 The Fingering Forum
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Author: michael
Date: 2004-06-03 17:20
why are instrument keys either natural or flat. why is the standard clarinet the clarinet in b flat? why were piccolos written as d flat and not c sharp? why are alto saxes in e flat and not d sharp? why were piccolo clarinets in a flat and not g sharp? what i am getting to is why are these instruments listed as flats and not sharps?
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2004-06-03 19:47
It all has to do with the signature. Why would clarinets be in the key of A# if you can get rid of so many accidentals by making it Bb? A#, which is not a normal key, has 10 sharps.
As for a question as to why we don't have instruments in a sharp key, there are some. The A clarinet is the main one.
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Author: Eoin McAuley (Gnomon)
Date: 2004-06-03 21:07
Clarinets come in keys of C, D, Eb, F, Ab, A and Bb. The most common is the Bb because it plays the best tone of all of them.
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2004-06-03 22:29
Saying that an instrument is in a certain key refers to how both the fingerings and the written notes correspond to actual "concert" pitches. The note name before the instrument name, such as Bb clarinet, means that when the clarinet plays its written C, then the actual tone that is being sounded is the Bb just below that. Similarly, when an Eb alto saxophone plays its written C, it sounds an actual Eb a major sixth below.
The reason you have instruments which read in different keys has to do with the fingering schemes of each instrument family. By reading off of transposed music, a player only has to learn one set of fingerings for the entire saxophone family, clarient family, oboe family, etc. and can still play parts in different ranges.
Therefore, second space A on the alto saxophone is fingered the same way on all saxes, but the actual pitches which sound differ from alto to tenor to baritone and so on. Imagine how confusing it would be if every instrument had to read music that was written with "concert" pitches. You would have to learn a completely different set of fingerings for tenor sax compared to alto sax. Expanding out from just one instrument family, doubling would be much more complicated since the similarity between the fingerings of the oboe, flute, saxophone, and clarinet in the clarion register would no longer exist. Each of those instruments (except flute and oboe) would now have totally different fingering systems were their music and the corresponding fingered note names not transposed.
Now getting back to the your question about why are they all flat keys and not sharp keys? Actually, you have no idea just how good of a question that is! Intelligent. The answer may surprise you.
The answer is: a lot of the time, <i>they're lying to you.</i> How is this? Well let's go back to what I was saying about Bb clarinets and their C's.
As I said before, writing a note name before the instrument name on your part means that when that instrument plays a written "C" from that part, the actual concert pitch that is being sounded will be that note name. So for a Bb clarinet part, the written C will be a concert Bb. This establishes a C-Bb interval relationship for the transposition of the entire part. This means that since the written C is now a Bb, and since the Bb is a major second below the written C, then every note that is sounded will similarly be a major second below the note that is actually written in the music. So just as a written C is an actual Bb, a written F will sound as an Eb, a written B will sound as an A, etc.
This really gets interesting when you realize that the C-Bb relationship also defines the transposition of the part in terms of which degree of the scale in question you move the written note to. This makes sense if you consider that moving from C down to Bb is a movement down one scale degree, but moving from C down to A# is technically a movement down <i>two</i> scale degrees.
What bearing does this have on the transposition of the part? Consider this:
Say you have a piece that is in the concert key of F. If you take out the clarinet part for that piece, you will find that it is written in the key of G. Remember the Bb clarinet part must be written one scale degree up to make the interval of a major second above concert pitch. With this piece, everything is in order since the written G is one scale degree above concert F.
Now take a piece in a more interesting key such as F# major. Take out the clarinet part, and you will now find the key of Ab major. What happened? Well, in order to maintain the one-scale-degree relationship established by calling it a <i>Bb</i> clarinet part, you would've had to have written that part in G# major! I doubt very seriously any clarinet player would enjoy that very much, especially since G# major isn't even a standard key. So for the sake of convenience, the arranger decided to break the one-scale-degree relationship of the Bb clarinet part, and write it out in Ab major instead. Cheater.
Consider now what a clarinet part written in Ab major when the piece is really in F# major means. In that part, when the clarinet plays his Ab, the note he is actually playing to fit into the tonality of the work is concert F#, not concert Gb. Now let's move up the scale in that part to the clarinet's written C:
The clarinet's Ab is concert F#, his Bb is concert G#, and his C is concert A#. But wait, if you're reading a Bb clarinet part, shouldn't that C be sounding a concert Bb? The answer is, why yes it should! Your arranger is lying to you, my friend. You're reading an A# clarinet part, not a Bb clarinet part.
So you see, sometimes a Bb clarinet really is an A# clarinet, just depending on what is more convenient for whoever is writing the parts out. Similary sometimes an Eb alto sax is really a D# alto sax, and sometimes a Db piccolo is really a C# piccolo. The actual, physical sound is the only thing that's constant.
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Author: ~Heather ~
Date: 2004-06-05 16:50
wow, torus how do know all this? Do learn this on your own or what classes have you taken...or are there any books you have read? I am always impressed with your statements to questions, I have leaned so much from you! :D
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Author: ~Heather ~
Date: 2004-06-05 16:51
**<b>learned</b> so much from you
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2004-06-05 23:46
Heh, nah I'm just really good at writing in a manner which makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about. 
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