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How might transposed french horn duets sound on contrabass tubas?

sailn2ba wrote:How might transposed french horn duets sound on contrabass tubas?

About 2-1/2 octaves lower with no chipped notes.

sorry, couldn't resist

Actually, if they are in treble clef you can play them straight from the book, reading them in bass clef: just either add 3 flats to the key signature OR add 4 sharps (depending on the original key). Anything in the staff or well spaced will work fine; close spacing below the staff will get kind of muddy.

For example: if the horn original is written in Ab major in treble clef, add 4 sharps (same as subtracting 4 flats) and read it in bass clef and it's in the key of C major.

And don't forget to stick your hand in the bell.

Harvey used to use a fair amount of french horn duests and trios as study/performance material. The Telemann canonic sonatas for flute also work pretty well.

The big thing with this sort of borrowed material is to learn to use some finesse. Think of them as "chamber" music - not Thor's thunder coming from the bottom of a 110 piece orchestra.

From my Yahoo based of free downloads:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Duet #1 in C major for clarinet and bassoon.
Here edited by Klaus Bjerre in 17 versions in several keys for several permutations of orchestral and band instruments including ..... horn in F, Wagner tuba in F, euphonium, bass tuba, contrabass tuba, ..... Notation in orchestral and brass band styles. The versions within each key are to some degree compatible. Please read the introduction.

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Yo ... 20bassoon/

Klaus