Vienna horn

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The Vienna horn (German: Wiener horn) is a type of French horn used primarily in Vienna, Austria.

[edit] History and usage

The Vienna horn has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-nineteenth century, and is known for its rich sound and beautiful legato capabilities. The Vienna horn is used by the Vienna Philharmonic, the Wiener Staatsoper and throughout Vienna.

The Vienna horn is a direct descendant of the natural horn, the true, original horn. Hornists who use the Vienna horn also use its appropriate natural horn mouthpiece. Also, like the natural horn, the Vienna horn uses a system of crooks to change key. A regular double horn mouthpiece on a Vienna horn would not produce its characteristic sound because the double horn mouthpiece is shallower and slightly concave to play lower notes. The natural horn mouthpiece is convex. With the writing of Wagner, Bruckner, and Mahler, mouthpieces with less volume were favored because of the need of more endurance and sound. With the natural horn mouthpiece, and its longer bell flare, can produce the rich legato sound quality and warm tone color.

[edit] Differences

Unlike the usual double French horn, the Vienna horn is a single horn in F. The mouthpiece used is one of a natural horn. Piston valves are found on the usual trumpet and tuba, while the double horn uses rotary valves. Interestingly, the Vienna horn uses a peculiar form of double cylinder valve associated with the Viennese firm Uhlmann of the 1840s, not rotary valves or piston valves. It is known as a Pumpenvalve, and uses a system of crooks to change key.

[edit] External links

• http://www.andrewpelletier.com/vienna.htm
• http://www.viennahorns.com