Hi Gabriel, On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 at 21:51, Gabriel Ellsworth <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Tue, 23 Jun 2026, Lukas-Fabian Moser wrote: > >> >> - The transposition: Maybe it's a bit of voodoo, but I'm convinced >> that the way music looks in print influences how we "feel" it / think >> about >> it / perform it. The lack of key signatures (except for one ♭ in the >> 'transposed system') is essential for the way pitches and their relations >> are construed up to the 16th century and beyond. Especially for a very >> small shift like a semitone, I feel that you get a considerable loss in >> authenticity of look-and-feel for a comparatively small gain. When >> performing music of that time, I think one has to get used to the fact >> that >> the correspondence between written pitch and the pitch a present-day >> singer >> with perfect pitch (or experienced vocal chords) might expect is modified. >> To me, seeing Lasso with ♭♭♭♭♭ key signature looks as 'wrong' as it would >> look in halved or quartered note values. >> >> Ah yes, the long-standing debate between Team “Absolute Key” and Team > “Clean Key Signature”! > > Transposing this piece up a semitone was not my personal decision but a > request that I needed to honour. The reason that someone else made the > request to me is, in brief, that several singers in this choir have > absolute pitch. > > > I grew up with transposed scores like this- for me, 5 flats is as clean as any other key. I did spend my teenage years playing Böhm’s flute études in all 24 keys, which maybe not every chorister has done. I have seen younger singers who have been trained to transpose be put off by the key signatures, especially if they specialise in early music. In the tablet era this is less of a problem except for the conductor knowing how to refer to particular notes. If you are really put off by 5 flats, you might put it in 2 sharps and specify to sing it at A=415Hz, as most absolute pitch singers these days should have at least some experience with baroque pitch. Vaughan
