I’m looking for advice on how best to notate a timbre transition on the horn with semitone upward portamento while moving from stopped to open.
Example
Sounding note: B3 (stopped)
Target sounding note: C4 (open)
In this technique, the player begins on the stopped B3 fingered as if playing the open C4, and then produces a smooth portamento into the open C4 by gradually adjusting the hand inside the bell. This is essentially a hand‑controlled timbral and pitch transition rather than a conventional brass glissando.
As far as I’m aware, Dorico 6 Pro does not provide a dedicated feature for indicating this type of horn fingering/timbre transition beyond the general brass gliss/branchement tools.
My question
What is currently the clearest or most widely accepted way to indicate the valve position in this context?
(Portamento line + stopped/open playing techniques are already in use, so my question is specifically about how to show the fingering.)
Possible approaches I’m considering
A custom Playing Technique using a graphic (musical font symbol)
Inserting a small image from a horn fingering chart
A simple text instruction (Shift + X)
Using the Fingering feature (Shift + F) — although this does not accept ● and ○ symbols
If anyone has experience notating this technique in real-world scores, or has a practical Dorico workflow for indicating horn valve positions in this type of timbral transition, I’d be very grateful for your suggestions.
Not related to your notation question, but a stopped B is fingered like a Bb, not a C, so this won’t work the way you envision. Or do you just want the player to start on a C made flat by partially closing the bell, rather than a true stopped note?
I think one good way to indicate this would be with the text “half stopped – open”, perhaps along with the fingering indication 0------ (that’s a zero). I would avoid a closed circle, but maybe a half-closed circle would get the point across. But I haven’t seen this in practice and happily defer to professional horn players.
Bear in mind, as demonstrated in the video you posted, that by manipulating the hand, C4 can be lowered all the way to Ab3. So for a player to start right on B3 will be tricky and error prone, because the exact hand position needed is not known – as opposed to starting on the open C4 and going down to B3, in which case the player can just stop moving his hand when he reaches the desired pitch.
Thanks for your suggestion — it makes perfect sense.
Here is the fingering legend I’m using:
T: thumb to press the B‑flat valve
0: no valves are pressed
1: the first valve is pressed by the index finger
2: the second valve is pressed by the middle finger
3: the third valve is pressed by the ring finger
+: stopped (bell fully closed; sealed)
○: not stopped
As far as I know, there is no standardised symbol for a “slightly closed bell.”
Your idea of using a partially filled circle is very reasonable, so I’m considering several possibilities, including the ones I devised myself:
○ → ◑
○ → ◕
○ → ◔
○ → ◓
○ → ⊕ (my own design, though visually different from a half‑closed circle)
I’ll experiment with these to see which communicates the idea most clearly in context.
You’re probably aware that most (all?) double horns can be set up to have either the Bb-side or the F-side as default? (I’ve heard that which side is favoured differs across the Atlantic.)
Ah, I hadn’t really paid attention to that. On a double horn, if my memory is correct, players usually switch between the F and B‑flat sides depending on the musical context. Since I never studied the horn, I have rarely paid close attention to the exact fingerings used by horn players. I simply assumed that, from a composer’s perspective, the choice between the F and B‑flat sides was often determined by the pitch range, intonation, more convenient fingerings for phrasing, and sometimes by timbre. However, horn players probably consider many additional factors and think about such choices in far greater detail.
I know there are more experienced horn players than me in this forum (I double on basically all common western winds) that might chime in, but I don’t think you as a composer should typically worry about which side of the horn things are played on. The difference in sound between different players and different instruments is much greater than any difference between the Bb side and the F side. (I’d say that typically you wouldn’t really be able to tell which side is played.)
The exception is of course if you do such specific things that you need to worry about fingerings, but then you ought to be collaborating with a horn player IMHO. But be aware that pressing the thumb can have the opposite meaning on different instruments so you might want to indicate what you want clearer than only saying T.
