Re: Accordion transposition notation

[David Kastrup]

Mike Solomon <address@hidden> writes:

> Hey all,
>
> If I want an accordion player to use stops to play a passage one
> octave under the written pitch, I was wondering what the appropriate
> notation was?  I found the info about discant notation in the manual,
> but I'm not sure if those correspond to a change in octave (i.e. by
> using the bassoon, is the pitch automatically played an octave
> under?).

Yes.  The lowest-sounding reed in the register determines the basic
pitch of the sound, any additional reeds change the timbre.

The low reed has the same pitch as the middle reed played one octave
lower, but is usually more mellow in sound quality when played alone
(Italian register switches tend to call them "bassoon" and "clarinet",
respectively).  So you have to be prepared for a switch in sound quality
as well as of octave when composing.

-- 
David Kastrup