Klarinet Archive - Posting 000355.txt from 2004/01

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Stupid bass clef bass clarinet question!
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 17:33:59 -0500

Dan Leeson wrote:

> But to keep the physical note within the staff as much as possible,
> the parts are generally (but not always) written one octave lower than
> they really sound.

Ah. So there was another aspect of it that presented itself. IIRC, I
do remember some times that I felt I was playing an octave too high!
(The part is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice")
The reason I felt that way was because I WAS playing an octave too
high! Bwahaha.
IIRC, also, I think I fixed most of those places, though I had to get
used to playing on a bass with a low C extension (would I have given
ANYTHING to be able to buy one of those puppies! What a cool instrument!)

> I know of no cases in which one reads a b.c. part in bass cleff in
> concert pitch. That would be a b.c. in C and I only had one such part
> in my life. It was b.c. in C in the bass clef, and I simply did not
> know that transposition. So I asked the composer (who was there at
> the concert) why he had selected such an unusual tactic.
>
> His response was, "What? Didn't the publisher's transpose that part
> for a b.c. in B-flat? I wrote everything in concert pitche and
> expected them to transpose the part."

I DO remember you posting this story before. What a LAZY composer. I
was always told when arranging AND composing to make SURE I transposed
the parts properlyIN THE SCORE!

Oh well, not everyone has the U.S. government breathing down their neck
when they write OR play music! (which is a good thing!)

Patricia Smith

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