On 2002/10/12 07:28 PM or thereabouts, Michael Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> intoned:
> If you were trying to read a score for an ensemble of saxophones, in various > registers, but all written in treble clef, I would have thought it would be a > nightmare to actually try to decipher what notes are being played. Even if > you do know the various transpositions, it would be so confusing, and be so > laborious to sort out all the different parts, then fit them together > mentally. Yes, but if you are a *player* in an ensemble of saxophones, the fact that all saxophones are written in the same clef, with (almost) the same written range, sharing (mostly) the same fingerings, is an enormous advantage. Though they might specialize in one horn, saxophone players are often expected to be fluent in all saxophones, and this arrangement makes their job much easier. The conductor just has to deal with it. Honestly, this is as it should be -- notation should be chosen to make things easier for the players first and the conductor second. > How do you decide if a composer is misinformed? If a composer prefers to > notate bass instruments in bass clef (surely not an illogical thing to do), I > suppose that could be seen as misinformed by someone who believes those > instruments should be notated in treble clef. Someone of a different opinion > would just see it as one of the exceptions, though. If you're doing something nonstandard which confuses the players and makes their job more difficult -- like putting bass clarinet in bass clef -- even if you think you are doing it for logical reasons, I think it's fair to call that practice "misinformed," or at least "ill-advised." - Darcy ------ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston, MA _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
