Corno

What it means

Corno is the Italian designation for the horn and appears in scores as a part name, usually in the plural corni and with an indication of the tuning, for instance corni in F. What is meant is the horn (Waldhorn) with its long, tightly coiled tube, the wide bell, and the funnel-shaped mouthpiece. Further compounds are often encountered: corno inglese designates not a horn but the English horn from the oboe family, corno da caccia a historical hunting horn. When reading old scores, attention must therefore be paid to the addition.

Musical use

The horn occupies a special position in the orchestra because in sound it mediates between brass and woodwind: it can merge with trumpets and trombones into a powerful brass texture and equally form a soft blend with bassoon and clarinet. Present-day instruments are tuned in F and sound a perfect fifth lower than notated; in older scores numerous further tunings are found, produced by crooks, so that the actual sounding pitch has to be worked out from the tuning indication. Notation is usually without key signature in the treble clef, low passages in the bass clef.

Performance practice

The horn is considered demanding because the partials in the usual register lie close together and even a small deviation in the embouchure yields a neighbouring note; accuracy arises from an inner conception of sound, not from strength. The right hand in the bell affects intonation and colour and is part of the basic posture. On the double horn, use the thumb lever deliberately and learn, for tricky passages, which side responds more securely. Plan rests for recovery, because high registers tire the embouchure quickly. Empty condensation regularly and tune only after thorough warming up.

Bear in mind that in older scores the horn parts are often notated without key signature and the tuning indication decides the sounding pitch; a reading error here leads to a wrong key, not just a wrong note. Work the passages out before the first rehearsal and pencil them in if necessary. In horn writing, watch the blend: the voices should merge into one sound, which is why vibrato stays sparing and intonation is oriented on the root.