>We DON'T say the tuba in IN Bb, we only say it's a Bb tuba (I know, >sounds like a word game!) It means that the fundamental (open) note is >a Bb. There are C tubas, F tubas, and Eb tubas as well (at least!), >none of which read transposed parts; they all read in C bass clef >(except for British tradition band music, but that's another story.) >The players have to learn the new fingerings if they change to an >instrument in a new key. Same thing for the trombone, called sometimes >a Bb trombone, which reads concert pitch parts, and the Bb euphonium or >baritone horn. Also the F and G bass trombones, which read concert >pitch parts as well, no matter what the fundamental note of the >instrument is. > >Christopher
Just to add one more on this topic, I can tell you that in Italy you say the tuba is IN Bb, or whatever else. One more thing about absolute pitch: you all probably already know that Italian musicians don't use alphabetical names for absolute pitches; we once did, up on a time, but alphabetical names unfortunately got substituted by the sol-fa nomenclature, which was a marvellous system (as first used by Guido d'Arezzo) for the identification of the single note's tonal properties. These, (the sol-fa names) became the names for absolute pitches. This is all just to state that the C4 (middle C) in Italy, is C3, and it's called DO3. Giovanni Andreani _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
