the time promoting much experimentation). Today though, in the horn world generally, one type of horn just screams early valved horn, and that is the Vienna horn with Vienna valves. For more on that, check this article:
Patent laws? Privileges?
It was really a different time in terms of an ability to protect your inventions. From an article that was formerly on Horn Articles Online on the history of valves we learn
The term “patented” is commonly used today, but, as was noted by Edward H. Tarr in part one of his article “The Romantic Trumpet” (Historic Brass Society Journal 5 [1993], 230), “it was apparently only in Prussia that valves were patented; in Vienna, ‘privileges’ were granted.” Tarr also pointed to a note in Philip Bate, The Trumpet and Trombone, 2nd ed. (London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1978), 194, which is also significant with regards to early patents and valves: “The International Patents Convention, by which a number of nations agreed to respect each other’s patents, was not signed until 1883. Prior to that date there was nothing to prevent an invention, fully protected in the country of its origin, being freely copied once it had crossed the frontier. Before 1870 also, the various independent German-speaking states granted their own patents or privileges, but would not necessarily recognize one another’s unless specific trade agreements were in force.”
On piston and rotary valves
While Vienna horns were the standard in Vienna, in France and England piston valves became the standard for horn, and in most other places rotary valves were standard. A piston valved horn (set up with the French ascending third valve system) is seen below.
While piston, rotary, and Vienna valves were the most successful types, there were many types of valve applied to the horn — not to mention unusual variations on standard types. For a brief look at an example of an unusual design not seen used today, check this article on Allen valves.
Three different approaches to valves, and two important early valved hornists
This section is based on text from my dissertation.
There were different approaches to the valve horn expressed by leading musicians and hornists of the time. The slow process of adoption of the valved horn into orchestral music was influenced greatly by three groups of musicians who exhibited differing attitudes toward the valved horn.
The first group were those musicians who fully embraced the valved horn. The performers in this group would include Heinrich Stölzel and others in Berlin, the Lewy family in Vienna and Dresden, Josef Kail in Vienna and Prague, Meifred in Paris, and, later, Franz Strauss in Munich. Early composers and critics in this group would include G. B. Bierey, Friedrich Schneider, B. D. Weber, and Gottfried Weber. Their reasons for adopting or at least advocating the valved horn included its excellent low range and full, even-toned chromatic scale. These factors also led to the rapid introduction of valved brass instruments into contemporary military bands.
The second group were those musicians who tried to “straddle the fence” and wrote music playable by both the valved horn and the natural horn. Many composers fit into this category, as they tended to be very cautious about the use of the valved horn. Some works, while intended for the valved horn, could also be performed on natural horns, and to an extent, any work written for a horn section which combined valved and natural horns is an example of this type of work. Indeed, many who were ultimately great supporters of the valved horn did not immediately embrace the instrument, including Wagner and Schumann.
The final group were those who rejected the new technology. They were more conservative and established, and undoubtedly included many hornists. Some major composers of the period, such as Mendelssohn, never utilized the instrument. Others adopted the valved horn only later, when they were certain that it in fact would be used and when they were also certain that they wanted it to be used.
The hornists I would feature for purposes of this discussion are Kopprasch and Meifred; click on the links below for more on these individuals and their early valved horn technique.
The valved horn was adopted more slowly than you would guess
It should also be noted that in general composers were surprisingly slow to adopt the valved horn in the orchestra. The relative scarcity of orchestral works in particular for the instrument before 1850 is a clear indication of this.
One work has been cited pretty consistently as the first orchestral use of the valved horn. I had for many years an article on this in Horn Articles Online, based on materials published as a letter to the editor in The Horn Call Annual 7 (1995) and in my article in The Horn Call Annual 9 (1997). Introducing the work,
The orchestral début of the valved horn is the 1835 opera La Juive of Jules Halévy (1799-1862). In this work crooks are used on the valved horns in a similar manner to that seen in the Meifred Méthode. La Juive has frequently been noted for its use of valved horns without examining the nature of the writing [Runyan, 270]. The orchestration calls for four horns and includes parts for a pair of valved horns in seven of its twenty-two numbers; Meifred is recorded as performing one of the valved horn parts for the premiere [Carse, 76].
Meifred was involved! But how exactly does the valved horn writing differ from natural horn?
