HORN. musical instrument, belonging to the family of brass wind instruments and dis tinguished by a cupped mouthpiece. a flaring bell, a nd a narrow, conical tube which is between nine and eighteen feet long. and is twisted hack on itself. The natural or French horn (q.v.), al though having an exceedingly tender, tone, was a very imperfect instrument, and is now entirely superseded by the valve Mama. The born is built. in almost any key; there are horns in A. Dn. C'. 1). Eb. E. F. C:. Its range is from C--c . .1s the horns (except the one in I') are transposing instruments, lower tone; than C can be obtained by using different horns. For in stance, on the low Bo horn the note (' sounds 13n, on the Eb horn E'r, etc. The music for horns i; always written in the t, clef. except the very low tones. Strange to say. the tones written in the bass elef are always written an octave low( r than the actual sound. In (lie smallest orchestra there are always two horns. The ordinary symphony orchestra has four. and Wagner em ploys as many as eight. When four horns are used the first and third are written on the sante staff in the soul., and the second and fourth to
gether on another staff. What kind of horns are employed depends upon the tonality of the com position and also to some extent upon the modu lation within the tonality. a composer writing in C' major might employ two horns in C and two in F. or two in C and two in (I. Some modern masters use the F horn; for all keys. A peculiarity in writing music for horn; is that no key signatures are used. All music is written in C and even- ehromatie alteration is specially marked. Muted tones can also be produced upon the valve horns. They have a peculiar ominous sound. and are sometimes employed in dramatic to express situations of fear. horror. mystery. etc. In the :Vibe/at/yen Wagner has an effective phrase on muted horns whenever Wo tan's ravens are mentioned. Unfortunately, these muted tones have been abused and are used with out sufficient reasons in the works of the Nen German school. Of the early composers. Weber was preeminent for his skillful use of horns in producing new effects.