Crook (music) - The Invention of Valves

The Invention of Valves

The use of crooks in conjunction with hand-stopping made the horn into an almost completely chromatic instrument, but the change in timbre associated with stopped notes, and the length of time needed to change crooks, did greatly limit their usefulness. The addition of valves around 1815 by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel revolutionized the playing of many brass instruments and the music that could be written for them. The name "valves" is somewhat misleading, since what is involved is that the crooks have become a permanent part of the instrument, and are opened and closed in various combinations by the use of valves, rendering the switching between crooks effectively instantaneous (see also the articles on the French horn, the cornet, and the valved trumpet).