Re: Transposing instrument best practice

[Vaughan McAlley]

On Thu, 1 Aug 2019 at 02:40, Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Hello everybody,
>
> I have practically never had to typeset music for transposing
> instruments before, so I have barely any experience with this topic. The
> documentation confuses me, since the NR has two sections talking about
> transposing instruments, each giving different advice:
>
> 1.1.3.d recommends entering the notes in ‘written’ pitch and using
> \transposition to get correct MIDI, cues and quotes. In ‘See also’, it
> links to
>
> 1.1.2.b, where the recommendation is to enter the notes in concert pitch
> and use \transpose to display them in transposed, written pitch.
>
> Keith O’Hara, in
> <https://sourceforge.net/p/testlilyissues/issues/4264/>, writes that ‘we
> usually suggest that the variables holding music for transposing
> instruments store the music in concert pitch.’
>
> Given the highly confusing nature of the subject, wouldn’t it be better
> if the NR took a clear stance toward one of the ways as ‘best practice’?
>
> Which way would that be? What experiences did you make?
>
> Best, Simon
>
>
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The use-case for entering the notes as written is if you're entering
an existing score, by Beethoven for example. Beethoven will have
transposed the clarinet parts himself (relatively laboriously), so
that is the easiest way to enter them.

Otherwise, if you're creating a new score and the music in its present
form is in concert pitch, it's helpful to \transpose the music (much
less laboriously and much more accurately) with your computer.

Either way, the music will appear in the score the way the player sees
it (if that's what you want). I'm almost always doing the second
option because of what I do.

The \transpose and \transposition is a bit hard to get your head
around, but if you did it another way, it would be a lot trickier for
people who use the first option (who are probably a majority?)

Vaughan