Post horn

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German postbox with post horn logo
German postbox with post horn logo
Post horn
Post horn
Post horn logo from Sweden
Post horn logo from Sweden
Muted post horn from The Crying of Lot 49.
Muted post horn from The Crying of Lot 49.

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

The instrument has a circular shape with three turns of the tubing, and no valves. It is therefore an example of a natural horn. 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, it is usually played on a trumpet or flugelhorn.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

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