Re: Transposing instruments

[Francisco Vila]

El 14/3/20 a las 0:18, antlists escribió:
> On 13/03/2020 11:29, Francisco Vila wrote:
> > So my question for Kieren is, for large scores involving transposing 
> > wind instruments along with strings etc, how do you manage this by 
> > using only clefs and no transposition? 
>
> This is a double question, seeing as wind instruments rarely transpose 
> by an octave. For example, I play the trombone, which is either 
> written in bass clef concert, or in treble transposed by a ninth. I 
> just don't worry about the 8s on the clef, I transpose a second and 
> use the treble_8 clef "as is". Nobody's commented on that extra little 
> 8 so far ... :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wol
Piccolo transposes an octave up. Usually though, its clef is plain 
treble clef. This is a "transposed score" for the piccolo. In a Concert 
score, however, a G^8 clef is used to indicate explicitly this octave 
up. So this is easy to do, using only clefs. Same for Contrabassoon. 
Same for Double basses.

Now think Bflat Clarinet. You can not just produce a clarinet score from 
concert pitches using only clefs.

For super-easy sheet music, there is no problem. Just put the noteheads 
where you want the clarinet to read them. For full orchestra and parts, 
on the contrary, a coherent plan is mandatory, and I don't see how 
transposing clarinet is different from transposing piccolo. In both 
cases you have different written- and sounding- notes.

So let me ask again, if use of transposition is evil, how can one avoid 
it and stick to clefs only?

I think the answer is "you can't" but I'm still curious about what 
people do.

--
Francisco Vila, Ph.D. - Badajoz (Spain)
paconet.org , lilypond.es