In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Andrew Stiller writes:On Mar 3, 2005, at 5:57 AM, Ken Moore wrote:
... some bass[es are] five-string (bottom string usually tuned to C in the US, B in Europe)
B? That's a new one on me! Can anyone cite a composition (orch., chamber, or solo) that actually requires that note from the cb?
"Also Sprach Zarathustra", in the fugue. I remember it particularly because only one part goes that low, and the conductor asked me to play it on my four-string with C extension.
Well, clearly if Strauss and other Viennese composers wrote low Bs, they had players with low Bs. Q.E.D. This is similar to the flute parts with low Bbs (and I believe piccolo parts as well) found in the same place and in the same time period. Composers, generally speaking, know better than to write notes that can't be played!
IIRC, there is also a low B in Brandenburg 3, but that may have been intended for a six-string violone.
I with I had a score at hand to check this, but it seems kinda questionable. Could somebody check and report back to us? While bass tuning was and is the least standardized in the string family, I believe the violone was tuned an octave below the bass viola da gamba, which would take it down to a low D, a whole step below the low E of the "normal" bass violin, but nowhere near a low B. The lowest note I've seen throughout Bach's work is low C, the lowest note of the cello in standard tuning and the lowest note available on the organ keyboard. (This is entirely separate from the question of the original, intended pitch for the Weimar cantatas, which is a very special case.)
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
