<p>Operahorn-
That was said fully tongue in cheek, I didn’t mean it seriously. I was referring with that line to the book “A Devil to Play” by Jasper Rees, about his attempt to take up the horn again at age 40 and play a Mozart Horn concerto at the British Horn society convention in a year…very, very funny book, but also full of all kinds of horn lore. In any event that was written in jest, though according to the book pieces are not transposed for horn because it has become a tradition, much as the tradition stands of playing concertos from memory.</p>
<p>I wanted to comment on the horn transposing, even though I know the issue is already resolved. I wanted to wait until I had a chance to talk with my horn playing son.</p>
<p>He said it would not be a simple task to reprint every piece in the proper key - much of early music was written for natural horn in F. All that early music would have to be reworked. Can’t change it on the computer until it’s on there in the first place. He also talked for awhile about being able to quickly know which notes were stopped, or partially stopped, or whatever - stuff to do with where the hands go - and how all of that is easier to “read” in certain keys - and that transposing the music in advance would take away that advantage - and that transposing as you go is so much easier than learning something different for every key, and that notes aren’t “absolutes” on horn like they are on piano, and need to be handled differently based upon the key and …</p>
<p>I finally told him I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, and he said, “Then you just need to know that the way we do it is just easier.”</p>
<p>You know, binx, s. just came up from his basement practice room last night and said that he was preferring to transpose it while reading it as written pretty much for the same reasons. At first, I thought he was being lazy about converting it in music print. However, your post reinforces what he told me : ) Apparently, it’s going (and sounding) better than we all thought.
Thanks!</p>