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UPDATE: This publication is now in a second edition, available in print and Kindle formats. For links to purchase visit www.hornnotes.com
Following up on the article yesterday, the second new E-Book (PDF format) publication from Horn Notes Edition is on the topic of Descant and Triple Horns.
Back in 2007 Horn Notes Edition released Playing High Horn by John Ericson. It was pulled from publication early this year, but now we are pleased to release a newly revised version as an E-Book, Playing Descant and Triple Horns, a practical introduction to the use of descant and triple horns.
Descant horns are typically built as double horns that stand in B-flat with an F alto side that is an octave shorter than the F side of a standard double horn. It is a great instrument for playing high, light literature. Playing Descant and Triple Horns covers many topics related to these instruments including fingerings, mouthpiece choices, and music to study and perform, while also touching on the history of the instruments.
The other focus of the publication is the triple horn. A triple horn most commonly has slides for the F, B-flat, and F alto sides. Essentially the triple horn combines a double horn and a descant into one instrument (with two thumb triggers to control the three sides), and it is highly suited to performance of orchestral high horn parts.
As with the brand new publication Playing Natural Horn Today, a video was produced to highlight the use of descant and triple horns (direct link here). On it are found performances by John Ericson of works of Berlioz, Telemann, Bach, and Mahler. This substantial new E-Book Playing Descant and Triple Horns is ideally suited to introducing these instruments to advanced students of the horn.
As a final note, sometimes I am asked which is more important, natural horn or descant horn? While there is much to gain from natural horn study, in a real sense I have made many thousands of dollars on descant horn (for example playing the B Minor Mass), and if you have to choose one it is certainly the more important instrument to learn of the two.
