Musicians and scientists have re-created a lost musical instrument known as the 'lituus':
Link
In 1737-8, Johann Sebastian Bach composed and performed a cantata, “O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht” (”O Jesus Christ, light of my life”). Among the instruments called for in the score are “two Litui.” However, the Lituus is a forgotten instrument. No one has played or heard the instrument in modern times; there aren’t even illustrations of one.
Musicians at a Swiss conservatory, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB), had heard of a computer program developed by a University of Edinburgh Ph.D. student to help in the design of modern brass instruments. The SCB provided a group of Edinburgh scientists with design requirements, such as notes that would have been played with the Lituus, how it sounded and how it might have been played. (Though likely made of wood, the Lituus qualifies as a brass instrument.) The result: a two-and-a-half-meter-long horn made of pine with a flared bell at one end and a mouthpiece made of cow horn at the other. And they built two.
Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdBe5b7k-w
:D
That makes Bach's music and what he meant us to hear yet more understandable to us.
This Lituus gives a beautiful more breakable sound due to its wooden mantle than modern metal brass instruments. That quality lends extra sentiment to the cantata.
Also it would have been a wonderful sight for the eye to see these long litui being played in an orchestra of mostly short small instruments. That visual aspect would give an extra accent on the notes in that cantata.
And that computer program is incredible!