... Continued from World Horns 101 pt 1

The best known example of the bark bound horn is the Alpine horn or Alphorn, which is the best known and the most engineered. It is a straight and a gradually expanding tube that can be as long as 13 feet or 4 meters long and it curves upwards just before the bell of the instrument. Modern styles of Alpine Horns or Alphorns are typically capable of being dismantled for the purposes of travel, and some of them are even made out of carbon fiber materials.

Didgeridoo

This is a famous instrument that comes from aboriginal Australia. It is made out of a long eucalyptus branch hat has been hollowed out naturally by termites. The end that you blow into is relatively wide and is typically smothered using a coating of beeswax. The player uses what is a relatively sophisticated technique with the use of slack embouchure in order to produce low droning notes, utilizing resonance of the mouth and pulsing his or her breath and adding in all kinds of unique vocal barks and yelps that are capable of intermodulating with the blown sound in order to create unique sounds all while the player is using continuously circular breathing.

Metal Horns

Metal horns are durable and widespread examples of horns that have managed to survive for many years, many of which have survived through an age of antiquity, in fact. Among these metal horns are the Lur, a Scandinavian instrument from the Bronze Age, which is an S-shaped horn that features a disc bell, as well as the Carnyx, which has a mouth piece and an animal headed bell of an otherwise wooden body which comes from the ancient Celts. There are a number of metal horns that are still being played today including ceremonial trumpet instruments that are ornate and straight and played in Tibet as well as Benin.

These horns are capable of ranging greatly in length up to the length of the Alphorn for example. Another example is the Kombu, which is quite similar in nature to the lur, but is C shaped instead. Another example of a Lur like instrument is the Narsiga from India, which is S shaped. The short signal horn that foxhunters use in England is another example, as is the coiled bugle used in military signaling. The entire range off brass covered instruments such as trumpets for example can also fall into this category as well, proving that world horns can evolve into some truly interesting shapes with time.

There are numerous other horn instruments that we will go into in the next entry in this series, including the Cornett from the Renaissance era in Europe and the Serpent, a conically bored instrument with a luscious baritone sound. There are horns to suit all sounds and purposes, crafted from an endless variety of materials including found objects as we touched on earlier.

Photo Credits: denn

Originally posted 2009-08-14 03:14:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Acoustic Musical Instruments, Horns, Instrument History, brass instruments

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aboriginal australia, age of antiquity, alphorn, alpine horn, ancient celts, barks, beeswax, bronze age, carbon fiber, carnyx, circular breathing, embouchure, fiber materials, kombu, metal horns, mouth piece, sophisticated technique, termites, tibet, yelps