Re: Notation of french horn

[Tiresia GIUNO]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:07:42 +0200
Jonas Olson <address@hidden> wrote:
> Even though I do understand the nature of the valveless horn, I do not
> see why one omits the key signature today. Just tradition doesn't
> really explain it. Could someone clarify this? Here's how I
> understand it so far:
> 
> On the valveless horn you change crooks to give the instrument a
> transposition that matches the music. That way, the music is always
> notated in C major (assuming major mode), just like how music sounding
> in B♭ major, played on a B♭ clarinet, is written as C major. Rather
> than calling this "no key signature", I'd say we have the key
> signature of C major.
> 
> When we switch over to valves, we no longer match the transposition of
> the instrument to the key of the music, so it's only natural for other
> key signatures to appear. To continue the tradition of valveless
> horns, one would rather have to consider every valve press to be a
> change of crooks that alters the transposition of the instrument, and
> then write for this transposition until it's time for the next valve
> press.
> 
> In summary, having no key signature (rather, the key signature of C
> major) appears natural to me when dealing with valveless horns (whose
> transposition match the key of the music) but not when it comes to
> horns with valves. I'm looking forward to getting this explained to
> me!
> 
> Regards,
> Jonas
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> lilypond-user mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user

Your are totally right. There is no reason today to write the English
Horn (in F) with key signature and the French Horn (in F) without. We
do it just out tradition.

But the point is that tradition here means, that French Horn players are
used to see alterations before notes. In other words the problem would
be not the key signature but missing alterations before notes.

Similar problems were (specially at the beginning of XX century) the
transposition of the French Horn when is written in Bass Clef (at
the forth ABOVE instead at the fifth below) and the transposition of
the Bass Clarinet again when is written in Bass Clef (see for
example the Rite of Spring)

Regards,
TG