Re: [Finale] Re: clef changes

[Michael Cook]

I'm not saying that it's a hard and fast rule to avoid ledger lines 
below the staff in treble and tenor clefs in cello parts, just a basic 
rule: of course there are exceptions, as in examples such as the one 
Andrew gives. Of course it's better to put in a ledger line from time 
to time instead of changing clefs for just one note. But in my 
extensive library of cello music I'm hard put to find many notes 
written below the staff in tenor or treble clef. I don't have much 
bassoon music so I can't comment on possible subtle differences between 
bassoon and cello writing. Just out of interest: Andrew, can you tell 
me what edition of Brahms 4 you have and where the 1st bassoon part is 
written with ledger lines below the tenor clef?

As to the idea of getting rid of tenor clef, try talking to a few 
cellists and see what they say. I find that it fits perfectly to a 
typical solo cello range where you basically stay most of the time up 
on the A-string, occasionally rocking over to the D-string. In my copy 
of Max Bruch's "Kol Nidrei" almost the whole cello part is written in 
tenor clef, with a few excursions into treble or bass. There's are many 
other pieces, or extended passages, where tenor is the most used clef 
and that is what feels best. Indeed, having leafed through a few more 
pieces I'm even surprised to see how much of cello music is written in 
tenor clef: I hadn't given this much thought until now, but for solo 
cello music you might well say that tenor is the main clef. Treble is 
used much more rarely.

Michael Cook
On Apr 15, 2005, at 16:23, Andrew Stiller wrote:
On Apr 14, 2005, at 4:41 PM, Michael Cook wrote:
A basic rule to follow for cello parts is to avoid ledger lines 
_below_ the staff in treble and tenor clefs: notes below the staff 
look like "low notes" and cellists tend to automatically move to the 
C-string when they see them.
I'm not at all sure this is true. As a bassoonist I see notes below 
the tenor staff all the time. I see them right now in the Brahms 4th 
1st-bn part I'm playing in the Lower Merion Symphony. They are 
admittedly a bit disorienting, but they're utterly traditional, and 
it's my job to read them, expertly and  w.o complaint. More than two 
ledger lines down--now that *would* be a solecism.

I recently published a piece by Lejaren Hiller (his _Minuet and Trio_) 
in which the cello part includes several lyrical, moving passages that 
are extremely high and extremely disjunct. Rather than switch clefs 
for single eighth notes, he fearlessly writes isolated notes as low a 
tenor c without leaving the treble clef. As an editor, my first 
reaction was to overrule him, but when I saw what the alternative 
would look like, I realized he was right.

Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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