Alphorn, also called alpenhorn, is a long tube-shaped instrument used chiefly by herders to call cattle in mountain regions of Switzerland. It is made of long wooden staves tightly bound together with birchbark strips to form an airtight tube. Alphorns are from 7 to 12 feet (2.1 to 3.7 meters) long. Their crude construction causes certain irregularities of pitch. The alphorn is played with a cup-shaped wooden mouthpiece. Gioachino Rossini included an alphorn in his opera William Tell (1829). The alphorn has been used since prehistoric times.
