At 3:26 PM -0400 4/16/05, Andrew Stiller wrote:
I could counter with a long list of instruments whose effective ranges do precisely that, yet do not use (and in most cases never have used) the alto clef. But I think it will be more, um, effective simply to point out that the only modern instrument that uses the alto clef is the viola, so that by your reasoning it may be deduced that the viola must be the only modern instrument whose effective range straddles middle C. Since that is manifestly not the case, your assertion is falsified.
Andrew is quite right, but other instruments whose normal range crosses between the treble and bass clefs solve the problem through transposed parts. Finding a usable clef for F horn, alto sax, alto clarinet, and other such instruments when writing a concert pitch score is a real problem, since the part stradle the middle C barrier. That's one reason I would never write a concert pitch score, although not as important as the fact that I play the instruments and know exactly what each register sounds like when notated in normal transpositions.
Recall that in the baroque, strings and woodwinds were notated at concert pitch, but with the use of the 9 movable clefs. Modern viola notation is really an extended example of that tradition, as is the use of tenor clef for certain instruments, which is where this discussion started!
Those who do prefer concert pitch scores do so for reasons that are perfectly valid for them, of course, and I do not mean to suggest that they are not.
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
