Ryan wrote: >I think part of the issue is that treble clef is used with the >properties of the treble8. There's no distinction made between the two >and the tenor voice is essentially treated as a transposing instrument >(sounding an octave lower). That practice is used numerous times for >solo tenor voices in art songs and even in opera scores.
It's true that this practice is not uncommon, but some follow-up about opera scores: I can't recall it mentioned in this thread yet, but there are various ways to indicate that a treble clef sounds 8vb below. The little "8" below the clef I think is a relatively modern development, and I think it's only with the advent of digital engraving that it has really become standard. Much more common in opera scores is the treble clef with a pair of squiggles to the right that look like a shorthand bracket. This is standard in Ricordi's scores and variations are used by other publishers. (It's also what I routinely use when I'm hand-writing for tenor.) Other publishers use just the plain unadorned treble clef, trusting you to know whether the voice is male or female. I haven't examined carefully -- I'm away from home now and can't check my scores -- but my general sense is these tend to be the English and German publishers. One of them is G Schirmer, whose opera scores are now the most commonly used in the United States, which I think leads us to imagine it's more standard "even in opera scores" than it is. G Schirmer re-copied most of its opera vocal scores, but some are adapted from the original plates from Ricordi/Breitkopf/Novello. The treble-8vb clef for tenor is one way to tell at a glance which it is. In general, Schirmer's own editions are less accurate, and a couple of the standards are quite bad (eg, Traviata, Pagliacci). Indeed, this reminds me. Near the beginning of Pagliacci there is a stray line for chorus tenors which is not clearly labeled. Since it's in treble clef with no further indication, many an amateur company has rehearsed it for sopranos before someone notices the error from a recording. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
