Hello - this might be the stupidest question here: I’ve read up about transposing instruments and that Dorico will handle it based on the key of the instrument, but I can’t get over the simple issue I’m seeing, which is that my French Horn appears to sound a note a fifth above my notation, rather than below. I must be fundamentally misunderstanding a setting somewhere.
I have a French Horn (in F), which is playing a note f4 on the Treble Clef (which has a Bb to indicate the key of F presumably). From the music I am listening to and copying from, that f4 sounds as a Bb3, which is what I would have expected, as I thought it should sound a 5th below it is written. But in Dorico, is sounds as a C5, and when I click the transposed pitch rather than concert pitch, it shows it as a C5.
What am I getting wrong - is this a setting i have somewhere in my “Players” instruments?
Could you have mixed up concert pitch and transposed pitch? When you look at the note in transposed pitch, it will look higher than it will sound. If you look at the note in concert pitch, it should sound exactly as written.
So when you say you see a C5 in transposed pitch and it sounds as a C5, I believe something is mixed up.
Ultimately, if you think the instrument is doing the wrong thing, you can use a Clef and Transposition Override (in Setup mode) on the score and part; or even edit the Instrument definition in the Instrument Editor.
There was a discussion some time ago about this, which may be relevant:
However, this is quite an old thread (and I’m sure I remember something being said about this more recently.)
Many thanks @Estigy - I see what you are saying, yes. And I’m wrong about one thing - the C5 is how it reads when I hit transpose, but you are correct, it is sounding the F4 - so it is correct in terms of its sounds. However…
…what I’m confused about is that the piece of music I am listening to in musescore and trying to transcribe, is showing an F4, but unless I’m going mad, when I sit at the piano, it is sounding as a Bb3. I’ve attached the line from Dorico.
This is copied from a score which when played in Musescore sounds a Bb below the F, but in Dorico sounds the F4. So is Musescore is sounding a different pitch to that of the notation and it shouldn’t be? The piece in question is the Horn solo at the start of the Jurassic Park theme, and I believe that it should be Bb as the first note.
I only have the Elements version and I don’t think I can do that in this version. Sounds like the piece I am using in Musescore is assuming that when I see read the F4 it will sound as a Bb in my composition software, but I don’t have the means of configuring the Horn to sounds a 5th below the written pitch…
‘sounds’ as in audio? the score or part looks ok?. Depending on your vst you can transpose playback in Play. (I have to do that for Viola via xml import from Finale; in Dorico the imported part sounds in the wrong octave using HALion. I expect this is an artifact of the way the Garritan instrument was configured in Finale.)
Thanks @phase_Shift : As in audio. If I play the musescore part (reads as F4 first note) and sit in front of my piano, it is a Bb3 that is actually being played.
Click the Play mode tab, navigate to your instrument, click the “e” button, then midi, and look for a transpose option. Here’s HALion for one of my projects:
edit: notice my own viola transposition further down