It can be seen that the valved horns are treated differently than the natural horns. They are used to play numerous tones in the lower range which would have to be taken as covered pitches on the natural horn, including f, f-sharp, b, f’ and a’; these pitches are clearly intended to be taken as open pitches using the valves, as evidenced by the voice crossings in measures nine and thirteen required to place these pitches in the valved horn parts.
It is clear from the orchestration of this work that Halévy employed the valved horns, pitched in several keys, primarily as fully chromatic instruments which performed principally in the low range. Halévy called for valved horns crooked in the keys of D, E-flat, E, and G, with E-flat being the most common. From the notation of the part one sees that the third and fourth horns are to switch frequently between natural and valved horns; natural horns are requested of these players in seventeen numbers, and they are to switch between valved and natural horns during the course of four numbers. Crooks requested in the natural horn sections for the third and fourth horns include B-flat basso, C, D, E-flat, E, F, G, and A. As Halévy clearly expected the hornists to make these changes of crooks on the natural horn, it follows that he also expected the hornists to change crooks on the valved horn as requested in the score; the valved horn was not seen as a fixed pitch instrument in F, as it would come to be later, and was placed in keys which Halévy believed would allow the greatest ease of performance. The choice of crooks in a more restricted range of keys from D to G would additionally allow for the proper adjustment of one set of valve slides for each crook.
This style of writing for valved horns in several different pitches is of considerable importance with regard to early German valved horn writing as well, as the opera La Juive is known to have been a significant influence upon Richard Wagner [Westernhagen, vol. 20, 105]. Wagner himself commented favorably on the work in a review of a production of Halévy’s later opera La reine de Chypre (1841) [Snedeker, “Early,” 11-12].
[See the original article for the citations in the above quotes.]
Speaking of Wagner and crazy notations
It is also interesting that La Juive was influential on Wagner, a hugely important composer for the horn! Related to that, years ago I wrote a long article highly related to Wagner and the development of his horn writing:
- “Joseph Rudolphe Lewy and Valved Horn Technique in Germany, 1837-1851.” The Horn Call Annual 9 (1997), 23-35.
While I consider it my best article, the original is chock full of footnotes and remains not one well suited to breaking up and putting online.
However, one central point of key interest to students of the horn today has to do with understanding the crazy notations in Lohengrin. These are examined in quite a bit of depth in the original article. Fortunately, I have a shorter and more easily digested discussion of that topic here in Horn Matters:
And a brief look at Berlioz
Finally, one other Horn Matters article I would highly recommend reading on the early valved horn is
The bigger picture importance of this article is it relates to understanding how players actually were playing these works at the time, works that we perform often today.
When we return to this series the topic will be the valved horn in the later 19th century.
Continue in the University of Horn Matters
Return to Week 10 of the Horn Repertoire Course
Crooks and the valved horn
Controversy over the use of crooks, especially the use of the F or Bb crooks, would not be completely resolved until the early twentieth century. The solution, which in the words of Reginald Morley-Pegge “revolutionized horn playing technique almost as much as did the invention of the valve,” was the double horn. The first prototypes of this design, which combined F and Bb horns into one instrument, were produced by the Erfurt horn maker Kruspe in 1897. With these instruments the modern era of horn playing was introduced. For more information please read:
Steve asks:
On my descant in particular, put in an “old standard” mouthpiece like a C-8 and it really feels like a dog of a horn, of the sort that if you tried you would put it down in a few seconds as being not a good horn at all in the high range. That experience may also color your entire perspective on a category of instruments to the point that you may always feel that descant horns are overrated, as that one you tried did not help your high range production at all. The problem is the mouthpiece is an acoustical mismatch; it is too big with too much cup volume and too large a throat.
I have a personal story in that regard, one that I will share fully with the live class. In short though, learning to play with a very straight, American orchestral sound was key to my finally winning an orchestral job. It is something to scope out very carefully in relation to actually winning a job playing the horn in some areas of the world.
First, and probably most important, is mouthpiece selection. The smaller the cup and the smaller the throat of the mouthpiece, the more pressure you can produce efficiently. Consider a slightly shallower cup and smaller throat mouthpiece if you have difficulty in the high range. This is not exactly a repair or maintenance solution, but it is the beginning point, from an equipment perspective, if you are having range difficulties.
