At 6:59 PM +0100 1/18/09, Barbara Touburg wrote:
I'm working on some movements of Mendelssohn's Midsummernightsdream. He uses Corni in E. I assume these are French horns (normally in F). I've trouble setting up the transposition correctly. Currently I have the interval as -4 and the key alter as +4, but it must be wrong, because it sounds horrible. What might I be doing wrong?
Yes, horns in E, a halfstep lower than today's F horn. But for Mendelssohn, as for Beethoven and others in the early 19th century, there was no "normal" F horn. The hand horns they used were crooked into a variety of keys, of which F was only one. Mozart seems to have favored the slightly richer sound of the Eb and D horn. And it the wedding music for Midsummernight's Dream Mendelssohn use the brighter G horn. (Not as bright, though, as the A horn in Beethoven's 7th symphony!)
The rule of thumb is this: The E horn is a minor 6th lower than concert pitch. Therefore it must be noted in a key a minor 6th higher, and in notes a minor 6th higher. (I think! I have to re-figure it out every time the question comes up, and I could well be incorrect. But that's how you approach it.)
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale