bout the Crumhorn

The crumhorn is named after its distinctive curved end. In German it is known as the krummhorn, meaning crooked horn. Many of its other names such as crumhorn, kromhoorn, krumbhorn, krumphorn, krummpfeyffe, cromhorn, and cromorne are derived from its German name. Some of its other names also refer to its distinctive shape. In French it is sometimes called the tournebout, meaning turned up end. In Italian is is called the cornamuto torto, piva torto, storto, again referring to its turned end.

The crumhorn is a woodwind instrument. It has seven finger holes on the front of the instrument, and a thumb hole on the back. The lowest hole on the front of the instrument, the eighth hole, is created to tune the instrument. Mordern crumhorns commonly have two keys, one one the front and the other in back. These are used to play notes outside of the lower octave. Crumhorns that survive from the sixteenth century did not have these keys, although bass instruments had one or more keys to play the lowest notes on the instrument. The crumhorn has a very narrow cylindrical bore which flares out near the end of the instrument. (A detailed photograph of the bore is displayed on the left.) The diameter of the bore is smaller than that of a pencil.

Unlike most modern woodwinds, the crumhorn is a windcap instrument, in which a double reed is encased in an outer enclosure. (The image to the right displays the crumhorn reed alongside a bassoon reed and oboe reed.) The windcap allows the reed to vibrate freely, unimpeded by the players lips. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that it is not possible to overblow to a higher octave. Thus, the crumhorn has a small range, of one octave and one note. With the addition of keys, the range can be extended by a few notes. Another disadvantage of the windcap is that it is not possible to vary the loudness of the tone without also varying the pitch. So, like the recorder, the crumhorn has a very limited dynamic range. The disadvantages of the windcap were so great that by the seventeenth century crumhorns were sometimes played without the cap in a manner similar to an oboe. From reading this you may realize that the crumhorn is very much like some of the reed stops on an organ. Indeed this is the case, and there were crumhorn stops on some organs from the sixteenth century.

Click here to download a windows audio file of a crumhorn.

Crumhorns flourished in Europe from the late fifteenth century through the early seventeenth century. Like, recorders and viols, crumhorns were built in a variety of sizes. The most common were the descant with a range from g to a', the tenor with a range from c to d', and the bass with a range from F to g. (The photograph to the left contains a ruler to give you an idea of the size of a tenor crumhorn.) There are approximately 40 crumhorns that have survived from the Renaissance. Approxmiately half of these were made by a craftsman by the name of Ioerg Wier (Sometimes called Jorg Wier), who had a workshop in Memingen. In addition to the instruments themselves, crumhorn reeds also survive from the Rennaisance. This is particularly important, because, as a general rule, many fewer reeds survive from historical periods than reed instruments. They were usually damaged and discarded. As recently as the past decade crumhorns from the Renaissance have continued to be discovered. Two instruments were found in Spain in 2009. They, like many of the other instruments, were made by Ioerg Wier. The discant and tenor lack windcaps. However, the windcap for a bass was found with the two.

It was highly uncommon during the sixteenth century to indicate that a work is intended for particular instruments. Thus, there is no extant works for crumhorns from this period. However, ensembles of crumhorns could play a good amount of the polyphonic from the sixteenth century. There are accounts of musical performances that indicate that crumhorns were used in consort with sackbuts, cornetts, and shawms. In such instances the crumhorns usually took the inner voices, and left the top voice to the cornett. There are two notable works for crumhorn. The fist is Erzurne dich nicht by Thomas Stoltzer. This six-part setting of Psalm 37 was written in 1526. It is the first extant composition conceived for crumhorns. The second notable work for crumhorns is the Padouana a four Krumhorn by Johann Schein. It is found in his Banchetto Musicale from 1617.

Crumhorns are particularly well suited to playing outdoors, not only because of their timbre, but they are not effected by the wind like recorders.

One may wonder how a crumhorn is made, and in particular how it gets its curved shape. Crumhorns are not make like cornetti which are traditionally made from a piece of wood that carved into a curved shape, split in half, the halves of the bore chiseled out, and then glued back together and covered with leather. Crumhorns are made from a piece of wood that is turned on a lathe to produce a cylinder. The bore is then drilled out. The wood is then steamed and bent into its characteristic curved shape. The bore is usually filled with a substance such as sand or lead to prevent it from collapsing when the wood is bent. The finger holes are then drilled.

