The Vienna horn (german: Wiener Horn) is a type of musical horn used primarily in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, for playing

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l or

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

. It is used throughout Vienna, including the

Vienna Philharmonic The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. It ...

and '' Wiener Staatsoper''.

History

During the nineteenth century, a number of experiments were made in adding valves to the

natural horn The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day (French) horn (differentiated by its lack of valves). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century the natural horn evolved as a separation from the trump ...

to enable it to play chromatically without the need for hand-stopping. These experiments included adding piston valves (as used in modern

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s) to a single F horn. The horn was still crooked, by inserting other tubing, to re-tune the instrument for music written in base keys other than F.

Description

The Vienna horn uses a unique form of double-cylinder valve associated with the Viennese firm Uhlmann of the 1840s known as a

pumpenvalve Brass instrument valves are valves used to change the length of tubing of a brass instrument allowing the player to reach the notes of various harmonic series. Each valve pressed diverts the air stream through additional tubing, individually or i ...

. A pumpenvalve is similar to the standard piston valve, but it is not pushed directly inward. Instead, long

push-rod An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

s reach across to each

lever A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or '' fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is d ...

key (as with rotary valves), allowing either a fast or slow change in the valve, by lever speed. The pumpenvalve allows the air to flow straight when the valves are not actuated. When a valve is engaged, each cylinder redirects the air stream 90 degrees in one bend, lessening the resistance felt by the player. This type of valve is one of the many contributing factors to the liquid legato that is one of the trademarks of the Viennese school. However, the indirect linkage between the fingers and the valves can make the action slower and therefore make quick technical passages more difficult for the player.Barry Tuckwell, ''Horn'', Macdonald, 1983, p. 50. The internal diameter of the Vienna horn is also smaller than more modern horns. This bore size and shape is actually very close to the design of the valve-less natural horns. The removable crooks (usually an F and A and/or B) are also smoothly tapered for the length of the horn. Thus, there is no "compromise" (of dual tubing) as found in the modern

double horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

and

triple horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

. Although subsequent developments, including the

rotary valve A rotary valve (also called rotary-motion valve) is a type of valve in which the rotation of a passage or passages in a transverse plug regulates the flow of liquid or gas through the attached pipes. The common stopcock is the simplest form of rot ...

and double horn, supplanted these horns in most places, the pumpenvalve horn was retained in Vienna because it sounds more like the natural horn: with a more mellow sound and arguably smoother legato. This is due in part to the piston valves and in part to the larger throated (but smaller diameter) bell-flare still used with these instruments. The Vienna horn has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-nineteenth century.

Horn players Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various a ...

who use the Vienna horn also use a ''natural horn'' mouthpiece, which is less concave than a typical double horn mouthpiece. A standard horn mouthpiece is more concave, partly to facilitate the playing of lower notes because of lower impedance of the double horn.

References

External links

*
Gregor Widholm: The Vienna Horn - a historic relict successfully used by top orchestras of the 21. century

Thomas Jöbstl: The Vienna Horn

Viennahorns chamber music ensemble

Scottish Vienna Horns
{{Authority control F instruments Horns