Klarinet Archive - Posting 001450.txt from 1998/05

From: Stephen Heinemann <sjh@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Re: [kl] Contrabass Price Question / Pitch names
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 16:49:41 -0400

>>Someone once told me that a Rosewood Selmer Contrabass Clarinet with Low C
>>cost $35,000 - to which I pass out, thinking "Oh my Gosh! That's a 1/3 of
>>a house!!!"
>
>And about 1/3 the price of a good violin, and half the price of a very good
>piano, and about equal to the price of a good piano.

And an even better bargain when you factor in the wealth of great
contrabass clarinet literature!

----------

With the recent discussion of register names, it's worth knowing the
easiest method of octave designation, that developed by the American
Acoustical Society in which octaves are numbered beginning with C: C4 is
Middle C; the highest note on the 88-key piano is C8, while the lowest C
is C1; the notes below this are B0 and A0. Enharmonic notes take the
octave of the unaltered letter, so that B#3 and C4 are enharmonic. This
designation is common in contemporary theoretical literature, including
textbooks such as Gauldin's _Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music_; it has the
benefits of being easy and intuitive, unlike earlier systems where c' =
Middle C, c is an octave lower than c', C is an octave lower than c, and
C' is an octave lower than C, or all of these were an octave higher than
shown, depending on whose system was being employed.

Steve Heinemann
Bradley University

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