Sorry about this really stupid question. I'm pretty sure i'm in the clear, but i need to check to make sure.

I just got a new french horn book for grade 5! A Mozart concerto.

Thing is, it's written for Eb horn...this is where it get's awkward for me.

There is an F horn transposition, but the piano accompaniment accompanies the Eb horn.


If i play the F horn version with the piano accompaniment, they will sound all right together, and not in the wrong key.....right?

If it's marked "Horn in F" and has either a two-flat key signature or lots of B and E flats, then it should be OK. You can also check that the corresponding notes are written a tone lower than in the Eb part.

However, the best policy is to learn how to transpose; to be useful, orchestral horn players should be able to sight read parts written for horn in Bb alto, A, G, F, (F# occurs in Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony, IIRC) E, Eb, D, C and B* and Bb basso. I have never come across parts in G# alto or C#, and the A and Ab basso transpositions occur, AFAIK, only in Italian music (mostly Rossini and Verdi).

Of all these, Eb is just about the easiest and occurs frequently in Mozart: not just in three of the horn concertos but in several piano concertos, some symphonies, the Sinfonia Concertante for violin & viola, the quintet for piano & wind, the quintet for horn and strings, the two wind octet serenades, etc. If you are so lucky as to be asked to join any of these ensembles, you may well not be offered an F part.

* I should admit that quite a lot of professional players would have good look beforehand at the solo for horn in B basso (= H basso in German parts) in the second movement of Brahms Symphony No 2. B natural is just about the worst transposition.

Ack! that's a lot of transpositions.

I can transpose from C, and that's about it. Eb too, but i've been playing a tone higher than written? (I'm guessing that's wrong?)

Bb is fine because i have a double horn, so hold in the thumb key and...way presto!

Do horns get to play in wind quintets - octets much?

Well, you didn't choose the horn for an easy life

Good that you have made a start, but you need to be confident of the principles: you are playing on an F horn; the Eb horn is longer than the F horn by the length of your first valve, so you need to finger the note a tone lower. Similar calculations work for the others. Leutgeb played the Mozart concertos on a horn with no valves, and it is possible to play the ones in Eb by leaving your first valve down and tuning some of the notes with your hand in the bell. Don't do this in public yet, though.

That gives you Bb alto. Bb basso horns are twice as long.

They are in the standard wind quintets (1111/1000) and classical octets (0222/2000). There are occasional works for five or eight wind instruments that don't use them e.g. some early pieces by Elgar for five wind including two flutes, and the Stravinsky Octet for flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones (=1012/0220 in the above notation. The order is that of the orchestral score: flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons / horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas).

Whether any particular player gets into these groups depends upon whether there are enough of the right instruments in range of each other, whether they get organised, and whether they have enough technical and musical ability to find playing chamber music rewarding (or even possible). Octets and larger wind groups are often conducted; quintets rarely are, though occasionally a work is so difficult to fit together that it is helpful to have someone at the front acting as a human metronome.

The early quintets by Reicha and Danzi were written for natural horns in several different keys, though usually within the range D to G. Nearly all the 20th C. quintets I can think of were written for the F horn but there are a few exceptions.