Re: German notation

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> IME (I'm a trombone player) this is extremely unusual.

Well, bass clarinet players are used to it...  By the way, there also
exists the opposite: In (older?) scores of symphonies by Anton
Bruckner, the violoncello part, if using the violin clef, is notated
one octave higher than sounding.

> Bass clef for bass clarinet is not mentioned in Strauss-Berlioz
> (Study of instrumentation), but e.g. Rachmaninoff uses it routinely
> (2nd symphony, Symphonic Dances, Isle of the Dead). I'm certain
> Werner will be able to provide more details :-).

I can only say that it is standard in scores from the late 19th and
early 20th century to have the bass clarinet notated in both violin
and bass clef.  Besides Rachmaninoff, just look into opera scores from
Wagner (for example, 'Die Walküre'); he uses the bass clarinet very
frequently, and almost exclusively in bass clef.

Strange transposition rules also exist for horns, where in the violin
clef you transpose down, and in the bass clef you transpose up.


    Werner