Re: Concert Pitch (a second try)

[Ian Hulin]

Hi all,
O.K here goes, I've pruned some bits out where we were getting into 
acoustics, and tweaked a few bits.

Cheer
Ian Hulin

Anthony W. Youngman wrote:

> 1.64 Concert pitch
>
> The convention (standardised by ISO 16) states that A above middle C represents 
> the note at 440 Hertz. This is commonly notated by the statement "A=440".
>
> There are many other conventions, such as "diapason normal" which was 
> established by French law as "A=435". Many of these conventions have 
> fallen into disuse, although there are orchestras which typically tune 
> to other pitches (usually pitching A slightly higher in order to sound 
> "brighter").
>
> Regardless of the exact frequency of A, instruments which play the 
> standard frequency upon reading the note A are typically referred to as 
> playing "in concert pitch" or "in C". 

 Instruments which sound a different note than that written are 
referred to as "transposing instruments".

> These are typically brass or woodwind instruments.

For most instruments, the "standard pitch" and "transposing" conventions
produce the same result on the actual printed music, and the instrument 
is considered to be "in C", for example concert flute, bassoon, C 
Clarinet, C Horn.

Some other instruments are in C, use the reference concert reference 
pitch of A=440, but still transpose as far as their written music in 
concerned: examples are piccolo and descant recorder, transposing up an 
octave, and classical guitar and choral tenor parts which transpose down 
an octave.

> See also: "transposing intruments" and wikipedia entry for concert pitch.
>
> 1.311 transposing instruments
>
> Instruments where the written note is not the note that the instrument 
  is intended to sound, according to standard pitch. The reason for 
this is
  to make it easy for players to switch between instruments of the same 
family that
  have different fundamental pitches, as the player can still use the 
same fingerings
  whatever size instrument is being played.

  Transposing instruments are named according to the fundamental (known 
          on some brass instruments as the pedal) note.

On a woodwind instrument this is normally the note obtained with all 
holes covered without over-blowing or use of speaker keys. On a brass 
instrument it the note obtained with most relaxed embouchure and the 
slide extended fully or all valves open.

Individual instruments vary this principle by having extensions at 
bottom end of the instrument, but a simple case like the tenor recorder 
shows the basic principle.

To make matters more complex, some instruments are transposing 
instruments, but their players actually play from parts written at 
concert pitch.  Orchestral trombone and tuba players do this, while 
trombone players in brass bands treat their parts as if written for a 
true transposing instrument in Bb.


> When writing music for a transposing instrument, it is normal to refer 
> to the instrument by its fundamental, e.g "Bb Trumpet, A clarinet". 
Music for these instruments without a key signature (e.g. notated in C 
major) is assumed to be  in Bb or A. If an instrument (e.g. flute) is
> normally notated in treble clef, then either the instrument's 
> fundamental or the transposition should be mentioned if it is not in 
> standard pitch ("alto flute in G", "G flute"). If the instrument is in C, the 
> instrument's fundamental should NOT be mentioned, and it should be 
> notated as "in C" only if required to avoid confusion.
 The main reason for this convention is that, for all
 instruments in the same family, they share the same fingerings for any
 given written note, and players are easily able to switch between the 
various
 family members.

Some examples of transposing instruments:
piccolo (sounds octave higher than written)
alto flute (sounds fourth lower than written)
bass flute (sounds an octave lower than written)
cor anglais (sounds fifth lower than written)
clarinet in Bb (sounds tone lower than written)
clarinet in A (sounds a minor third lower than written)
bass clarinet (sounds a ninth lower than written)
contrabassoon (sounds octave lower than written)
all saxophones
French Horn in F (sounding a fifth lower than written)
trumpet in Bb (sounds tone lower than written)
trumpet in A (sounds a minor third lower than written)
trombone - brass bands only - in Bb (sounds tone lower than written)
string contrabass (sounds an octave lower than written)



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>
>
>
> Can anybody come up with any improvements on this?
>
> Cheers,
> Wol