At 1:21 PM -0700 5/18/11, Dean M. Estabrook wrote:
Ok, so I'm transcribing this Mendelssohn Overture from Orch. to Wind
Ensemble ... one of the instruments in the orchestral score is
labeled "Serpente e Contrafagotto." It is non transposing. May I
assume that it sounds an octave lower than the pitches given? It
would appear to make sense that way ... so far, I've assigned the
parts to a Contra Bass Cl.
Thanks in advance,
Dean
The serpent (bass cornett, still in use in Mendelssohn's time period,
sometimes under such names as "Russian bassoon") sounded at pitch,
down to Great C (C2) although it could be lipped slightly lower.
Later replaced by the bass ophicleide, before the tuba caught on.
Contrafagotto was very likely an instrument sounding an octave below
pitch, although it would take a bassoon history specialist to know
for sure. (Are you there, ContraReed?!!!)
So my guess would be that it's intended as a bass line to be sounded
by wind instruments in octaves, and not JUST in the lower octave.
(There IS a contraserpent in existence, and I have a picture of it,
but I think it's a modern sport and not something that would have
been handy in Mendelssohn's day.)
That's a problem with transcribing orchestral music for band. The
cellos and basses played in their natural registers do sound an
octave apart and at the same time sound perfectly natural in those
octaves. That's why one of its names was the "double bass," doubling
the bass line an octave lower. But transcribing for bass and
contrabass tubas is NOT the same thing, and most bands lack the low
clarinets and saxophones that would be needed. It's often a better
transcription NOT to include the lower octave. But in this case he
was writing for bass winds in the first place. The serpent would
have had a broader sound, the contrafag a reedier one. Neither was
much like the contraclarinet.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
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
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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