Red notes in Horn (F) part

Dorico
1

Hello,

I have a score in D major with a horn part showing dark red note heads.
From the Dorico documentation “Hiding/Showing colors for notes out of range” (https://www.steinberg.help/r/dorico-elements/5.1/en/dorico/topics/notation_reference/notation_reference_notes/notation_reference_notes_out_of_range_colors_hiding_showing_t.html) I understand, that these notes are playable as they are not bright red.

I would like to know:

  • are these notes not very common to play? If so what is usually the highest note? In some other scores I found G very common.
  • are these notes technically to difficult to play? Is it possible with experience or almost impossible?
  • are the red highlighted notes a general issue with horns or is it just related to the Horn in F instrument?

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Appreciate your feedback. Thanks!

2

I’m not a horn player, but as an orchestrator, I would avoid these high pitches, especially several in a row on short notes. They are formally possible, but these are probably challenging even for a pro. This looks more like trumpet territory.
Up until written high G (12th partial) shouldn’t pose a problem for most players. I don’t think there’s something special about horns in F. They’re standard anyway nowadays.
But maybe there are real hornists on this forum who can give more insights.

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it’s a common orchestration error: do not think of horns as a soprano instrument.
Think of them as an alto instrument.

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You can write these horn pitches but won’t always get accurate results. This isn’t characteristic horn writing but is playable by professionals. It will take some looking over for the players. It also depends on the equipment used, much easier on a triple horn for most. The notes will be very prominent, covering the bassoons. An orchestration forum might have more insights for you!

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Are you copying a score, or are you composing one yourself?
You could put the horns down an octave… or use Horns in D

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He’s referring to French Horns, not Trumpets.

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@rkrentzman yes, I wasn’t referring to trumpets either. The “modern” French Horn tries to incorporate different Natural horns - and calls the transposition “Horn in D” or “Horn in F” or “Horn in A”.
Originally Horn players had different crooks (or even instruments) to be able to play in the required keys. This was also marked as “Horn in D”, “Horn in Dis” or similar…

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I am of course aware of all of that, but how does that affect a modern horn player unless they are using a period instrument?

Judging from the small excerpt the OP provided, I doubt this is the case here.

At any rate, Horn in D is lower than Horn in F, unless you believe there is such a thing as “D Alto”, which I have never seen.

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Yes that’s why I was asking whether the first example is a copy of an original score. With horns it’s easy to get the wrong octave when copying and then transferring it to modern French Horn…

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On a similar note: for awhile I used to write horn parts using an alto clef (but viewed in concert pitch), so I could more easily visualize their range as being not too high and not too low. In many ways I feel like it would’ve been the perfect clef for Horns – I got the idea from Bruce Boughton who apparently got the idea from Prokoviev.

Nowadays I actually do use their standard treble clef, and will often switch between concert and transposed pitch views. Concert is really just easier for me to work and write quickly, but I think seeing the parts as the players would is helpful too. I feel a general good rule of thumb with Horns, in transposed view, is to avoid ledger lines on the higher part of the staff. Not impossible to play, but not an easy range for hornists, sound production and intonation will get a lot more dodgy up there.

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