On Fri Oct 29, at FridayOct 29 8:22 PM, David W. Fenton wrote: >> >> Doesn't >> make sense to me, and if there is a defensible new convention that >> says treat all transposing instruments equally (with key signatures), >> I choose that option. > > That's the modern practice. But the old practice lasted well into the > 19th century, and perhaps trailed off into the 20th. And certainly, > modern critical editions of music from the period of natural horns > all preserve the original notation, as they should, in my opinion.
You are right, and most modern trumpet and horn players are perfectly at ease with key signatures. Yet, I often get horn parts back from orchestra rentals with all the accidentals from the key signature pencilled in, and in one case I got a complaint from the orchestra manager on behalf of the horn players about key signatures! Trumpet players don't seem to have a problem, perhaps because of all the modern repertoire trumpet players play, including jazz and commercial music. This orchestra where I got the complaints had a very warhorse-heavy season program with almost no 20th century repertoire ever. So it is possible for a horn player to go for most of their career hardly ever seeing a key signature! Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
