And it's neither English, nor a horn. Oh, wait.
October 30, 2010 12:57 PM   Subscribe

The noble timbre of the French horn is of course ideal for the stirring Star Wars theme.
posted by Wolfdog (50 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, it does have a certain je ne sais quoi.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:01 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


To be fair, the French horn is a really difficult sonofabitch to play.
posted by Think_Long at 1:02 PM on October 30, 2010 [5 favorites]


I hear that website also has videos of skateboarding dogs!
posted by heyethan at 1:02 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Next: Worst French Kiss.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:08 PM on October 30, 2010


This guy needs to make more of these.
posted by azarbayejani at 1:10 PM on October 30, 2010


I've always felt that French horns sounded really bitchin'.
posted by Dreamcast at 1:12 PM on October 30, 2010


I think I just found the soundtrack for my life.
posted by meinvt at 1:16 PM on October 30, 2010 [5 favorites]


Worst French Kiss. (possibly nsfw)
posted by 7-7 at 1:16 PM on October 30, 2010


I will be forever haunted by the screech at 0:49.
posted by mistersquid at 1:18 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, that used to be my favorite brass instrument.
posted by malocchio at 1:22 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]




Anyone know how to download the FLV, convert the audio, and make a ringtone? Mac Snow Leopard and iPhone 4 here.
posted by sourwookie at 1:30 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


French horn is pretty easy to pick up -- I played the clarinet in high school band but somewhere in the middle of junior year they needed a few more french horn players, and I volunteered, and learned in a few days -- although maybe the parts were written to be easy. I thought the spit was definitely the worst part, but all wind instruments are horrible that way.

I think it sounds nice though (just not here)! I like the French horn playing at the beginning of John Williams' "Jurassic Park" score (I think that's what it is?).
posted by estherbester at 1:31 PM on October 30, 2010


I had to clean my ears with Mnozil.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:44 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


So now junior high level musicianship is ironically funny? What's next?

A guy goes to a garage to get some work done on his LandRover, and the mechanic...wait for it...screws up the repair!

or: A kid is writing an essay on the Treaty of Versailles and says that it concluded World War II! But later in the paper on he observes that its onerous terms paved the way for German fascism! WTF?! LOL!!!

I swear, just because something gets put on youtube doesn't make it hilarious. It's getting to be like the laughtrack was for sitcoms in the late '80's. You'd find yourself laughing instinctively and then you'd pause and realize that what you'd just seen was the opposite of funny and that your reaction had less to do with the thing itself than with the expectation of the person making you look at the thing.

Also...get off my lawn.
posted by felix betachat at 1:44 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wow, I'm having flashbacks of Richard Peterson, the irrepressible Seattle street trumpet player. I don't know if Richard ever picked up a horn, but that is exactly what he would sound like if he had.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 1:44 PM on October 30, 2010


thermonuclear.jive.turkey: "can't be worse than this "

That video is misleadingly labeled, it is the Portsmouth Symphonia performing.
posted by idiopath at 1:48 PM on October 30, 2010


annnddd I made it into an iphone ringtone.
posted by pwally at 1:49 PM on October 30, 2010


I grew up playing the Horn. It's a great instrument that's a real PIA to play, unless you were Dennis Brain. Without changing your fingering, you can play far more nearby notes than you can with other brass instruments. These include the note you're trying to play, as well as several of its friends in the general vicinity.

Q: How do you make a trumpet sound like a French Horn?
A: Stick your hand in the bell and play a lot of wrong notes.
posted by cleancut at 1:50 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


i opened up pwallys ringtone in vlc and the first thing I see is some dude passed out next to his jeep in the middle of the night. epic.
posted by bam at 2:04 PM on October 30, 2010


How could you do this to me?
posted by Cranberry at 2:18 PM on October 30, 2010


annnddd I made it into an iphone ringtone.

I hope that file stays up until tomorrow as I'm on a roadtrip with my band and I won't be home until then.
posted by sourwookie at 2:22 PM on October 30, 2010


I would also like to take this time to mention that I have a housesitter who is off his meds and is spending the evening cleaning his gun collection.
posted by sourwookie at 2:25 PM on October 30, 2010 [3 favorites]


In defense of horns, one of the best tricks I know of to make an orchestra of sampled instruments sound fuller and more "real" is to double everything with french horns. They work really well as samples, as opposed to most articulations from trumpets and trombones. This can be overdone and bore the shit out of you with sweetness.
posted by hanoixan at 2:25 PM on October 30, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm Horn Solo. I'm here to irritate you.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:30 PM on October 30, 2010 [13 favorites]


What happens when he plays enough that he becomes good. It's all for nothing!
posted by Submiqent at 3:10 PM on October 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it's bad. At least he seems to be a good sport about it. I'm not looking forward to when he takes up the didgeridoo, and then the bagpipes, and then the tin whistle and posting his vids.

I remember when I didn't know how to drain the spit valve. It was exciting when I had to play a gurgling solo at a concert in the fourth grade. Good times.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 4:26 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


I like the YT comment: "That pretty much sums up the prequel trilogy for me."
posted by Addlepated at 4:29 PM on October 30, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm Horn Solo. I'm here to irritate you.

