Yes. All you have to do is find or make one. Well, not a canon unless you want to load a music work or religious law. You're looking for a cannon or a battery (a group of 4, 6 or more cannons).

The Aria Player will play Soundfont, sf2 and sfz files. I don't know if it plays the sf3 variant developed for MuseScore. Google is your friend as far as seeing if there are any free cannon or battery sounds you can just load. Otherwise, this site will tell you how to create your own.

https://sfzformat.com/ 

I will guess that most have never heard this recording but it was very famous back in the day. This is from the 1955 Mercury Records stereo record of the 1812 Overture and what the engineers went through to sample the field cannon and Harkness Bells used in the recording. In case you think that this is a new problem.

https://youtu.be/-Eie8xLbBio 

This is the first time I've listened to it in 60 years or so (on my folks's stereo). Dealers used to give this pressing away when they sold stereo sets.

Apologies for the typo, obviously I meant "cannon" rather than "canon". As I stated, I need the cannon sound for Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and, in my defence, the Eulenburg score that I'm working from uses the spelling "Canon".

But I'm afraid telling me that "The Aria Player will play Soundfont, sf2 and sfz files" doesn't help much because I have no idea what "Soundfont, sf2 and sfz files" even are, much less how to locate or incorporate one of them into my score.

Would it be possible for you to give me simple, step by step instructions? I'm a musician, not an IT specialist!

Many thanks.

I’m guessing you didn’t click on the link in my first post.

Do that.

Actually I did, but it might as well have been written in Japanese or even Klingonese for all I could make of it. As I already said, I'm a musician, not an IT specialist!

I answered your question. Yes, there’s a way and I told you what it is. Now it’s your turn to find or make one. More info and a link to free editors can be found in the Wiki article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont  

Once again, Google is your friend. When I queried “how to create sfz and soundfonts”, I got 26,000 results. Since MuseScore uses their own sf3 variant, you should probably ignore those pages. In any case, there are videos, web sites, user groups etc. You may even find that someone else has a free or inexpensive file that’s exactly what you need — I don’t know.

When I had that same question 15 years ago, it was because I needed a circus calliope for a commercial bed—which I found. It wasn’t free; the developer asked $16 for it which I paid gladly.

Finale comes with Garritan Sounds, not Foley Sound Effects.

If one wants exotic sounds, one needs to search for them on the web or create/adapt them oneself.

I've come up against the same sort of thing in the past, and there is no simple path.

"As I already said, I'm a musician, not an IT specialist!"

We're all musicians here, and it's our choice to use computers. That's knowledge that we need to gain if we need to use it.

MIke has given you a very thorough answer to your question. If that doesn't help you, then search for different solutions. How about using a sound effect on an audio track? You're just making a computer recording in Finale, it's not going to be perfect. Try layering different percussion sounds, add more reverb, just try things until you find something that works for you.

>Finale comes with Garritan Sounds, not Foley Sound Effects<

Yep — and they play in the Aria Player that you download with those sounds. There is also a free universal version of Aria but the one we use is nicer for most purposes. 

When I researched it for my own needs, I found the sound I wanted and was then looking for a sf player thinking, 'great, something else I have to learn…' Then I stumbled across a post where someone was going on about Aria for this use. 'Waitaminute… I already have that. Alright!'

There are many other sf/sfz players but, in Finale, no reason not to use the one that is bundled.