Russian horn, F-sharp
Date1830-1840 ca.
Place MadeSaxony, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsStamp: #F
DescriptionBrass, originally nickel plated (now mostly worn off); straight with curved top end; overlapping tab seam.
Mouthpiece soldered to instrument, cup shaped.
This single-note instrument was part of a Russian horn band, playing the note f-sharp1. In the eighteenth century, Russian horn bands were staffed by serfs. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Russian horn bands traveled throughout Europe, receiving mixed reactions. Some were enthusiastically praised and compared with a very fine organ, while others were criticized for being a mediocre brass band. In England, people objected to the fact that human talents were exploited as a mechanical device, since each player was limited to play just one note at exactly the right time.
NMM 7275 and 7276 are from the same Russian horn set, and most likely originated from Germany, where Russian horns were used in minors’ communities in the 19th century. The fact that these instruments appear to have been plated with a nickel-brass alloy suggests a date not before the 1830s, while Russian horns ceased being built by the 1840s.
DimensionsHeight: 635 mm
Tube length: 600 mm
Bell diameter: 96 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1996 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published ReferencesKlaus, Sabine K.. 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. 202, 268.
-------. “Two Russian Horns for the notes f and f-sharp,” in "Historical Instrument Window," International Trumpet Guild Journal 35, no. 4 (June 2011), p. 58.
-------. “Kaiser & Kohler – German-born Brass Musical Instrument Makers in Cincinnati, Ohio,” Alta Musica, Vol. 26, ed. by Raoul F. Camus and Bernhard Habla (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2008), p. 222.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07276
On View
Not on view
1830-1840 ca.
1880-1900 ca.
