Instrument: "High C horn"?

• May 2, 2016 - 13:28

Dear musescore users - I'm wondering about this musescore instrument called "High C horn"- it's under the "brass" category when you choose the "all instruments" selection.

I cannot find any reference outside musescore what this instrument is. Does it exist in real life? How uncommon is it? I suspect, very?

In addition, I would very much like to know if there is a more common wind instrument (brass or woods, either is fine) that is non transposing (or transposes by an octave) that can work comfortably in the range of a g3 sharp (g below the stave of a g-cleff) up to c6 (c above the g-cleff stave)

Thanks in advance,
Roland.


Comments

I don't know about the "High C horn", but I can tell you there is no instrument that fits that description that *I* would consider common - that the average school band or university orcehstra would have, for example..

C trumpet has pretty much exactly that range, and it's common enough among professional orchestral players if not very common at the school or amateur level. But why would it have to be non-transposing? That limits you greatly, as very many wind instruments *are* transposing. If you don't arbitrarily rule out the common transpositing instruments, then suddenly Bb clarinet because a very common and obvious choice, probably others too.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've come across it several times when copying opera scores into MS (see attached pdf; I tried to add a few others but the file size is too big).
Besides The Barber of Seville, Otello (G. Verdi) & The Flying Dutchman (R. Wagner) seem to be written for a "High C", as opposed to a "Low C" horn.
It's certainly possible that I'm getting the octave wrong- The C horn is always written below the F horn, but I'm not sure that means anything, because I've come across several opera scores where the piccolo is written below the flute. However, when entered strictly as written in the source score into MS, and then shifting to Concert Pitch, the C horn is higher than the F horn.
Also, when I listen to recordings, and compare them to what I've done in MS, I'm pretty sure that I got it right- it would sound pretty obvious if a horn was in the wrong octave.
I checked Wikipedia, but the instrumentation given for the operas just says something generic like "4 horns".

I hope this helps,

Attachment Size
Largo al factotum.pdf 1.66 MB

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