HOLYWOOD, a seaport of county Down, Ireland, on the east shore of Belfast Lough, 4½ m. N.E. from Belfast by the Belfast & County Down railway. Its pleasant situation renders it a favourite residential locality of the wealthier classes in Belfast. There was a religious settlement here from the 7th century, which subsequently became a Franciscan monastery. The old church dating from the late 12th or early 13th century marks its site. A Solemn League and Covenant was signed here in 1644 for the defence of the kingdom, and the document is preserved at Belfast.
HOLZMINDEN, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Brunswick, on the right bank of the Weser, at the foot of the Sollinger Mountains, at the junction of the railways Scherfede-Holzminden and Soest-Börssum, 56 m. S.W. of Brunswick. Pop. (1905) 9938. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a gymnasium, an architectural school and a school of engineering. The prosperity of the town depends chiefly on agriculture and the manufacture of iron and steel wares, and of chemicals, but weaving and the making of pottery are also carried on, and there are baryta mills and polishing-mills for sandstone. By means of the Weser it carries on a lively trade. Holzminden obtained municipal rights from Count Otto of Eberstein in 1245, and in 1410 it came into the possession of Brunswick.
HOLZTROMPETE (Wooden Trumpet), an instrument somewhat resembling the Alpenhorn (q.v.) in tone-quality, designed by Richard Wagner for representing the natural pipe of the peasant in Tristan and Isolde. This instrument is not unlike the cor anglais in rough outline, being a conical tube of approximately the same length, terminating in a small globular bell, but having neither holes nor keys; it is blown through a cup-shaped mouthpiece made of horn. The Holztrompete is in the key of C; the scale is produced by overblowing, whereby the upper partials from the 2nd to the 6th are produced. A single piston placed at a third of the distance from the mouthpiece to the bell gives the notes D and F. Wagner inserted a note in the score concerning the cor anglais for which the part was originally scored, and advised the use of oboe or clarinet to reinforce the latter, the effect intended being that of a powerful natural instrument, unless a wooden instrument with a natural scale be specially made for the part, which would be preferable. The Holztrompete was used at Munich for the first performance of Tristan and Isolde, and was still in use there in 1897. At Bayreuth it was also used for the Tristan performances at the festivals of 1886 and 1889, but in 1891 W. Heckel’s clarina, an instrument partaking of the nature of both oboe and clarinet, was substituted for the Holztrompete and has been retained ever since, having been found more effective.[1]
(K. S.)
[1] Communicated by Madame Wagner, December 28th, 1897.