The corno da tirarsi ("pull horn") is a
Baroque brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin an ...
.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
wrote for the instrument when he was working in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, and it appears to have been played for him by
Gottfried Reiche.
It has been stated that it appears in four
Bach cantatas.
However, it is only called for in three cantatas by name, BWV
46,
162
Year 162 ( CLXII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Plautius (or, less frequently, year 915 '' Ab ...
and
67.
Aside from its appearance in the works of Bach, there is no other evidence of its existence – Picon states "No… ''corno da tirarsi'' instrument remains. Nor some dictionary article, maker's bill, player's list, picture or document of any kind that would bring proof of the actual existence of the instrument. The reality of the ''corno da tirarsi'' is only documented (as far as we know) by its music – and that by a single composer."
Its characteristics are debated, but it was most likely a
horn that resembled the "Inventions" horn of the late 18th century: "a freely-moving, double (cylindrical) tuning slide positioned diametrically across its circular body".
It also may have been a
slide trumpet.
References
{{reflist
Baroque instruments
Brass instruments