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As part of my most recent horn building project I realized that I could set up that horn as an ascending third valve instrument.
Ascending third valve?!?
Back nearly 10 years ago I posted in this site an article on the ascending third valve horn. That article is here, and the short version is that this was a valve system that had some degree of popularity, especially in the years before the double horn. The classic instruments would be set up very much like my example.
How it works on a single horn is the instrument is set up so that it is in G, but the third valve is reversed so that it adds tubing to make the instrument stand in F. In other words, if you push down the third valve it raises the pitch level of the horn a whole step. An A-flat on the second space would still be fingered 23, but with this combination the third valve raises the pitch a step and the second lowers the pitch a half step.
I could set this up because I made this horn (described in this recent article) so that it could be set up in F or in G and has complete slide sets for both pitch levels. The G horn first valve slide became the ascending third valve slide.
I did have to temporarily reverse the rotation of the third valve, which I did by stringing it wrong, as seen in this second photo.
How does it play?
Positives: It is surprisingly responsive, with a clearer tone than the standard single F. You lose some weight with the changes, and the longest fingerings are now shorter! I can see why this system appealed to figures including Maxime-Alphonse, he wrote his etudes with the ascending third valve horn in mind.
Negatives: One obvious negative is you can’t play below low A, there are no fingerings. The BIG negative to my mind is intonation. If you set up the second valve slide to take you a half step down from F horn, when you use it in combination with the third valve it is really much too long. If you set up a 23 combination correctly the second valve is not nearly pulled enough using it by itself. I suppose you might get used to altering intonation around this issue, but a standard third valve setup is the better one for basic intonation.
It was an interesting experiment at the least! And, again, check my earlier article for more on the past and present use of this valve design.
