Klarinet Archive - Posting 000739.txt from 1998/11

From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] 8va vs. 8basso
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 15:10:35 -0500

8va: abbreviation of Italian, all' ottava (at the octave)
8va bassa: Italian, ottava bassa
15ma: Italian, quindicesima
16va is wrong, wrong, wrong! (unless, of course, you really want the
note played an octave and a ninth higher :) and even then it ought to be
16ma. Hint: start counting with C as "one" and see how many fingers and
toes you have down when you get to the C two octaves higher -- so much for
"intuition".)

my reference for the Italian:
Music Notation; a Manual of Modern Practice, by Gardner Read
(New York, Taplinger)

--Doug
---------------------------
Doug Sears dsears@-----.org/~dsears

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Date: Thursday, November 19, 1998 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] 8va vs. 8basso (was: question on

On 19 Nov 1998 09:17:48, Lee Hickling wrote:
>I agree with Aimee that in piano scores which way you go can depend on
>whether the dashed line is above or below the 8va. You do see 8va basso
>too, and occasionally you find 16va.

As a piano player, I agree there does seem to be a substantial amount of
disagreement on how to notate this. For octave up, 8va seems to be
universal.
For two octaves up, I've seen both 16va and 15ma; the 15 notation seems
more
techinically correct, although not as intuitive.

For octave down, I've seen 8va, 8vb and 8va basso. For two octaves down,
I've
seen 15ma, 16va and 16va basso.

Anybody with an Italian or Latin background care to comment on of what
words
"8va" and "15ma" are contractions? And what would the equivalent phrase
for
"octave down" be? Perhaps we can satisfy ourselves with an answer, even
if
publishers do not agree.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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