Virtually any type of tube, some even without having sustained any modification can be used as a music instrument simply by sounding it as a horn. A series of notes can be produced in this way through the use of the harmonic series. Here is a look at some of the world horns that exist and can be used as music instruments accordingly.

Conches

Many of the horns around the world are actually found objects. For example, an animal horn can have its tip cut off and can be used as a musical instrument, or a large shell with a spiral skeleton such as a conch can have the point cut off so that the tube within is exposed to create sound. Cup shaped mouth pieces are often added and fit. Blown conches may not be particularly suited for the playing of tunes, as their use typically has more to do with ritual and signaling, but the conch is still capable of producing sound that can be used in music. In the ceremonies held within Hindu temples within India as well as Tibetan, Nepalese and East Asian Buddhist temples, this concept is often found.

Animal Horns

Most of the wide range of animal horns that are musical and used within Africa have been blown not via the end but rather via a hole that is cut into the side of the instrument. This particular approach is designed to give the maker a greater amount of control over the size as well as the shape of the embouchure without having to rely on the diameter of the tube. Some animal horns, with an example being the bukkehorn from a goat or a cow, are drilled to supply finger holes for the person playing the instrument to use. Accurate pitching is often difficult when the animal horn is short and does not allow for many finger holes or much space through which sound and air can travel.

Bark-Bound Horns

Most of the horns of the world, unlike those which are found, are actually crafted or made in some way. The simplest horn, perhaps, is a horn that is a spiral made out of birch bark that is pegged at its wide end in order to prevent it from unraveling, or perhaps a branch that is split, with a bore and a cup for the mouth hollowed out of the branch, and then two halves put back together with glue and bound using birch bark. Bark bound wooden horns and other instruments have been played up to the twentieth century and especially by herders in the Nordic countries as well as European mountain areas and in Russia. Many of these horns are of a great length, because longer horns translated into higher harmonic capabilities. Because they are closer together in terms of pitch, these higher harmonics are more than capable of producing a much more capable scale than other and cruder forms of horn making.

Photo Credits: Daquella manera

Originally posted 2009-08-13 03:06:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Acoustic Musical Instruments, Horns, Instrument History

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