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 introducing 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 the open tubing would have the horn sit in G — but the third valve is reversed so that at rest it adds a whole step of tubing, to make the instrument normally stand in F.
To produce that same open harmonic series as normal for the F horn, air normally passes through that third valve slide. However, when you push down the third valve it cuts out that tubing, and as a result it raises the pitch level of the horn a whole step. Push down that valve, and you get a harmonic series a full step higher than normal! (The same length as T12 on a double horn). Thus, the third valve makes the horn “ascend” instead of adding tubing like normal.
How it feels (to the player accustomed to a typical single F) is like a supercharged single F, as you have that shorter tubing length available. Articulations will be better and also the tone is a bit lighter and clearer overall.
I could achieve set this up on this instrument 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 becomes the ascending third valve slide (which has to be shorter than a standard F horn first valve slide).
I did have to temporarily reverse the rotation of the third valve to do this, which I did by stringing it “wrong,” as seen in this second photo.
Wait, how then do you finger A-flat? Or low Eb?
An A-flat on the second space would still be fingered 23, but with this combination the third valve raises the nominal open pitch a step and the second lowers the pitch a half step.
This works also for the Ab below the staff, but the Eb below the staff is missing, and you also can’t finger any notes below low A.
(Ascending third valve double horns have been made; the “Bb” side gets you a low Eb, yay, but there is still no fingering for a low Ab — unless the horn has a stopping valve to use to get an extra 1/2 step descending. But overall that is kind of a deal breaker for the system today).
How does it play?
First, let me say this is or was a horn for a high horn player. The missing low notes would have been a huge annoyance if you were a low horn player.
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 several of his etudes with the ascending third valve horn clearly in mind. See for example Book 4 Number 3. Oh, and it is a fun setup to play with for variety in your practice. Horn playing can be fun!
Negatives: One obvious negative is you can’t play below low A, there are no fingerings, and the Eb below the staff is missing too. But 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 (and of course, in reality, you set the slide in a compromise position, half way between correct for the two fingerings, which you use quite often). But a standard descending third valve setup is the better one for basic intonation and if having a true fingering for every note in your range is a priority.
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.
