John Howell wrote:
And don't forget the extra benefit of gaining fluency in all the clefs -- transposition at sight becomes a breeze. IMO, this should still be a part of every musician's training.At 10:20 PM -0800 1/24/05, Chuck Israels wrote:
Of course, if you followed that logic all the way through, you'd write the trombones in the tenor clef a lot of the time, and I don't do that. And I still have to decipher the alto clef for the viola parts (shame on me for not getting used to that by now). If I wrote more string music, I'd probably get to the point where that was as transparent to me as the saxophone transpositions are.
You would, I guarantee it. And not only for writing, but for playing. Early music often comes in a variety of clefs, and it's a little scary to start playing a part on, say, tenor recorder, in alto clef, and by the end of the piece be reading automatically!
John
Yes, and Boulenger was still teaching them, according to one of her students. And don't forget, we're not talking just about orchestral clefs, but the full system of 9 movable clefs: G clef on the 1st or 2nd line; C clef on the first, second, third, or 4th line; F clefs on the 3rd, 4th or 5th line. You need to know the whole system to use it for instant transposition. I write for horn seldom enough that it really helps to think of it as being in mezzo-soprano clef, concert C on the second line.
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
