Leonard, I have pictures (out of old catalogues & books) of nearly every horn made during the centuries, so I have seen these Sansone horns & poorly made band horns a well. The main problems are that many makers rely on questionable players as advisors and many makers are not able to combine perfect functionality with esthetic design. Punctum ! Who are to be blamed at first ? Players (professionals included) having a extreme narrow view of the things. Punctum, the second time.
Back to the original question: why the shortest valve (1/2 step) in the middle ? As said before by myself: the full step was more important for two reasons: 1st: it allowed the instant switch from F (the central tonality of the horns, then "Lieblich pompoese Waldhoerner in F") to the tonality E-flat, the main tonality of the horns in the orchestra at the time of the transition from hand horn to valve-equipped horns. 2nd: with the one full step valve (the horn in E-flat) one could play a nearly full chromatic scale from f# below staff (plus the bottom C & Bb - all written & read in F-Horn - up to g2 on top of the staff in nearly equal quality & strength, involving the bell hand just minimally. Bb, C - gb - g - a - bb - bnat - c1 - c# - d - eb - e - f - gb(f#) - g - ab - a - bb1 - bnat - c2 - c# - d - eb2 - e - f - gb(f#) - g2 That is the main compass of the orchestral horn, while the solo goes up more, pitches available anyway. Problematic the g#2 only, a pitch still problematic on most modern doubles due to the involved valve combination (23), as just 2nd valve is rather flat. A only 1/2 step valve would enable cleaner half steps, perhaps, but leave some uncovered pitches. I hope, this answers Simon Varnams original question. ========================================================================================== _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
