At 5:58 PM -0400 5/6/11, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:

That's how I learned to transpose back in 1967. I was copyist for Rutgers
University Wind Ensemble (not much, but it paid my expenses). We were doing
the Berlioz Funeral & Triumphal Symphony for winds & chorus. The horns were
transposed into umpty jillion keys depending on which crooks were required,
and I had to transpose that mess for F horns ... plus I was working with a
shiny wet-copy sent from Paris of the nigh-illegible full score with the
old-style reverse-eighth-rest quarter rests. Copying in India ink (or whatever
that scratch-off ink was) onto transparencies. I never learned to love
transposition.

Well-schooled orchestral horn players could have read the original parts at sight. University band horn players SHOULD be able to transpose, at least if they're taking lessons. "Regular" band players will panic if you even put an Eb horn part in front of 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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