Gemshorn
The Gemshorn is a beaked flute played from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 16th century , the body of which was made from an animal horn. No originals have survived from the time it was used. There are, however, illustrations, especially in Musica, by Sebastian Virdung from 1511. Gemshorns are mostly made from a cow horn. Reconstructions of the Gemshorn are being built again today for the performance of early music .
The Gemshorn similar in fingering the recorder , but is a gedackte pipe. This enables the playback of deeper recorder parts with a relatively comfortable fingering. Recorders of the same depth (bass, large bass, subbass), on the other hand, are very large and unwieldy. But overblowing is not possible, which results in a relatively small range of hardly more than an octave. The Gemshorn is also a real recorder when it comes to speech: double, triple and flutter tongues are possible (e.g. for ornaments).
history
The oldest literary evidence of a Gemshorn can be found in The Complaynt of Scotland published on Scots in 1549 . The description reads: "... ane pipe maid of ane gait horne". Two common horns are depicted in Musica , probably in the middle position. The Gemshorn is no longer mentioned in the Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius , published in 1619 .
The sources do not provide any information about the range and the playable keys of the historic Gemshorn. The illustrations show only a small number of finger holes. In addition, there is no representation of an instrument family with different voices. Modern gem horns, on the other hand, are available in different voices and, with their largely chromatic range from a ninth to a small decimal, are suitable for reproducing a large part of Renaissance music, even in closed gem horn movements. A comparable use of the Gemshorn in the Renaissance period has not been proven.
Today, the Gemshorn is mainly built in the sizes soprano in C with the range c '' - d '' ', alto in F, with the range f'-g' ', tenor in C with the range c'-d' 'and bass in F with a range of f-g'.
Construction
The Gemshorn consists of a hollowed-out animal horn, in the wide end of which the labium is cut. In addition, finger holes are drilled into the instrument, as is the case with the recorder. The opening is closed with a beak mouthpiece made of plaster of paris and provided with a leather cover, creating a wind tunnel . Some instrument makers also offer instruments with a wooden beak .
Organ register
Gemshorn is also the name for an organ register based on the instrument .
Web links
- Gemshorn , Heinrich Schütz House
- Gemshorn pictures and sound samples
- Gemshorn flute workshop Rainer Schwarze
Individual evidence
- ^ Sibyl Marcuse : A Survey of Musical Instruments. Harper & Row, New York 1975, p. 573