Technical Clinic

Transposition

Why do we transpose?

      The horn in the eighteenth-century had no valves and depended on a system of crooks (various lengths of tubing, inserted into the horn) to allow it to play in different keys. By the time valves were invented a technique of playing had already developed to allow horn players to cover most of the notes in the key of the horn, and a few chromatic pitches, quite well. Most of the nineteenth-century was a period of transition, which saw different levels of popularity (of valves) in different countries. Even in the twentieth-century horns in both F and Eb were in common use. As a result, horn parts exist written for horns in a lot of different keys, and horn players (being more intelligent than the average musician) have always just transposed them as they play.

How do we transpose?

      It’s really quite simple. The horn part will tell you the key of the horn for which it was written. For instance, it might say “Horn in D.” Since you play horn in F (the key we read in on for modern horns, even if you’re playing the Bb side of a double horn), all you have to do in find the interval between F (your key) and D (the key of the part). It is a minor third down from F to D, so that is the interval we transpose, down a minor third. Most of us find it easier to find the new key signature, so that we can just read down a third. Most orchestral horn parts will have no sharps or flats in the key signature (key of C) so we find the minor third below C (which is A) and use the key signature for A (3 sharps). Let’s do this in simple steps with another example.

      The part in front of you has two flats in the key signature, and it says “Horn in Eb at the top. You want to play it on your horn.

      1. Find the interval between F and Eb.

            Major Second (M2)

      2. Find the key of the original part.

            Two flats is Bb Major. (2 flats)

      3. Go down a major second (#1) from Bb (#2)

            The key signature you will think while playing is Ab.  (Ab = 4 flats = Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db)

      4. Read the part down a step (#1) while thinking in the key of Ab.

      5. If you find any accidentals in the part, just be sure to raise or lower the pitch you’re playing in the same direction it would have moved originally. Because of the key signature you’re using, you may be thinking a natural, instead of a sharp or flat.  

     Here is an example of a part that has been transposed. The top line is what the actual horn part of Mozart's second horn concerto looks like, the bottom line shows what notes you would play on an F horn while reading that part. An example of a part for horn in D that has been transposed like this can be found here. (scroll to example 2)

Mozart, Concerto 2, Mvmt. I

     Notice the Bb in the original part (m.5-6). If you were thinking of this as being in the key of Bb (2 flats, Bb & Eb) then all the other accidentals in the transposed part would disappear, only this Ab (lower line) would remain. That is the advantage of thinking in keys when you transpose, and one more reason to practice scales.

Next Week - Fingering Clinic, Use of the Double-Horn

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