Krummhorn

The crumhorn takes its name from the German Krummhorn, meaning 'bent horn'—krumm (crooked, bent) plus Horn (horn). The instrument is a double-reed woodwind with a cylindrical bore and a distinctive J-shaped curve at the bell end. It produces a buzzing, nasal sound that Renaissance players considered pleasant and modern listeners often find comical. The reed is enclosed in a cap, which means the player does not touch the reed with their lips—they blow into the cap, and the reed vibrates inside.

Crumhorns were popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially in German-speaking lands and in the court music of Burgundy and France. They were built in consorts—sets of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass instruments that played together. The sound was uniform and blending, like a buzzing choir. Heinrich Isaac, the Flemish composer who served Emperor Maximilian I, likely heard crumhorn consorts at the Habsburg court in the late 1400s.

The instrument had a fatal limitation: its range was only about nine notes. It could not overblow into a second register the way most wind instruments can, because the capped reed prevented the player from controlling the embouchure. This narrow range made it unsuitable for the increasingly complex music of the Baroque period. By 1650, the crumhorn was obsolete.

The 20th-century early-music revival brought crumhorns back. Groups like the Early Music Consort of London, led by David Munrow in the 1970s, performed with crumhorns and introduced audiences to the sound. The reaction was often laughter. The crumhorn sounds like a cheerful insect. But in the right repertoire—slow dances, processional music, consort pieces—it has a strange dignity that nothing else replicates.