I believe that the Bbb you are seeing refers to something like the BBb tuba, and the second b is lower case because of someone's overagressive capitalization-correction system.
In BBb tuba, the doubled capital B shows the octave that the note is in, and the last b represents the flat. This is a notational system where middle c is labeled c', the octave above is c' ' and so on, while the octave below is just c. The octave below that is C, then CC, then CCC, etc. This is termed the "Helmholtz designation" ( see wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_C ). ray On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:35 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Got a question for the collective wisdom. > > When describing an instrument, one of the common points of distinction is > nominal pitch, one speaks of an alto recorder in G, a clarinet in C, or a > Lute in G for example. > > I can see reason for a nominal pitch to involve one sharp or one flat > (clarinet and many brass instruments are in Bb and Eb) but can anyone > think of a reason to consider an instrument to be in, oh, say, Bbb ? > > -- > Dana Emery > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
