Thanks for your explanation, Carolyn. Very clear. I will fowllow your
advice. Unfortunately, I can't ask the contrabass player (double bass!),
because I work for the harp player. Your guidelines are very clear, so
I think I'll manage. Thanks everyone!
Barbara
Carolyn Bremer wrote:
I'd like to put in an alternate opinion to John's. There is a lot of
bass music in treble clef, and they're comfortable reading it if they
have the chops to play that high.
Reading bass clef up to G and A (three ledger lines) is very common
for intricate passages. If there is an occasional note in the passage
higher than that, you can stay in bass. If the passage's tessitura is
above an A, I'd go to tenor.
As a bass player who has played a wide variety of music, I find it is
preferable to make more clef changes than you might otherwise think in
order to avoid putting tenor clef notes in the staff. The literature
does not give bass players much reason to learn tenor clef in the
staff, and so few do. But Barbara, if you know who will play the
piece, the best solution is to ask that player.
-Carolyn
On 2/15/06, John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At 7:08 PM +0100 2/15/06, Barbara Touburg wrote:
I'm working on a piece for cello and harp. The cello part is going
to be played on a contrabass. At which pitches should I switch
clefs? Which clefs?
Barbara
If you're writing for cello, notate for cello. Involving bass is
irrelevant. I would switch to tenor clef at about middle C, BUT only
if the following passage lies in the octave above middle C
consistently. The one thing NOT to do is to switch back and forth in
the course of a passage. Drives the player nuts, unless there's a
really good reason for it like dropping consistently down to random
bass notes, but NOT just to avoid ledger lines. I would avoid
treble clef unless there's good reason to use it.
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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