Horn/General

Horn
Introduction General Information History Acoustical Theory Types of Horns and Mouthpieces Notable Performers and Recording Artists Fingering Chart Playing Technique Repertoire Glossary Partial List of Authors

"French" horn?

The International Horn Society recommended in 1971 that the instrument be recognized in English simply as "the horn". No other language includes a nationalistic reference for the name of the instrument. Here are a few examples of the name of the instrument in other languages:

French: Cor d'harmonie
Spanish, Italian: Trompa, Corno
German: Horn
Hebrew: Keren Yaar
Mandarin: Yuan Hao

Terminology

Mouthpiece: A detachable piece of metal which comes in contact with the player's lips. A large number of different mouthpieces can be bought, each with a unique rim width, cup diameter, cup width and bore size. Mouthpieces can be made to be silver- or gold-plated. Typically, silver is for firm, dry contact and gold is for loose, wet contact.
Lead-pipe: The pipe of which air enters from the mouthpiece and flows toward the main tuning slide.
Valves: Keys which can be depressed to change the total length of the instrument.
Pinky-ring: The curved piece of metal which the pinky-finger is placed in to help hold up the instrument. (Note: Some horn players have modified their horns and replaced the pinky-ring with another device that puts less stress on the pinky, allowing the rest of the hand to be more flexible)
Bell: The large opening of which the right-hand is placed in and sound emerges from.