Re: Re: Re: Peckhorn


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Hornologist on July 29, 2001 at 21:14:46:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Peckhorn posted by Anon on July 29, 2001 at 20:57:58:

You catch on fast!

Actually, the word comes from Italian and originally applied to the valveless version. A smaller relative to the hunting horn (corno da cacchia), pitched an octave higher with an upright bell and dating from the time of the 16th century composer John Blow (Giovanni Vento).

Since it had the dual disadvantage of an upright bell, meaning that hand-stopping could not be used to adjust the pitch and used the lower partials of the harmonic series, it was regarded as a freak of an instrument with dreadful intonation faults. But its big brother was a very fine instrument indeed, so the little guy was called "corno da pecca originale" (original sin horn). Well, you can't casually say "Hey Tony, we got a gig tonight; bring your corno da pecca originale", so the name was shortened to "pecc' corno" (sin horn).

When the valved version came to America, this was anglicized to "peck horn".

For a close relative, see "bimboniphone".



Follow Ups: