Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Post horn

 

A small brass instrument, originally with a fundamental about b ♭′, used in the past by postillions and guards on mail coaches. In Germany it reached its standard form, circular and with three turns, in the late 18th century. As it graduated to use in concert music it acquired crooks, keys and finally valves. Telemann and Bach imitated it. Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler actually wrote for it. The English instrument, long and straight, in A or A♭, is still made; it is used in performances of Koenig's famous Post Horn Galop (1844).



Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
WordNet: post horn
Top
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: wind instrument used by postilions of the 18th and 19th centuries


Wikipedia: Post horn
Top
German postbox with post horn logo (old logo bottom, new logo top)
Post horn
Post horn logo from Sweden
Muted post horn from The Crying of Lot 49.

The post horn (also posthorn, post-horn, or coach horn) is a valveless cylindrical brass or copper instrument with cupped mouthpiece, used to signal the arrival or departure of a post rider or mail coach. It was used especially by postilions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The instrument commonly had a circular or coiled shape with three turns of the tubing, though sometimes it was straight. It is therefore an example of a natural instrument. The cornet was developed from the post horn by adding valves.[1]

Mozart, Mahler, and others incorporated the instrument into their orchestras for certain pieces. On such occasions, the orchestra's horn player usually plays the instrument. One example of post horn use in modern classical music is the famous off-stage solo in Mahler's Third Symphony. Due to the scarcity of this instrument, however, music written for it is usually played on a trumpet or flugelhorn.

The instrument is still used as the logo of national post services in many countries.

Contents

List of postal services that include the post horn in their logos

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Curt Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1940), 428.

External links



 
 

 

Copyrights:

Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Post horn" Read more

 

Mentioned in