Circular alphorn, G-sharp, A-flat
Vernacular Name
- Rollhorn
- Stubenhorn
Maker
Josef Stocker
Date1990 ca.
Place MadeKriens, Canton Luzern, Switzerland, Europe
Serial No.675 / 107A
SignedStamped with branding iron on bell: SWISS MADE / ALPHORN / STOCKER / LUZERNMarkingsWritten in pencil on back of bell: 675 / 107A
DescriptionBlack plastic tubing, coiled multiple times, conifer bell, rattan cover.
Josef Stocker (b. 1941) had built the Stubenhorn or Rollhorn in coiled form since 1977, but discontinued it in the early 1990s. It was officially introduced by the Vereinigung zur Förderung des Alphorns (Association for the promotion of the alphorn) in October 1977, and enjoyed some popularity as a convenient indoor instrument. The name Rollhorn refers to the coiled shape; the term Stubenhorn (chamber horn) is also used and indicates that it was designed for indoor playing. The idea to roll-up an alphorn goes back to the sixteenth century. An example of a wooden bark-covered horn of that age from southern Germany survives at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
DimensionsHeight: 685 mm
Tube length: ca. 6660 mm
Bore diameter (initial): 15.7 mm
Bell diameter (internal): ca. 68 mm
ProvenancePurchsaed in 1993 from Jim Ghighi, Greenville, South Carolina.
Published ReferencesKlaus, Sabine Katharina. Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 1: Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2012), pp. 28–30, 279.
"Utley Collection on the Move." _National Music Museum Newsletter_ 44, no. 2 (Summer 2020): 2.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07083
On View
Not on view
