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Re: Bass Clarinet in C?

Author: karlbonner82
Date: 2010-05-16 08:51

Aren't bass clarinet parts often written in true (concert) pitch? If that were the case, you should be able to do what euphonium players do: the Bb on the fourth line of the bass clef (lines numbered from the top down when in b.c.) is fingered exactly like middle C on the soprano clarinet, just as the Bb on euphonium is fingered like the trumpet's middle C!

Actually, IMO, it would probably be a good thing if ALL players of non-C wind instruments were able to read at concert pitch. I realize that asking beginning and "intermediate" school wind ensembles to be fluent in concert pitch is probably way too ambitious a goal. However, there's no reason why more serious students couldn't manage such a task, provided the part they are reading isn't too full of black notes. Horn players transpose all the time to several different keys, not just horn in C parts! And recorder players always read at concert KEY whether on a C or F (or G) instrument - though recorder parts do transpose at the octave.

A low D key on a bass clarinet gets you to the cello's C string and a low C extension gets you to the bassoon's bottom Bb. These bottom notes may or may not be useful, depending on the music you are reading (if my memory from instrumental theory class is correct, bassoons don't make very liberal use of the bottom couple notes.)

The only problem I would see with a bass clarinet is if you are playing in one of the really sharp-heavy keys like A or E; the parts wouldn't be very ergonomic if they were too fast. But then again, symphonic-band flutists play in Ab all the time and Db at least occasionally, even at the intermediate level. And from my limited personal experience, both flute and oboe have fingering regimes that slightly favor sharps over flats.

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Bass Clarinet in C? new

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