able tubings, which extend in length as they
descend in pitch, and set the instrument in different keys. The
mouthpiece is a funnel shaped tube of metal, by preference silver;
and, in the horn, is exceptionally not cup shaped, but the reverse: it
tapers, as a cone, from three-quarters of an inch diameter to about a
minimum of three-sixteenths of an inch, and is a quarter of an inch
where the smaller end of the mouthpiece is inserted in the upper
opening of the crook. The first horn has a mouthpiece of rather less
diameter than the second. The peculiar mouthpiece and narrow tubing
have very much to do with the soft voice-like tone quality of the
horn. For convenience of holding, the tubing is bent in a spiral form.
There is a tuning slide attached to the body, and, of late years,
valves have been added to the horn, similar to those applied to the
cornet and other wind instruments. They have, to a considerable
extent, superseded hand stopping, by which expedient the intonation
could be altered a semitone or whole tone, by depression of the
natural notes of the instrument. In brass, or other instruments, the
natural harmonics depend on the pressure of blowing; and the brass
differs entirely from the wood wind, in this respect, that it is rare,
or with poor effect, the lowest or fundamental note can be made to
sound. Stopping the horn is done by extending the open hand some way
up the bore; there is half stopping and whole stopping, according to
the interval, the half tone or whole tone required. As may be
imagined, the stopped notes are weak and dull compared with the open.
On the other hand, the tubing introduced for valves not being quite
conformable in curve with the instrument, and hampered with
indispensable joins, unless in the best form of modern valve, affects
the smoothness of tone. No doubt there has been of late years a great
improvement in the manufacture of valves. Many horns are still made
with crooks covering an octave from B flat to B flat, 8 feet 6 inches
to 17 feet; but most players now use only the F crook, and trust to
the valves, rather than to change the crooks, so that we lose the
fullness of sound of those below F. The natural horn was originally in
D, but was not always restricted to that key; there have been horns
for F, G, high A, and B flat. This may, however, be said for the valve
horn, that it does not limit or restrict composers in writing for the
open or natural notes, which are always more b