The Russian shepherd’s horn known as the “rozhok” originated in the 17th century. Its tradition was developing alongside the art of singing. The rozhok is not mentioned in chronicles which mostly describe military campaigns, but is often referred to in lyrical songs, khorovod, and dance tunes.

The rozhok was one of the main instruments of the performers known as the skomorokhs. They had a saying, “Our riches and possessions are the gudok and the rozhok.” When the skomorokh art was banned in the mid-17th century, all gudoks were destroyed, but the rozhok survived. The church and the tsar himself believed that it was mainly used by shepherds in their work.

The sound of the rozhok accompanied peasant dances and khorovods. During the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, and Catherine the Great, evening boat rides were organized on the Neva and the Fontanka rivers in Saint Petersburg, and the rowers sang tunes to the accompaniment of rozhoks.

Later, Alexander Pushkin dedicated the following lines in “Eugene Onegin” to this popular entertainment,

Before performing, the musicians soaked the rozhok in water to close the cracks on the tube, and make the instrument’s tone stronger. To produce sound, the performer had to hold the instrument in the corner of the mouth and blow strongly.

The shepherd’s horn is a wooden musical instrument with a mouthpiece and six tune holes. It has a strong piercing sound. There are also other variations — the small “vizgunok” with a length of 30 to 32 cm, the large “bass” horn with a length of up to one meter, and the medium “podbasok” horn. The podbasoks and vizgunoks were usually made of juniper, while the larger bass horns were made of birch wood.

The most interesting horns are the traditional handmade rozhoks produced by local craftsmen in the villages of the Vladimir, Ivanovo, and Tver regions, where entire dynasties of shepherds lived. In the early 20th century, when the rozhok became increasingly used by ensembles, the instruments were made on lathe machines. However, they were inferior to the traditional handcrafted rozhoks.

In the second half of the 20th century, professional musicians started to show interest in the rozhok. A rozhok section was introduced in the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra and the Pyatnitsky Choir Orchestra.