At 6:24 AM -0500 10/11/09, 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.
Yes, it's rather arrogantly arbitrary, like "all string players tune sharp"!!
I would at LEAST modify that statement to read, "Some orchestral
hornists don't like key signatures." Anyone who has come up through
playing in concert bands is used to key signatures and has no problem
with them. Anyone who has ONLY played in orchestras may have learned
not to like them, but unfortunately those few seem to include some
very fine players in some very fine orchestras.
In my experience, most amateur hornists would prefer that the part be
written for horn in F with the appropriate transposition and key signature
in place.
Yes, and I do everything I can to see that we have transposed parts
for the hornists I recruit for our Community Chamber Orchestra, but
sometimes they just don't exist. Of course ANY well-schooled hornist
should be able to transpose any part in any key: that's what
studying the Orchestral Excerpts books are for! But not all have
that kind of background.
As an arranger and composer I ALWAYS write for horns in F and I
ALWAYS use key signatures, and that's what I recommend, but other
folks have different ideas. When you have to do some soul searching
is when, like Kim Patrick, you are making modern editions of baroque
music written for natural horns and trumpets, and you have to make a
decision one way or another. But if you're writing for specific
people, ASK them!
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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