This instrument is nothing but a long tube spirally coiled and ending in a bell. The horn is very old. It is depicted in painting and sculpture in the monuments of Egypt, Assyria and India. It may even be the oldest of all instruments; for it was easier to blow through the horn, or the tusk, of an animal than to cut a reed, or stretch a string. At any rate, the instrument is derived from the horn, or tusk, of an animal in the small end of which people soon had the idea of placing a mouthpiece for convenience. Even in the Middle Ages the “Olifant,” as it was called, was a recognized musical instrument. This was the tusk of an elephant; and it was often exquisitely carved. A few “Olifants” are in existence. But even though the horn of an animal was used for many centuries people had imitated it in metal before the Christian Era. The Roman _Bucina_, or _Buccina_, or _Cornu_, for instance, was a brass tube of great length, curved spirally and worn around the performer’s body. The Guilds and Corporations in the Middle Ages had horns which they blew upon to call the members to the meetings. Many of these exist in various museums of Europe. Poetically we say wind the horn and sound the horn, and Tennyson in _Locksley Hall_ writes “Sound upon the bugle horn.” More romantic is his line “The horns of Elfland faintly blowing,” in the exquisite lyric, beginning “The splendor falls on castle walls,” in _The Princess_. Then there was the hunting-horn—the horn that figures in old ballad literature and romantic tales and legends. This hunting-horn was a long tube which was passed over the player’s right arm, the bell projecting over his left shoulder. It was inconvenient; and so in the Seventeenth Century the tube was wrapped around and around itself and became a great spiral coil with a large bell. But it was still worn around the body so as to keep the hands free. The hunting-horn was not an instrument, however, that was heard in drawing-rooms, or in the theatre, though it was very musical when echoing through the woods. There was an elaborate code of calls and signals and fanfares, which every huntsman well understood. About 1720 the horn was introduced into the Orchestra. Bach frequently scored for it. An early use of it is in Handel’s opera of _Radimisto_. It was used in France by Gossec, who had to write two airs especially for the _début_ of the famous singer and actress, Sophie Arnould (one of the wittiest women of her time), and he actually introduced _obbligato_ parts for two horns and two clarinets (which were also new instruments then). But the horn was not liked: it was considered common, even vulgar. The idea of introducing an instrument from the hunting-field into the opera! Horrors!