The horn was from the early Middle Ages used as a hunting horn. The hunter brought it with him on the horseback and could provide signals for the hunters to gather, to tell that the prey was caught, how big it was and so on. The European nobility was busy hunting and horseback riding, in competitions which included hornplaying and the best outfit. The composers at the courts were also commissioned to compose fanfares.

In the Baroque period the sound of the horn was used indoors as an effect in the operas and ballets, describing hunting scenes.

My baroque horn has no holes and I use my hand in the bell to produce more tones than the natural harmonics. I often play music by Bach and Handel , for instance, on this horn. The reason why the bell is black inside is historical- it was important that the hornplayer on the horseback did not blind the horses in sunshine! 

The horn was in principle a long brasstube that ended in a funnel. The tones that could be played were the natural harmonics, hence the name "natural horn". From being able to only play fanfares and signals the hornplayers and composers wanted to develop the possibilities. The large hunting horn which the horseback rider could have around his body was now compressed to a smaller horn that was easier to hold. The hornplayers began to use the hand inside the bell to manipulate the pitch and play chromaticly. The repertoire evolved gradually and led to the valve horn of today.

The classical natural horn is also made by Andreas Jungwirth in Austria. It is designed after the famous Raoux family of hornmakers who worked in Paris in the classicism. It has a tuningslide in contrast to the baroque horn, and a wider bell. For this horn I have a full set of crooks,such that it can be played in all keys, which is often needed in operas, oratorios and other major works.Composers such as Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven had the sound of these horns in their ears when they wrote their music.

Composers still associate the horn with nature, hunting and power. The sound is majestic and can even be dreamy and longing. That is probably one of the reasons that many Norwegian composers got inspiration from nature and folkmusic and put it into music for horn. In contemporary music, composers often want to break boundaries and create new sounds and expressions.

 My Viennese Horn is a copy of an original made by Leopold Tobias Uhlmann (1806 - 1878) in 1830/1840. Jungwirth has also made this copy. It has "Pumpenventilen" and a crook inserted into the horn. The bell  is more narrow than the bell of a modern valvehorn, and in a way the horn is a link between the natural horn and the valvehorn.The sound has many of the same qualities as the sound of the natural horn, and a lots of overtones. On the Viennese horn we use F-horn fingerings, as opposed to what we mainly do on a modern double horn. It is also uncompromisingly conical, as opposed to a double horn, consisting of an F and a Bb-side, and thus has more cylindrical pipe.

My modern horn is made by Paxman in London. It is a double horn, model 25M. It is made of golden brass and without laquer.