HornLib — Interactive French Horn F/Bb Double Horn Fingering & Harmonics Engine
RemoteAbout HornLib — Interactive French Horn F/Bb Double Horn Fingering & Harmonics Engine
HornLib is a reference and analysis service for French horn players, teachers, and brass students. It provides fingerings, transposition, harmonic-series data, and practice guidance through a hosted read-only MCP server.
Key features
- 01Look up F and Bb horn fingerings
- 02Transpose historical horn parts
- 03Analyze harmonic partials and intonation
- 04Find trill fingerings and audition guidance
- 05Generate daily warm-up routines
Use cases
- 01Compare valve options for a written note
- 02Convert a crook part to Horn in F
- 03Study partial intonation tendencies
- 04Prepare orchestral audition excerpts
MCP support
Exposes eight public, read-only music-reference tools through a hosted Streamable HTTP MCP endpoint. Calls require no sign-in or API key.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://hornlib.com/api/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http com-hornlib https://hornlib.com/api/mcp{"mcpServers":{"com-hornlib":{"type":"http","url":"https://hornlib.com/api/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"com-hornlib":{"type":"http","url":"https://hornlib.com/api/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"com-hornlib":{"type":"http","url":"https://hornlib.com/api/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"com-hornlib":{"serverUrl":"https://hornlib.com/api/mcp"}}}Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.
Tools
Details
From the project READMEHornLib — Interactive French Horn F/Bb Double Horn Fingering & Harmonics Engine (com.hornlib/mcp)
Digital French horn fingering charts and transposed brass sheet music.
HornLib (hornlib.com) provides interactive fingering charts for single F, single Bb, and full double horns (F/Bb trigger), natural overtone harmonic series tables, historical orchestral crook transposition, and orchestral audition excerpt guides — exposed to AI agents via a statelessstreamable-httpModel Context Protocol (MCP) server athttps://hornlib.com/api/mcp.
🖥️ Interactive Web Studio Preview
Why Hornists & Brass Pedagogues Choose HornLib
- Interactive Double Horn Trigger Toggle: Dynamically switches between single F horn, single Bb horn, and full double horn (F/Bb trigger) valve combinations across the instrument's four-octave compass (
C1–F6). - Harmonic Partial Intonation Deviation Charts: Displays exact equal-temperament cent tendencies (e.g.,
-14 centson the 5th partial,-31 centson the 7th partial,-49 centson the 11th partial) alongside alternate valve solutions. - Historical Orchestral Crook Transposition: Assists hornists reading classical and romantic orchestral parts in Horn in F, Bb-alto, Bb-basso, Eb, D, C-basso, G, A, and E.
🛠️ 8 Read-Only MCP Tools (https://hornlib.com/api/mcp)
All 8 tools are strictly read-only (readOnlyHint: true, destructiveHint: false, idempotentHint: true) and require no sign-in and no API keys:
| # | Tool Name | Capability & Music Theory Scope | Web Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | lookup_french_horn_fingering | Look up F-side & Bb-trigger valve fingerings, concert pitch transposition, and intonation tendencies for any written note (C1–F6). | Fingering Chart |
| 2 | transpose_french_horn_pitch | Transpose orchestral horn parts from historical crooks (F, Bb, Eb, D, C, G, A, E) to modern Horn in F & Concert Pitch. | 7-in-1 Brass Tools |
| 3 | analyze_horn_harmonic_series | Analyze natural overtone partials (1st–16th) for any F or Bb valve combination with cent deviations and tube lengths. | All Notes & Harmonics |
| 4 | lookup_horn_trill_fingering | Identify mechanical valve trills vs Viennese harmonic lip trills for whole-step and half-step ornaments. | Trill Fingerings |
| 5 | get_orchestral_horn_excerpt_guide | Audition preparation notes, crook shifts & fingerings for Mozart 4, Strauss Till Eulenspiegel, Tchaikovsky 5, Brahms & Mahler. | Orchestral Excerpts |
| 6 | diagnose_horn_intonation_and_hand_position | Acoustic diagnostic for Stopped Horn (gestopft +1/2 step F-horn transposition) & right-hand bell cupping. | Pedagogy Guides |
| 7 | recommend_beginner_horn_and_mouthpiece | Compare Kruspe wrap (Conn 8D) vs Geyer wrap (Alexander 103 / Yamaha) & mouthpiece cup depths (Farkas, Laskey, Schilke). | Beginner Guide |
| 8 | generate_daily_horn_warmup_routine | Generate structured daily warm-up routines covering Farkas long tones, harmonic lip slurs, tonguing & pedal tones. | Knowledge Base |
⚡ Install in Hermes Agent
This repository is a configuration-only Agent Plugins v1 package (plugin.json, mcp.json, and skills/) for Hermes Agent.
hermes plugins install hornlib
Or install directly from GitHub:
hermes plugins install HornLib/mcp-server
Example Prompts in Hermes
- "Look up the primary and alternate F/Bb double horn valve fingerings for written high A5."
- "Transpose written G4 on Horn in Eb to modern Horn in F and concert pitch."
- "Compare the harmonic series partials and cent deviations for open F horn vs open Bb horn."
- "Give me the horn key, tempo, and practice tips for Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel opening horn call."
⚡ Quick Setup (Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf / Skills CLI)
Install Agent Skill (skills.sh)
npx skills add HornLib/mcp-server
Direct Remote streamable-http Connection
{
"mcpServers": {
"hornlib": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://hornlib.com/api/mcp"
}
}
}
Claude Code CLI
claude mcp add --transport http hornlib https://hornlib.com/api/mcp
🔒 Security & Data Disclosure (Hermes Catalog Rule 13)
- Hosted-only, configuration-only package: This repository ships only static JSON manifests (
plugin.json,mcp.json) and Markdown skills (skills/). It contains no local executable code, no Python runtime, no shell hooks, no compiled binaries, no telemetry collectors, and no self-updater. - Network: Every MCP tool call connects over HTTPS (
streamable-http) to HornLib's hosted endpoint athttps://hornlib.com/api/mcpand sends only the musical query arguments (such as note name, horn key, or excerpt name). The remote tool inventory is served at runtime byhornlib.comand is not frozen by the pinned commit SHA. - No credentials or sign-in: All 8 tools are public and free. No API keys, OAuth tokens, environment variables, or local files are read or stored.
- Read-only & untrusted gate: Every tool on
https://hornlib.com/api/mcpis strictly read-only (readOnlyHint: true,destructiveHint: false). The package marks the servertrust: untrustedinplugin.json(extensions.com.nousresearch.hermes.servers.hornlib.trust = "untrusted"), so Hermes enforces its approval gate if any non-read-only tool were ever advertised. - Privacy & Terms: Privacy Policy · Terms of Use
🔗 Official Resources & Deep Links
- French Horn Fingering Chart (Interactive Studio)
- Double Horn F/Bb Trigger Fingering Reference
- 7-in-1 French Horn Transposition & Practice Suite
- Orchestral French Horn Audition Excerpts
- French Horn Beginner Guide & Mouthpiece Selector
- LLMs.txt Structured AI Reference
Educational music resource curated by brass pedagogues. MIT License © HornLib (hornlib.com).
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