In Wagner’s “Siegfried” the horn plays all the passages which the young hero is supposed to intone on his hunting horn. The quartet of horns employed in the modern orchestra is frequently heard alone, and the effect of this full harmony of mellow brass is incomparably fine. Such effects are heard in the hunting fanfare which precedes the entrance of the Landgrave and his party in Act I. of “Tannhäuser,” and in the echoing through the woods of the departing hunt in the beginning of Act II. of “Tristan und Isolde.” It must not be supposed, however, that horn quartets are used only for hunting effects. One has only to recall the beautiful passage in Saint-Säen’s “Phäeton.”
Stopped tones are frequently given to the horns. These are produced by inserting the hand in the bell of the instrument, where it has an effect not unlike that of a sordine on a violin-string. The quality of stopped tones is nasal and stertorous. They are used with much significance in dramatic music.
THE TRUMPET
This fine instrument, the soprano of the brass choir, is too often replaced by the cornet. Indeed, in the United States I have heard trumpets only in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Walter Damrosch’s orchestra. The trumpet has a full, round, brilliant tone, for which that of the blatant and brassy cornet is not a good substitute. But it is much easier to get good cornet-players than good trumpeters, so the cornet is quite common. The pealing, militant character of the trumpet is always associated in the mind with that of the army bugle, which it closely resembles. The trumpets are usually employed in chords written for the brass, or in the big mass effects of the orchestra. They are seldom called upon to intone a melody except in passages in which the brass plays alone, or when a very brilliant and forcible orchestration is used. The instrument is so familiar that no illustration is necessary. Trumpets in various keys were formerly always employed, but it is now customary to use chiefly the F trumpet, with valves. Cornets employed in the orchestra are in A and B flat. There is a high cornet in E flat, but it is used only in military bands. Stopped tones are easily produced from the cornet or trumpet, and are often used for comic effects. They sound much like the voice of a person singing in a falsetto voice through his nose. Trumpets and cornets are generally used in pairs in the orchestra.
THE TROMBONE
The trombone is one of the noblest of all orchestral instruments. When it sounds ignoble, it is either because its part is not well written or because it is badly played. In respect of register there are three principal kinds of trombones—alto, tenor, and bass. The alto has a compass extending from A at the bottom of the bass clef to the E flat in the top space of the treble clef. The tenor ranges from E below the bass clef to the B flat in the middle of the treble clef, and this is the instrument most frequently employed. The bass trombone’s register runs from B below the bass to the F in the first space of the treble clef. The alto trombone is in E flat, the tenor in B flat, and the bass in F. There is also a contra-bass trombone in B flat, sounding an octave lower than the tenor trombone. It is very fatiguing to play, and is usually replaced by the tuba, whose tone is of a considerably different character. Although all these trombones stand in keys other than C, they are not treated as transposing, but are written in the key of the composition.