Scoring for "Classical Orchestra" preset in Musescore
Hello I'm scoring for the "classical orchestra" preset in Musescore templates and I wondered about the horns and trumpet.. they don't require any scaling or transposing when scoring, like I thought they would need. I know from a saxophone player that when he says C on the music sheet, its really B flat, or something like that, and that trumpets and horns are also like this. In the "concert orchestra" preset, the horns do require this scaling related to their key, but I want that classical sound and would like (in theory) to be able to give the music to a horn player 100% as they would expect. how come this is so please, or is it correct? Excuse my lack of knowledge on brass.
Comments
I don't understand what you are asking 100% so I'll give a little explanation that I hope will help.
Remember, when transcribing always ensure the concert pitch button is not pressed unless you run into the very rare score that says it's in C.
Natural and valved brass instruments (trumpets, coronets and horns) have the pitch of the instrument notated in the score. You will see something like Horn in Eb or Trumpet in A. If you look at the instrument list these instruments will usually be included. This means you can use staff properties to change from the default (Horn in F & Trumpet in Bb) to the correct instrument.
These instruments are normally notated with no key signature. Ideally the instrument is in the key of the song, but this is often not the case. When the instrument is in the key of the song, there will be no key signature. When they are in a different key, which often happens, you need to open the advanced palette. Press ctrl while you drag the key signature that has an X to each these instruments. This will remove the key signature as in the original score.
When you enter notes into these instruments they will be transposed as needed.
If your goal is to give the part to a modern French Horn player, you can change the instrument to a Horn in F after the entire part has been entered and the notes will be transposed correctly. You can reapply the key signature at the point if you like and the unneeded accidentals will mostly go away.
In reply to I don't understand what you… by mike320
Thanks very much for my reply, you are quite right. My "classical orchestra" preset has concert pitch enabled. That solved it. I want to be able to score for the horn, or any instrument, purely with my own mind and then use the PC to speed up the writing process and playback, but I can't tolerate it scaling for me. Thanks again most kind.
In reply to Thanks very much for my… by samsonbard
When I compose my own music, I turn on concert pitch so I don't have to transpose on the fly. I will occasionally turn of concert pitch to see how the notes are displayed on transposing instruments, mostly to see how close to the edges of their ranges I'm getting. I can figure all of this out on my own, but the tools at hand make it much easier.
In reply to When I compose my own music,… by mike320
Much faster you are right.. like you, once I know it, anything faster is better of course, but at the same time it's a great way to learn that stuff on the fly (albeit time consuming for the composition)