Hand-stopping

The stopper indicated at brass instruments (in particular the horn ), a technique, by introducing changes in the hand ( or an object ) in the bell of the pitch and / or the sound is given a dumpfere or more metallic tone. This technique was once commonly used to enhance the natural scale, are limited to the all wind instruments without holes, flaps, valves or train.

Technology

There are two Stopfarten:

• Half plugs: The hand closes the opening to about 1/3 to 2/3, which has a depression of up to a major third (depending on mood and number of natural clay above the root ) result. The tone darkens it. A very lightweight plug is still applied to the valve horn to control the intonation.

• Cramming: Here " closes " the hand as it were the end of the tube and leaves the air to flow only through the smallest gaps between hand and falls. Thus, the vibrating air column is shortened, and (unlike the half- stopper ) increases the mood for something more than a semitone. The effect is dependent on the hand size: the smaller it is, the more it needs to shorten the pipes in order to clog completely. Also, the harmonic spectrum is changed remarkably (gain the upper tones, while attenuation of the fundamental tone and its nearest neighbor tones), making the sound " close ", ie no longer sounds so full and round. This technique is mainly used in music literature from the late 19th century from phonetic reasons. - This stopped tones are linguistic statements ( stuffed cuivré, bouché, stopped, etc.) or a cross ( ) above the note referred to.

History

When natural horn, which until 1900 was in use in the orchestra, only the tones of the harmonic series can be blown open. Therefore, the bugler changed since the mid -18th century the pitch by hand by inserting clogged the horn in whole or in part. By this technique, a chromatic play is possible, at least in the upper part of the circumference. The very different sound quality of open and stopped tones was considered by experienced composers. The great virtuosity to which the musicians had arrived in the early 19th century, with this technique, with the result that some composers wrote not only more sustained notes and fanfare, but also many melodic passages for horns.

Since the invention of valves, the natural horns were supplemented by valve horns in the orchestra, but for a long time not been replaced. The composer Hector Berlioz in 1844 warned even before a replacement of the natural horns through valve horns, because the intention of the composer sound of the stopped tones perish. He recommended to simulate the sound of these tones on the valve horn. Only in the 20th century came the plug for changing the pitch out of use and was only to change the sound quality, analogous to the dampers with trumpets and trombones used. - The stuffing was used in the 18th century for echo and similar spatial effects, in the 19th century it was a demonic or grotesque painting in the " serious music " of the 20th century, it was increasingly seen as a neutral way of sonority.

The Conservatoire de Paris had until 1903 a class of natural horn. More recently, natural horn players are trained and deployed in the orchestra for the classical-romantic repertoire again.

Sound spectrum

The hand inserting the stuffing should not be confused with the normal horn attitude, because the plug, the effective length of the horn shortened - this is the sound higher. This pitch change can be compensated by a stop valve - or by playing a semitone lower.

The plug has a dull, when you fully plug a pressed tinny sound result. The sound spectrum changes significantly. In some places you can see significant decreases in partials, elsewhere they are amplified. Overall, the volume is lower. Striking is a volume gap from the third to the fifth partial tone which causes the pressed and feeble sound. In contrast, the Metallic is highlighted in timbre through the maximum at 3000 Hz and the strong partials to about 10,000 Hz.