5 Good Reasons to choose the French Horn!

5 Good Reasons to choose the French Horn instead of any other instrument!

1. Sound The Horn is synonymous with a beautiful golden brass sound, and is achieved through it's particular use of the conical shaped mouthpiece and the instrument having its tubing wrapped several times over on itself. This allows the Horn to have a wide variety of tone colours which cannot be rivalled by other brass instruments. The Horn is, therefore, used by many different composers in different ways from 1600 to the present day.

2. Adaptability The Horn has the ability to blend well with both woodwind and brass, and can be used effectively as either one of these families of instruments. It is the only instrument which can be found in both a Brass quintet and a Wind quintet, and the Horn provides the greatest range of varieties in sound: High – low; loud – soft; mellow - brassy.

3. Repertoire One of the best things about playing the Horn is the ability to play many different styles of music, and the fact that there is a lot of great music written specifically for the Horn. There are 4 Horn concerti by Mozart, and 2 by Richard Strauss, which are all fantastic pieces of music in their own right. There are also tons of fantastic Horn parts written for bands, orchestras, as well as chamber works and orchestral film scores.

4. Rare Breed It is likely that if you play the Horn at school, that few other people will be playing the Horn as well. This makes you very important and a valuable part of your school's music scene! It will also be likely that you'll have a chance to play your own part in bands and orchestra – as apposed to playing a string instrument where a lot of other people may all be playing the same part.

5. Fun  Most people who start playing the Horn find that it has an addictive quality, and in my opinion this is down to the amount of fun that the  instrument provides and the fantastic social interactions which make playing music one of the greatest virtues in life!

Here are a few short pieces, which I have selected from YouTube, that will hopefully give you a good idea of the French Horn.

Enjoy!

Horn Solo from the film Gladiator:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naovSOqgkJE

Mozart's 4^th Horn Concerto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_TrR2uH3T4

The opening to Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoSRJxXf1vY&feature=relmfu

An arrangement of 'Tico-Tico' for Horn ensemble:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDJqMsd77vA