At 12:06 PM -0700 10/29/10, Chuck Israels wrote:
Curious - why is the convention not to have key signatures in horn parts, when all other transposing instruments have them? What is the use of this convention?
The convention applies to both natural trumpet and natural horn parts, and the reason was that the instruments were crooked into the required keys and then the parts were written AS IF they were in the key of C, and read by the players as if they were in the key of C, but sounded in whatever key the instruments was crooked to, which for horns could be anything from the extremes of Bb basso to C alto.
So while we SAY they are written without key signature, it's historically more accurate to say that they are written in the key of C.
The opposite is true of concert pitch scores, which are not "in C" although some folks call them "C scores," but rather are written without key signature.
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:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
