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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 15:13:30 GMT
HS wants low oboe, I want high horn. (On a treble clef, non-transposed) The part is to be played unison by four horns. I don't think I've recorded this high, and it's where you're recommended to be careful - I could use trumpets, but I prefer the horn timbre for this line, especially since it's just one note that's worrying me. I've found a Strauss passage that goes higher, but still thought I should check. Thanks!
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Post by Mike Hewer on Aug 24, 2018 15:33:03 GMT
I see no problem there Dave, so long as the players are good. Speaking of extreme horn (pardon!) what about the opening theme in Prometheus that takes a solo up to a g in piano!!!I believe Gregson-Williams had to consult with the player for that.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 16:05:50 GMT
I see no problem there Dave, so long as the players are good. Speaking of extreme horn (pardon!) what about the opening theme in Prometheus that takes a solo up to a g in piano!!!I believe Gregson-Williams had to consult with the player for that. Thanks Mike. You mean here? Great theme, at least something about that movie was worth remembering. I hadn't realised that cue, and one other, is G-W's sole contribution to the score. Maybe they needed a specific sound Streitenfeld wasn't getting - James Newton Howard nearly had another composer called in for Fantastic Beasts because he wasn't nailing the intro theme, though he may have been exaggerating...
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Post by driscollmusick on Aug 24, 2018 16:20:43 GMT
Second Mike here. It's high but doable (assuming the players are good). How fast is it? The solo horn in the opening to Britten's Serenade has that A (sounding D) as the high note:
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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 17:19:22 GMT
Thanks again! thing.mp3 (235.63 KB) Hooray for dodgy samples not meant for public consumption... not that fast, but it'll be a prominent note and that's where they'll waver, if they're going to. I've seen a few live horn fluffs in lower ranges, albeit in more difficult parts, so I'm not assuming a perfect first run.
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 17:33:50 GMT
[...] The solo horn in the opening to Britten's Serenade has that A (sounding D) as the high note: View Attachment[...] Hmm. Am I reading the score wrong, or did the soloist in the youtube video play the F (sounding C) out-of-tune? And that high A too? Or is that a deliberate effect? I'm also considering using a horn for a particularly high passage in my orchestration of the Fantasia, but I'm very unsure whether it's realistic: it needs to sound a high F, which means written C above the staff. I think I'll probably end up assigning that to the trumpet, though what I really want is the high horn timbre there.
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Post by driscollmusick on Aug 24, 2018 18:42:42 GMT
You mean F sounding Bb?
Written C (sounding F) above the staff is extremely high. I wouldn't recommend it.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 18:56:24 GMT
[...] The solo horn in the opening to Britten's Serenade has that A (sounding D) as the high note: View Attachment[...] Hmm. Am I reading the score wrong, or did the soloist in the youtube video play the F (sounding C) out-of-tune? And that high A too? Or is that a deliberate effect? I agree it sounded a little off.
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 21:02:00 GMT
You mean F sounding Bb? Written C (sounding F) above the staff is extremely high. I wouldn't recommend it. I mean written C above the staff, sounding F at the top of the staff. Yes I know it's extremely high. I'm exploring alternative ways of instrumenting that passage. One possibility is to just transpose the passage an octave down and forego the high-horn sound. But there may be other approaches.
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 21:03:00 GMT
Hmm. Am I reading the score wrong, or did the soloist in the youtube video play the F (sounding C) out-of-tune? And that high A too? Or is that a deliberate effect? I agree it sounded a little off. Perhaps that's an example of the risk you're taking writing a horn part so high -- the player may miss the exact pitch.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 21:24:48 GMT
Flugelhorn? Roughly same range as a trumpet, but with a warmer, more horn-like timbre.
I imagine that horn player nailed it in rehearsal and at home. I don't mind if it takes a couple of goes, it's a session after all and first take always has issues, it's if a high horn part is consistently problematic even after the players know what's coming. Seems it's not though.
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Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 24, 2018 21:28:35 GMT
Possibly I'm missing something with the Britten, other recordings sound similar to this live recording and also "wrong" to my ears.
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 21:36:38 GMT
I wonder if it's one of those modernistic things where you deliberately detune certain notes (or rather, "fail" to adjust a natural harmonic that's naturally out-of-tune) as a deliberate effect.
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 21:38:13 GMT
(Reminds me of the video you posted on Ning once, of an orchestra that played certain notes "out of tune". I'm pretty sure that was a deliberate effect on the part of the music, not a glaring blunder by the orchestra players.)
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Post by fuguestate on Aug 24, 2018 21:56:10 GMT
I'm not so sure about using flugelhorn for that part... I do hear a distinctly horn timbre in that passage, but I'm also aware that I suffer from what I call an octave equivalence syndrome, where I can hear the (relative) pitch class of a note clearly, but have only a fuzzy idea about which octave it actually lies in. It's entirely possible that my mind's ear is actually hearing the horn an octave lower, and I'm just misidentifying the octave because of the written notes in the piano version of the piece.
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