Development of the French Horn

Horn

500

Before the first true French horn was created and used in the orchestra, a horn-like product, made from animal bone, was introduced in the 6th century and provided a technique to "strike terror into the enemy camps" for Scandinavians. http://www.hornplanet.com/hornpage/museum/history/horn_history1.html

Hunting Horn

Oct 5, 1500

Eventually, the popularity of this horn grew in Europe around the 16th century and hunters began to use it for hunting (some hunters continued to use the ones made of animal bone but some used other materials for a different sound or appearance); one of the multiple uses was it's unique, obnoxious sound could let other hunters know they were near so an accident would not happen http://www.hornplanet.com/hornpage/museum/history/horn_history1.html

Musical horn

Oct 5, 1700

In the early 18th century, the hunting horn underwent some large changes like being made of metal, having coiled tubing, tuning crooks, and the change of timbre occurred once these adjustments were made; these changes were made because the hunting horn was added to the orchestra for sound effects in some musical pieces but the Leichamschneider brothers changed the horn into a musical instrument, making this new creation a true French horn. https://vsl.co.at/en/Horn_in_F/History_01

Addition of the crook

Oct 4, 1710

The addition of the crook let the horn player change key, or transpose by inserting the crook of their choice into the horn. Usually the horn player used the hand horn technique with the crooks in order to increase range.
http://www.hornplanet.com/hornpage/museum/history/horn_history2.html

Hand horn

Oct 5, 1760

This wasn't necessarily a new kind of horn, but horn players began thinking of new ways to play the horn and created the technique of maneuvering the hand in the bell to change key or notes. http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/hrnhist/hornhist.htm

Valve

Oct 5, 1816

This addition to the horn allowed for the horn player to keep their hand in the bell but still change notes. The valve was invented by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blümel. This creation led to other developments of the valve, such as the piston valve in the 19th century that was the "direct predecessor to the modern day piston valve" http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/hrnhist/hornhist.htm

Rotary valve

Oct 5, 1832

Joseph Riedl invented the rotary valve, which gave the horn player the ability to go back and forth between the F side and the B flat side of the horn by pressing the trigger, if it were on a double horn. It also changed notes.
http://www.hornplanet.com/hornpage/museum/history/horn_history3.html

Double horn

Oct 5, 1897

This new horn was different because the single horn was only in one key but the double horn had and F side and a B flat side. "The first prototypes of this design, which combined the F and B-flat horns into one instrument, were produced by the German horn maker Kruspe in 1897" (http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/double.htm)