Klarinet Archive - Posting 000348.txt from 1997/03

From: "J. Lawrie Bloom" <l-bloom@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Bass clar.trans/low extensions
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 10:21:30 -0500

>> On Sun, 9 Mar 1997, Edwin V. Lacy wrote:
>>
>
>Let's say you want to sound the note "c" which is one octave below middle
>C. On the grand staff, with no transpositions involved, you would write
>the note I am talking about on the 2nd space of the bass clef.
>
>The way that would be written today for the bass clarinet, you would
>transpose it up one octave plus a whole step, and write it in the treble
>clef. Therefore, the note would be written as a D on the first space
>below the staff. However, if the part contained a lot of low note
>playing, enough so that the many added ledger lines below the staff would
>be confusing, you could write it in bass clef. However, the transposition
>would be the same, so you would write D on the second space above the bass
>clef staff.

No, it would be on the middle line in bass clef! The note you've written
will give you middle C concert.
>
>However, in the 19th century, there was a different convention. When the
>bass clarinet was written in the treble clef, it was handled just as
>above. But, in the bass clef, the transposition was just a whole step, or
>major second. Thus, to sound the same C we were talking about before, the
>composer or arranger would have written D on the 3rd line of the bass
>clef.
>
Could you give us an example of this happening in a specific piece? I've
never come across what you are describing. Now remember, bass parts are
not always the same as what you see in the score! Lots of times the score
will be in one clef and the printed part in another.

>That practice extended into the 20th century for some composers. Some of
>them might occasionally be so considerate as to put a note in the score
>telling which transposition they were using. They more often did this for
>the French horns, who have a similar but even more complicated problem.
>If there is no indication, the player has to try to figure out from the
>context which is involved. Often, the best places for looking for clues
>are at the places where the changes from one clef to the other occur. For
>example, if there is a melodic passage which begins in treble clef and
>then changes to bass, it might be possible to tell which transposition is
>called for. Another clue could be the tessitura. For example, if in
>using one transposition or the other the part would remain for long
>passages in the extreme registers in the bass clef part, or exceed the
>normal limitations of the range of the instrument, that might tell you
>what the composer was thinking.
>
>
>Note that no matter which procedure the composer would follow for notes in
>the bass clef, the treble clef parts should be unaffected.

What about Strauss? In a tone poem like Death and Transfiguration, or
Symphonica Domestica both clefs are involved and when it's in treble clef
you play up an octave from what you see written. Several French composers
also used this technique, though it is sometimes referred to as "German
notation".

--
J. Lawrie Bloom
clarinet and bass clarinet Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Northwestern University l-bloom@-----.edu