5 Valve French Horn
Paul Faerber
four rotory valves in addition to a trigger. The horn seems to be pitched
in B flat. The fourth valve seems to add the the same amount of tubing
that the combination of 1 and 3 does. Sort of like a 4 valve Euphonium.
Anyone ever heard of this before. Seems like a great horn to us to play B
flat trumpet parts without having to transpose. But I don't think many
arrangers wrote for a horn in B flat?
Ian Phillipps
Paul Faerber <pfae...@neptune.com> wrote:
>I have a freind who's mother bought her a used Olds French Horn that has
>four rotory valves in addition to a trigger. The horn seems to be pitched
>in B flat. The fourth valve seems to add the the same amount of tubing
>that the combination of 1 and 3 does. Sort of like a 4 valve Euphonium.
This is a Bb single horn with an "F extension". It's quite a common
instrument; the Alexander single Bb is quite popular in England, since
it's lighter than a double horn. With the F extension, you can get all
the notes at the bottom of the range too, I'm told.
By "trigger" do you mean a device to extend one of the valve slides, as
found on trumpets? If so, maybe it's in lieu of compensation, and might
help with tuning some of the low notes.
Sometimes the F extension can be replaced with a 3/4-tone valve used to
allow stopping to be played in tune more easily; you can even get
dual-purpose tubes with a small rotary valve built into them.
>Anyone ever heard of this before. Seems like a great horn to us to play B
>flat trumpet parts without having to transpose. But I don't think many
>arrangers wrote for a horn in B flat?
Players would read off horn parts in F, or indeed in any other key that
composers and editors decide is a good one. Playing the Bb horn off F
parts is completely standard and normal - any horn player can do it.
Indeed, any horn player should be able to play horn in Bb, C, D, Eb, G
or A because all those pitches occur quite regularly in printed music,
especially Bb, C and Eb. With two different conventions about bass
clef, too. As if the instrument itself wasn't tricky enough :-)
BTW I play a double horn - probably the commonest sort - which plays in
F or Bb according to the use of the 4th valve. This is, incidentally,
the same pitch and system as a 4-valve euphonium. (Yes, I know that
horns are usually "full" doubles and euphoniums invariably
"compensating").
You don't say if your friend is a beginner: if so I think that the
majority of horn teachers would advise her not to start on a single Bb
instrument, but rather on an F, to develop good tone quality from the
start.
Ian
--
I am confident this explanation will dispell any feelings
of certainty that may have been troubling you.
- BWHO...@SJSUVM1.sjsu.edu (Cabbage) in <9601221753.AA27669@spock>
Charlie Turner
>I have a freind who's mother bought her a used Olds French Horn that has
>four rotory valves in addition to a trigger. The horn seems to be pitched
>in B flat. The fourth valve seems to add the the same amount of tubing
>that the combination of 1 and 3 does. Sort of like a 4 valve Euphonium.
That "F" key apparently is a standard feature on single Bb horns. Using it
for playing written F#s and Gs probably gives better intonation than the
Bb fingerings for those notes.
The 5th valve is probably a stopping key. Many notes don't shift an even
half step in pitch when the Bb horn is stopped (making transposing tough!).
This 5th stopping key can be tuned so that when used with ordinary non
transposed fingerings, the stopped notes come out in tune.
I wonder if the single Bb horn was trendy back in the 40's. I've seen a
Sansone method book dated 1940, in which Mr. Sansone stated that the F/Bb
double horn was obsolete, having been superceeded by the single Bb horn.
I'd say his prediction didn't come true!
Lance Voss
>
>In article <31118D...@neptune.com>,
>Paul Faerber <pfae...@neptune.com> wrote:
>>I have a freind who's mother bought her a used Olds French Horn that
has
>>four rotory valves in addition to a trigger. The horn seems to be
pitched
>>in B flat. The fourth valve seems to add the the same amount of tubing
>>that the combination of 1 and 3 does. Sort of like a 4 valve Euphonium.
>
The thumb valve "trigger" is a muting valve. I have a junior high
student who has one. The light weight is an advantage since my student
is about about 5'1" and 100 lbs. The "pinky" F valve is only good for
those otherwise unobtainable bass clef notes. Tuning is too much off a
problem to use it in the upper ranges.
On the subject of bass clef; can anyone tell me why old style notation
was ever used? I can think of no reason for anyone to ever deliberatly
write a part for an instrument that is an octave below where they want
the instrument to play except to move the music out of ledger lines and
onto the staff. So why were horn parts done this way?
Lance Voss
fchi...@indiana.edu
7669@spock>
>---------------------------------------------------
>The thumb valve "trigger" is a muting valve. I have a junior high
>student who has one. The light weight is an advantage since my student
>is about about 5'1" and 100 lbs. The "pinky" F valve is only good for
>those otherwise unobtainable bass clef notes. Tuning is too much off a
>problem to use it in the upper ranges.
>
>On the subject of bass clef; can anyone tell me why old style notation
>was ever used? I can think of no reason for anyone to ever deliberatly
>write a part for an instrument that is an octave below where they want
>the instrument to play except to move the music out of ledger lines and
>onto the staff. So why were horn parts done this way?
>
>Lance Voss
WOW! Is s/he really that tall. I would love to be at least 5'1. I
am a fully grown mature woman who is 4'10 and 100lbs--heck! I can't
even give blood.
Actually, I am just joking around and being a little sarcastic. I
know and have friends who are around 5ft and 5'1, who own
Lawson's--those horns are the heaviest I have ever picked up. I play
a Paxman, and it isn't light either. When I was in Jr. high school, I
was about 6 or 7in shorter then and about 20 lbs lighter. I had a
hard time keeping my case off the ground, and had to extend the music
stand so high so I could even see my music. I grew into the horn
though.
On the horn making. I have no idea why they make horns a certain.
The only thing I can think of is that horn makers are still trying to
make the easiest horn to play, and maybe they were just trying
something out to see if it pleases the public. I have not seen many
around, so I guess it didn't please the public too much. Or perhaps
there was a horn player who wanted this special horn and someone
designed it for him or her and the company kept the designs. Believe
me, there are some horns that I have found and tried playing them.
Not only was the sound bad, but I had no idea how to play a few simple
scales on them! Farah