Bass clef notation

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Bass clef notation

I am playing a piece with my city-wide orchestra, that has a few bars of bass clef. This is not uncommon, I know, and sense, I play piano, reading bass clef is not a problem for me.

The note I have, is an A. The bass clef sign is given, and my note is the bottom space A. Now, here's my question. Is this bottom space A in bass clef the same as the two ledger lines down in treble clef? That is how I'm playing it, but I don't understand why this is. It would seem to me that the two ledger line A in treble, would be the top line A in bass.

Please help me understand why this is written as it is.

Chris Wingert

Answer:

It all depands....

The use of "old notation" (e.g. written down an octave), and "new notation" (written as played) have been used concurrently by composers since the 1700's.
There are instances in music of the classisists where BOTH methods occur, so there is not a defined time line that indicates that pieces before a certain date would use old notation and works after a certain date use new notation.

Even 20thC composers (even those active today) are not universal in the type of bass clef notation. Thus, there are a few ways you might be able to hazard a guess:

The first rule of thumb is that if the bass clef part has any ledger lines below the staff, especially below E, it probably is in old notation. However, don't be fooled as the low E in the Shostakovitch 5th Symphony is the real thing!

So, the best thing you can do is to look at the score to see the voicing of the orchestration. This might give you a clue, especially if there are horns in octaves written in bass clef. If this is common piece of music, get a recording and listen to it with your part and score.

If this is a band work, it "probably" is written in new notation. I'm not trying to side step the issue, but this is a problem we as hornists must deal with.

Any other colleagues out there want to try to help me on this one, please feel free to join in!

Eldon Matlick

P.S. For familiarity with old notation performance, I recommend the following:

des Pres: 20 Studies for Low Horn (Billaudot)
Blazhevitch: 70 Studies for Tuba (King-Leduc)
Neuling: 30 Special Etudes for Low Horn (2 bks) (Edition Pro Musica)

For special work: transpose them to concert key--OUCH!

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