A family worthy of blowing its own horn

Bruce Lawson can't stop blowing his own horn – literally. He's testing one of the French horns that he and his family have just crafted by hand in the Maryland woods. And considering it took them about 80 hours – they could probably use a little recognition.

The three generations of Lawsons spend each day transforming huge rolls of sheet metal and long tubes of copper into graceful curves and gleaming bells – some of the world's finest French horns. You can hear a Lawson Brass horn for yourself – just listen to the CNN theme music on TV. The instruments also fill the French horn sections of major symphony orchestras in the United States.

To an untrained eye and ear, though, the Lawson horns may look and sound ordinary. But consider this: The French horn is actually made up of more than 100 pieces and 22 feet of coiled plumbing. That leaves a lot of room for differences from one horn to the next.

Bruce works in the "factory" – a two-story workshop on 18 acres of wooded land near Boonesboro, where the family used to go camping. The workshop is just down the winding dirt road from his parents' house and a few yards from the Appalachian Trail. He and his dad, Walter, started Lawson Brass in 1980 with Bruce's brothers, Duane and Paul. Duane has moved on to other interests. But the company has gained the help of Paul's wife, Rebecca, and sometimes Bruce's teenage daughter, Amy.

These instrument builders are also a bunch of musicmakers – though they have different tastes. Bruce prefers the keyboard, while Amy likes the cello. Walter is the real French horn fanatic: He played second chair with the Baltimore Symphony for 29 years until he retired in 1976.

Most French horns are made by big companies like Yamaha and C.G. Conn. They might have hundreds of people making and assembling horn parts. They churn out more than 4,000 French horns a year, a lot of which are sold to students for about $3,000 each.

Lawson Brass, on the other hand, makes fewer than 40 horns a year that cost about $8,000 each.

"You can compare us to a carmaker," says Walter. "If you want to buy a regular Ford car, you go to a Ford dealer. But if you want to modify it and race it, then you go to a custom carmaker." Lawson Brass mostly sells horns to professionals, who often have specific requests.

They might want a French horn that sounds richer, just like one they heard on a CD. Or one that glows a distinct shade of gold under the bright theater lights where they perform. Or one with a longer pipe leading to the mouthpiece to account for a player's especially tall figure.

But one thing all horn players strive for is emotion, Walter says. "After all, the Oxford English Dictionary defines music as 'a story stirring emotions by means of sound.' " The French horn, especially with its long tubing, "enables a player to hit more notes – and express more shades of anger, hate, love, and joy," he says.

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