On Feb 15, 2006, at 3:09 PM, Robert Patterson wrote:
A more interesting question for clefs with CB is whether to continue
to notate them 8vb below sounding pitch. This can be a quite difficult
choice.
AHHH! No it isn't! Once you start writing a transposed part, STAY
TRANSPOSED! Even if the clef changes!
A note that has excessive leger lines in 8vb bass clef can be too low
in at-pitch tenor or treble.
My understanding is that professional bass players can routinely read
8vb bass, 8vb tenor, and at-pitch treble. I'm not as sure about
at-pitch tenor. In any case, any clef change probably requires a
notation as to whether it is 8vb or at pitch.
Just because they can, it doesn't mean you should write it. If they
were reading a cello part or a flute sonata, they would know what they
were supposed to play, but if it is a CB part they expect it to be
octave-transposed.
I was playing a new piece for wind octet on euphonium, and the euph
part got somewhat high, so the composer switched from bass to treble
clef. Not a bad idea given the tessitura, but he had read in an
orchestration book somewhere that euph in treble clef was written in Bb
(which it is, of course, in brass band and some concert band parts, and
I am of course perfectly able to read it that way). But it NEVER
switches in mid-work to Bb transposition. To make matters worse, he
neglected to make it a 9th transposition (he made it a 2nd only!) so I
was playing a tone too high for long passages, and the context was such
that I never knew it until he showed up at a rehearsal and yelled at
me. I didn't yell back, but I did take him aside after the rehearsal
and explain to him about transpositions for euphonium.
Christopher
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