Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 169
Scan 169
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
72 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 149. See the scan on archive.org.
1thanks to the kindness of Mr. Goodison, one of the very best English makers of brass instruments, have come to the decision that the horn in question is decidedly German, and made in Leipsic by Schmidt. No doubt at the time it was made (about 60 years ago) it was considered a very fine solo horn. It is very complete, having every crook necessary for the different keys, viz., B♭ alt, A♭, A♭, G, G♭, F, E♭, E♭, D, D♭, C, B♭, B♭, making in all thirteen changes. These changes are made, not by means of crooks, but by removing the slide and substituting a smaller or larger amount of tubing as required for higher or lower keys. It may be interesting to give the length of the different crooks from the high B♭ alt to the octave B♭ bass.
3<table>
4 <tr>
5 <th>B♭ alt Crook</th>
6 <th>Length about</th>
7 <th>1 ft. 6 in.</th>
8 </tr>
9 <tr>
10 <td>A♭</td>
11 <td>"</td>
12 <td>2 ,, 1 ,,</td>
13 </tr>
14 <tr>
15 <td>A♭</td>
16 <td>"</td>
17 <td>2 ,, 8 ,,</td>
18 </tr>
19 <tr>
20 <td>G</td>
21 <td>"</td>
22 <td>3 ,, 4 ,,</td>
23 </tr>
24 <tr>
25 <td>G♭</td>
26 <td>"</td>
27 <td>4 ,, 0 ,,</td>
28 </tr>
29 <tr>
30 <td>F</td>
31 <td>"</td>
32 <td>4 ,, 9 ,,</td>
33 </tr>
34 <tr>
35 <td>E♭</td>
36 <td>"</td>
37 <td>5 ,, 7 ,,</td>
38 </tr>
39 <tr>
40 <td>E♭</td>
41 <td>"</td>
42 <td>6 ,, 3 ,,</td>
43 </tr>
44 <tr>
45 <td>D♭</td>
46 <td>"</td>
47 <td>7 ,, 2 ,,</td>
48 </tr>
49 <tr>
50 <td>D♭</td>
51 <td>"</td>
52 <td>8 ,, 0 ,,</td>
53 </tr>
54 <tr>
55 <td>C</td>
56 <td>"</td>
57 <td>8 ,, 10 ,,</td>
58 </tr>
59 <tr>
60 <td>B♭</td>
61 <td>"</td>
62 <td>9 ,, 9 ,,</td>
63 </tr>
64 <tr>
65 <td>B♭ bass</td>
66 <td>"</td>
67 <td>10 ,, 10 ,,</td>
68 </tr>
69</table>
71thus making the length of the horn, when crooked in B♭ bass, about 18 feet of tubing. The fact of every semitone in the chromatic scale being mentioned, and that there is for each a separate crook, gives one some idea of how difficult an instrument it must be for an orchestral performer. Continual changes of key occur in most of the music written for horns. These changes are necessary to enable the composer to avail himself of the open notes which, on all crooks, are so limited; namely, taking the compass of the horn in every key, two octaves, the open notes within the two octaves are limited to twelve, the extreme low and the extreme high being uncertain. Since the introduction of valves (about 1825), which are now attached to the horn, the notes before made by stopping the bell, more or less, can be made equal to the natural notes of the instrument. This fact is now fully appreciated by modern composers, who avail themselves of it by writing such notes as were on the hand horn not likely to be heard, requiring so much stopping. It has been said that the addition of valves destroys the tone of the horn. I differ in opinion on this point most strongly. So much depends upon how the valves are made, for they can be added to the instrument without interfering with the tubing of the
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.