Some of the contents of the pages on this site are Copyright © 2016 NJH Music | [Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] Re: French Horns
In message <20001117104328.A13569@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Ian Phillipps <deep-brass@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes > If you're >entering a brass band contest, you need to go in with a brass band. I >you have french horn players who are good enough to cover tenor horn >parts (don't forget that a top C on a tenor horn is a super-G on the Bb >French horn). Actually, it would be an F, not a G (in Bb, but French horns are generally considered in F (making a tenor horn top C a Bb) - surely calling it a Bb instrument is like calling a trombone with a thumb valve an F trombone? - technically correct (in one sense), but rather misleading), but that's not a major point - the important issue here is the way in which French horns are set up - tiny bore, tiny mouthpiece on a double length tube, so the higher harmonics are _much_ easier to reach. You may be playing on an F tuba length pipe, but the easiest register for the French horn is pretty much identical to that of the Tenor horn - the only real difficulty lies in accurately hitting the closely-spaced harmonics high up (certainly no trivial matter), not in reaching them (compared to the tenor horn). So a top C for the tenor horn in Eb (pretty rare anyway, and not easy) is a top Bb for the French horn in F - eminently playable, and written with similar frequency to top Cs for brass band horns. I'd just like to add that I hope that this hasn't come across as at all patronising, but your point was made in a decidedly ambiguous way, and needed clarifying. Dave --
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