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Stopped — in horn playing, inserting the hand fully into the bell to produce a muted, nasal, metallic tone. The French equivalent of "gestopft."
Printed over horn notes as “bouché” (plural “bouchés”, “sons bouchés”) or as a small + above each stopped note; it lasts for the marked note or passage until “ouvert” (or an “o” over a note) restores the open sound. German scores use the same + for gestopft; on string parts a + means left-hand pizzicato, so check the instrument.
Abbreviations: +
Also spelled: bouche, bouchés
Bouché (or gestopft in German, chiuso in Italian) produces a distinctive buzzy, metallic tone on the horn. Use it for mysterious, eerie, or aggressive effects. Mark "ouvert" (open) or "naturale" to return to normal.
Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement, m. 138: a footnote for the horns reads “Einzelne gestopfte Töne sind mit + bezeichnet” — single stopped notes are marked + — the German term for the sound French scores mark bouché, with the same sign.
Bouché is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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