Re: Dennis Brain's horn [was: Period vs Modern instruments?]

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Michael Haslam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>It's struck me that *if* you are using a single Bb instrument for most
>of the Serenade then you would be forced to use a different horn for the
>Prologue and Epilogue. In that event you might as well use a valve-less
>Horn in F. I reiterate that this is not what BB intended.

Most single Bb horns have four or five valves.  On the five-valve, one
of the two extras puts the instrument down a fourth, so the Prelude and
Epilogue would require this fingering instead of the open horn.  On the
four-valve, the thumb valve usually has alternative tubing, either for
descending 3/4 tone (= 1/2 tone on F length) for tuning the hand-stopped
horn, or descending a fourth.  If it was configured for stopping (as I
think it would have to be, for the Serenade) the best fingering for the
outer movements would be T 2 3 (better, because longer, than 1 3, which
is slightly less than a fourth down).

-- 
Ken Moore
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
pg composition student, University of Reading