...along with Oboe-Wan KenoBâ™­and Flute Skywanker.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:33 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm not entirely certain I'd be able to tell a good didgeridoo player from a bad one.
posted by malocchio at 5:16 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Rather than make fun of bad French-horn playing, can we instead enjoy pretty good playing (and arrangement)?
posted by ubernostrum at 5:19 PM on October 30, 2010 [5 favorites]


>That video is misleadingly labeled, it is the Portsmouth Symphonia performing.

Yes, I too read that in the Youtube description before I posted the link. Doesn't make it sound better, though.

>So now junior high level musicianship is ironically funny?

Did you take band in junior high? If you did, then yes you'd find it entertaining.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 6:33 PM on October 30, 2010


the emperor was still missing
posted by Namlit at 6:54 PM on October 30, 2010


Nah, I found it pretty easy....If you want to instill a love of music in a kid that has natural talent, don't stick him playing middle notes to support the trumpet players just because you need him there.

OH GOD THERE IS ANOTHER

"Here, have this cornet. Wow, you're pretty good at that. Do you like it?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, you'll like this trumpet even better! Wow, you're pretty good at that! Do you like it!"
"Yeah! So, am I 1st now?"
"Well, you are the best, but we got this new instrument and we think you're the only one that can play it."
"..."
"No, look, the mouthpiece is a bit different, and this fingering is also...a bit different."
"It's almost as big as I am."
"You'll be great!"
"The flute chicks only like trumpet guys."
"It was very expensive. You...you don't want to let us down, do you?"
"What?"
"Well, it's just that...well, were were depending on you, and..."
"Oh, just gimme the fuckin' French horn already."

Four years later...

"This is pants. I quit."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:48 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Thanks. Was at a Halloween party late last night and was feeling groggy all morning. This not only woke me up completely, it also made me re-evaluate my life and its general direction, leading me to decided that I should apply to grad school and get a degree in computational linguistics and proceed to make SkyNet or something.

Wow, holy shit wow. shakes head. They should play this on BBC World Service at 630AM SGT every day; I need to wake up to this every day.
posted by the cydonian at 8:07 PM on October 30, 2010 [3 favorites]


I will be forever haunted by the screech at 0:49

I assumed that was the point where the other residents of the house had finally gotten to him.
posted by mazola at 8:38 PM on October 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


PEOPLE! The politically correct term is horn, please, don't make me take this to MeTa.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:56 PM on October 30, 2010


I'm just eternally grateful that none of my elementary school renditions of popular songs on the violin were ever recorded; Mom told me later that she'd go looking for the cat whenever I started in on the scales practicing.
posted by spinifex23 at 9:40 PM on October 30, 2010


thermonuclear.jive.turkey: "Yes, I too read that in the Youtube description before I posted the link."

I was using the inline player, but recognized the recording. For me there is a pretty big difference between the Portsmouth Symphonia and a random junior high orchestra.
posted by idiopath at 11:46 PM on October 30, 2010




Ooh, ooh, and did you know, no, don't quit, just listen, did you know that the orchestra assembled to play the theme to The Last Starfighter had no less than six French horns, and they get equal billing with the trumpets? That's right. Yes, that is an awesome movie. Yes, it does give you goosebumps. Yes, you playing the horn is a little like being the talented but unappreciated outsider, and you might get chosen to fight the Ko-Dan Armada, but not if you quit. OK? OK. Triple tonguing, again...

*years later*

Mother. Fuckers.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 1:21 AM on October 31, 2010


Oh man, if you guys think this is bad, you have to hear Orchestra Fail.
posted by ms.codex at 1:47 AM on October 31, 2010


Ah, I finally found that organist who Mess-ias up. Call it a mechanical horn gone wild.
posted by Namlit at 4:03 AM on October 31, 2010


I got one of these bad boys sitting out in the garage right now...last played in 1989. I'm gonna bust it out for a little duet action.
posted by PuppyCat at 10:07 AM on October 31, 2010


The volume on my computer was a little higher than expected, so I scared the wife.

And both the cats, who went from wrasslin' to staring at me with a look that can only be described as "What. the Fuck."
posted by notsnot at 10:12 AM on October 31, 2010 [2 favorites]


One of the most beautiful six seconds of music of all time, imo, is the French horn in the introduction of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on their Let It Bleed album from 1969.

It opens with the London Boy's Choir, followed by the French horn bit, and then turns it over to Mick.
posted by lometogo at 11:37 AM on October 31, 2010


Nah, I found it pretty easy....If you want to instill a love of music in a kid that has natural talent, don't stick him playing middle notes to support the trumpet players just because you need him there.

OH GOD THERE IS ANOTHER


Yep. You know it must be a major pain in the ass to run a junior high/high school band if you care too much about how it sounds (at least, if you are in a small school like I was)...must be why we have all these similar stories.

I started on trumpet but got moved around as needed, to baritone horn (tenor tuba) for a while, or just within the trumpet section. I also got put on the damn tenor triples (and I was always the smallest kid too) in marching band even though I never played a lick of drums during the school year, just because I had rhythm.

On a random side note, my band director, a trumpet player, was also a chain smoker. That never failed to perplex me.

Ah, school band memories.
posted by dubitable at 12:41 PM on October 31, 2010


It's like a miniaturized, European tuba.
posted by Apocryphon at 5:47 PM on November 1, 2010


Well, it's no tromboon.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 6:15 PM on November 1, 2010


You can reenact scenes from Inception with that thing!
posted by Apocryphon at 10:43 PM on November 1, 2010


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