The region where the midwinter horn is still played
The Midwinter Horn
As a mouthpiece a piece of elder branch is used, cut off diagonally and with the pith removed, known as the happe ("mouthful"). The instrument is therefore not end-blown like normal horns but side-blown³ (Ill. 2 and photograph).
This archaic manner of blowing is not the only thing about the midwinter horn that is characteristic, however; the whole ancient playing tradition is characteristic of, and peculiar to, the instrument. It is usually played in the evening above a well, which functions as a resonator (no mountains here!) and alphorn-type "yodelling" is certainly possible (the range is from the 2nd to the 7th or 8th harmonic) but is forsworn by most players in favour of long, simple, melancholy notes (see example).
Furthermore it is only played from Advent Sunday until Twelfth Night. Outside the Christmas period playing is forbidden and the horn is supposed to be kept in the well⁴. Tradition holds that this playing represents the shepherds' announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ but everything indicates that it dates back to pre-Christian times. Beneath the veneer of Christianity in all probability lurks an ancient pagan magic ritual⁵: at the winter solstice (21st December) the horn—from time immemorial a male symbol of power and potency—fertilises the womb of mother Earth so that the fields may bring forth their fruits again next year.
This connection between horn playing and fertility is certainly not far-fetched. One only has to think for example of the use of horns in initiation rites among primitive African peoples, of the cornucopia (the horn of plenty, sumptuously laden with the fruits of the earth) or of the old Slav custom of beating the trees with a horn on Christmas Eve and saying, "I beat you with the horn—beat me with fruit"⁶.
A ceremony similar to that in Twente is to be found in the rosh-hashana chapter of the Talmud, which describes the orthodox Jewish custom of sounding the shofar over a well or a water-barrel⁷. Here too the symbolic link between male and female elements is unmistakable.
The Catholic farmers of Twente, blowing their wooden horns on winter evenings, are not aware of this connection. But it is immaterial whether you consider the playing of the midwinter horn to be the announcement of the infant Christ or a pagan magic ritual (both in any case symbolise new and eternal life!); for anyone who hears the magical sound of the midwinter horns coming towards him from all sides through the frosty silence of a winter's night will be deeply impressed by this mystical experience.
I myself have played the midwinter horn in the concert hall. In Christmas concerts, for example, I have played the shepherd's horn part in the Sinfonia pastorella of Leopold Mozart on a midwinter horn in G (about 1.55 m long). A performance of this work was given on 26th December 1981 as part of a Christmas concert in the Great Hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Although there is no question of this being authentic midwinter-horn playing (Mozart's alphorn-like melodies and the use of an ordinary horn mouthpiece would rule this out), this pastoral symphony nonetheless fits well with the tradition of horn playing as the shepherds' ceremonial announcement of the birth of Jesus Christ.
