Transposing instruments |
German transponierende Instrumente transposing instruments
Musical instruments, the real pitch of which does not coincide with the notation, differs from it by a certain interval (up or down – depending on the natural tessitura and arrangement of the instruments).
To T. and. belong to ear pads copper spirit. instruments (horns, trumpets, cornets, varieties of tuba, saxhorns), pl. woodwinds (clarinet families, saxophones, varieties of oboe – English horn, oboe d’amour, huxlphone); how are you. can also be considered stringed bows, rebuilt to a certain. interval – above or below their normal setting (see Scordatura). To T. and. also include instruments that sound an octave lower than the notation (double bass, contrabassoon) or an octave higher (piccolo flute, celesta, xylophone, bells), but in essence this is not a transposition, since the steps of the scale retain their names. natural a series of sounds corresponding to the device of the instrument (for brass wind instruments – a natural scale of overtones), for T. and. notated in the key of C-dur. Depending on the tuning (tuning) of the instruments, the sounds notated in C-dur actually sound a specified interval higher or lower, for example. c2 for the clarinet in B will sound like b1 (for the clarinet in A – like a1), for the English. horn or horn in F – like f1, y alto saxophone in Es – like es1, y tenor in B – like b, y trumpet in Es or sopranino saxophone – like es2, etc.
L. Beethoven. 8th symphony, 1st movement.
The emergence of T. and., Or rather, the notation transposing them, refers to the 18th century, to the period when the spirit. instruments could extract almost exclusively the tones of their simplest scale or natural scale. Since C-dur is the simplest key in terms of notation, the practice arose to notate parts in C-dur that correspond to the natural tuning of the instrument.
With the invention of valves and gates, playing in keys more or less removed from the main ones. building an instrument, was greatly facilitated, but the practice of transposing notation (which makes it difficult to read scores) continues to be used. A certain argument in favor of its preservation is that, thanks to the transposing notation, the same performer can easily switch from one type of instrument of the same family to another with a different tuning while maintaining the fingering, for example. from clarinet in A to bass clarinet in B (fingering is preserved): such instrument changes are often made when performing one piece. (denoted: Cl. in B muta in A; Cl. in B muta Cl. picc. in Es). Dep. transposing the spirit. instruments are always notated according to their sound (eg trombones in B, tuba in B). Some composers in the 20th century. made attempts to notate the parties of T. and. according to their sound; among them – A. Schoenberg (serenade op. 24, 1924), A. Berg, A. Webern, A. Honegger, S. S. Prokofiev.
In the 17-18 centuries. to T. and. certain organ systems were also attributed, the structure of which differed from the orchestral one and, accordingly, their part was notated in other keys.
Литература: Herz N., Theory of transposing musical instruments, Lpz., 1911; Erpf H., Textbook of instrumentation and instrument knowledge, Mainz, (1959).
