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A blast from the past.
According to history King Charles IX of France (best known for the St. Bartholomew Massacre) died of tuberculosis. According to legend, he may have exacerbated this condition with his over-enthusiastic horn blowing while hunting.
The modern-day French horn has its roots in this tradition, and in an archived article I found at TIME.com from 1956, this tradition was celebrated in a huge event sponsored by Belgian Baron Marcel Schaetzen de Schaetzenhoff.
The Baron invited some of the leading horn groups of Europe to a Grand Festival of Hunting Horns and Venery* held at his 10th century Château of Laarne near Ghent.
The TIME article notes that about 200 hunting horn ensembles existed at the time throughout Europe, and that three French manufacturers produced some 400 hunting horns a year at about $35 apiece.
It was a glorious afternoon for the horn players but a somewhat puzzling one for the modern audience. When they began wandering aimlessly across the chateau grounds as the concert went on, nobody could think of a fanfare to recall them to their seats.
See the source article from the TIME magazine archives.
