Horn Trivia |
Terms used in Horn Music |
For an Index of Common Musical Terms, go here.
Q: What is the difference between bouché and cuivré in horn music?
Q: What composer used the German word aufstehen in the horn parts of his first symphony, and what does the word mean in English?
Q: What is the "Natural Harmonic Series"?
Q: Of the four operas in Wagner's "Ring" cycle, which one contains the "Long Call" and which one contains the "Short Call"?
Q: What does the term Schalltrichter auf mean?
- Q: What are the different meanings of each of the following:
- mit Dämpfer
- ohne Dämpfer
- Dämpfer ab
- Dämpfer auf
- Dämpfer weg
Q: What composer is generally credited with having first written for the technique known as "fluttertongue," and in what piece did the composer first use it?
A. Frequently used together, these French words are often found in music for horn by French composers: bouché means "stopped horn"; cuivré means "brassy"; bouché et cuivré means "stopped and brassy."
Some composers use the terms incorrectly, using cuivré (brassy) when they mean bouché (stopped).
Some players misunderstand the terms and play stopped horn when the music only indicates cuivré (brassy).
A. Gustav Mahler; "stand up." On the last page of his first symphony, he instructs the entire horn section (he wrote for 7 horns) to stand up!
A. The "Natural Harmonic Series" is called by various names: natural harmonics, overtones, bugle tones, open notes, etc., and sometimes an individual note in the series is referred to as a partial.
All of these terms are referring to the notes that occur naturally on a brass instrument without using any valves, i.e. just the open tones that the player can change between by buzzing the lips at varying intensities on the mouthpiece. For more explanation and to see the notes in the series, visit the CyberHorn Museum here.
A. Long call - Siegfried;
Short call - Götterdämmerung
A. Bells up. Sometimes abbreviated to Schalltr. auf, it is used in the music of Mahler and other composers, where they want the horn players to lift the bells of their instruments into the air (not just "off the leg"). Sometimes Mahler even wrote Schalltrichter in die Höhe (Höhe means height, altitude or elevation).
- A: mit Dämpfer - with mute
- ohne Dämpfer - without mute
- Dämpfer ab - mute out
- Dämpfer auf - mute in
- Dämpfer weg - mute off
A. Richard Strauss in "Don Quixote."
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