At 8:28 PM -0500 8/20/09, Robert Patterson wrote:
In general I believe John has summed up this thread admirably, however
I disagree pretty strongly with this:
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 5:26 PM, John Howell<john.how...@vt.edu> wrote:
Re-notate them in treble clef, properly transposed for Horns in F, because
that's what they'll be played on.
I deplore you not to do this. Instead write them on treble clef for
Horn in D. (With the low notes in old-notation bass clef, but that is
a topic unto itself.) Almost every professional player (of
contemporary valved horns) I know avoids or even despises parts that
are not in the original key.
I understand exactly what Robert is saying, but I have to answer that
"it depends." For a well-trained and experienced orchestral horn
player, he's certainly correct. When I was in junior high I worked
through the Farkas Orchestral Excerpts book and could handle most
transpositions at sight (although there's some Brahms that's really
nasty!).
But in my present situation the opposite is true. I recruit wind
players who are mostly community band players (and some of them are
darned good) for both our community string orchestra, when we expand
to a chamber orchestra, and our annual summer musical. These are ALL
volunteer commitments; we have excellent professionals in the area,
but no budget to pay anyone. Community band hornists--or band
hornists in general--have neither the training nor the experience to
play from original parts and transpose at sight. That's just the way
it is. (Broadway books are no problem, of course, because they're
all for horn in F.) So when Luck's has transposed parts, we buy
them. And when they don't, I might transpose them myself. So there
is a clear difference between professional orchestral players and
community players, and this is one place where that difference shows
up loud and clear.
If your target market is specifically school orchestras, then two
parts should be provided. Horn players, including those in decent
Youth Orchestras should be learning to transpose (just as
clarinetists who are serious should own A clarinets!). But even
there, not every hornist in a high school or college orchestra will
be taking private lessons.
So while I agree with Robert at one level, and concur that parts in
the original key should be provided, I do recommend that transposed
parts be printed and available as well. Easy, with the computer to
do the work!
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.
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