French horn (from German waldhorn - "forest horn") is called the brass instrument of the bass-tenor register. Her timbre stands out among the orchestral neighbors. With a melodious, velvety and warm timbre, it becomes the decoration of the concert.
Tool history
The horn came from a hunting signal horn, which was trumpeted during hunting, gathering troops, and triumph. Maybe that’s why the sound of the horn is colored not only by thoughtfully lyrical colors symbolizing nature, forests, fields, but also by courageous and dramatic knightly tournaments connected with hunting.
Over time, the signal horn changed. To enhance the sound, the horn was lengthened, and for the convenience of playing on it, it was twisted round by round. So the horn has acquired its current form. Now the horn is a metal tube longer than 3 m long, rolled up in a circle and having many curls.
But the path of the instrument was long. With the help of a hunting horn, only 14-15 sounds could be reproduced by sending the bell up. Created in France in the middle of the 17th century, the horn has become a larger version of the crescent-shaped hunting horn. The elongated shape and specially selected size made it possible to control the reproduced sounds. The horn could play a harmonious series of musical sounds - all twelve tones and midtones.
The French composer Lully included the horn in the opera orchestra in 1664, and after a while she took a worthy place in the symphony orchestra. In 1750, the musician A.J. Hampel lowered the instrument bell and began to introduce a hand into it when playing. Thanks to this, he increased or decreased the pitch of natural sounds. In 1830, the instrument acquired a valve mechanism, allowing you to play the entire scale on the horn.
Tool device
The French horn is one of the most beautiful instruments in the orchestra. The valve mechanism, whose function is to adjust the length of the air column and lower the height of natural sounds, is in the center of the circle of the instrument. When playing the horn, the performer holds his left hand on the three keys of the valve mechanism. The tool contains additional 4th and 5th valves, facilitating the batch execution process. Through the mouthpiece, air is blown into the instrument, making the horn come to life.
Closed sounds that complement the missing sounds of the diatonic octave are obtained by inserting the hand into the lower part of the instrument (mouth). The tuning of the horn depends on the length of the pipe: with a high tuning, the pipe is shorter, and with a low tuning, it is longer. When playing the horn, F, E, Es systems are most often used. To change the structure of the horn, additional curved tubes are used to extend the instrument's tube. With a decrease in the horn, the number of notes available for playing increases.
