Horn Band

a Russian band made up of hunting horns.

Organized in 1751 in St. Petersburg by the Russian horn player and Kapellmeister J. A. Mares, a Czech by nationality, the first horn band was made up of conical brass horns (95–2,250 mm long), each of which produced only one tone of the chromatic scale. A full horn band consisted of 91 or, less frequently, 300 horns, with a general range from A of the contraoctave to D’”. Usually, the band had at least 40 members, each of whom played one and sometimes two or even three different horns. There were also small ensembles of valve horns. (The valve was invented in the late 18th century.) The players had to be able to count rests and produce sounds of specific duration and force. All the members of horn bands were serfs.