Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: bass clef parts in Bb and Eb


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Posted by Klaus on January 13, 2002 at 22:26:33:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: bass clef parts in Bb and Eb posted by Scott Norberg on January 13, 2002 at 12:59:06:

According to our Dutch contributor, there always is a concert bass clef tuba part. So taking another look in the pile of parts might be the easiest solution after all (I have told of my suspicions of error reasons in another posting).

Transposing in bass clef should be no more difficult than doing it in treble clef. Only most of us are engraved with the bass clef always being in concert C. As a very young 2nd horn in a small amateur chamber unit, I got a part for horn in F for a first reading. The piece opened with a long C written in bass clef. I interpreted that clef in concert C and played a perfect 2nd space C. But the composer (Carl Nielsen) had wanted at tutti unisono on F. So it was not that hard to for the conductor to single me out. That was the hard way to learn about the bass clef being transposing in certain cintexts.

There are several techniques to be used in transposing.

a: In The Art of French Horn Playing Farkas recommends to juggle with clefs. I never found that method very helpful.

b: Some people read the transposed parts as written, and then they by ear play the part displaced up or down by the interval called for. Calls for good ears.

c: Other people visually displace the written part up or down by the interval called for. Then they play what they "read". A more mathematical approach. Which I use myself. Mostly.

d: Some people strive to learn the fingerings for the most common transposition. Very effective in performing those common transpositions. But this approach tends to make it very hard to operate in the less common transpositions because the very skill of transposing basically has not been nurtured.

Of course none of these techniques are found in their pure form with any single player. All players work out their own mix.

And then they have their own bag of tricks. First time I met a CC player playing from a brass band treble clef BBb tuba part I asked him, if he used the same interval displacement technique as I used on horn. The answer was no. And the explanation was this one: he established the concert key. And then he read the part the same way as when he played from concert bass clef on his F tuba (in my interpretation that would be a mix of methods c and d. But that was not how he thought about it).

I can give no specific advise on tranposing in bass clef as opposed to treble clef. But my personal experience tells me very strongly, that if one can play scales, arpeggiated chords, and intervals Arban-style in all 12 major keys all over the compass of ones instrument(-s), then transposition is easier. All major scales have the same construction. They only start on different notes.

Knowing the logic behind the various minor and modal scales also is helpful. Not to speak of the various alterated jazz dominant scales, diminished scales (there are only 3 or 6 of them, depending on the theoretical interpretation), whole tone scales (there are only 2 of them), and the chromatic scale (there only is the same one).

Using the tools and methods mentioned should make it fairly easy to transpose music carrying a tonality, because everything can be related to the inner musical logic of that tonality. That way accidents will be turned into minor problems, because they are not related to the reading of a certain clef. Rather they are seen as parts of a greater musical picture.

But then there is the transposition of atonal music. Technically I could say, that one should play by interval like a good singer sings. But in the real world I might rather beg for mercy.

Klaus

PS: I might reveal a small mind-game of mine, which helps easening up on rehearsal boredom, and which can help in developping ones general understanding of musical structures.

I am not very good at improvising over chord symbols, but I know some of the principles. Very often I try to turn around the problem and then imagine which chord symbols should be written under the notes in the part I read from. Not terribly difficult in most tuba parts, but often more interesting in inner band parts.


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