Hi Ryan,
I direct a band here in France and play Euphonium in 2 others, so I
have first hand experience about the transposition of Tubas &
Euphoniums.
There are very few players who are taught to read in C (Ut), non
transposed, concert pitch, although most modern editions for both
Euph and Tuba include a part in concert pitch.
Most Euphoniums (Barytons or Petit Basse) over here read in the Bass
Clef with the music transposed up a tone, still in Bass Clef. They
write sib (the b being a flat sign) on the top of the part.
A fair percentage of players can read a treble clef b flat transposed
part similar to those produced in the USA or for the Brass Bands
world wide (i.e. transposed up a ninth in T.C.). This is because they
learn via the solfège system here and learn to sight sing and read
notes by their names rather than la-la or calling them C-D-E etc., in
all clefs. So going from one clef to another poses no problem, and if
both treble and bass clef have the part transposed into b flat the
fingerings learnt for a ré, mi, fa or whatever will be the same in
both clefs - quite a clever and simple idea really when you think
about it!
The Tubas (Contrabasses) usually read in Bass Clef transposed up a
ninth, in other words like the Euph transposition but an octave
higher. This is actually very sensible as it places the major part of
the instruments range into the staff rather than reading endless
leger lines below the staff.
There are some editions that include extra transposed parts for the E
flat Basses transposed in treble clef, exactly the same as the
Baritone Sax transposition and others that include an E flat Bass
Clef transposed part where the part is written a major sixth higher
than concert pitch - this is probably the one they use, especially as
they have stated that they are instruments pitched in E flat.
The approach in France (and Benelux countries) is that if the
instrument is a "bass" type instrument it reads in the bass clef, no
matter what transposition is called for.
The E flat horns are written up a major sixth in treble clef as per
normal band tenor horns.
Every time I write or purchase a piece of music for my band I have to
provide 3 parts for the Euphoniums and Tubas just to cover all the
eventualities of the players we have on board or who might come along
to help out once in a while. It's a real pain, but you get used to
it, and eventually accept that we are all different and that's what
makes life interesting!
My advice is to use the manage parts dialogues in Finale and set up:
3 parts for Euphs:
Concert (Ut)
B Flat Bass Clef (Sib)
B Flat Treble Clef (Sib)
4 parts for Tubas:
Concert (Ut)
B Flat Bass Clef (Sib)
B Flat Treble Clef (Sib) (this could double up as the Bass Clarinet
part)
E Flat Bass Clef (Mib)
If you set up staff styles with the respective transpositions into
your band template(s) it's a breeze.
Hope this helps,
Jonathan
When a writing for tuba, the part should be written at sounding
(concert)
pitch, correct? If the performer is using an Eb tuba, they don't
need a
transposed part, do they?
Here's the situation, a group in France wants some of my band music.
However, they use Eb horns and Eb tubas. No problem to transpose
the horn
parts for them, but I thought that Eb Tubists read concert pitch
parts and
just learn different fingerings for the notes. Any low notes that
are out of
range (Ab and below) are automatically played an octave higher.
Perhaps in France the current practice is different? Would the
transposition
be similar to that of the Bari Sax?
It's a community group and I don't think the volunteer person (the
"librarian," I think) I'm dealing with is particularly musically
inclined.
Also, I'm sure that some things are getting lost in translation.
Anyone have any idea what they're looking for?
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