In the old days, back when staff paper and especially sheet music was expen-
sive, the members of an ensemble would all work off of the same piece of
sheet music, and the individual musicians had to make the necessary trans-
positions in his or her head. These days, however, most sheet music for
ensembles is individually tailored to match the parts each musician is to play.
The burden of transposition is now carried solely by the composer/arranger,
who writes out individual pieces for each musician/instrument in the corre-
sponding pitch and key.
Pitch Ranges of Transposing Instruments ................................................
In this section we discuss some of the more commonly used transposing
instruments and how we can use them in our compositions. There are many,
many more obscure and personalized instruments out there that fit into this
transposing category as well, but we’re just going to stick to the instruments
you’re most likely to work with.
Many modern electronic keyboards take into consideration a natural instru-
ment’s range. As we mentioned, not all instruments can play all the notes
available on your standard 88-note keyboard, or even your smaller 54-note
keyboard. This wasn’t taken into consideration in some of the earlier sam-
plers and MIDI keyboards, and therefore, the synth composer was presented
with the concept of having a piccolo sounding four octaves lower than possi-
ble, or timpani percussion sounding seven octaves higher than available to
the actual instrument. Possibilities like that are exciting if you’re planning on
only composing for synthesizers, but if you’re going to be using the actual
instruments at any point, you have to be familiar with the physical range of
the instrument.
In addition, you have to keep in mind the physical capabilities of the perform-
ers you’re working with. “Fats” Waller may have been able to pound out a
chord spanning an octave-and-a-half on a regular basis, but most pianists
would have to use two hands to do what he could easily do with one.
Maynard Ferguson may have been able to blast out those upper register
notes and make it sound easy, but your average trumpet player would
probably split his or her upper lip trying to replicate his technique.
Transposing instruments are the ones you’re going to have to think out the
parts for the most when writing music, so let’s get ‘em out of the way. But
first, a word about our notation. The first C found on the very farthest left of
the keyboard is called C1, while the middle C—found three octaves higher —
is called C4. That means it’s the fourth C as you go up the keyboard. The G
below middle C is called G3. The highest note on the keyboard is B8. We use
this notation, along with illustrations, to discuss the pitch ranges of instru-
ments in this chapter.
Chapter 14: Composing for the Standard Orchestra .................................................
