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In Jr. high band, our band director wanted to make sure everyone could read Eb parts. We used a Hal Leonard method book, I think, and one year the horns would get the Eb version, and the next year, the F version of the book. The Eb book had a picture of a mellophone and a mellophone fingering chart; The F book showed a regular (French) horn and had a fingering chart for the double F/Bb horn.

Now, as far as pictures go, there are lots of pictures of marching french horn type things, but I do not know where to find any pictures of the old (1930's) vintage mellophones.

Pictures of marching (french) horns, also known as mellophones can be found at:

• http://www.getzen.com/marching.htm
• http://members.nova.org/~vltknght/pics.htm

Mr. Csikos was describing a "marching mellophone," which everyone knows as the humane alternative to the torture of marching with a Horn.

62-E

Mellophone in F, Eb, D, C

fin.2     fin.3       fin 4
$79      $74         $64

Case:  Flannel lined, $18.00; Crushed plush $21.00

*That's why it always sounds funny when I use it for Mahler!

• Mellophone -generic term for all of the below
• Tenor Horn -same as above
• Concert Horn -mirror of Horn, Eb tenor, no hand in bell (makes it out-of-tune... Yuk, yuk, yuk)
• Marching Horn-big trumpet shape, forward facing bell, pitch related to volume-level, not slides
• Alto horn -little euphonium shape, bell-front model is called "Blat-Weasel", straight-up bell model called "Rain-Catcher", player called "Obnoxious", tuned at the factory, no apparent user serviceable parts
• Altonium -113th Element on the periodic table, named after the location of its discovery, in the "middle" of nowhere

When the Travis band would march in San Francisco, I would carry my Alex Concert Horn for a day of sport. I played a combination of the 1st Trumpet part and the Euphonium part by ear... the Euphie part up an octave. This little German beauty, when used in anger (how else), could COVER the entire row of healthy trumpet players, bathing them in mellifluous sonorities... and neutering them at the same time. They got hazard pay when they marched behind ME and my Alex. The side facing bell was a stroke of pure "Parade Animal" genius, hats off to someone in Germany.

As we rounded a sharp right-hander near the end of the 1981 San Francisco Memorial Day parade, I saw a group of anti-military protesters on my left (I was on the outside left of the unit, marching SLOWLY while we made the gate turn). I don't dislike people just because they don't like me, but in this case I made an exception. As we passed the tightly packed group and they stuck their signs in right in the faces of the guys (and girl) in front of me, my course, yea my duty, became suddenly clear. I raised the Alex's mighty bell to face straight-out to the left, inches from their jeering faces... and summoned my adrenalin-soaked respiritory system for a full "Bombs away!". The lead-pipe became suddenly hot. I blew till the little Alex almost split open, my vision blurred, their vision was eradicated. I had swooped out of the sun and caught them completely unawares. I closed for the kill, "Bravura" blaring wildly, incoherently from coiled, tortured Teutonic brass. My chops tingled, the sickening stench of flaming, unwashed hair rapidly filled the air. Mountains of twisted, white-hot sound wretched from my melting bell, generations of noxious, unkempt protestors were stricken from the womb in that searing moment of Brobdingnagian hippie-Hades Horn hootenanny. A few managed to stand their ground in what was to be their one last act of defiance. They stood fast, facial muscles contorted and frozen by a sonic reality not imagined, yet somehow real. The rest scattered in a fog of stale incense, like rotting chaff into a cleansing wind. They tramped on one-another's faces to escape their comrade's awful fate, at once abandoning their "we-are-one"-ness and replacing it with the horrors of their vain attempt to escape the swift and sure annihilation of their sub-species by the menacing mellophone, "Alto-Zilla the Alto Killah".

Wherever candles are lit, wherever World-Peace rallies are held, and wherever the suffering of the fold and the horrors of nuclear skirmish are remembered with reverence and silent mourning, those who stood their ground and bravely relinquished their reproductive futures are held dear in the hearts of loyal. Those brave few who selflessly stood firm in the jaws of deaf, forsaking common sense and subjecting themselves to certain sterilization. The few, the proud, the barren SIGN-PEOPLE of San Francisco.

"Marching French Horn" is used to mean a somewhat larger instrument, still coiled like a trumpet or more typically a flugelhorn, pitched in B-flat (the sam e length as the B-flat side of a standard double horn), and with a french horn mouthpiece receiver.

So the mellophone takes a cornet mouthpiece (unless you use some kind of adaptor) and fingerings (usually with a lot of alternate fingerings to ge t anywhere close to in tune). The marching french horn takes a horn mouthpiece and uses B-flat horn fingerings (usually pretty well in tune b ut with serious stability and focus problems above the staff on any brand I' ve ever tried--King, Yamaha, Conn, DEG, Kanstul).

When I say "contemporary usage," I mean what the manufacturers are callin g them in their catalogs. I do not know of any manufacturer currently producing the classic "backward horn" shaped mellophone, but if anyone el se does I'd love to hear about them, just out of curiosity.

I think it was Conn that started the whole switchover when they came out with the instrument *I* marched in high school--it was basically the classic "backward horn" mellophone, but with the bell unwrapped so it pointed in exactly the opposite direction from the mouthpiece. It even came with both an F and E-flat slides (or would it be crooks?)! Now if only they had played even remotely in tune with themselves....

<grin>

Bonus points for anyone who knows the etymology of the word...

Marching horn - a marching (bell forward) configuration of what is usually a Bb alto (same as Bb side of double horn) 'horn'tuned to be played without a hand in the bell. Designed to play approximately in tune with a real horn mouthpiece.

Mellophone - a marching configuration (usually) of an instrument that was originally an F alto piston valve instrument coiled the opposite way from a horn, and played without a hand in the bell. Sometimes said to look like a "cornet on steroids" and usually designed (tuned) to use a mouthpiece closer to that of a trumpet than a real horn.

Flugelhorn - a mezzo-soprano tuba held horizontally (historically, a valved bugle) and pitched in the same Bb as a trumpet/cornet. Most distinguished by extremely wide bell throat that is almost straight-sided, with very little flair. Generally played with a mouthpiece that looks a lot like a cornet one on the outside, but conceals a deep almost horn-like funnel cup. Primarily thought of as a double for trumpet players, rather than hornists, although with a 4th valve one could play most march horn parts on it.

To sum up, if your marching instruments are in F alto, they are most likely marching mellophones.

A mellophone is a bell front piece of crap pitched in F and used to march with. We can thank Stan Kenton for this little gem. No matter what, it's OUT OF TUNE! I own one, but I don't often admit it!

A mellophonium is a mirror of a horn, bell left, Another piece of crap with pistons. It doesn't matter where you put your hand, it's gonna be OUT OF TUNE! I have a perfect 1929 conn with crooks in F G Bb and D. Pretty, but worthless!!!

A tenor horn (or Alto horn, same thing) is configured like a tiny baritone, some are bellfront, others are bell up. The bell up version looks just like a british baritone and is pitched in Eb. Some have F crooks, and all are OUT OF TUNE! I have a new Besson tenor horn, sounds sweet, and plays in tune.

None compare to the best brass instument of all, the horn. No crooks, in tune, and awesome!!!

I have a Conn 8D nickel silver beauty. Plays great.