The orchestra and its instruments . t, ora useful, or subordinate one. No master, in my opin-ion, has ever known how to avail himself of its powersmore originally, more poetically, and, at the sametime, more completely than Weber. In his threefinest works — Oberon, Euryanthe and Freischiitz —he causes the horn to speak a language as* admirableas it is novel, — a language which Beethoven andMehul alone seem to have comprehended before him. The horn is of all orchestral instruments the onewhich Gluck wrote least well for. We must, however,quote as a stroke of genius those three notes of thehorn
The orchestra and its instruments . t, ora useful, or subordinate one. No master, in my opin-ion, has ever known how to avail himself of its powersmore originally, more poetically, and, at the sametime, more completely than Weber. In his threefinest works — Oberon, Euryanthe and Freischiitz —he causes the horn to speak a language as* admirableas it is novel, — a language which Beethoven andMehul alone seem to have comprehended before him. The horn is of all orchestral instruments the onewhich Gluck wrote least well for. We must, however,quote as a stroke of genius those three notes of thehorn imitating the conch of Charon in the air of Alceste,* Charon now calls thee. They are middle Cs, givenin unison by two horns in D-major; but the composerhaving conceived the idea of causing the bells of eachto be closed, it follows that the two instruments servemutually as a sordino; and the sounds, interclashing,assume a distant accent and a cavernous quality oftone of the most strange and dramatic effect. 1 William H. HORN, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK Josef Franzl THE BRASSWIND FAMILY 107 The horn that these composers called for in theirscores was the hunting-horn to which crooks had beenadded to enable the performer to play in different keys—pitch. The horn in its natural, or simple, form wasused until 1830. After that valves, or pistons, wereadded and the instrument was known as the chromatichorn. Played with a mute (con sordino) made of cloth,the horn produces a dreamy effect. Walter Dam-rosch makes a poetic use of the horn, so mufHed, in hisopera, Cyrano. The horn as we see it to-day consists of a tubebent into a spiral (for convenience of holding), com-paratively narrow near the mouthpiece and gradu-ally widening out towards the bell. It might, therefore,be described as a conical pipe. The air-stream blownin by the player runs all through the tube vibratingas it goes all through the coils and emptying out ofthe bell. There are no holes pierced in it anywh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
