Changing clefs too frequently usually comes from preparing a
printable version of a score with a lot of instruments; you try to fit all
the parts on a page, fiddle around with staff spacing, but notice that the
1st bassoon or 1st trombone has a note that is sticking into the staff
above. Simple solution: change the clef.
But then when you go to extract parts you should change it back.
After all, the clef change was for "your" convenience (the
arranger/composer), not the musician's.
And although nobody has brought this up, let's talk about 8va
indications. It's OK to use 8va to bring down a high flute or piccolo
passage in a score, but it should NEVER be notated that way in a part. This
does not hold true for violinists, who are grateful for not having to count
8 or 10 leger lines.
Speaking of leger lines, I recently conducted a pops show with one
particular arrangement, skillfully arranged, that featured a beautiful high
passage of violins and violas playing pitches above the treble staff.
Unfortunately (for me, at least) the viola part stayed in alto clef for the
entire piece. I never got the chance to ask the violists how they felt about
it, but even though I read alto clef fluently, when it uses 4 and 5 ledger
lines it might as well have been Sanskrit to me.
Steve Larsen
-----Original Message-----
From: David H. Bailey [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 5:18 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Finale] Changing clefs within same measure in concert pitch
score
On 4/13/2014 8:35 PM, Darcy James Argue wrote:
> On Apr 13, 2014, at 8:25 PM, Robert Patterson
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I guess when Beethoven does it, no one complains.
>
> Right. To be clear, these players are only talking about C clefs in
> new music. And I actually think most of this is actually a proxy
> complaint for "too many ill-considered clef changes."
>
And if that's the case, then I agree with them. One of my pet peeves is
when something is notated in an awkward manner simply because it's easy to
do so.
Having 3 clef changes in 4 measures simply to avoid ledger lines makes no
sense to me and I would complain about it also. But using a clef change for
a lengthy passage would not get a complaint from me.
I complain the same way about the excessive use of elongation dots (dots
more than 1, in my preferences) when the rhythm is much more clear and less
likely of misinterpretation using tied notes.
Any notation "cuteness" done more to exhibit the composer/arranger/notator's
cleverness than in any real effort to make the musical meaning clear to the
musician reading the part is something which I find to be a fairly modern
problem as computer notation programs have made it possible for people with
no idea about notational clarity to spew reams of printed music which could
be so much more clearly notated.
--
David H. Bailey
[email protected]
http://www.davidbaileymusicstudio.com
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