Until recently there appeared to be an incompatibility between horns and modern traditional music. A dominant feature of Irish music is an inherent complex melody structure where a tune is composed of series of many notes which are played in repeating sections. The rhythms that underpin these melodies are equally complex and intricate but are supplied mainly by melody players. Thus an inability to play melody on a bronze horn should automatically exclude it from the Tradition. However, when viewed from a rhythm point of view the horns take on a different and new set of colours.
Irish horns are unusual in that a part of their configuration is a large open mouthpiece.
At first this was perceived to prohibit playing and so inserts were experimented with. It has since been discovered that by it's nature the open mouthpiece allows a player to produce a variety of notes, sounds, tones and colours which when combined in the hands of an expert can make a powerful and rich music. Experiments to date have unearthed four distinct voices in the Irish horns. The Human Voice. The Overtone Series.