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Re: French Horn Hand Stopping

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: French Horn Hand Stopping
From: Charles Turner <ccchas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 10:29:09 -0600 (CST)
In-reply-to: <E0vxLaU-0003FI-00@fm3.facility.pipex.com>
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Thu, 20 Feb 1997, Nigel Wears wrote:

> I love the effect of French Horns being "Hand Stopped"

> I know the player has to close off the bell, and I know that there is some
> transposition involved.  

> The question is - When a French Horn is hand stopped, does the player transpose
> up a semitone or down a semitone?  Can they do either?  Does each get a
> different sound?  

There has been a recent large scale discussion about this on the horn
list. Here are the main points as I understand them. 

The position of the hand in the bell flare alters the pitch; basically the
more closed the hand, the lower the pitch is bent. To close the hand and
play the note that is bent down a half step (ie. transpose up a half step
to sound the written pitch) is called 'echo muting'. This makes a soft
muted sound. 

To close the hand tightly and blow the pitch that is a half step higher
than written (ie. transpose down a half step to sound the written pitch) 
is called 'stopped'. This makes a buzzy, raspy, hard sound when played
loudly. 

There is considerable debate about the acoustic reasons for this behavior.
Some feel that the full stopped hand position actually acoustically
shortens the horn enough so that any given partial is raised a half step
(assuming a F horn of about 12-someodd feet in length).

Because the horn plays, typically, about an octave higher in its harmonic
series than do other brass instruments, the partials are correspondingly
closer together. The so called clarino range, the partials from 7 up which
mostly fall as usable notes of the major scale, starts at the F horn's
written treble cleff Bb (concert Eb). The 7th partial on a cornet is way
up at its written high Bb, ie. an octave higher as written compared to the
F horn. 

It's unclear to me whether the hand stopping shifts the harmonics up or
down a half step, since either way would probably get a harmonic that is
close enough bend into good pitch.

I often use the little brass stopping mute (looks like a brass bud vase).
Especially in the lower register, the mute is much more reliable than 
getting my right hand in exactly the proper position to play in tune. This
stopping mute requires reading the music down a half step.

Charles Turner
ccchas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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References:
- French Horn Hand Stopping
  - From: Nigel Wears

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