quote:
The trombones are a special case: although they are said to be ‘in F’
(alto or bass) or ‘in B-flat’ (tenor), this refers to their fundamental
note, not to their parts’ transposition. (In fact, the trombones’ parts
are written at concert pitch with an appropriate clef – alto, tenor or
bass.) This differs from other instruments ‘in F’, ‘in B-flat’, and so
on, which are transposing instruments.
End quote:
PLEASE can we fix this ... maybe it's my fault for not chasing up when I
moaned about it before, but I thought it was being fixed.
Firstly, NEITHER the alto nor the bass trombones are 'in F' - my tenor
trombone is (sort of) in F - being a Bb/F instrument, and all trombones
'in F' are actually Bb/F tenors.
The alto trombone is an Eb instrument, and the (true) bass trombone is a
G instrument. The modern bass trombone is actually a
wide-bore/flared-bell tenor in Bf/F/G.
And secondly, the tenor trombone is even more of a special case than
stated, because it IS a transposing instrument. When in a brass band,
the tenor trombone is a transposing instrument like every other
instrument (EXCEPT the bass trombone - to be difficult! :-). In an
orchestra it is not a transposing instrument. And in a concert band the
music may or may not be transposed to suit the player.
This is actually related to the definition of "1.311 transposing
instrument" where the description "The pitch class is the note that
/sounds/ (disregarding the octave in which it sounds) when the
instrument plays a notated C." is unfortunately a bit arse-about-face.
It should say "The pitch class is the note that sounds (regardless of
octave) when the pitch is not altered by using keys, valves etc to alter
the effective length (and therefore pitch) of the instrument. This note
is then notated as C in transposed music." It's the pitch class that
determines which note is written as C, not the other way round (and it
also correctly defines the trombone that way).
Okay. Let's try and rewrite both of them:
Transposing instruments:
Instruments whose notated pitch is different from their sounded pitch.
They usually come in families which differ only in their fundamental
pitch (the base note determined by the length of the instrument from
mouthpiece to bell). Except for those whose notated and sounding pitches
differ by one or more octaves (to reduce the number of ledger lines
needed), most such instruments are identified by the letter name of the
pitch class of their fundamental. This is the note which is written as C
when music is transposed.
Trombones are a special case as the bass trombone is never transposed,
but the tenor trombone is never transposed in an orchestra, always
transposed in a brass band, and may be transposed in a concert band.
Concert pitch:
If you want to list a non-transposing brass instrument the ONLY safe one
to list (that I know of) is the bass trombone. You could add "tenor
trombone playing in an orchestra" but that's an awful mouthful. And
please drop the rest of the stuff about trombones!
(Now I've got a decent gentoo system, maybe I ought to create a git
repository and learn how to do patches, but I was trying not to tread on
the maintainer's toes :-)
Cheers,
Wol
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