On 15 Sep 2011 at 17:57, John Howell wrote: []
> Another method--and it may have been Novello--was > to use two treble clefs side by side, presumably > assuming that they would weight twice as much as > a single treble clef and thus sink down an octave > in pitch!! This also conflicted with an existing Italian practice (used by Mozart in his autographs) of using doubled clefs to indicate a staff with doubling instruments. For instance, when a line in a Mozart auto graph was for two instruments, e.g., 2 oboes, Mozart doubled the treble clef. This was to clue the copyist in that this staff would (or could) produce two separate parts. Thus, a copyist could count the clefs on the first page and know how many parts to produce. Example here: http://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/moz_ido.html [] > ...(If our original poster were > playing from string quartet scores, he would > almost certainly be complaining about having the > viola in alto clef!) Until I played an instrument that uses alto clef extensively (viola da gamba) I was one of those accompanists who was annoyed by alto clef. But it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that it be used in both score and parts, because anything else just completely misrepresents the range/content of the music, and makes it vastly harder to read than is necessary. On the other hand, because of that, tenor clef makes my head explode! [] > We've got the same problem with late medieval > music (for those few of us who actually care!). > Hildegard's wonderful 12th century music was > notated in a way that LOOKS as if it's for men's > voices. (The church developed the notation, > women weren't allowed to sing in church, so there > was NO notation suitable for women's voice!) > When the group "Anonymous 4" sings the repertoire > with women's voices they are not singing in the > notated octaves, or maybe even with the notated > pitches, because they've adapted the music to > their own voices. This explanation is not exactly correct -- it tends to treat old notation the way modern notation works, i.e, as indicating an absolute pitch. Until the 15th or 16th century (later than I think most people realize), clefs did not at all indicate any reference to an absolute pitch -- instead, they indicated voice range and sometimes functioned as something like a key signature. So what Anonymous 4 does here is not in any way at variance with the actual meaning of the notation itself. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
