Horn Concerto

Hi

I am planning to start writing a Horn Concerto in E minor.

Any advice before I start?

This is my first orchestral work.

It is for horn and string orchestra.

A Horn would mix perfectly with these, and E minor seems to be a fine key too, as long as it's not extremely virtuosic (the Weber concertino for Horn in E minor showed me that some of those fingerings can be nasty at high tempi...). But a good hornist should also be able to play fast passages in this key.

You might consider also adding one or two bassoons to the orchestra, which give you another bass instrument in the winds and mix extremely well with the horn. That would give you the same instrumentation as Mozart's third horn concerto (while the other Mozart concertos feature oboes and sometimes also horns in the orchestra).

P.S. Ah, I see you have removed the clarinets from your post now, so it's now just horn and string orchestra. Which is perfectly fine of course.

Well, my father is a solo-hornist, so I can help you if you have questions. I wrote a concertino for Horn, but it it was a bit hard for the instrument, because there was a lot of big jumps in it. I think you won't write jumps, because it will be tonal-thing (e minor). Anyway, watch out for the trills, because finger-trills sound bad, but in other registers, mouth-trill can be a second, or a third.

Good luck, and write, if you want to know something :)

As a horn player, and one who has played the Weber. First, the weber is in Concert E Major, so B major for the horn. These fingerings are not difficult but flow rather easily. It is the transposition that is difficult as the piece is played a half step down from written. E minor is not a bad key at all.

Writing jumps should not be avoided, ever listened to John Williams? Try not to write jumps that span more than an octave and a half unless it is from one to the same one (C3 to C5). Hope this helps

Okay, I didn't write C'-C''' jumps.. :D I wrote C' Dflat'' Bflat' A Eflat'' etc... And I wrote a written Dflat above the stuff. It's playable for my father, because he knows almost an octave above the concert pitches, but there aren't so many people who can do that :)

Be careful. Composers have to learn, how to write for horn. It should be teached too. For example Bart

For example Bart

An interval of an octave and a seventh is kind of hard to hear and play on the horn. A Db above the staff is not that bad, you just have to consider the level of player you are writing for.

What should he be aware of balance wise between the strings and the horn. The horn can play over any size string accmp.

I think the Gordon Jacob Concerto for horn is a good place to start. I think it is modern enough and has similar ideas to what you want to do.