Re: Accordion transposition notation

[address@hidden]

On Sep 29, 2011, at 9:31 AM, David Kastrup wrote:

> 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.
> 

Good deal - thanks!
~Mike