key transposition

• Apr 19, 2022 - 16:05

Hi all,
I am trying to write a flute part for an arrangement I have bought. After 104 bars the key goes from Bbmajor to Bmajor. Musescore has transposed all the instrumental parts but in the original the Bb instruments have been transposed to 5 flats rather than the 7 sharps Musescore wishes to allocate.
I would appreciate someone explaining how I can achieve the 5 flats rather than the 7 sharps in the affected instruments (tenor sax and trumpet).
Thank you


Comments

In reply to by Raymond Wicquart

It's a transposing instrument in Bb sounding a tone lower than written (or written a tone higher than sounding). B concert (sounding) transposes up a tone to (written) C# which has Db as an enharmonic equivalent.

And to answer the original question see https://musescore.org/en/node/260491 or more specifically, right click on the stave and in Staff/Part Properties select flats from the "Prefer sharps or flats for transposed key signatures" dropdown.

In reply to by Raymond Wicquart

Hi Raymond
my Bb instrumentalists would prefer to read 5 flats rather than 7 sharps. That was why I was trying to find a way of overriding Musescore's key signature. But in this piece I might run into further problems as 8 bars after that change the Bb instruments then change key again from Db to D major. I'm wondering what will happen when I get there!

In reply to by onscuba

Try it and see!

The preference for flats and sharps only makes sense and has an effect in the 5 or 6 or 7 flat/sharp cases. Other cases would require double flats or sharps in the enharmonic transposed key signatures and Musescore knows that they shouldn't be used. D major for Bb instruments should remain 2 sharps rather than E double flat major with 10 flats (if I counted right).

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