John Howell wrote:
At 11:21 AM -0400 4/15/05, Darcy James Argue wrote:
On 15 Apr 2005, at 10:06 AM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
As a bassoonist and composer, I never, ever, write the tenor clef, though of course I can read it fluently. Any professional bassoonist, cellist, or trombonist will know how to read the treble clef, and IMO the tenor clef should be retired permanently.
Makes sense to me.
(Counting the seconds until the howls of outrage begin... )
No howls, just a bit of history. The original reason for using movable clefs was to keep the music within the staff so the scribe wouldn't have to turn his pen sideways for the ledger lines. That's exactly how the fully-developed system of 9 clefs evolved. The original reason still seems to be valid. BUT, clearly one is uncomfortable with what one hasn't yet learned to read!
Well, there's very little call for most of the clefs, which makes reading them a skill that is little taught, and less used for more and more people. I've been playing trombone professionally for nearly 20 years, and have run across 2 incidences of C-clef in all that time, both of them in college. (Comfortable with up to 5 leger lines up, and 4 down in bass clef - all a matter of practice - though playing both within a bar or 2 can be stressful).
For instruments that are pitched so that they are most comfortable (viola and such), C-clefs are still useful, but they are uncommon, and becoming increasingly so with the vast majority of the music field getting more and more simplified. How many rock bands can read at all, much less in the more arcane clefs and keys? The very use of C-Clefs (generally only tenor and alto, any more) is becoming more and more of an academic issue, almost like arguing whether ancient greek or latin is a more useful language to learn.
cd
_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
