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Transposing keyboards such as transposing harmoniums or electronic keyboards with a transpose function can have a similar effect, but are not usually called transposing instruments. These instruments allow the player to change the instrument's transposition electronically or mechanically. This is different from the instruments discussed in this article, which have set pitches but merely do not read their music at concert pitch.
Contents |
Reasons for transposing
At first sight it might seem awkward to use transposing instruments. The B♭ clarinet and the C clarinet, for example, are identical except for being a few centimetres different in length. The use of the transposing instrument entails more work for the composer or arranger. There are, however, some clear reasons for preferring a transposing instrument:
- Families of instruments
- Some instruments belong to a family of instruments of different sizes (and, therefore, sounding at different pitches), such as the clarinet or the saxophone family. Musicians can read the same notes on the page for each instrument in the family without having to learn new fingerings. For example, the note that is written as middle C for the alto saxophone and the tenor saxophone is fingered the same on each instrument, but the alto's sounding pitch will be higher than the tenor's.
- Transposing at the octave
- If an instrument has a range that is too high or too low for their music to be easily written on the staff, the music may be written either an octave higher or lower than it sounds, in order to reduce the use of ledger lines. Instruments that “transpose at the octave” are not playing in a different key from concert pitch instruments, but sound an octave higher or lower than written.
- Historical reasons
- Historically, some instruments have come to be accepted (and widely manufactured) with a certain transposition as a standard.
- Tone and sound quality
- Because of tone quality issues, some C (concert pitch) instruments — saxophones in C (the C melody and C soprano) and the C soprano clarinet, for example — have declined in popularity in favor of the currently more standard versions (B♭ soprano and tenor sax, E♭ alto and baritone; B♭ and A clarinets).
Families of instruments
Transposing instruments are often members of a family of instruments that are identical in every way but for their size. As a result they have differing ranges, with the larger instruments sounding lower than the smaller ones. It is desirable for these instruments all to have the same fingering for each written pitch, so that a player who wishes to switch between different instruments in a family does not have to learn new fingerings for each one.
Instruments that transpose this way are often referred to as being in a certain key, such as the A clarinet (clarinet in A), or the F horn (horn in F). The "key" an instrument is said to be in tells how far from concert pitch an instrument's music is written. Specifically, the given key tells which note is the sounding pitch when the player reads a note written as C. A player of a B♭ clarinet who reads a C on the music will sound a B♭, while an F horn player will read the same note and sound an F.
One example of an instrument family with different transpositions is the flutes. The standard concert flute has a range from middle C up about 3 octaves. The alto flute is a very similar instrument, but longer, and hence pitched lower, with a range starting from the G below middle C. The fingering that would on a normal flute sound a C produces a G a fourth lower on the alto flute. If alto flute music were written at sounding pitch, flute players wishing to learn to play alto flute would have to re-learn fingerings for each written pitch.
Instead, The music for the alto flute is tranposed up a fourth so that the player may play the alto flute using the same fingering for the written notes, but the resulting pitches are a fourth lower. The result of this is that the flute player can easily learn the new instrument, and can easily switch back and forth between the two (a common requirement in orchestra music) without risking confusion between two different fingering systems. The alto flute is then a 'transposing instrument in G', sounding a fourth lower than written.
A similar thing happens in other instrument families. For example, clarinets come in various sizes and hence pitches (A, B♭, C, E♭), but the music is transposed appropriately for each size of instrument so that the player can easily move from one to the other. Expert clarinet players often use a different instrument than the transposition of their parts calls for, transposing the parts at sight instead; expert trumpet players may do this also.
In some families of instruments, the non-transposing C version had fallen into disuse; the clarinet family is one example, where only the B♭ and A members are common but, in recent years, there is a tendency to utilize the C clarinet when called for. Horns are another example.
Some families containing tranposing instruments:
- the clarinet family (piccolo clarinet in A♭; soprano clarinet in E♭, D, B♭ and A; basset horn in F; alto clarinet in E♭; bass clarinet in B#9837; and A; contra-alto clarinet in E♭; contrabass clarinet in B♭)
- some members of the oboe family (oboe d'amore, cor anglais)
- the saxophone family (either B♭ or E♭)
- most brass instruments, notably the trumpet and horn.
The horn is a particularly interesting case. Before valves became common about 1800, horns could only play the notes of the overtone series from a single fundamental pitch. However, this fundamental could be changed by inserting one of a set of crooks into the instrument, shortening or lengthening the total length of its sounding tube. As a result, all horn music was written as if for a fundamental pitch of C, but the crooks could make a single instrument a transposing instrument into almost any key. Changing the crooks was a time-consuming process, so it only took place between pieces or movements. The introduction of valves made this process unnecessary, but Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote horn parts as if crooks were still in use. Furthermore, even though an F tranposition became standardized in the early 19th century, composers were inconsistent in whether they expected the instruments to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth, especially when written in treble clef.
There are a few families of instruments which have instruments of various sizes and ranges, but whose music is rarely or never transposed. The recorder family is one of these. The higher members of the family (alto and above) transpose at the octave, as do the bass instruments (bass and great bass. However, they are referred to as "C-fingered" or "F-fingered" depending on the lowest note, which is fingered the same on all sizes. A player may go from one C-fingered instrument to another easily, and from one F-fingered instrument to another easily, but switching between the two requires learning a new set of fingerings.
