Jean-Baptist Lully was the first composer, who used the horns in the theatre in 1664. The Air des Valets de Chiens et des Chasseurs avec des Cors de Chasse is a hunting scene from the incidental music to Molière's play La Princesse d’Elide. At this time the horn usually had hunting scenes in these works. As the instrument and the musicians got used to being and performing in a more consolidated place, than in the forests, and fields, the composers started to use it also more frequently. This went so far that in pre-classicism and in the early classicism the horn got its permanent place in the orchestra. In the Dresdner Staatskapelle, the first hornists, Johann Adalbert Fischer and Adam Franz Samm, were employed from 1710. Though it was possible to change the main tonality of the instrument by the crooks, it was still not possible to get out of the natural harmonic series. We do not know the exact date, nor the first person who used the technique, but nowadays, it is a generally accepted compromise viewpoint to say that Anton Joseph Hampel was the first hornist who made experiments with the hand technique. What we can state for sure is the fact that one of the first collections of exercises is his work. Unfortunately, there is no written text in it, but the hand technique works as follows. If one puts the hand into the bell, it is possible to change the pitch by closing half or fully it. This method made it possible to play the notes in between the open notes, and it also gives a special colour to these notes, and to the melodies, and passages in the horn’s part. For instance, the leading note is often a closed note, which highlights it, and shows its special role.
Hornists, especially French, went so far with this technique that they composed very chromatic pieces for the instrument, full of modulations etc. But it was obvious that the instrument has to be improved, otherwise it will be useless for the new styles.
In the German speaking area, the musicians took it really seriously to find a solution, and we can find a whole series of articles in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung about the Verbesserung des Horns. In these articles we can find more examples of how some people tried to invent a new mechanism. Until we get to the Notices section in the newspaper on 3rd May 1915:
‘The chamber musician, Heinrich Stölzel, from Pless in Oberschlesien, has invented a simple mechanism in order to perfect the hunting horn. [...] All the unnatural notes - which were produced by stopping the bell with the right hand, and now are possible to be played with two valves, which are operated by two fingers of the right hand - sound totally similar to the natural notes…’
This was the original design which was modified by the inventor, and by others as well; and this was also the instrument that was sent to Paris. Although the Pariser horn community did not quickly accept the new way, the natural horn was the main instrument at the Paris Conservatoire until 1903, Joseph Meifred perfected the invention, and wrote his own method to it. We can say that he was the most famous valve hornist in France in the 19th century, but according to his tutor, he used only the two valve version, while the German and Austrian hornists were inventing the third valve as well, and developed a system to use the horn without any hand movement.
As this set-up was established, the instrument makers also started to make instruments with fixed pitch; it was not possible anymore to change the crook. Although this worked quite well, a new problem appeared. Beside the thinner, and less rich sound, some notes were not possible to play on the Bb horn, and the intonation of some notes were also unstable. After one further step, in 1902, the E.D.Kruspe manufacture made the first complet double horn which is the instrument that most of the hornists still use today. This horn is a completely chromatical instrument over more than four octaves, however, the colour of its sound, its character is pretty different to the instruments that were used fifty or hundred years before it. That is the reason why it is important for modern horn players to get to know the used equipment, and those features of earlier times, in order to understand the music, the part, and to reproduce it as well as possible.
The horn is possibly the most important material of the building, called orchestra. It makes the bridge between the strings and the wind instruments, and builds the connection between the woodwinds and the brass section. It is present almost all the time, whether as accompaniment, or solo instrument, but it also creates the atmosphere behind the scene. However, it took many years to get its regular place in the orchestra, but since there is hardly any musical style which abandons the horns.
When the horn was used in theatre music and in the orchestra, it was a very primitive instrument with restricted technical opportunities, and with a relatively small amount of notes. As the composers started to use it regularly in the orchestral music, the horn began to change, and the hornists started to find new techniques to have a more versatile instrument. Until the beginning of the 19th century, which is the beginning of romanticism as well, we can’t talk about any huge change in the instrument. The main developments that have taken place are the increase of the bell, and the diameter of the pipe; and instead of instruments which can play only in one tonality, the crooks were invented. With the change of the crooks with different lengths, it is possible to change the main tonality of the instrument. As the composers started to use more, and greater modulations, it was very impractical that the horn, and the trumpets too, was fixed to one specific key all the time. It was necessary to find a solution which makes these instruments able to play as chromatically as possible. In 1815, a mechanism with two pistons for the horn was patented under the name of Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin. It was still an invention that still needed some improvement to be really usable, but this was a big step. After a couple of more variations of this idea, we can say that in the second half of the 1820s the valve horn became an instrument which could be used in the alldays and in the professional ensembles too. Still, the musicians did not start to use it immediately, and the composers were also waiting to involve the new instrument in their compositions. Except for a couple of exemptions, they were still writing for the natural horn, up until the middle of the century. In the second half of the 1840s, even more composers trusted the new instrument, and they got to know how to treat it. This is the point where we have the connection to Robert Schumann. Because of the circumstances, he started to use a mixed horn section in his orchestral works after 1848. In these pieces, he used two valve and two natural horns. It is a very interesting combination, because in German romanticism, it was not regularly that composers used it. Almost the only examples are Richard Wagner’s early and Schumann’s late orchestral works. After this short transition period, the valve horn started to conquer, and take over the place of the hand horn.
A good composer, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Ludwig van Beethoven, who could apply these features in his works, could use the horn as a very effectful and ecsotic instrument. It was possible to give different character, and colour to every note, and section. Traditionally, hornists play the bar 121-124 from Mozart’s 4th Horn concerto first forte, then piano. This is a musically good solution, but the composer already wrote the notes, that this is the natural way of playing the excerpt. In the first two bars, the solo horn has only open notes, but in the next two, almost only stopped ones.
The valves’ mechanism, very simply explained, makes the horn able to change the crooks rapidly. Each valve adds extra length to the main tube. The 1st valve lowers with a whole tone, the 2nd a half tone, and the 3rd three half tones, so it is the first and second valves combined. The combination of the second and third valve two whole notes, or 4 half notes and so on. So, it makes it possible to play in seven keys from the main tuning downwards. In case the horn is tuned in F, we are able to play in F, E, Eb, D, Db, C, B. It is obvious that the invention of the valve was extremely important for the instrument to leave behind the classical era, when only one key was enough for even an entire piece.
In romanticism, until the end of the century, the hornists still used to change crooks, the main tonality of the instrument. One reason was the same, why clarinet players change between A and Bb instruments still today, make the fingerings easier, and avoid cross fingerings as much as possible. The other is to adjust the instrument better to the register where the musician plays. Horn players used mostly the F crook, which covers quite well the entire range of the instrument, but it gets more difficult, and unsecure in the high register. Therefore, the high-horn players changed to the A or Bb crook which are a fourth higher, and so, there is also more space between the notes.
