Musical questions and answers thread

[Richard Barrett]

a) - does a viola part ever go high enough to need the use of a treble clef ?

b) - when composers compose for transposing instruments do they write as the player would expect to see their part, or let some copyist or the printer/publisher do that for them ?

[I can hum the tune in #251 but I don't know what it's called]

(a) Yes. (Cello parts do too, and sometimes even double-bass parts.)
(b) Most composers these days write their scores at sounding pitch and let the computer do the transposing for the parts. I'm not among them though. While composing I like to have in front of me what the player will be seeing. It makes score-reading a bit more difficult but reading my scores is quite difficult anyway!

[MrGongGong]

If clefs interest you, identify the tune. You have 15 seconds…

That's an easy one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg95f4d4QuM

(though she appears to be playing it in a different key!)

[Serial_Apologist]

(a) Yes. (Cello parts do too, and sometimes even double-bass parts.)
(b) Most composers these days write their scores at sounding pitch and let the computer do the transposing for the parts. I'm not among them though. While composing I like to have in front of me what the player will be seeing. It makes score-reading a bit more difficult but reading my scores is quite difficult anyway!

[Serial_Apologist]

That's an easy one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg95f4d4QuM

(though she appears to be playing it in a different key!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That's an easy one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg95f4d4QuM

(though she appears to be playing it in a different key!)

Yes indeed, though, as you say, she's playing in G.

[MrGongGong]

I have sometimes wondered whether people might find the whole thing a lot easier if they firstly learnt to play and sing, THEN learned notation?
(theres a bit in The Cognitive Psychology of Music about this)
So that people didn't think that somehow the treble (or Bass) clef was somehow "home" and everything else was "odd".
If we learnt that it was a flexible system (like Sol Fa or Sargam) from the start other clefs would come easily rather than us having to struggle. Even though I have spent many years with them and transposition (as a lapsed hornplayer !) I still have to think hard, though I could work your tune out on the hoof fairly quickly.

[ahinton]

Most composers these days write their scores at sounding pitch and let the computer do the transposing for the parts. I'm not among them though. While composing I like to have in front of me what the player will be seeing. It makes score-reading a bit more difficult but reading my scores is quite difficult anyway!

I'm an "in C" composer myself; I applaud your courage in not being one and the reasons why you've chosen not to be!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have sometimes wondered whether people might find the whole thing a lot easier if they firstly learnt to play and sing, THEN learned notation? .

This works for some, but can result in pupils saying, "I can only play it if I know how it goes." In other words, "I can't be bothered to work out the rhythm from the notation."

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm an "in C" composer myself; I applaud your courage in not being one and the reasons why you've chosen not to be!

Accidentally on purpose then, so to speak...

[ahinton]

Accidentally on purpose then, so to speak...

!!!

Maybe put it down to laziness on my part and an obvious lack of the same on Richard's...

[MrGongGong]

This works for some, but can result in pupils saying, "I can only play it if I know how it goes." In other words, "I can't be bothered to work out the rhythm from the notation."

Indeed
It all depends on what the music is you are learning.
Some of the non-western musics that I studied as a student would look unfeasibly complex on a page BUT be easy to hear.
I oscillate between doing scores "in C" and transposing ones, it usually depends on WHO is going to direct it which I choose.

[mercia]

so what was that French tune called ? I can't hear what the young lady is saying

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Au Clair de la Lune

[mercia]

merci bien

[Bryn]

... reading my scores is quite difficult anyway!

Unlike writing them, which is child's play, eh?