In the early 17th century, music scholar Michael Praetorius in his treatise Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620) depicts an alphorn-like instrument he called a Hölzern Trummet ("wooden trumpet"), noting they are used by Vogtlandian and Swiss shepherds.

Traditionally, the alphorn maker would find a tree growing on a slope and bent at the base providing the curved shape for the bell.

The long trunk would be cut in half longways, the bore hollowed out, then glued and bound back together with outer layers of stripped bark.

[4] The alphorn is a simple tube with no lateral openings or means of adjusting the pitch, so only the notes of the natural harmonic series are available.

[clarification needed] Rossini introduced the "Ranz des Vaches" into his masterpiece William Tell, along with many other melodies scattered throughout the opera in vocal and instrumental parts that are well-suited to the alphorn.

Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann that the inspiration for the dramatic entry of the horn in the introduction to the last movement of his First Symphony was an alphorn melody he heard while vacationing in the Rigi area of Switzerland.