French Horn

The French horn descends directly from the hunting horn, and still carries some of that ancestry in its long, tightly coiled tubing (often well over 12 feet, wound into a compact circular shape) and in its characteristically mellow, rounded tone — noticeably softer-edged than the trumpet or trombone elsewhere in the brass family.

That blending tone is exactly why composers frequently use the horn as a bridge between brass and woodwinds, seating it near the woodwind section in many orchestras and writing horn parts that combine naturally with both groups. The instrument is also notoriously difficult to play accurately — its very long tubing packs many available pitches close together in the overtone series, leaving little margin for error in lip control.

Where to start listening: the horn solo that opens the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 shows the instrument's warm, lyrical solo voice.