If I want to rewrite the French horns (wich are now in D and A) to F-horns, and the piece is
in D major How do I do it?
My progam unfortunaly only provides horns in F and E flat.
Best regards
DALTORPS (Brian Cohn).
How to transpose D and A to F?
Moderator: kcleung
How to transpose D and A to F?
Hello.
If I want to rewrite the French horns (wich are now in D and A) to F-horns, and the piece is
in D major How do I do it?
My progam unfortunaly only provides horns in F and E flat.
Best regards
DALTORPS (Brian Cohn).
If I want to rewrite the French horns (wich are now in D and A) to F-horns, and the piece is
in D major How do I do it?
My progam unfortunaly only provides horns in F and E flat.
Best regards
DALTORPS (Brian Cohn).
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pml
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Re: How to transpose D and A to F?
Hi Brian,
My suggestions:
a) Get a better typesetting package; or
b) i) manually transpose horns in D downwards by a minor third (i.e. written c'' becomes a');
b) ii) manually transpose horns in low A downwards by a minor sixth, or horns in high A upwards by a major third (i.e. c'' becomes either e' or e'' depending on the type of horn).
Some graphical typesetting packages have already thought this issue through and provide instruments which are in the right keys, or at least have a wider variety available, and when you copy a part from a D instrument to another in a different key, it automatically transposes the music. If your typesetting package supports this, you could do a “cheat” by pretending that a D instrument such as a piccolo trumpet (usually D or E flat) is actually a rather high-pitched horn, so that when you copy the part to your horn in F, the transposition is already done for you and the only issue is going to be whether the part is in the correct octave or not. Likewise for horns in A, substitute it with a clarinet in A. In either case, you have an instrument in the correct “written” key, so the subterfuge is to edit the instrument title so that a “Clarinet in A” appears to be a “Horn in A”.
But really, you shouldn't have to be jumping through hoops to accomplish this. Have you read the manual to see if there isn't a feature that will automatically do this for you?
Regards, Philip
My suggestions:
a) Get a better typesetting package; or
b) i) manually transpose horns in D downwards by a minor third (i.e. written c'' becomes a');
b) ii) manually transpose horns in low A downwards by a minor sixth, or horns in high A upwards by a major third (i.e. c'' becomes either e' or e'' depending on the type of horn).
Some graphical typesetting packages have already thought this issue through and provide instruments which are in the right keys, or at least have a wider variety available, and when you copy a part from a D instrument to another in a different key, it automatically transposes the music. If your typesetting package supports this, you could do a “cheat” by pretending that a D instrument such as a piccolo trumpet (usually D or E flat) is actually a rather high-pitched horn, so that when you copy the part to your horn in F, the transposition is already done for you and the only issue is going to be whether the part is in the correct octave or not. Likewise for horns in A, substitute it with a clarinet in A. In either case, you have an instrument in the correct “written” key, so the subterfuge is to edit the instrument title so that a “Clarinet in A” appears to be a “Horn in A”.
But really, you shouldn't have to be jumping through hoops to accomplish this. Have you read the manual to see if there isn't a feature that will automatically do this for you?
Regards, Philip
Re: How to transpose D and A to F?
Hi.
Thank you so much for your advice...
I think I got it right now.
The French horn seems to be rather tricky when it comes to transposition since they are, or at least they used to be, made in many different pitches as clarinets are.
By the way: I read somwhere that the clarinet in D is often transposed, especially in the US and Europe, to E flat so the more common clarinet in E flat can be used when it´s possible.
DALTORPS (Brian Cohn).
Thank you so much for your advice...
I think I got it right now.
The French horn seems to be rather tricky when it comes to transposition since they are, or at least they used to be, made in many different pitches as clarinets are.
By the way: I read somwhere that the clarinet in D is often transposed, especially in the US and Europe, to E flat so the more common clarinet in E flat can be used when it´s possible.
DALTORPS (Brian Cohn).
Re: How to transpose D and A to F?
There might be a way to "fiddle" your package, depending what package it is.
I recently bought Finale 2009. Like your package, the setup wizard only gives me the choices of Horn in F or Eb, and Trumpet in Bb, C, or D. However, it doesn't care too much if I change the transposition afterward, and all I have to do after that is remember to change the staff name to include the new transposition.
I'm currently in the middle of a modern typeset of a score that had Trumpet in Eb. I set up the wizard for Bb, and then before I entered any notes, I clicked on the staff tool, and then clicked on the Trumpet I line. Transposition will already be clicked, but there is a button for "select", and this takes you to a menu where you can choose any transposition you want. I changed it to "(Eb) down m3, add 3 sharps". Then I changed the full staff name and abbreviated staff name to include Eb trumpet.
I will eventually do the individual parts in a Bb transposition, but doing the score in the original transposition helps me make sure that I got the correct original notes in before doing the transposition, although I find I do have to check after I do the transposition to Bb that it didn't do any funny enharmonic spellings! Small price to pay for not having to constantly calculate note by note!
I recently bought Finale 2009. Like your package, the setup wizard only gives me the choices of Horn in F or Eb, and Trumpet in Bb, C, or D. However, it doesn't care too much if I change the transposition afterward, and all I have to do after that is remember to change the staff name to include the new transposition.
I'm currently in the middle of a modern typeset of a score that had Trumpet in Eb. I set up the wizard for Bb, and then before I entered any notes, I clicked on the staff tool, and then clicked on the Trumpet I line. Transposition will already be clicked, but there is a button for "select", and this takes you to a menu where you can choose any transposition you want. I changed it to "(Eb) down m3, add 3 sharps". Then I changed the full staff name and abbreviated staff name to include Eb trumpet.
I will eventually do the individual parts in a Bb transposition, but doing the score in the original transposition helps me make sure that I got the correct original notes in before doing the transposition, although I find I do have to check after I do the transposition to Bb that it didn't do any funny enharmonic spellings! Small price to pay for not having to constantly calculate note by note!
bsteltz
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Re: How to transpose D and A to F?
Old natural horns were limited to the natural overtone series, so a horn in D could mostly play D major notes, although a skilled player could extract notes outside the natural series, say, by inserting the hand into the bell: there is a virtuoso natural horn part in the slow movement of Beethoven’s choral symphony for Horn IV that demonstrates this. The type of horns used through the classical era are sometimes called crook horns, because part of the piping of the horn could be removed and replaced with a different “crook”; the length of the piping would change the overall pitch of the horn. Nowadays of course, valve horns change the length of piping without having to replace parts of the instrument :-)