French Horns

## Summary

**The French Horn is a Brass instrument in the F key. It has three diferent valves that alter the pitch. The French Horn has a small mouthpiece which gives it a higher pitched sound.**

 **The sound is created by creating a rasberry into the mouth piece. You can also loosen your lips to go down in pitch and tighten your lips to go up in the pitch of the instrument.**

## History

Information from Mary Bellis:

*The modern orchestral brass French horn was an invention based on early hunting horns. Horns were first used as musical instruments during 16th century operas. During the 17th century, modifications to the bell end (larger and flared bells) of the horn were made and the cor de chasse, or French horn as the English called it was born.*

*The first horns were monotone instruments. In 1753, a German musician called Hampel invented the means of applying movable slides (crooks) of various length that changed the key of the horn. In 1760, it was discovered rather then invented that placing a hand over the bell of the French Horn lowered the tone called stopping. Devices for stopping were later invented.*

*In the 19th century, valves instead of crooks were used, giving birth to the modern French Horn and eventually the double French Horn. It is debatable if it is possible to trace the invention of the French Horn to one person. However, two inventors are named as the first to invent a valve for the horn. According to the Brass Society, "Heinrich Stoelzel (1777-1844), a member of the band of the Prince of Pless, invented a valve which he applied to the horn by July of 1814 (considered the first French Horn)" and "Friedrich Blühmel (fl. 1808-before 1845), a miner who played trumpet and horn in a band in Waldenburg, is also associated with the invention of the valve."*

*According to A Brief History of Horn Evolution, "Double French horns were invented by both Edmund Gumpert and Fritz Kruspe in the late 1800s. German Fritz Kruspe, who has been credited most often as being the inventor of the modern double French horn, combined the pitches of the horn in F with the horn in B Flat in 1900.*

Bellis, M. (n.d.). The Invention and History of the French Horn. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/French\_Horn.htm

## Famous Horn Music

Information from John Ericson

*I recently had a question come in on what were the most important horn excerpts. Back when I was first at Arizona State I decided to sort this out once and for all, the results of which were published as “A New ICSOM Audition List Survey” in the October, 2002 issue of The Horn Call. It was a survey of 88 audition lists from major orchestras, ICSOM being the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, a player conference in the American Federation of Musicians, which at that time included the top 49 orchestras in the United States (but currently represents the performers of the top 51 orchestras, their website is here). The ten works requested the most frequently on their audition lists were:*

* *Beethoven: Symphony No. 3*
* *Beethoven: Symphony No. 7*
* *Beethoven: Symphony No. 9*
* *Brahms: Symphony No. 4*
* *Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5*
* *Strauss: Don Juan*
* *Strauss: Ein Heldenleben*
* *Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel*
* *Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5*
* *Wagner: Das Rheingold Prelude*

*You may be asking yourself, what about Brahms 1, 2, and 3, Mahler 5, the Short Call, and many other works. Of course, there are many other great orchestral works than those listed above; these ten just showed up the most often on major orchestra audition lists in my sample.*

*I have a pair of longer versions of the results of the survey in my studio site which lay things in a bit more detail for those learning excerpts. The long version has suggested locations to learn in these and many other works, and the short version is more of a checklist of excerpts to learn. Check them both out, and for sure get familiar with these works if you are a fan of orchestral horn music.*

*UPDATE: I now have an even shorter horn study list that is a great starting point if you are just getting going on excerpts. It may be found here and is divided into excerpts for Basic and Intermediate level study, based on audition lists for top level music schools.*

Ericson, J. (2009, September 27). The Top Ten Orchestral Works for Horn. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://hornmatters.com/2009/09/the-top-ten-orchestral-works-for-horn/

## French Horn and the Orchestra

Information by Allan Kozinn

Orchestral instruments don’t come more treacherous than the French horn, either for the musicians who play it, or, when the going gets rough, for the listeners who find themselves within earshot. Sometimes you wonder how the instrument found its way from the hunting lodge to the orchestra. The modern French horn, with its complex tubing and finger keys at the center, has come a long way from its hunting party origins.

James Sommerville performs Elliott Carter's Horn Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., July 24, 2008

Kozinn, A. (2008, August 12). The French Horn, That Wild Card of the Orchestra. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/arts/music/13horn.html?pagewanted=all