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Indiana Horn Ensemble Kerry C. England, Music Director |
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| Contact Us |
www.indianahorns.org |
Soundclips | Contribute |
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Indiana Horn Ensemble Kerry C. England, Music Director |
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| Contact Us |
www.indianahorns.org |
Soundclips | Contribute |
French Horn Facts: Natural horns, Single horns, Double horns |
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natural horn is made of a large circle of brass tubing. Originally, this
instrument was big enough to fit over the shoulder of a man like a big
hoop. This made it possible for him to carry it while hunting animals on
horseback.
In England, these hunters would use this coiled horn, or "French horn" as they called it, to signal to other hunters while on a fox hunt. In Germany, the hunters would use these horns, called "waldhorns" (which means "horns of the forest"), while hunting wild pigs known as boars. |
Valves were
invented around the year 1815, and this invention made the valved horn
play music better than the simple natural horn could.
The new style of French horn developed into a three valve single horn in the key of F, and could play all the notes of the musical scale evenly and precisely. The range of this new single horn matched the singing ranges of alto, tenor, and baritone voices
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The valved horn in
F was combined with a smaller valved horn in B flat to make a double horn
in F and B flat. This combination horn had four valves instead of three and over 20 feet of tubing. Combining two single horns into one double horn made playing in the high and low ranges more secure. Today, this is the kind of horn that most professional musicians play. Want to take a fun quiz on horns? |
| Copyright 2000-2005 Indiana Horn
Ensemble / Kerry C. England, Indianapolis, Indiana
"Provided with support from the Central
Indiana Community Foundation, |
