Re: wind instrument transposition (was Good work, Keith!)

[Tim Reeves]

> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 09:57:58 -0700
> From: Tim Roberts <address@hidden>
> To: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: Good work, Keith!
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> Francisco Vila wrote:
> > Hello all, I think this is remarkable: Keith OHara has put Dvo??k's
> > 9th symphony in Mutopia. Kudos!
> >
> > http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1793
> 
> That is remarkable, indeed.
> 
> There are some odd things in the key signatures.  "Horn I, II in E",
> "Horn III IV in C, then E" and "Trumpet I II in E, then C" are all
> notated in the key of C throughout.  Mvt I starts in concert G, where an
> E instrument should be in the key of Eb.  Mvt II is in concert Db, but
> the clarinet I part, for A clarinet, starts out in written Eb instead of
> written E, and stays there when it switches to Bb clarinet 10 bars 
later.
> 
> Is that the way Dvo??k wrote it?  Certainly, all the notes are here.
> 
> -- 
> Tim Roberts, address@hidden
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
> 

Tim,

Nothing odd about it at all. It would be odd if a horn part in C or E, 
etc. had any key signature at all.

Horn in E, which is a quite common transposition for horn, means that one 
plays a horn crooked (having a crook - a removable section of tubing - 
that make the overall length of the instrument what it needs to be) in E.
Nowadays, since we play valved horns, usually in F, and not natural horns 
with crooks, we would just play everything down a semitone from what is 
written, so when I play a written C (open horn, no valves) on a 'horn in 
E' part, I play a B natural, and since I'm playing it on a F horn, it is 
actually a fifth lower, so a concert E. Voila! 

I won't confuse you by telling you about double and triple horns!

Clarinet and trumpet are similar situations, but they didn't use crooks, 
they just had longer or shorter instruments for different keys.
Often orchestral trumpet players will play a C trumpet, rather than the 
standard B flat trumpet, and clarinet players sometimes play A clarinets 
and E flat clarinets, rather than the standard B flat clarinet.

Tim Reeves