Blog post: Transposing Instruments and Clairnote Music Notation

[Paul Morris]

Hi all,

I've written a blog post with my thoughts about transposing instruments and Clairnote music notation.  It's a topic I've thought about over the years but just now getting around to writing about it.  The post is relevant to any alternative notation system with a chromatic staff so I thought it would be of interest here.

https://clairnote.org/blog/2022/12/transposing-instruments-and-clairnote-music-notation/

Hope everyone is well as we enter the last month of 2022.

Paul

[John F]

Hi Paul,

That's an interesting analysis. One thing I think might influence the choice is the naming of the notes in the scales when someone learns a transposing instrument. I did a year of Bb clarinet at school, but half a century later I can't remember how it was taught in this aspect of note names (in fact, I'm not 100% sure it was in Bb, but let's say that for argument's sake). In other words, did we call the Bb "C" (as written) when discussing the music, or Bb, as sounded?

The reason it might have a bearing on the question is because, although the notation may be just as easy to read in any key, some of the thinking and talking about notes still relies on the unequal naming system, either with sharp and flat names for the 'black notes' or new names, as per Express Stave and others. I'm not sure how important any of that is.

Another thing is that the increasing use of digital devices to write, typeset and read music from means this issue is perhaps less critical than it used to be with manuscripts. Most music apps allow transposing of whole pieces or sections to any other position on the staff, so each musician could choose their preferred key to read from. I guess some apps will only do transposition with the implication that the pitch is changing too, but presumably the better ones allow for transposing notation without changing pitch (precisely for transposing instruments), and it isn't particularly significant, perhaps just causing issues if you want to use the app to play the notes so you can practise with that help, which would be disturbing in another key.

I'm grateful for your thoughts, because I was beginning to wonder about this aspect of notation when I was last working on my own system, and, after a long break, I'm hoping to pick up where I left off. I remember saying it was a few weeks from being finished. LOL, I'm now hoping it might be some time before 2024.

All the best,

John F

[Paul Morris]

Hi John,

Thanks for reading the post and sharing your thoughts.  Glad you found it helpful.

I played trumpet and then baritone horn through middle and high school, and all that time I had only a very minimal and vague awareness about this transposing instruments thing.  I remember hearing once or twice that we couldn't simply play the parts written for other instruments (say when there was no baritone horn part).

It wasn't until after college when I tried to play my trumpet informally with some other musicians that I realized that what I had been thinking was a "C" the whole time was actually "B-Flat"!  I thought "well, why didn't anyone tell me?" 

So to one of your points, if my experience is representative, I think that musicians conceptualize the notes as they are written, and communicate about the notes as they are written (as a "C" not a "B-flat"), and not as they sound.

That's a good point about digital scores as well.  Being able to simply transpose the music on the fly would make things easier in many ways.  I wonder if a feature like "transpose the visual notes but not their sounding pitch" is even on the radar of people working on these things.  Come to think of it, that's possible with LilyPond files because you can transpose the music for the visual representation but not do it for the midi generation.

One factor I realized that I didn't discuss in the post is that if you want to be able to switch between reading traditional music notation and an alternative system... that might be a reason to stick with the traditional approach, so that the fingering-to-note mapping is consistent as you switch between traditional and alternative notation systems.  (Another case where digital scores would probably eventually change the equation.)

All the best,

Paul

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