Fun fact: What he's holding actually
is an alphorn—in its … uhm … unexcited state.
Speaking of alphorns…
49th Allgäuer Alphorn meeting in 2007. Not my photo (
source), but I happened to be at that event as well, funny enough.
Quite the unwieldy instrument. It's usually made from a solid piece of spruce. The distinctive curve of the bell comes from the fact that they historically used spruces that were harvested from steep mountainsides. Funny enough, since it uses a brass mouth piece, it's actually a brass instrument, not a wood wind.
Its sound is somewhat adjacent to that of a French horn, actually. They're both similar in length (depending on the desired base tone usually between about 8 ft (C) and 14 ft (E minor), but much longer ones exist as well, compared to a modern French horn's 12-ish ft), and they use the same mouth piece as French horns. But since it's made of wood, the sound you get from an alphorn is a good bit softer and warmer overall. And obviously much more restricted in range compared to the French horn, since it doesn't have holes or valves that would allow you to alter the length of the air column. And you obviously can't reach the bell to influence the pitch with your hand, either.
Works well
solo as well as
in large groups.
And it's just as unforgiving as the French horn, too. Make the slightest mistake and you end up with a cracked tone. In a prior life, when I was still a member of the local volunteer fire department (Which tends to be the standard in Germany for towns with a population of less than about 100k, so it's not all that unusual to have been a volunteer fire fighter at some point in your life. Tons of fun, and obviously a big hit with the ladies. Also a huge growth opportunity for a still brain-dead and overly entitled teenage brat such as myself; to be the first responder to a scene where some a$$hat street racer just wrapped his dad's 3 series BMW around a tree, driver's side first at 100 miles an hour, that sure puts a few things into perspective for ya.) I played (to put it rather favorably) the fanfare trumpet in their marching band. So I have a tiny bit of experience with fixed-length brass horns. When I eventually had the opportunity to try an alphorn, I couldn't get as much as two successive straight tones out of it, try as I might.
So I have all the more respect for those who can just step up to one and make it sound as beautiful as it can be. Unfortunately—unless you happen to be one of the world's most accomplished French horn players such as Sarah Willis—it takes a lifetime of practice to get a proper hang of it.
Maybe, some day, I'll fly back home and buy one. I'm sure my neighbors will appreciate the years of practice sessions that it'll take me to get even halfway decent at it. Should be a ton of fun, though, to stand up on Glacier Point and blow a tune down into Yosemite Valley, freaking out a few of the non-Rhaetian tourists.
Dang it, now I'm actually a bit homesick.
I guess I did that to myself…
Oh yeah you might want to touch up the paint on your transformer cover, it got marred a bit in the process.
