780 



HORN 



It may be stated here that the hoofs of oxen are 

 likewise manufactured on a large scale into combs, 

 and to some extent into other articles such as 

 buttons. 



In their natural form, but cleaned and polished, 

 horns are used as drinking-cups and snuff-boxes, and 

 in past times they were very largely employed for 

 holding gunpowder. They also served as wind- 

 instruments. Many of the Scotch powder-horns in 

 use during the 16th and 17th centuries are beauti- 

 fully and elaborately carved. A considerable num- 

 ber of these are illustrated in Drummond's Ancient 

 Scottish Weapons ( 1881 ). In India buffalo and other 

 horns are used for ornamental Avork of various 

 kinds. Rhinoceros horn again is a favourite mate- 

 rial with Chinese carvers, who form the base of 

 it into elegant cups, and sometimes make a very 

 effective ornament of the entire horn, which admits 

 of being very boldly carved. The deer horn so much 

 Avorked up at Sheffield into handles for carving and 

 pocket knives is chiefly that of the Axis deer 

 (Cervus axis) of India. Deer horns are employed 

 in France and Germany to decorate furniture. In 

 Great Britain the antlers or horns of the stag, the 

 roe, and the falloAV deer generally with the skull 

 attached are favourite ornaments for the decora- 

 tion of entrance-halls, and good examples of these 

 are now somewhat costly. 



The average annual imports of horns and hoofs 

 into Great Britain for the three years ending 1888 

 amounted to 5000 tons, valued at rather more than 

 150,000. To show the large size to which some 

 horns attain, it may be stated that a pair on the 

 head of a Cape ox sometimes measures 9 or 10 feet 

 from tip to tip. The horns of a large-sized Indian 

 buffalo, though curved in shape, are about as long. 

 They are 8 or 9 inches broad at the base, and a 

 single horn may weigh 11 or 12 Ib. 



Horn, CAPE, commonly spoken of as the 

 southernmost point of America, is a steep, black, 

 bare mountain-headland of one of the small islands 

 of the Fuegian Archipelago, 55 59' S. lat., 67 14' 

 W. long. It was named Hoorn, anglicised Horn, 

 Avhen rounded in 1616 by the Dutch navigators, 

 Lemaire and Schouten. It Avas sighted by Drake 

 in 1578. Steamers can avoid the dangerous doub- 

 ling of ' the Horn' by the Strait of Magellan. See 

 Spears, The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn (1896). 



Horn, COUNT (1518-68). See EGMONT, and 

 HOLLAND ( History ). 



Horn, FRENCH (Fr. cor, cor de chasse; Ital. 

 corno, corno de caccia; Ger. horn, waldhorn), one 

 of the most important, as it is the softest toned, of 

 brass instruments used in orchestral music. Its 

 soft and peculiar tone is due to the length of the 

 tube, the shape of the bell, and the funnel-like 

 bore of the mouthpiece. This latter important 

 point Avill be understood 

 from fig. 1, Avhich shows a 

 section of the horn mouth- 

 piece (a) contrasted Avith 

 that of the trumpet (b), 

 the most brazen of brass 

 instruments. The original 

 French horn Avas used in 

 hunting, and consisted of 

 a long tube \vith two or 

 three turns made large 

 enough to go over the 

 shoulders of the hunter. 

 It Avas used from a very 

 Fig. 1. early period, but it AA r as 



Louis XV. Avho composed 



the complete set of sounds and fanfares still used 

 in the French hunting-field. 



It Avas introduced into the orchestra in the early 

 part of the 18th century, and it gradually acquired 



the important position it now holds from the 

 smooth softness of its tones as a foundation for 

 harmony in chords, and its fine contrast with other 

 instruments. 



For orchestral purposes the instrument was 

 improved by the addition of crooks of varying 

 lengths, so as to pitch it in different keys ; and 

 thus horn music is always written in C with the 

 key added to show the crook to be used. These 

 crooks are usually eight in number, and extend 

 from AJ3 in alto to C basso ; the lowest crook 

 making the total length of the instrument a little 

 over 16 feet. There are also tuning crooks, raising 

 or lowering either of the others a semitone, and 

 also a tuning slide for the more accurate tuning 

 with the other instruments. The open notes of 

 the horn are the harmonics of its fundamental 

 note (see HARMONICS), and as this, from the length 

 of the tube, is very low, the harmonics in the 

 middle scale are at very short intervals with many 

 consecutive notes. It may be given approximately 

 thus : 



The notes actually sounded, of course, depend on 

 the crooks used. The method of forming the inter- 

 mediate notes by hand-stopping was discovered by 

 a player named Hampl at Dresden about 1770. 

 The open hand, with the fingers close together, is 

 introduced into the bell, lowering the pitch a semi- 

 tone. These stopped notes, however, have a. 

 muffled sound, and in modern times the horn is 

 almost always made with two or three valves to 

 bridge over the intervals. Fig. 2 shows the horn 



Fig. 2. 



with two valves as commonly used. On account of 

 the frequent changes of pitch, and the number and 

 tenderness of its open notes, it is a difficult instru- 

 ment to play. The horn is very seldom used 

 singly ; either two or four being the usual number 

 in the orchestra. 



Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, 

 Mendelssohn, Rossini, Schumann, and all com- 

 posers of note have given the horns a most im- 

 portant place in their works. See article ' Horn ' 

 in Grove s Dictionary of Music. 



POSTHORN, a straight brass or copper instru- 

 ment, varying from 2 to 4 feet in length, and some- 

 what resembling the bugle in its taper bore ; it 

 has a small cupped mouthpiece. It was used as a 

 signal instrument by the guards of mail-coaches, 

 but has occasionally been introduced into light 

 music. It has the same open notes as the Bugle 

 (q.v.). The hunting-horn, used in England, is a. 

 shorter instrument of the same kind. The Sax- 

 horn (q.v. ) is a different instrument. 



