Haendel used a notation system, which looks strange sometimes, as he wrote horn passages or parts in D tonality but notated them in concert pitch, except in Giulio Cesare, where the one pair of horns is in A & the other in D, and in the 3rd act one pair in G plus one pair in D. Here he uses the horns transposing their "clean parts" (written with no key signature in front).
The Fireworks music is really in strange notation, written in concert pitch (C 8va) with the key signature for D-major (2 sharps), while the horns read down for a fourth. But this was not the case then, when Haendel performed it. The horn players then were able to read the concert notation & could follow the whole part easily, as they could not "escape" anyway. A real fourth exists just on few places on the natural horn, right. A real half step exists just between step 11 & 12 (f# & g). So they could decipher parts quite easily, even much better than most horn players are able to do today. Prof.Hans Pizka, Pf.1136 D-85541 Kirchheim - Germany Fax: 49 89 903-9414 Phone: 903-9548 home: www.pizka.de email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
