Pipe organ pedal part uses wrong clef

• Apr 16, 2024 - 00:03

The current default behavior in Musescore 4.2.1 is that, when you create a score for "pipe organ," the pedal uses a bass clef with an 8 below it. This is incorrect; organ music is never written this way. It should be a regular bass clef.

It is true that, most (not all) of the time, the pedal sounds both unison pitch (8-foot) and an octave below (16-foot) at the same time. However, it is still written with a regular bass clef.

For playback purposes, it's probably okay to leave it sounding at unison only, although you could experiment with having it sound at both unison and an octave below simultaneously, with the octave below softer than the unison.

Comments

• Sep 2, 2024 - 16:19

Hi Jojo - written, it should always be with a regular bass clef.

In real life, 90% of the time, an organist has the pedal sounding at written pitch and the octave below simultaneously. Sometimes, they have it sounding at written pitch only. Occasionally, the pedal is used to play melodies in the treble register, sounding an octave above written pitch; Bach's "Kommst du nun" from the Schübler Chorales comes to mind.

I think the best playback solution here would be to allow the user to set the pedal transposition independently of the hands. The default would be sounding an octave below written pitch, but allow the user to change it if they want.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.