Choosing an Artist French Horn

A small publication that has been on a shelf in my office for years and years is Choosing an Artist French Horn by Louis Stout. The text of this publication was very recently posted online in Keynotes by Conn-Selmer. Stout began,

It is more difficult to choose a fine French horn than any other instrument in the brass family. There is a twofold reason for this. First, the French horn plays the most important role of any instrument in the brass family so far as the symphonic repertoire is concerned. As a member of the brass family the French horn must have, at least by American standards of performance, a large, full-bodied timbre and sonority. Second, many composers utilize the French horn as a member of the woodwind family and expect its timbres and sonorities to blend with individual instruments in this family as well as with the sonority produced by the family as a whole.

The most important things to consider when choosing an artist French horn are these:

1.) The instrument must have an evenly balanced tone quality on every note in an extended four octave range.
2.) It must have matched timbres throughout on both F and Bb sides.
3.) It must have a matched pattern of intonation throughout on both F and Bb sides.

When choosing a French horn I use the following test patterns and play each
musical example three or four times in order to arrive at a considered, unbiased judgment of an instrument’s responsiveness to my demands upon it.

The examples that follow are all good but the text perhaps just a little biased to a certain brand of horn? For example,

5.) The horn call in the Handel oratorio, “Judas Maccabeus,” is written in a high, narrow tessitura. I use this example to check the ease of response when playing high notes only. If the player must do something with the hands or the lips to play this call in tune, it will sound very stuffy. The truth is that many horns are very flat on these high notes. I can play this passage in tune very easily on my Holton French horn.

And

9.) The 1st horn part in the slow movement of the Beethoven Second Symphony can be used to test the ease of slurring upward from one high register note to another. This solo passage strikes terror into the hearts of performers who are forced to play on an inadequate instrument. My Holton French horn’s great flexibility, accurate intonation and consummate ease of response makes it a great joy to play this solo.

And his conclusion,

Playing these musical examples on a Holton (Farkas model) Double French horn will convince even the most unreasonable skeptic about the superb response, intonation and timbre of this instrument, the finest French horn ever made.

Well there you go! In spite of the bias there are some good tips here and it is great to see this classic Leblanc publication now online. A long list of similar articles in their archives may be found here.