On Mon, Apr 6, 2009, "Anthony W. Youngman" <lilyp...@thewolery.demon.co.uk> said:
> Sounds good. one down? !!! > I think it's your use of "informally adopted" that jars - it implies > that they've ignored the Standard, when the standard didn't even exist > at the time. didnt have any one particular standard in mind; when one has church bells ringing hours, and no better standard, one might 'infomrally' use em for a reference, lord only knows how it was done in days of yore; the receipt of a chest of Bassano recorders might well establish a new standard for the players using them (no adjusting them, no joints) whatever strings played with that consort had to conform. There have been regional standards coexisting, the french and the austrian have been mentioned. I simply wanted to imply that it doesnt take an act of legislation, a papal bull, or an internatinoal conference to establish a conventional pitch reference. > What about those families (ie pretty much ALL the brass instruments) > that don't have a member at concert pitch! Perhaps the scribes got tired of writing out parts for them? > Interestingly, nearly all transposing instruments are fairly "new" in > their modern form. The 13 key clarinet is contemporary with Beethoven as I recall, the too-damn-many keyed clarinet is somewhat later. In between we have cases which provided for more changes of body than one sees instruments in the orchestra; each with a need for transposed part music. > I suspect the reason the trombone is such a funny > instrument in that sense is that it is an old instrument (which is why > it's written at concert pitch) some professional Sackbut players were probably musically illiterate, notation being such a mystery then, I know I find Gafurius et all totally baffling in places (proportions described using roman mathematics is indeed mysterious). Others claim that it was common practice to read waits music up a fourth or down a fifth as suited the instruments available. i know I have sometimes had to do the like in informal recorder consorts when the forces did not matchup well to the music available. > The word "tympani" is plural :-) so it is. -- Dana Emery _______________________________________________ lilypond-devel mailing list lilypond-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel
