On Oct 11, 2009, at 7:24 AM, Timothy A. Johnson wrote:
Horns without key signature? Why? Why not notate it as G minor?
Sorry, this is not strictly Finale related, but having played the Horn
for
35 years, I had not heard of such a thing until a couple weeks ago
when my
son's trumpet teacher confidently stated that hornists don't like key
signatures; they just have accidentals written in everywhere. I
confess to
being bewildered by such a statement.
Historically, neither horns nor trumpets used key signatures at all
until the 20th century, and even today you will find horn players who
insist that key sigs. for horn are never correct.
The reason for the tradition is that before the invention of valves,
horns and trps. could effectively play in only one or two keys. If you
wanted to change key, you'd have to change crooks, thereby changing the
transposition of the instrument, so that, for example, music in F
would be played on the F horn, while music in Eb ;would be played on
the Eb horn. Thus a key signature was neither necessary nor
appropriate. Even after the introduction of valves, composers continued
to write *as if* the players were still changing crooks, and the
players were perfectly content to go along with this. Only in the 20th
c. did composers start using key sigs. for hn/trp parts, and the
practice was by no means universal: Prokofiev, e.g., wrote horn parts
w.o key sig. right into the 1950s. Key sigs. for tonal horn parts
became standard practice only in the past fifty years.
BTW, the timpani too always used to be written w.o key sig. In the 18th
c. they were treated as transposing instruments, with the tonic and
dominant always written as C and G; in the 19th c. the timps. were no
longer treated as transposing, but there was still no key signature.
Only with the introduction of the pedal tuning mechanism did it become
important for timps. to be able to change key freely while playing.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com/
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