It actually is possible to convert "some" circular alto horns into a natural horn and it has been done. I know of one very nice playing one in a collection that was made from just the bell, the rest constructed from scratch. I've seen some others that were sold as antiques to unsuspecting buyers. Ooops! The keyword is "some". Altos have to be about the most experimented on bastard instrument there is. They've been made in all imaginable sizes and shapes, mostly with little musical success. The ones that might be usable for conversion have a larger circle to the corpus and thus a very short tuning slide and short leadpipe. Some few makers used a bell that had very close or even the same dimensions as an early handhorn bell. Recycling of tooling. Waste not, want not. The great majority that I've seen have a much smaller wrap so you'd end up with too high of a key. Their taper dimensions just aren't right either. They can be used for other interesting experiments though! A terminal crooked orchestral hand horn with the simplest crook, a straight "spike" about the length of your finger, plays in C alto so that's not so far off from Eb alto. The handhorn has a very long tuning slide so that can easily make up the difference compared to an Eb with a very short one. Some Eb altos were even made with terminal crooks so they already have the socket to plug the crooks into. So, it can be done but likely candidates are few and there would be quite a bit of construction necessary.
- Steve Mumford XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Rafael wrote: Hi, I am getting offered a Alto circular Horn in E flat, and I want to know if somebody know if you can convert the horn into a natural horn??? Thank you in advance Rafael Arias _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
