Alto Horn

The alto horn is a member of the Sax brass family, developed by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. To be very precise, it is a descendant of the saxotromba (fig.3), because there hasn’t been found a single alto saxhorn so far. The historical alto instruments by Sax that did survive all have inner diameters that are those Sax described in his saxotromba patent.

It is an alto range instrument pitched in E-flat that is used in British-style brass bands. It looks like a small Euphonium and is built to use a mouthpiece that is roughly half way between a cornet and a Euphonium mouthpiece, somewhat larger than a horn mouthpiece. It covers the same alto range that the French horn plays in.