Hello
please could you help me with a grade 7 theory question? It's written cuivre over the horn part of the music and it's asking for the meaning. When I looked it up on a translation website it said' bronzed'!

Any ideas?

Also just spotted another one that I haven't got a clue for. Again, it's over the horns and it says ' bouche' then 'naturel' and wants to know what these mean.

Thank you.

cuivré means brassy, a loud, angry sound produced by embochure, also sometimes lifting the bell to let the sound out, removing the right hand from its usual position in the bell. Dynamics of f and above.

Bouche is muted/stopped. I've understood it to mean muted by thrusting the fist further into the bell. This is also called "stopped" and still also shown by a + over the note. Using the R hand rather than a mute gives the player more control over the degree of muting. I am ready to be corrected on this and if so, I've been wrong for a long time!

PF

Hi
As a horn player of some 45 yrs I can tell you that these are all different ways of producing sounds on the horn.

They are all French musical notation marks and mean
cuivre.....brassy with a forced tone
bouche.......stopped ( closed with the hand)
naturel......open again (ie not stopped)

There are also equivalent markings in German/Italian/English which hornplayers get used to seeing whilst playing classical music.

Rather than looking up a translation siteon the web, for any other expression marks,could I suggest the old fashioned way of looking it up in a music reference book such as the Oxford Companion to Music!!

Good luck with your Theory exam.

Rather than looking up a translation siteon the web, for any other expression marks,could I suggest the old fashioned way of looking it up in a music reference book such as the Oxford Companion to Music!!

Thank you very much for your replies. Both explanations have helped amke it extremely clear. Thanks for the hint of the musical dictionary too. I'd forgot I had it and was relying on other theory books for the answers! Yours and the previous post's explanations are better though.
Thanks

Following on from this, a composer will specify as to whether he wants the horn to be played with a mute, or stopped with the hand.
Both types of muting give a different sound, which once you've heard them you will appreciate the difference.
Using a mute does tend to muffle the sound, and the tone has to be forced somewhat.
Hand muting on the other hand gives a more ethereal sound.... a good example is the horn call at the start of Weber's Oberon overture. Played first open and then one bar later muted.
Another point is that using the hand raises the note by a semi tone (the tube is being shortened) and the horn player has to tranpose the notes down a semitone.
If you're a horn player this will only work on the F horn,the Bb horn raises the note by less than a semitone.so unless you have a 5th transposing valve, you can't do it.
Also hand muting will not work terribly well below Middle C.
Most composers will specify a mute, and even then the note won't be heard unless the other instrumentation is thinly scored.
Hope this helps!!