Transposition at the octave
Many instruments whose ranges are extremely high or low transpose at the octave in order to make their written music easier to read. While these are technically transposing instruments, they are a special case, since their written C, for example, still sounds as a concert C, just an octave away from the written pitch. They are therefore in the same key as concert pitch instruments, but their music is notated an octave higher or lower than actual pitch.
For example, the contrabassoon and the double bass both play in the extreme low ranges. Their music is written one octave higher than it sounds on the bass staff. The piccolo and the soprano recorder, which are extremely high-pitched, are written an octave lower than they sound so that their music can be written easily on the treble staff. If these instruments did not transpose at the octave, most of their notes would have to be written with many ledger lines above or below the staff, making reading extremely cumbersome by comparison.
Historical reasons
Prior to the adoption of the equal-tempered scale (around the time of J.S. Bach), all instruments had to be specifically built or tuned to the key in which they were to be playing. For instance, if a trumpet was to play a work in D major, the trumpet had to be built so that its fundamental frequency sounded the note D. Since brass instruments of that time had no valves, they could only play notes in the overtone series. This set a precedent for the idea of using transposing instruments.
Tone and sound quality
Once the equal-tempered scale was generally adopted, this was no longer necessary. However, it was found that sometimes instruments sounded better when built in certain keys. For instance, the C clarinet was not a very pleasant sounding instrument, nor was the D or the Eb clarinet; it was generally agreed that the Bb clarinet was the most pleasant sounding, and for this reason was the one which remained in dominant use in the present day. This is also true of the Bb trumpet, as well as several other instruments, such as the French horn and the trombone.
Mechanical and physical considerations
On woodwind instruments there is one major scale whose execution involves (more or less) simply picking up each finger sequentially from the bottom to top. This is usually the scale which reads as a C scale (the major scale with no sharps or flats) on that instrument. If it is a transposing instrument, the note written as C sounds as the note of the instrument's transposition - on an E♭ alto saxophone, that note sounds as a concert E♭, on an A clarinet, that note sounds as a concert A. The bassoon is an exception; it is not a transposing instrument, yet its "home" scale is F.
Brass instruments, when played with no valves engaged (or, for trombones, with the slide all the way in) play a series of notes which form the overtone series based on some fundamental pitch. e.g., the B♭ trumpet, when played with no valves being pressed, can play the overtones based on B♭. Usually, that pitch is the note which indicates the transposition of that brass instrument. Trombones are an exception - they do not transpose, instead reading at concert pitch, although tenor and bass trombones are pitched in B♭, alto trombone in E♭.
In both cases above, there is some reason to consider a certain pitch the "home" note of an instrument, and that pitch is usually written as C for that instrument. The concert pitch of that note is what determines the how we refer to the transposition of that instrument.
On the conductor's score
In conductors' scores, most often the music for transposing instruments is written in transposed form, just as in the players' parts; but a few publishers, especially of contemporary music, provide conductors with music which is all at concert pitch. The argument for the latter practice is that it makes the pitch relationships of the entire sound easier for the conductor to read. The advantage of traditional practice is that it facilitates spoken communication in rehearsal since conductor and player are looking at the same notation.
List of instruments by transposition
- Instruments in C - 15ma (sounds two
octaves above what is written)
- Glockenspiel
- Instruments in high D♭ - high (sounds a
minor ninth above what is written)
- Piccolo in D♭
- Instruments in C - 8va (sounds an octave above what is written)
- Instruments in B♭ - high (sounds a
minor seventh above what is written)
- Piccolo trumpet (may also be tuned to A)
- Instruments in A♭ - high (sounds a
minor sixth above what is written)
- A♭ piccolo clarinet
- Instruments in E♭ - high (sounds a
minor third above what is written)
- E♭ soprano clarinet
- Sopranino saxophone
- Instruments in D - high (sounds a
major second above what is written)
- D soprano clarinet
- D trumpet (may also be tuned to E♭)
- A selection of Instruments in C - unison (sounds as written; these are nontransposing instruments)
- Instruments in B♭ (sounds a major second below what is written)
- Instruments in A (sounds a
minor third below what is written)
- Oboe d'amore
- A soprano clarinet
- A Trumpet
- Instruments in G (sounds a
perfect fourth below what is written)
- Alto flute
- so-called Turkish clarinet
- Instruments in F (sounds a
perfect fifth below what is written)
- English horn
- Horn
- Basset horn
- Instruments in E♭ (sounds a
major sixth below what is written)
- Alto clarinet
- Alto saxophone
- Instruments in C - 8vb (sounds an
octave below what is written)
- Guitar
- Bass flute
- Double bass
- Bass guitar
- Contrabassoon
- Instruments in B♭ - low (sounds an
octave and a
major second below what is written)
- B♭ Bass clarinet
- Tenor saxophone
- Euphonium or Baritone horn when written in treble clef
- Instruments in A - low (sounds an
octave and a
minor third below what is written)
- A Bass clarinet (obsolete)
- Instruments in E♭ - low (sounds an
octave and a
major sixth below what is written)
- E♭ Contra-alto clarinet
- Baritone saxophone
- Instruments in B♭ - super low (sounds two
octaves and a
major second below what is written)
- B♭ contrabass clarinet
- Bass saxophone
Note: Many instruments read different clefs upon different occasions, also brass instruments can often be written as transposing instruments in various times depending on the ensemble (usually in B♭ or E♭ plus adjusting for the octave of the instrument).
Category: Musical instruments
