Notation advice: french horn harmonic gliss

So I need to write a continuous harmonic glissando for the french horn part in my brass quintet. I really have no idea how this is supposed to be written... I've written something which sort of gets the point across but I don't want the exact notes that I put, I just want a smooth gliss. up and down the whole series. Does anyone know how I should write this?

Thanks

There's no actual standard for such things, but what I've seen most often (such as in Ligeti's horn trio) is notating the notes in the normal horn transposition and writing the (untransposed) fundamental above it, to indicate the fingering. So, you could write it like this:

Or, to be even more precise, you could write out the harmonics that appear inbetween. This has the advantage that the hornist doesn't have to think about what fingering to use to get a "Horn in E", but sees the required notes and quickly translates it to a fingering. Personally, I still prefer the first variant though. A decent hornist should know what "in E" means and be able to play it easily. (But still, this notation is still good if you want to leave no doubt about what notes should actually sound.)

The following third variant is based on how harmonics are written for string instruments, indicating both the fundamental (in this case transposed in F) and the harmonics above it with little circles. I don't really recommend this though, since when you're writing for horn, you're generally in regions that are much higher than the fundamental, which makes it somewhat messy to notate (in this case I had to use an 8vb, but adding a bass clef just for the fundamental would be a bit messy too).

The following last variant is probably the quickest to read for the hornist, since it gives a fingering directly, but I'm still not a great fan of it. For one, because the notation of fingerings is not standardised, but mostly because I try to avoid "tabulature notation" (which is sort of what this is) within standard notation, unless really necessary. If I have a choice, I tend to notate the result I want to get and not how exactly to execute it, since I want to leave it up to the performer to execute a certain technique differently, if she or he prefers it another way. (Of course this only works when there's an obvious way how it could be executed, and not for very obscure techniques that need an actual explanation.) Anyways, here the variant with the fingering:

Personally, I'd still use either the first or second variant.

With amateur experience in playing horn, I'd say go with the 2nd option. I wouldn't have understood the first one without an explanation. 3rd and 4th options don't explain enough visually. Instead with the 2nd option just saying (E), which I don't understand right off, I'd personally rather something more precise, (on horn in E) OR an indication of the fingering as simply something like ○|○•○

Hmm, yeah. Well, I guess in any case I'd add a note in front of the piece explaining it.

The fingering example shows just why I said I avoided it here: Personally, I'm not used to the way Enigmus notated the fingering, and while the right part of it is pretty clear (second valve pressed), the F/Bb valve indication isn't that universally clear. Most hornists I know over here (Europe) have their F/Bb valve set up so that the F horn is active when it's pressed and the Bb-horn when it's released, i.e. exactly the other way round. Such things that can change a lot depending on your country or instrument build are what can make fingering notations problematic.

I know over here (Europe) have their F/Bb valve set up so that the F horn is active when it's pressed and the Bb-horn when it's released, i.e. exactly the other way round. Such things that can change a lot depending on your country or instrument build are what can make fingering notations problematic.

Really?! I find that fascinating! :w00t: But yes, troublesome. I just started writing a piece for Horn and 2 Toms. Should be interesting. Thanks for the universal heads up!

This is the way it would be done:

The gliss. indication is optional.

These all look good, but I don't think they're exactly what I'm looking for... I want the horn to gliss up and down the harmonic series continuously for a couple of measures, on the C fundamental. Pitch is not that important. I guess I can just write approximate high and low notes with gliss. lines in between, and text 'ad lib' and 'harmonics'. This is pretty much Gardener's 1st suggestion. Any thoughts?

Okay, if you want it up and down, you should probably write out the start and end notes, and then put the harmonic series wanted in grace notes (as I indicated). That's would be the clearest notation.

You can use ad lib. if you wish, but I would not add the 'harmonics' indication, as it is confusing.

You could also do what Robin would do, draw a squiggly line that just waves up and down and you could write above it "harmonic gliss. on open F horn" (that is, if you want it on all the concert F fundamental.)