Posted in: Brass by Kharla Jolly on December 6th, 2011 | 0 Comments
This column is about a concert band musical instrument, that creates beautiful harmonious music.
Image via Wikipedia
The French Horn is a brass musical instrument, made from twelve to thirteen feet of coiled tubing, with a flared bell. It’s incorrectly named a ‘French’ instrument, when its actual origin is Germany. The French Horn has three or four lever rotary valves, played with the fingers on the left hand. The right hand is cupped inside the bell, which greatly changes the horns tone. This method of inserting of the hand, is called hand stopping. The French Horn is usually tuned in the key of F or less commonly in Bb or Eb.
Also, there’s a double horn, which has four valves instead of three. The fourth valve is controlled by the thumb on the left hand. The change of pitch is from air passing through different tubing, the valves, and different lip tension on the mouthpiece.
The French Horn is the third highest sounding brass instrument, with the cornet being second and the trumpet comes in first. It can reach five octaves, the widest range of all brass instruments.
There’s also a natural horn which has only tubing, with no valves at all. Made similar to the bugle, with its tones controlled by lips tension on the mouthpiece.
Originally, it was a simple horn, played on a hunt while riding
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
on horseback. This instruments sound was known as recheat, used for calling the hounds on a hunt.
