Musicology Annotation << Back The Ways of Improvement of French Horn’s Construction and Playing Methods in the Middle of the 18th Century Ivan Semeryaga The paper describes the key period in the history of French horn evolution which is marked with intensive attempts of expanding of sound potential of the instrument and sphere of its use. The author considers the steps of the improvement of natural French horn’s construction: invention of ring crooks and, subsequently, tuning slides, or “inventions”, which allowed to tune up or down the natural tones; the technique of stopped horn which made it possible to play almost full major scale. The paper is focused on the activity of Anton Joseph Hampel, an outstanding Dresden artist who accomplished the majority of the revolutionary changes of the French horn construction and techniques of playing, including the division of the whole French horn’s range into “high” horn and “low” parts, which is used in contemporary practice. The further history of the 18th century innovations is also traced. Keywords: Anton Joseph Hampel, Jan Václav Stich (Giovanni Punto), French horn, tuning slide, invention, school of playing. Contacts: E-mail: xaxol-horn@mail.ru Pp. 46-53.