Melofon: description of the instrument, composition, sound, use

A melophone, or mellophone, is a brass instrument especially popular in North America.

In appearance, it looks like both a trumpet and a horn at the same time. Like a pipe, it has three valves. It is connected with the French horn by similar fingerings, but is distinguished by a shorter outer tube.

The timbre of the musical instrument also occupies an intermediate position: it is very similar to the horn, but close to the timbre of the trumpet. The most expressive of the mellophone is the middle register, while the high one sounds tense and compressed, and the lower one, though full, but heavy.

He rarely performs solo, but quite often he can be heard in a military brass or symphony orchestra in the horn part. In addition, melophones have become simply indispensable in marches.

It has a forward-facing bell, allowing you to direct the sound in a certain direction.

Mellophone belongs to the category of transposing instruments and, as a rule, has a system in F or in Es with a range of two and a half octaves. The parts for this instrument are recorded in the treble clef a fifth above the actual sound.