French Horn Orchestration and Combinations

This video contains real recordings of French horns with winds and brass. Its not an exhaustive list of examples, but I show some interesting combinations (inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov) including examples from Ravel, Holst, Stravinsky and Gil Evans.
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0:00 Intro
0:15 Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess
0:22 Holst: The Planets - Venus
0:32 Testing Rimsky-Korsakov's statements
1:41 Real instrument recordings
2:04 The horns qualities
2:37 Horns and wind combinations
4:20 Gil Evans horn and flute textures
5:09 Horn and brass combinations
6:00 Octave doublings
8:15 Multiple French horns
8:51 French horn combinations
10:35 The 'glue' the horn adds
11:07 Gil Evans & Stravinsky textures
13:00 French horns and brass
14:21 Extreme blending
Orchestration, winds, brass, Rimsky-Korsakov, Closed voicing, open voicing, jazz harmony, music theory, Miles Davis, big band, soli, jazz chords, orchestration, miles ahead

[@gilevansinsideout]

Woah, I just hit 4k subs, amazing! Especially for such niche content. I think I'll do a Q&A in celebration. If you have any arranging, music theory or Gil Evans questions. Just comment them below!

[@DallasCrane]

12:38 is an INCREDIBLE texture. Perfect balance

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thanks Dallas, it’s nice isn’t it

[@soulwayne2054]

Nice study!! This One of my favorite instruments 😃 along with oboe. can you do an analysis of how Gil Evans utilized soprano sax?

[@gilevansinsideout]

Great suggestion!

[@Gaby-Lopez]

Impresionante, que lindos arreglos

[@gilevansinsideout]

Gracias

[@trumpetfredrik]

This video is great - thank you so much!

[@gilevansinsideout]

You are so welcome. Thanks for playing on it!

[@jimm.s.4131]

What I don't see so often is people referring to the horn low range and is often used in classical and orchestral music.

[@gilevansinsideout]

Yes true

[@NeilABliss]

French horn is sooo good at being the glue in a section. But I wonder about two things, and perhaps it's just your example piece, but as a pro trombonist I have never seen you utilize the upper register of the trombone. It is not uncommon for us to be playing up to D second line Treble clef concert....and higher occasionally. Likewise Horn has a wonderful quality in it's lower octaves.... think horn as Bass trombone. I'd be curious to see what you can do with those ranges. Say maybe a Lead trombone over a wind and horn section with the horns more spread out.

[@gilevansinsideout]

Yes great ideas. In my big band voicing video I talk about how Gil likes the trombones nice and high. But this is usually for loud passages of course. I could analyse more of Gil’s work or write a shout chorus which would demonstrate this, but assembling the recordings takes time. Would you be willing to do some recording?

[@NeilABliss]

@@gilevansinsideout How can I contact you aside from these messages?

[@gilevansinsideout]

A l e x v d b r o e k (at) g m a I l . C o m

[@itznoxy7193]

Be careful with those low flutes. Unless they are mic'd you probably won't hear them very well.

[@gilevansinsideout]

Yep agreed!

[@duryi6399]

Yeah! So many young composers are ruining their flute parts by putting the too low