The project
As I participated in various contemporary orchestra sessions, I encountered many pieces attempting to explore and expand the expressive potential of the french horn. Unfortunately, composers of these pieces often grappled with the challenge of notating these techniques and could write them in a clumsy or ambiguous manner: sometimes due to a lack of knowledge about the instrument’s possibilities (almost empty parts with a few long notes); other times, conversely, by overestimating its capabilities (overfulled parts with many extremely difficult or even technically impossible passages); or by a lack of familiarity with the specific notations unique to this instrument (incomprehensible parts); or even due to writing errors caused by the software (incorrect clefs, excessive additional lines making the score unreadable, unformatted bars to be counted,…).
A work that had to be done
I realized that such a work had not been done before, at least not to a great extent. It was through conversations with the composers of these pieces that I got the idea to undertake this work. The goal is to help them to have a better understanding of my instrument, to know what they can or cannot do and compose for it, to use it wisely. The aim is also to provide them with some guidance and suggestions on how to notate their ideas in the score.
On this website, you will find dissected examples, audio and video, of the sound effects that can be achieved with a french horn. There are also explanations on how to write them on a score clearly and understandably for a horn player, including their potential limitations. Additionally, there are contextualizations of these techniques within the repertoire.
Organization of this website
The navigation is done through the menus and submenus at the top of this page. Each menu corresponds to a generic theme that will be explored from various aspects in each of the subsections. The Generalities section presents the horn in broad strokes, including how this instrument works and what one should consider when writing for it. The Articulation section, quite explicitly, explains how different attack transients and typical horn ornaments are executed. The Usual Colors section showcases the most commonly used playing techniques in pieces incorporating contemporary techniques written during the 20th century. Finally, the Extended Colors section proposes even more playing techniques and effects, some of which are already popular in current pieces, while others are completely new or rarely used. This last section encourages experimentation and discovery.
Examples
For each presented technique or effect, written, audio, or video examples will be provided. For every notation example, and for the sake of clarity for non-horn players, the scores will be written in C (sounding concert pitch) AND in F (played pitch by the horn player), with ALWAYS the C example first followed by the F example. It should be noted that these notation examples were created using Finale v25 software and are, therefore, exactly reproducible in this software.
Fingerings
The fingering notation system used here is the one adopted by most horn players today: the numbers 1, 2, and 3 correspond respectively to the 1st valve (operated by the index finger), the 2nd valve (operated by the middle finger), and the 3rd valve (operated by the ring finger). I add a letter, either F or B, before each number, indicating whether the fingering following this letter has to be played on the F horn or the B♭ horn. If no letter is indicated, the fingering is to be executed by default on the B♭ horn (unless logic dictates otherwise). For instance, the fingering F23 means that the 2nd and 3rd valves should be activated on the F horn.
Microtonality
The microtonality notation system will be as follows (arrows on the alterations indicating that the note will be “slightly lower/higher than” the alteration to which they are attached, without a precise measure of this pitch difference):
Any other notation will be specified in the corresponding section.
I just have to wish you a good visit,
and good luck with you compositions!
Marin Duvernois
About me
Curious, versatile and enthusiastic, I build my instrumental playing and my culture from my various experiences.
Contact me
If you know other techniques or effects that are missing on this website and that you would like to see here, don’t hesitate to suggest them to me, I am open to it! You can contact me at this e-mail: thecontemporaryhorn@gmail.com
References and bibliography
Here you will find the books, websites, and scores that I consulted for this work, as well as recommendations for further exploration of certain topics.
