Stopped

What it means

Stopped (German gestopft) means: the player pushes the right hand so far into the bell of the horn that the opening is almost closed. The sound thereby becomes sharp, pressed, and brassy, at the same time distinctly quieter, and the pitch shifts — on the horn usually by about a semitone upward, which has to be compensated when fingering. The technique belongs to the horn but is occasionally also imitated on the trumpet with a specially built stopping mute.

In the notation

Stopping is prescribed by a small cross above the note or by the word itself; in French usage it is bouché. It is cancelled by a small circle, by offen or ouvert. The sounding target note is always notated in the usual transposing notation of the horn; the conversion of the fingering is made by the player.

Musical use

Historically, stopping arose on the valveless natural horn: with the hand in the bell, notes could be reached that are missing from the harmonic series. From this necessity a means of expression became after the introduction of valves. Since the nineteenth century composers have asked for the stopped sound deliberately for cutting, pale, or ghostly passages, often singly or in small groups, because it stands out at once from the open horn sound. At strong dynamics it acts brassy and aggressive, quiet rather distant and alienated.

Performance practice

Take care to close the bell really tightly; a half-closed hand yields the unclean intermediate state that is named separately as Kunststopf (“artificial stopping”). Compensate the pitch through the fingering and check it with the tuner, for the shift turns out differently depending on the instrument. Practise the change between open and stopped in slow passages, because the hand must change position and embouchure at the same time. Expect increased air resistance and plan the breath accordingly. With loud stopped passages the embouchure stays loose, otherwise the intonation becomes unstable.

Bear in mind that notation practice is not uniform: some scores notate the note that is to sound, others the one that would be fingered. When unclear, comparison with the surrounding parts and agreement with the conductor help.