Klarinet Archive - Posting 000779.txt from 2001/09

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Notation Issue?
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 13:50:32 -0400

The standards differ from country to country, but basset horn music
written in the bass clef is one octave below where it would have been
place had it been in the treble clef. This is also true for a great
deal (though not all) of German music written for the bass clarinet.

So what the publisher has printed is quite consistent with what Mozart
wrote for basset horns whenever he had the necessity to write in the
bass clef, though it is confusing.

In other countries, France for example, the standard is quite different
and once I found myself playing a part an octave too high because I was
unfamiliar with the standard of that particular composer.

Dan Leeson

Tim Roberts wrote:
>
> In the September 2001 issue of _The Clarinet_, Ray Jackendoff writes an
> thought-provoking short article entitled "Proper Ending of the Slow Movement of
> the Mozart Concerto". I have a question about the score fragments.
>
> In the B„renreiter fragments, the basset notes in bass clef are written one
> octave too low. That is, whereas notes in the treble clef are written a minor
> second higher than they sound, as usual, the notes in the bass clef are written
> a minor sixth LOWER than they sound.
>
> Is this actually the way the B„renreiter score is notated? I assume the
> justification is to avoid having the eye suddenly veer from the very bottom of
> the staff to the very top of the staff, but as a piano player, it startled me.
> It also has the unfortunate side effect of turning lines into spaces and vice
> versa.
>
> Is this common practice in basset music?
>
> --
> - Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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