At 9:49 PM -0600 9/17/05, Bruce Petherick wrote:
Hello,
I am working on some vocal charts for a singer here in Calgary. She
has asked me to transpose some of the charts into somewhat unusual
keys. I am having great trouble with a chart that was written in C
and she wants it transposed to B. The chart is a somewhat rearranged
version of Cry Me a River and with the transposition, I have ended
up with some A#13 chords. As these charts are for a band that is
probably going to sight-read, I want to change this to Bb13. I just
can not work out how to do this. The Enharmonic spellings seem
somewhat confusing to me (and in this case, somewhat superfluous as
there is no stable key in this particular section). Is this at all
possible, or in the great Finale tradition, through which hoop must
one jump to arrive at this solution?
Hi, Bruce. Can't answer your Finale question, but I do have an
opinion on what you want to do. (I know, you didn't ask for
opinions!)
First, a difference of a halfstep can make a world of difference for
a singer, and if she knows that B works for her and C doesn't, that's
why. It isn't arbitrary; it's a matter of physiology and musicality.
Your question assumes that a keyboard player will find A#13 difficult
to figure out, while Bb13 is easy to figure out, but that's taking
the chords out of context. I'd say that any competent player is
going to be much more comfortable if you keep the chord symbols where
they belong in a given key so the overall harmonic pattern makes
intuitive sense, and if you randomly transpose chord symbols based on
whether an individual chord is "easier" to realize. A# is the
leading tone in B major. So what's the problem?
Now I'm not a keyboard or guitar player, so I'd be interested to know
how others react to this, or Chuck as a bass player. It's just my
instinct that you will be creating problems that don't already exist.
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
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