There are very, very few exceptions, when Mozart used horns in C (as written). One example is a number in "Idomeneo Re di Crete", his great first real opera seria. But he never used horns in C (as written) in church sonatas as K329. If the horns run alone in the high region & if no trumpets are involved in the piece, the horns might be used as a softer replacement for the trumpets, as Mozart generally hated the trumpet sound due to the fact that Herr Schachtner, living next door to the Mozart appartement in Salzburg, practised obviously too destonated often. If the horns would run in the same altitude as oboes or clarinets, high horn transpositon would be wrong, but Bb-basso & C-basso be right. Except the number 2 in Idomeneo, I cannot remember any piece be in C-alto (as written).
There was a conference of so-called Mozart-specialists including Nicolaus Harnoncourt at the Baerenreiter Edition in Kassel some 25 years ago. They discussed the matter of Bb-alto / Bb-basso of the Mozartian horn parts, but decided all were to be played "alto". What a nonsense, as in "Il Seraglio" the horns would play higher than the oboes. Yes, off course, what we call Bb-alto is in fact sounding one step below as written, which means "basso" to the violins, while our Bb-basso would be one octave lower & could be named Bb-grave". But we horn players are used, that we are "basso" with our main tonality F anyway. So it became usual to use the terms "Bb-alto" when the result had to be one step below usual C-text & "Bb-basso" when playing another octave lower. We have to read the text from our F-horn view a fourth up for Bb-alto & a fifth down for Bb-basso. And a fifth up for C-alto (or loco) and a fourth down for C-basso. A- & A-flat-basso are nearly exclusively be found with music by G.Verdi. F-basso, reading the text down for one octave, is just for certain Wagner Tuba parts in Siegfried & Goetterdaemmerung, to use trebble clef instead of (horn) bass clef. ============================================================ ================================================ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Mason Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 11:52 PM To: horn@music.memphis.edu Subject: [Hornlist] Mozart KV 329, Alto or Basso? Cousins, I've just been handed a part to Mozart's Sonata in C, KV 329 (317a), for 2 violins, 'cello, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, tymps, and organ, for a gig in a couple weeks. It is the second horn part, and it has been transposed to horn in F. The original part clearly must be for horn in C. The question is: alto or basso? The part has been transposed alto, taking the second horn up to high B several times (first horn has a corresponding number of high Ds), and there are many high As. Can this be correct? (I don't have access to a score.) Thanks in advance. --John J Mason Charlottesville, Virginia DEMOCRACY OF SPEED, a Photo Documentary Project: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/john-m/john-m.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/hans%40pizka. de _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
