Transposing French Horn

I have a song in the key of D. I am trying to transpose the french horn section. Should I end up with 3 sharps on the bass cleff? And, is it supposed to be transposed 7 semitones? Thanks

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much quicker than asking on a forum..

Google

I did.

[Re: Google]I did.

I deleted my post because I didn't want to be a jerk ;) ...

Are you sure you googled it? It's pretty simple to use. (see Cody's very helpful demonstration)

Eitherway, no, you should not be in three sharps and bass clef.

Geez, you guys could simply answer his question with less effort than if you're gonna be smart asses like that.

(French) horn should always be written in treble clef except for notes 3 or 4 ledgers lines or more below the treble stave. When you give a horn player his music, it should be transposed one perfect fifth (which is 7 semitones, yes) above the notes that you want him to play. If your piece is in D, yes, your horns will be reading in A major instead, which is three sharps.

Read more: Horn - YC Wiki

It should also be noted that traditionally, you don't notate the horn with any key signature in orchestral literature (there are different practices in film or band music though), but you write it as if it was "C major" and transpose every note chromatically a perfect fifth up, using accidentals wherever necessary. This is in contrast to all other transposing instruments, which always are notated in a transposed key. But there are some conflicting practices concerning this, so I guess it is today acceptable to use transposed keys for horns too. The method I mentioned is just the one I learned and am most used to in scores I've seen.

It should also be noted that traditionally, you don't notate the horn with any key signature in orchestral literature (there are different practices in film or band music though), but you write it as if it was "C major" and transpose every note chromatically a perfect fifth up, using accidentals wherever necessary. This is in contrast to all other transposing instruments, which always are notated in a transposed key. But there are some conflicting practices concerning this, so I guess it is today acceptable to use transposed keys for horns too. The method I mentioned is just the one I learned and am most used to in scores I've seen.

This practice still has adherents, but most kids starting horn today are being taught to use key signatures.

Well, one more reason I might not be used to it may be that other than film music, most of the contemporary orchestral music I get to see doesn't have any key in the first place, so you'd transpose chromatically in the first place.

But even if you learn to play horn, you won't generally play that much music with key signatures, since pre-20th century music is usually transposed to the key of the piece (i.e. in E, Eb, D, G, whatever), and alot of the more recent music is again written without key signatures. But sure, depending on what kind of stuff you play, you might be exposed to key signatures more often.

But again it may also be a thing that is a bit different from country to country.