On 27/05/2016 07:16, Michael Hendry wrote:
Other mysteries (to me!) may also be explained in a similar way:
Why aren’t trumpets and clarinets made a bit shorter, so that they don’t have
to have transposed parts?
Well, they DON'T need transposed parts. You just need to learn a
different mapping between notes and fingers. As indeed, having learnt
the trombone, I have to do. If I'm given a part in bass clef, I read a
C, I play a C. When given a part in treble clef, I read a C, I play a Bb
a ninth lower.
The major reason as far as I know that clarinets and trumpets etc
transpose is to do with the fact that a player may play several
instruments in the course of one piece. And as far as bands are
concerned, players may be asked to switch instruments to cover for
missing players. To explain ... (using the trumpet as an example...)
The trumpet comes typically in two tunings - Bb or D. The equivalent
member of the horn family, the cornet, comes in Bb or Eb (and I believe
both have a - rare - C version). Then you have the flugel horn as well.
Imagine having to play part of a part on a Bb trumpet, then switch to a
D trumpet half way through, when all your parts are written in concert
pitch? You read a C, and on the Bb instrument it's first finger. A few
bars and an instrument switch later, you read a C and on the Eb
instrument it's first and second finger an embouchure/harmonic lower.
(And in the orchestra, French/English horns used to change pitch by
changing the crook, again typically several times in one piece...)
I look at music for brass and wind instruments as tablature. The note
position tells you what fingering/harmonic to use. The music is
transposed so the resulting note is the correct pitch. This means that
any clarinet/sax player can pick up any clarinet/sax and know how to
play it. Likewise (excluding the trombone) any brass player can pick up
any brass instrument and know how to play it.
To give an example specifically for you, aimed at the guitar, I'm also
an amateur classical guitarist. I remember going round my aunt's, who
was having guitar lessons, and she showed me some pieces that she said
"were very hard, because they were written for the lute". She was rather
shocked when I said "oh I could probably sight-read those". It wasn't
easy, but by tuning the g string down to f#, it wasn't hard either.
Imagine how much easier it would have been if all the notes meant for
the g string were transposed up a semitone to match :-) In other words,
a sort of tablature - the note position indicates the string/position,
not the pitch.
Oh - and why is the trombone different? Unlike the other brass/woodwind
instruments, which in their modern form all date from the 1800s, the
trombone in approximately its present form goes back at least three
centuries earlier, to the sackbut from the 1500s. So brass/wind notation
evolved with the instruments, but the trombone long predates that.
Cheers,
Wol
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