Thanks John ... good info ... the ensemble I'm writing for does, of
course, have a C.B. Cl., but not a Contra Bassoon ... so I figured
the C.B. Cl. would be the closest to the original sound ... I'll be
doing some thinking on this ...
Cheers,
Dean
On May 18, 2011, at 2:10 PM, John Howell wrote:
At 1:21 PM -0700 5/18/11, Dean M. Estabrook wrote:
Ok, so I'm transcribing this Mendelssohn Overture from Orch. to
Wind Ensemble ... one of the instruments in the orchestral score
is labeled "Serpente e Contrafagotto." It is non transposing.
May I assume that it sounds an octave lower than the pitches
given? It would appear to make sense that way ... so far, I've
assigned the parts to a Contra Bass Cl.
Thanks in advance,
Dean
The serpent (bass cornett, still in use in Mendelssohn's time
period, sometimes under such names as "Russian bassoon") sounded at
pitch, down to Great C (C2) although it could be lipped slightly
lower. Later replaced by the bass ophicleide, before the tuba
caught on.
Contrafagotto was very likely an instrument sounding an octave
below pitch, although it would take a bassoon history specialist to
know for sure. (Are you there, ContraReed?!!!)
So my guess would be that it's intended as a bass line to be
sounded by wind instruments in octaves, and not JUST in the lower
octave. (There IS a contraserpent in existence, and I have a
picture of it, but I think it's a modern sport and not something
that would have been handy in Mendelssohn's day.)
That's a problem with transcribing orchestral music for band. The
cellos and basses played in their natural registers do sound an
octave apart and at the same time sound perfectly natural in those
octaves. That's why one of its names was the "double bass,"
doubling the bass line an octave lower. But transcribing for bass
and contrabass tubas is NOT the same thing, and most bands lack the
low clarinets and saxophones that would be needed. It's often a
better transcription NOT to include the lower octave. But in this
case he was writing for bass winds in the first place. The serpent
would have had a broader sound, the contrafag a reedier one.
Neither was much like the contraclarinet.
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.
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I have opened my soul/To let in the warmth of sound/Now my saving grace
Adrian Estabrook, author
And ... I remain intrigued that some folks who accept and practice,
with absolute fidelity, the concepts of, say, feng shui and
pyramids, should find the task of extending their leaps of faith to
include an existent God so arduous.
Dean M. Estabrook
http://sites.google.com/site/deanestabrook/
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