Sunday, August 18, 2013

  Largest alphorn concert: Swiss horn players break Guinness world record (VIDEO)

GORNERGRAT, Switzerland -- 508 Alpine horn players blew away the Guinness World Records' record for the largest ensemble of people playing the instrument in the Swiss region of Zermatt, home to the Matterhorn mountain; the musicians, clad in traditional Swiss costume, gathered on the Gornergrat ridge, more than 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, to perform a piece specially composed for their wooden horns,
setting the new world record for the Largest alphorn concert, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/ .

  Photo: A total of 508 alphorn players break the world record for the largest ensemble of people playing the instrument, on the Gornergrat in front of the Matterhorn mountain near Zermatt, Switzerland. Photo: Reuters ( enlarge photo )

The Guinness World Records' record for the largest ensemble of car horns consisted of 212 cars tooting the children's song "All my Ducklings" simultaneously in an event organized and conducted by Trabant Club Pausa e.V (Germany), in Ebersgrün, Germany.

  Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the largest accordion ensemble; it consisted of 1,137 participants at the 2011 Panonika Harmonika Festival in Cerklje ob Krki, in Slovenia.

  The 508 players broke a Guinness World Records' record set in 2009, when 366 musicians took part in a concert.

  The musicians, clad in traditional Swiss costume, gathered on the Gornergrat ridge, more than 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, to perform a piece specially composed for their wooden horns.

  The instrument, known as an alphorn and traditionally used for herding animals, can be up to four metres long. It has to be propped up on the ground and its player usually has to stand up to sound it because of its size.