At 12:14 PM -0500 8/21/09, Howey, Henry wrote:
The practice is varied, but I believe pre-20th-century composers thought in clefs, not transpositions. Most were keyboard players with considerable clef skills.
Absolutely true. Movable clefs were standard from Guido's 11th century notation on, and students were trained in the 9 movable clefs. In fact Nadia Boulanger was still teaching them at the mid-20th century, according to those who studied with her. And since they KNEW the movable clefs, they USED them freely.
The exception, of course, was the trumpet notation that developed out of military trumpet corps notation, and that's the notation (everything transposed to C major) most composers used for horns. That's why the alto clef horn parts were unusual.
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
