Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra/FRENCH HORN

by Arthur Edward Johnstone

FRENCH HORN

Frank Corrado
Metropolitan Opera
House Orchestra, N.Y.

The original form of french horn (hand horn, waldhorn, cor du chasse, etc.) consisted of from nine to eighteen feet of coiled brass tubing, the precise length of which depended upon the key in which the horn was pitched. This instrument possessed very limited chromatic possibilities and it has become practically obsolete. In its place the modern valve horn in F is used almost exclusively. Its tube is about twelve feet long, and by virtue of its valve mechanism it can produce all chromatic tones within its range of three and one-half octaves. As in all brass instruments, the tone is produced by the vibration of the lips pressed against a mouthpiece, which in the case of the horn, is small and funnel rather than cup-shaped.

The tone of the horn, except when forced and rendered "brassy" for the production of dramatic effects, is pure and noble. Its lovely, mellow tones blend as perfectly with the wood-wind as with the brass choir. The horn thus forms a connecting link between these two sections of the orchestra.

The horn is of inestimable value, both as a melody and as a harmony instrument. Its soft notes possess a remarkable pervading quality which is felt rather than heard, while a unison passage played ff by the four horns with which every symphony orchestra is provided, will cut through the entire orchestral mass.

The horn is probably the most difficult of all the wind instruments, and that it is the most treacherous is evidenced by the slips occasionably made by even the finest performers. The F horn is a transposing instrument. Both treble and bass clefs are used. F horn parts in the treble clef sound a fifth lower; in the bass clef, a fourth higher, than written.

The range of the F horn is:

(The five highest and the five lowest notes are difficult of production)

FRANK CORRADO
METROPOLITAN OPERA
HOUSE ORCHESTRA, N. Y.