source file: mills3.txt


Subject:  Re: Historical temperaments

From:  mr88cet@texas.net

>The use of unvalved
>brass in the lower harmonics will naturally restrict key choices

   Actually, that detail in particular isn't completely true, depending on
what you mean by "restrict".  With natural horns they inserted a
carefully-selected length of tubing between the mouthpiece and the rest of
the horn, based upon the key of the music.  They literally had such a
"crook" to set the fundamental of the horn to a wide variety of keys.

   This is why, by the way, natural horn parts notated as though they were
in C-Major (even if they were in a minor key).  In the example Mozart's
horn quintet, which is in Eb, they'd put on the Eb crook, and pretend like
the fundamental were C.  A 3rd or 6th harmonic, notated as a G, would sound
as a Bb.

   Now I don't know for sure, but I doubt if natural hornists had literally
twelve (or more) crooks, in which case I suppose that they might use, for
example, an A crook for something in E if they couldn't afford both.  So in
that sense their ranges of keys could have been "restricted".

   By the way, Karl Haas once said that (Robert) Schumann was the first
composer to specifically call for a valved horn.



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