At 6:46 AM -0500 11/22/10, David H. Bailey wrote:
What I meant by "in reverse" is that if I'm looking at a written F in an F horn part, I can use the mezzo-soprano clef to get the concert pitch note (Bb). But what if I'm looking at a concert pitch score, how do I figure out what note the F horn should play, using clefs?
Ahhh. Thanks! That makes good sense. I guess my confusion was because I almost never look at a concert pitch score if I have a choice!
So I'm looking at a printed Bb but need to find a clef that will show me that as an F. I guess the baritone clef would do the trick.
To avoid confusion, let's assume that you mean concert Bb4, which should be notated as an F5 (5th line) for horn in F. (Or to be perfectly clear, should be notated on the top line, since part of the confusion is in ASSUMING note values for the lines and spaces, and those CHANGE with each alternate clef.) So no, baritone clef (F3 on the 3rd line) wouldn't work, since the 5th line would then be C4, not Bb3. The problem is that both notes are on lines, so you can't use any C clef (since F will be on a space). In fact I can't make my mind work that way, so I'm not sure it CAN be done with the available clefs.
But along with all this clef stuff, one needs to also remember the "add 1 flat when going from F-horn to concert pitch" and "remove 1 flat when going from concert pitch to F horn." That makes all the various rules regarding the use of clefs pretty daunting to learn and remember.
LEARNING the system, and learning to THINK in the different clefs rather than having to stop and think and decode them, is indeed daunting. So is most everything in music, if you stop to think about it, until AFTER you've learned it. THEN, and only then, is it easy to work with. I'm about halfway there with the movable clefs, since I didn't learn them until grad school, and that's really much too late.
I find it much easier to think of transposition in a more fixed manner: F on an F horn equals Bb in concert pitch. Doesn't matter which end of that statement I'm coming from, since the equality works both ways. And it doesn't matter whether the Bb is because of the key signature or because of an accidental, the equality still applies.
Yes, I think most of us think that way. But the clef system wasn't originated to make transposition easy. That's just a useful side effect. It was originated in order to keep most of the notes in Guido's system of chant notation within the staff, to make it easier for monks copying music with feathers!!!
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
