The French horn, a beautiful instrument known for its mellow sound, originated as a hunting horn. The French merely added some innovations that made it more of a practical, usable instrument. But professional musicians often prefer to call it simply the horn. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Etymology of French Horn”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Alfred Hubbard from Valdosta, Georgia.
Valdosta. Alfred, is that your name?
Yes.
Okay, great.
Just call me Al.
Okay.
I just go usually by Al.
Welcome to the show, Al. Nice to talk to you. What’s up?
Oh, first of all, thank you for taking my call. I can’t believe I’m on the Martha and Grant show.
Our pleasure.
I can’t believe it. This is a dream come true.
Bless your heart, Al.
Happy to have you on the show.
My question is, I played French horn for seven years in high school and college.
Everybody always called it French horn.
But the music said either E-flat horn or F horn.
And if you’re familiar with what we call the French horn, there are at least two types that I know of.
The one that’s got the most valves and things, that’s an E-flat horn.
And then you’ve got the one that has less valves and it’s a little smaller, and it’s an F horn.
I had a fancy one that had a little valve on there, a thumb valve.
Yeah.
You push that thumb valve, and it made it either E flat or F.
Right.
But the music always said E flat horn or F horn, and down through the years, I didn’t think much about it.
But as I began to watch public TV and I listened to public radio, I noticed that all of the big orchestras like the Philharmonics and all that, they would say horn.
I never saw them turn French horn.
They would say horn, concerto for orchestra and horn.
And I just recently found out that French horn is a misnomer, that the French had nothing to do with the development of this horn.
And someone said if any ethnicity at all needs to go into it, it would be more accurately called the German horn.
Right.
I would like to know the origin of it.
When did it start being called French horn?
Why did they call it French horn?
The French had nothing to do with it.
Yeah, I mean, you’ve pretty much well wrapped up the story.
You can Google for a lot of detail, but this is a horn that came from the hunting horn tradition before there were even valves on it.
And the French were the ones that innovated and turned this into a multipurpose horn with a lot more flexibility that could be used with other brass and larger orchestras.
And that was why when it was borrowed, the horn itself was borrowed into the English-speaking world.
Everyone called it the French horn because it came through the French.
They were the ones that made it this practical, usable instrument.
You really just kind of nailed it perfectly.
In the lower levels, middle school, high school, that sort of thing, it’s called the French horn.
But as you move into the higher levels of music, it is almost always just plain called the horn.
And as a matter of fact, there was a guy who used to work for the International Horn Society by the name of Harold Meek, M-E-E-K, who for a long time he edited the Journal of the Society.
His big insistence was that it should only ever be called the horn.
It should not be called the French horn because he, like a lot of people, was just bothered by the fact that the French shouldn’t get any credit for that instrument.
So that’s what you’re seeing.
You’re seeing this.
The professionals inside an industry tend to have very specific usage that doesn’t necessarily move to the larger body of English.
Mm—
Yeah.
Okay.
So the French did have something to do with it.
Yeah.
Well, like I said, they innovated.
For one thing, they manufactured the German-designed horns, and so that’s why it was called the French horn.
You can Google it for a lot of detail.
There’s a lot of really reliable places to find information on this.
Look for the International Horn Society.
They’ll have a ton of stuff.
The really nice thing, I didn’t know before I looked into this, that it came from the hunting horn.
Well, that’s so interesting to me because, Al, as you know, it has such a gorgeous mellow sound.
Yeah, it’s the most beautiful.
To me, it’s the most beautiful instrument in the orchestra.
I have to agree with you, and I’m really impressed that you played it for so many years because I know it’s one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra as well.
I played the flute for many years, and I always aspired to be as good as the horn players.
They were amazing.
Well, Al, I hope we’ve confirmed a lot of what you understood about it, but I hope that we’ve given you a little bit more that you can do a little Internet searching on your own and find the full historical details.
It is really fascinating to think about this essential instrument before it was essential, when it was just a thing that people could leave or take.
And now you wouldn’t have a big orchestra without several of these, right?
That’s right.
Well, Al, we are glad that you called in and we’re on the Martha and Grant show.
Thanks, Al.
This is great. This has made my day.
Made mine, too. You just gave the show a new name. I like it.
Take care now.
All right. Thank you.
All right. Bye-bye.
