Horns with lots of transpositions question

Dorico
1

Hi all,

I am working on an 18th c. score that has two horn parts but uses lots of different transpositions; F G A Bb, and C D D# E.

I am thinking that I will add 16 horn players, two for each transposition, and use two layouts, one for Horn 1 and one for Horn 2, both of which will contain multiple players (to work around the limitation of condensing players with more than one instrument).

Am I on the right track or do you see any better way of handling this?

If I sacrifice playback this would all be much simplerā€¦ maybe the best way.

2

If each horn is using a different transposition why would you want to use condensing (I would never expect to see a Horn in F and Horn in C notated on the same staff)?

I would simply use two players and give each the requisite instruments (playback will be fine).

1 Like
3

To clarify ā€“
each of the short movements use a pair of horns with the same transposition.
No individual or mid-movement changing.

4

I guess your approach sounds totally correct.

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5

Well, now I have gone through the partbooks for the horns labeled like this:

Corno 1,
F G A B
Corno 2,
F G A B

Corno 1,
C D Dis E
Corno 2,
C D Dis E

And it turns out that two pairs are needed in one of the movements, and there are no parts in B or Dis. Maybe the pairs have some kind of standard labeling for high and low horns? Well, this is going off topic anyway,

thanks for your input.

6

Perhaps Iā€™m missing something, but why arenā€™t you adding all the needed instruments to each player and just use instrument changes?
This will mess galley mode a bit, but will simplify part creation.

7

I expect that would likely preclude condensing of like transpositions except when the originally added transposition was in use.

3 Likes
8

See Derrekā€™s answer.

9

Yes @LAE thatā€™s the best way to handle it.
Why ā€œsacrificingā€ playback, what do you mean?

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10

To just use two horn players in one transposition, and only write text to indicate ā€œin Eā€, ā€œin Aā€ etc.

11

And for playback you could ā€˜fakeā€™ the transpositions with a (hidden) custom playing technique.

2 Likes
12

Why does one have to change something in Playback?
Dorico will playback all transposing instruments at the right pitch anyway - or do I misunderstand something?

13

Yes, I wrote to use a single pair of horns with ONE transposition and just indicating changes with text labels.

This would be one way to get around the problem of only the playerā€™s first instrument getting condensed. The other would be to have multiple players with horns in different transpositions and then combining them all in one single part layout.

14

Yes, and you will not need to go into Playback for this.

15

No, but with the text label way we do. I never tried that though, it was a suggestion of Janus.

16

I understand; and as I am not very proficient in the playback area, I would always choose the first option with multiple playersā€¦
[edit] also I would like to add:
By copying old manuscripts the labelling of the horns are sometimes missing or not always clear (it is left to the players to know, which crook to take). That is why itā€™s brilliant to leave playback of Dorico untouched - as you will instantly hear, if you are using the wrong transposition.

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17

Hereā€™s a mock up for an F and Eb Horn.
Fake Horns.dorico (704.6 KB)