The dichotomy between the old and the new

The horn had a complex transition from the classical hand-horn to the fully chromatic valved instrument that we know today. The transition was also very gradual and did not follow a logical sequence. This is borne out by the fact that a work as late as Brahms's Horn Trio, Op. 40 for horn, violin and piano (1865), is designed for the hand-horn, while other works of the same period require valves. Another illustration of the co-existence of the valve horn and the hand-horn is demonstrated by the fact that the Paris Conservatoire offered hand-horn classes into the twentieth century. The valve horn class was actually suspended temporarily in 1864. French composers (notably Debussy and Ravel) seemed far more concerned with the minute details of orchestral colour and ‘pointillism’ well into the twentieth century, while the Austro-German composers (even Brahms, who favoured the hand-horn) were much more concerned with structure and motivic coherence; it is, therefore, understandable that French composers and writers showed the most concern over the loss of the range of colours that the hand-horn had to offer. Nineteenth-century music was, however, to be dominated by the Austro-Germans, and the ‘modern’ use of the valves for all notes was to be the way forward. Differences in attitude were, however, to cause problems. David Charlton has pointed out that, ‘By about 1860 [horn] technique was in a transitional and confusing state.’