Some time ago I bought what was described as a really ugly black Gemshorn. After considerable searching for pictures, I am 100% sure this is really the horn of a Gemsbok. (I don’t think it is at all ugly.)
It is approximately 32 inches long. It has a range of just over an octave and appears to be in the key of “D”. (I can play all of Greensleves on it.)
There seems to be a makers mark on it. It appears to be an “R” overlaying a “W”.
Any ideas where this may have come from?
DonW
It might be a “Rainer Weber” or something like that (maybe Webber). He is a German maker, who wrote a few rather important articles on early woodwinds. If it’s really his work, you are onto a good thing.
The Gemse or Gams (Rupicapra rupicapra L.) is an alpine goat-like animal (Gamsbock is the male). Its crooked horns (shaped like a “J”) can reach a length of 10 inches (measured along the crook), however, 6 - 7 inches are typical with a diameter of 3/4 - 7/8 inch at the base. So we can assume that the gemshorn was never made from the horn of the gemse, except for maybe a sopranino instrument. The only preserved historical instrument was found in Berlin in 1913 and had been made from a goat horn. From the illustrations by Virdung and Agricola most instruments seem to have been made from cow horn, as are most of today’s reconstructions.
The term “Gemsbok” has been transferred by the Boers to the african oryx antelope whose horns do reach a length of 32 inches, black and almost perfectly straight.
AFAIK Rainer Weber is the only maker of gemshorns with these initials.
Would you post a picture?
I forgot - “Gemse” is “chamois”.
I have posted a picture with my profile. This shows the shape and size well but the detail is lost. There is a yardstick below the image with a dark line at the 2 foot mark,
As you can see this does not fit the “relatively straight” appearance of the horns that I often have seen in Gemsbok pictures, and it is certainly longer than the 11-12 inches often mentioned as another possibility.
My horn has about 18 rings and the last foot or so is relatively smooth.
I have noticed that the definition of a Gemsbok has changed a bit over time. I wonder what a Gemsbok looked like when the name “gemshorn” was developed.
I did find a reference to Rainer Weber’s book, but I had to join a society and pay fee to look at it.
When I originaly went looking for pictures, I ran across a picture of a wooden plaque that had several horns mounted on it. These horns looked exactly like mine. Unfortunatley, I haven’t been able to find it again so that I could try to check the scale of the picture.
DonW
I did find the picture. I had saved it in an unlikely folder. You can view it at the location below.
The picture is entitled Chamois horn. The Chamois(oryx gazella) male is the Gemsbok.
If you make some estimates of the scale depending on the hight from the floor of the horns, hight of the couch, or the estimated hight of the ceiling, you can get lengths of the horns in the picture that agree pretty well with the length of my instrument.
I found a description of the Chamois and the length of the horns there also agrees quite well with the length of my insrument.
I don’t think we can get much more information about the instrument, but if anyone can come up with a suggestion, I will look into it.
DonW
http://www.zapaimages.com/zapaimages/images/incDetailView.cfm?imgNo=2094&language=2
Only in case you’re interested…
the horns on the wooden plaque (very tasteful…) are most likely those of the ibex (capra ibex, “capricorn”, Steinbock), not related to the chamois. Ibex horns are much bigger and of different overall appearance. Due to excessive hunting, the alpine ibex is almost extinct and is therefore subject to strict protection. In the past decades they have tried to refresh the population by importing pyrenean ibexes but those seem to be a different species. Many people of non-biological background seem to believe the chamois is the female of the ibex. To add to this confusion, the term “Gemse” (which is only correct for the female) is commonly used for both sexes, same as the term “Steinbock”, although “Bock” normally denotes a male.
Chamois is Rupicapra rupicapra, Oryx gazella is the oryx antelope, incorrectly named gemsbok, again the term is used for both sexes, not related to the chamois. All oryx species have relatively straight horns, so your instrument is definitely not from an oryx horn unless it has been bent artificially. From what it looks like it seems to be the horn of the sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) but I can’t say I’m specially familiar with antelopes.
I forgot - due to a reform in orthography a couple of years ago the word is now spelled “Gämsbock”. If you google this spelling, you will find pictures of the real gämsbock or alpine chamois, whereas the spelling “Gemsbock” for the oryx seems to have remained unaltered.
You should come here, to New Zealand for chamoise horns. It has been introduced around 1880 or so, “for something to hunt”, together with a whole bunch of different deer species. Well, the NZ forest being totally incapable of protecting itself, they all became pests in a big way. Hunting licenses are practically free.
I forgot to mention the wallabies, which proliferate in one area of the South Island, too. Aren’t they a pain?..Not to mention the rabbits, stoats, weasels, etc etc…
Nifty! Do you play it by buzzing your lips, or is there some sort of reed assembly?
T
There is a good picture of a gemshorn and player at the following address.
You blow into it like playing a recorder (or whistle).
DonW
Technically it is an ocarina, just a funny shape.
I have a gemshorn made from African gemsbok horn (which is actually not the same animal as the gems or chamois of Europe). It is pretty straight.