Notes from Russia’s Past: A Strange Instrument in the Museum

Victor (the Director of our upcoming episode Museum Secrets: Inside the State Historical Museum, Moscow) examines the horn ensemble on display at the State Historical and tells us what it would have been like for the serfs who were required to repeatedly play a single note in Russian horn bands in the mid 18th Century.

The music produced during the time of Catherine the Great’s reign in Russia from 1762-1796 was often the kind that would require serfs to play these unique horns that could only play one note — and the fate of the serfs was to play a single note, for years on end. Watch our vlog to see the horns and find out more.

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