The alphorn is a wooden wind instrument up to 3–4 metres long, carved from a spruce trunk and wrapped with birch bark or rattan. It has no valves or holes, and so produces only the sounds of the natural overtone series — like ancient signal horns.
For centuries the alphorn served the herdsmen of Switzerland and neighbouring Alpine lands: with its mighty, solemn sound they gathered the cattle, called to one another across distant pastures, and signalled the villages. The horn's timbre is deep, warm, and remarkably “spatial,” perfectly merged with the mountain landscape. Today the alphorn is a recognizable musical symbol of the Alps, sounding at festivals; art composers too have turned to its unmistakable voice. It is akin in purpose to the Ukrainian trembita — the mountain horn of the Carpathians.