There are many images from the Renaissance that include crumhorns. Several of these are from treatises on music including: Sebastian Virdung's Musica getutscht (Basel 1511), Martin Agricola's Musica instrumentalis deutsch (Wittenberg 1528/1545), Michael Praetorious' Syntagma musicum (1614-1620), and Marin Mersenne's Harmonie universelle (1636). The woodblock prints in all four of these treatises are rather crude. For example, the finger hole placement in the Virdung and Agricola prints are almost certainly innaccurate. However, the prints indicate the authors' classification of instruments. Both Agricola's and Virdung's images show not only crumhorns, but bladder pipes, and an instrument that looks like horn, which is presumably a cornetto, and is called a krumhorn.

Other images, such as the Triumph of Death by Lorenzo Costa (1488), include the crumhorn in more anicallary fashion. The fresco, which is in S. Gianomo in Maggiore, Bologna Italy, includes in the lower right corner a small child holding a crumhorn, amongst the many other individuals in the work. Next to the boy, a man is playing what appears to be a vielle. Another such work is the Presentation of Christ in the Temple by Vittore Carpaccio (1510) It is in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Three women at the bottom of the painting are playing instuments. One of them is playing a crumhorn. Another is playing a lute, and the third is playing a viola da braccio. It is worth reiterating that these images include the crumhorn with other instruments. The latter image has all three instruments being played together. There is a work that dates from 1530 by an unknown Check painter in the National Gallery of Prague. It has four angels playing crumhorns

The crumhorn also was featured very prominently in many works. One of the these was an engraving by Heinrich Aldegrever titled the Three Crumhorn Players (1551). It is housed in Vienna in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina. Somewhat less prominent is one of the woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair from the Triumphal Procession for Maximilian I. (1512–19, published in 1526). It depicts a group of musicians in a carriage. There are two crumhorn players, two shawms, and a sackbut/pasaun. titled Musica Schalmeyen, Pusaunen vnd Krumphörner. A later work is a drawing by Bracelli from 1615. It shows a group of musicians playing the shawm and crumhorn. Another later work is a woodcut by Joost Amman. It shows three men playing the shawm, crumhorn, and flute.

Two more important artworks featuring the crumhorn are in the Vatican. One is an intarsia (a mosaic made from wood) by Fra Giovanni da Verona which dates from 1513-1521. It is located in the Stanza della Segnatura, which also contains the most famous frescos by Raphael. The room was used as a study and music room by Pope Leo X. The intarsia shows five crumhorns. The other work is the instrument trophies of Giovanni da Udine, which date from 1517-1519. They are painted on two panels of the colonnade of the Loggia of Raphael. They have seriously deteriorated over the years on account of being exposed to the elements. The paintings depict five groups of instruments: three recorders and three curved cornetts; two mute cornetts; four crumhorns; three shawms and a sackbut; and three viols.

Crumhorns have been mentioned in writings since 1300. In the Renaissance many of the writings mentioning the instrument are works of music theory such as Sebastian Virdung's Musica getutscht (Basel 1511), Martin Agricola's Musica instrumentalis deutsch (Wittenberg 1528/1545), and Praetorious' Syntagma musicum that were mentioned above. Crouncorns are mentioned in The Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule by Sir William Leighton (1613). In addition to being a poet he was also a composer. He published a collection of music in 1614 titled "Musicall Ayres and Tunable Accents." The text of the songs in the collection from his poems in the lamentations mentioned above. He wrote the first eight works in the book, the remaining 46 works are by other composers including such luminaries as John Dowland, John Bull, John Milton, John Cuperario, Robert Johnson, and Thomas Foorde. In all there are 18 works for broken consort, and 36 works for unaccompanied voices.

The crumhorn pictured on this page is a tenor made by Susato. It is made from ABS plastic, rather than wood. The reed is also made of plastic, rather than cane. Plastic reeds are very convenient, as they do not require moistening prior to playing.

Crumhorns are closely related to numerous other instruments. One such instrument is the cornamuse. It is similar in construction, but lacks the crumhorn's distinctive curve. It has a more muted tone due to an enclosure on the end of the instrument.

Soprano Crumhorn