The acoustics of lip-excited animal horns.

Abstract

For thousands of years the thrilling sound of the lip-excited animal horn has been a central feature of religious ceremonies, and has also played an important role in signaling and communication. It can be argued that all the brass instruments now in use in Western orchestras and bands have evolved from this common source. Modern brass instruments, however, have bore profiles which have been developed and refined over centuries of trial and error to serve specific musical functions. The internal bore profile of the animal horn is largely determined by the choice of horn: the maker has therefore little control over the frequencies of the air column acoustic modes. This paper discusses the different types of horn which have been commonly used to make musical instruments and explores the effect of the natural bore profile on the sounding properties of the instrument.