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Re: 'corno'

Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-08-23 20:57

Provided the horn part is in F you can play it as is without any alterations (apart from giving the bassoon the notes that go below your low B), and it should say what pitch horn it is at the beginning - usually F, E, Eb, D, C, Bb or A - so 'Corno in Fa' is an F horn. Orchestral horn players are usually wizards at transposition.

C horn parts are in C basso (still treble clef, but sounding an 8ve lower than written - same as tenor voice or bass flute and bass oboe/heckelphone writing), so you'll have to transpose down a 4th instead of up a 5th as you'd normally do when reading off concert pitch treble clef parts on cor. http://www.hornexcerpts.org/excerpt_pages/brahmsS3/brahmsS3_2.html

Funny thing with horns is they're usually full double (F/Bb), though they mostly use the Bb side (in Europe anyway) but still read off F parts while in Bb without transposing, the fingerings for the Bb side are named after their pitches as though pitched in F.

Even with single Bb horns they'll play music transposed for F instruments using the fingerings for the Bb side (from the chart for full double), and the A (stopping) valve on these lowers the entire instrument by a semitone so that makes easy work of playing E horn parts without transposing (but that's regarded as cheating). I'm re-reading this to see if it makes sense and I'm just confusing myself - you have to try it out to see the logic.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2009-08-23 20:57)

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