French Horns

[Vanguard Rich]

A friend of mine asked me the questions below, and since I haven’t seen any threads on this, I thought I’d run this on both the DCI and DCA Forum Sections as dual threads, as the questions pertain to both groups. Are any DCI Competing Corps still using French Horns as a major middle voice instrument these days? (And not just specifically for a solo, either) I for one haven't seen any for quite awhile now. If they are, who is still using them, and if no one is these days, who was the last Corps to use them as such, and when did they stop using them?

Please correct me here, but I believe that French horns were dropped because of the difficulty in playing them in today’s programs, primarily due to the mouthpiece utilized? And other factors, such as intonation difficulties with the instrument itself as well while performing?

Answers, please!!

Edited July 31, 2008 by Vanguard Rich

[tubawarrior]

no junior corps that i know of uses French Horns (as i've been repeatedly told in college the instrument isn't French anyways, and they get annoyed when it's called French)...they are all on mellophones. some use horn mouthpieces, presumably with adapters but most probably use mello mouthpieces.

Edited July 31, 2008 by tubawarrior

[Vanguard Rich]

Just tryin' to keep this on the front page for answers.

[Piper]

Pretty sure the mello rules the roost right now for alto. French horns sound nice in a concert setting, but playing and marching with one at the same time must be a real butt kicker.

[Contrajefe]

As late as '99, there was still a separate I&E category for French horn, and I think maybe there were three or four entrants from Cavies and Scouts. But I could be wrong. I think DCI collapsed the category with mello sometime between 2000 and my age-out in '02.

Jeff H.

[Vanguard Rich]

Pretty sure the mello rules the roost right now for alto. French horns sound nice in a concert setting, but playing and marching with one at the same time must be a real butt kicker.

As stated initially, I haven't seen a FH section on the field in years, and I can relate to all of your comments here. I also play a concert double F/B-flat F.H. and it is hard enough just keeping proper pitch AND not cracking notes. And that's just sitting down and playing, and not moving anywhere!! It was always unbelievable to me to watch a Corps play these things while in motion. Almost a miracle itself to get a quality ensemble sound from the section while moving briskly around the field while playing.

Edited August 1, 2008 by Vanguard Rich

[Mad Mello]

When I marched Scouts ten years ago, all of us who were French Horn players played third mellophone using horn mouthpieces with adapters. A few of the guys competed in I & E on French Horn but we didn't actually march any. I can't imagine any corps still does as I haven't seen them on the field for years.

[Lancerlady]

It is hard to play French Horn in drum corps. My first year I played a French Horn in the Blues (I was 16) . It was very intimidating since I was a mellophone player in marching band and a F Horn concert player. I later went on to play mellophone enjoying it much better on my emobochure that's for sure!

[Michael Boo]

IF my memory holds true:

The last couple of years of the separate French Horn division at I&E had just one entrant, Matt Gregg of Madison Scouts.

He was good enough to quite possibly win in the Mellophone division had the divisions been combined.

[SkyRyder_FMM]

I'd love to see french horns make a come back, as I think they add a wonderful depth and quality to the sound of a horn line. That being said, they are a bear to play while marching (I know, I did it in teh 70s and 80s when drills were no where near as complicated or difficult as they are now).