This article sez that in the 1700s: "...in Russia a unique and bizarre custom of wind playing developed. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and this would certainly seem to be so in this case. Prince Kirilovich Narishkin, the Master of the Hunt to the Empress Elizabeth, had become frustrated with the sound coming from the horns used to signal the progress of the hunt. The coppersmith on Narishkin's estate made the horns in question, and apparently no attempt towards consistency of pitch had been made. So in 1751 the prince had sixteen new instruments made which were tuned to play a D major chord. The technique of overblowing was not taught on these simple instruments, so standard practice called for a single note to be played on each horn."It's called 'Russian horn capella' music, and, yep, as with hand-bells, only one note can be played on these giant instruments (hence the need for big groups), but you'd never guess to listen to this lovely album - it's played with such expert precision that one could be fooled into thinking it's just a couple/few musicians playing, not a large ensemble flawlessly passing notes back and forth.
Apart the peppy "Funiculi Funicula" it's pretty much standard classical classics, e.g. Mozart, "William Tell Overture," "Ave Maria," etc.
Russian Horny Choir (Concert)
I had to translate everything from Russian using the somewhat inaccurate Babelfish, and since the results were kinda funny, I just left it, making no attempt to clean 'em up.
Thanks to whoever the reader was who left a comment heppin' me to this stuff, sorry I can't remember your name/find your comment, sir!
