Scribd
Upload
19 views2 pages

Century

class work notes

Uploaded by

Wycliff Ndua
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
19 views2 pages

Century

class work notes

Uploaded by

Wycliff Ndua
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

setting that he left the concert, exclaiming, “I don’t care

to hear Beethoven’s C minor symphony played in the key


of B minor.”3
At the risk of overstating the point, I may compare
the situation to the choice of an appropriate coordinate
system so as to simplify the equation of a curve. For example,
a circle with center at (h, k) and radius 1 has the
rectangular equation (x – h)2 + (y – k)2 = 1. But move
the origin to the point (h, k), and the equation in this
new coordinate system simplifies to x2 + y2 = 1 (it simplifies
even further in polar coordinates: r = 1). The circle
itself, together with its many geometric properties, has
not changed; only its equation did. It is no different with
transposition in music—writing the notes for a specific
instrument in C major rather than in the natural key
of that instrument. The modern orchestral trumpet, for
example, is tuned to B- flat, but the notes that the player
follows when playing this key are written in C major,
avoiding the two “flat” signs in the key signature of B- flat
major. This, of course, does not change the music, it only
makes it easier to read. In fact, most players of transposing
instruments such as the clarinet, French horn, and
trumpet think of the written key as if it were the one actually
heard, even though in the case of B- flat the music
sounds a full tone lower than written.
𝄓
As we saw in chapter 7, during the Baroque period and
well into the nineteenth century, instruments were tuned
to a considerably lower pitch than the modern A = 440
Hz—sometimes as low as 415 Hz. This has become an
issue with the current trend of playing orchestral works
on period instruments, which supposedly are more faithful
to the way music was heard during the composer’s
time. But this also requires the performers to tune their

You might also like