The 1978 booklet, in a new 2021 print, including a biography of the author and reminiscences by players who knew him.

For the last couple of decades ever decreasing numbers of The Horn, The Horn... have been passed around in hard copy, often as mangled photocopies, or as blurry .pdf files. Horn players all over the world were clearly still interested in this unique booklet, so in 2018 we had our first discussions with Paxman about attempting to issue a new edition, using modern desktop publishing tools. Tim Jones and Steve Flower were enthusiastic. Various other people stepped up to make important contributions:

Willi Watson had the excellent idea of including reminiscences of Dick Merewether and he set about commissioning the essays you see in this booklet. He also supplied several photographs from his collection, as well as a piece he had written for the IHS some years ago.

Tony Catterick supplied us with his biography of "Dicko".

Steve Flower deciphered Dicko's scribbled adjustments to the text of his first edition, which are included here for the first time.

We have deliberately not tried to adjust Dicko's "delayed Victorian", and after some discussion agreed that it would also be wrong to update his idiosyncratic acoustical illustrations for the modern audience. It remains an enlightening read, even for those of us who think we know our instrument! We hope you enjoy this "new" edition of The Horn, The Horn...

SF/JS, September 2021

54 pages

• Prelude
• Different Tube Lengths of Horn
• Different Bores of Horn
• Choosing a Mouthpiece
• Choosing a Mute
• Bells - Fixed or Detachable
• Horns in Different Metals
• Intermezzo - a Hybrid: The Wagner Tuba
• How Horns are Built
• The Valve System (& diagrams)
• The Maintenance of Rotary Valves (& diagrams)
• General Maintenance
• The Horn and the Player
• Holding the Instrument
• Interlude
• Notes of the Horn - The Harmonic Series
• In and Out of Tune
• Echo from the Past: The Hand-Horn and Handstopping
• The Inside Story
• Postlude

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