Ah yes. Stopping valve questions ... always good fodder for the hornlist discussion group(s). Let me add some comments.
Carlberg....now is your chance to commission that Concierto de Juarez for Stopped Horn and Orquestra. Heck write it yourself and have a premiere !!! Paul.... tsk tsk The Weber is tricky but Danzi is certainly accessiible on the F/Bb double horn. Some purists could comment that these wonderful works played on anything but the natural horn is "Sacrilege Grande". I won't comment on that but will say that using the valved horn +and* a stopping valve for ease of fingerings could be comsidered excessive use of "equipment crutch". :). (((( commercial message here for Lowell Greer's Harmonia Mundi recording of the Beethoven sonata, the Brahms trio and the von Krufft sonata. He is the man. And his colleagues playing with him are a true pleasure to the ear)))) Some more serious comments. Stop valves are *intended* for stopping use only. Just like the first valve on the F side is only intended for a full tone on the F side, etc. Simply using a valve to put it 1/2 tone down for your Bb horn pitched in A will cause slight intonation issues with the other valved notes. And these issues are greater with the full double horn. Engelbert Schmid did have an explanation and specs in his website on how to adjust his full double horns to correctly pitch them in E/A. Some questions: the covered notes of the natural horn are the ancestral tones of the modern stopped horn tones. Who were those composers that took those first musical exploitations of these sounds ? Who were the performers? What about all the various horn mutes and their history in natural and valves horn ? I think Hans may now be awakened like that dragon ....in that opera.... I can't quite recall the name.... ;) Final comments. Do not forget to practice stopped horn.Play long tones, etudes and of course your stopped horn passages Explore alternate fingerings if you don't have a stop valve. And don't forget intonation if you are using the stop valve while "en ouevre". Regards Carl Ek Mooselip Canada _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
