Re: relative pitch with song sections

[Matthew Collett]

On 16/05/2014, at 10:08 am, Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> wrote:

> At first I was also inclined towards saying that it’s correct to add the 8 
> and it doesn’t hurt anyone, so why not just leave it where Lily puts it by 
> default.
> Then I thought of a counter-example: some orchestra instruments (most notably 
> double basses, but also contrabassoons and maybe others) to sound an octave 
> lower than written, and the very best of hand-engraved scores all don’t have 
> a clef modifier (i.e. an "8" below – or above – the clef).

One could reasonably argue that contrabass instruments are transposing 
instruments -- transposing by an octave.  That is, the fact that they sound an 
octave lower than written is a well-known property of the instrument (not of 
the score), and is implied by the fact that the part is marked as being for 
that instrument, in exactly the same way that marking a part as for a (B-flat) 
trumpet implies that it sounds a tone lower than written.  I would be less 
persuaded by the same argument made for a guitar.

Best wishes,
Matthew