What is the golden course of horns?

It's time to finally find out what is the golden course of horns. This is nothing but a sequence of three harmonic intervals, namely: a small or large sixth, a pure fifth and a small or large third.

The golden course of the horns is called this sequence because it is often the French horns that are often assigned to perform this turn in the orchestra. And this is not by chance. The fact is that the sound "the golden course of horns"It reminds of the signals of hunting horns. And the horn, as a matter of fact, takes its origin from these hunting trumpets. The name of this brass wind musical instrument is formed from two German words: wald horn, which in translation means" forest horn ".

The golden course of horns can be found in a variety of musical works, it can not always be compositions for orchestra. This "move" may sound in the performance of other instruments, but even in this case, it is called the horn move. For example, we meet him in piano pieces. (PI Tchaikovsky "The Seasons" - play number 9 September "The Hunt", F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdi "Songs without Words" - No. 3 "The Hunting Song")or in violin music (in the caprice of Paganini №7 - E-dur) etc. The horn course is not always used to create a hunting image, there are examples of its application in a completely different image-intonation context. (for example - L. Beethoven Sonata for piano №26, part I)

A vivid example of the introduction of the golden horns in symphonic music is the finale of the 103rd symphony by J. Haydn (this is the same symphony, the first part of which begins with tremolo timpani). At the very beginning, the golden horns of the horns immediately sound, then the “stroke” is repeated more than once throughout the finale, and other topics are superimposed on it:

What do we have in the end? Understood what is the golden course of horns. The golden course of horns is a sequence of three intervals: sexty, fifth and third. Now, so that your idea of ​​this wonderful harmonic course is complete, I suggest you listen to an excerpt from Haydn's symphony.