 The Doublers BBoard
|
Author: Rusty
Date: 2009-07-28 22:13
I play a clarinet, violin and a tenor sax and my wife a piano and alto sax. We like to hunt up nice and relatively easy pieces of music and play together, perhaps in harmony.
I put the sheet music into Noteworthy Composer and print it out. That`s when the" fun" starts. Her alto sax puts the notes out 3 semi tones up and if I play say my clarinet I`m 2 semies down. So I have to transpose one or both pieces. But sometimes doing this will produce a key sig that`s close to impossible like 6 flats for my violin or 5 sharps for my wife`s alto which she would find difficult. Or one of us is too high up or too low.
Anyway I`m not looking for an easy way out I`m expressing my admiration for composers. Not only in an orchestra does each type of instrument play different music but it has to be composed in a key that is both playable and in tune with the rest of the orchestra. What a job!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: davyd
Date: 2009-09-07 00:26
These are all things one learns as a student of composition and arranging: the characteristics of the various instruments, and how to write for them. (Nearly) Anyone can scribble (or nowadays mouseclick) notes onto a page. Figuring out which notes make sense is what the art of creating music is about.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: oboesax
Date: 2009-11-28 18:39
From my limited experience with musicals, I see that in many cases composers cannot avoid the difficult keys. My daughter is now playing Thoroughly Modern Millie. The clarinet and tenor sax parts are often in keys with 6 and 7 sharps, and the passages are very fast. it doesn't appear that the composer/arrangers were that worried about key signatures.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2009-11-28 18:56
The keys are often determined by the comfortable vocal range(s) of the original singers of the show.
Since the clarinet and tenor sax parts are written a step higher than the original key, multiple sharp or flat key signatures are not uncommon.
...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
