Instruments Ended Up in a Bad Key After Transposition
I've run into a bit of a problem: While writing for a Marching Band, in A Major Concert Pitch, I finally turned off Concert Pitch to find that my Alto/Baritone Saxophones ended up in Gb Major.
This gives them 6 flats in the Key Signature, when in reality NONE of what they play is flat. So with a Key of Gb all of there notes, 6 out of 7 times, has a sharp or a natural in front.
I've had a similar problem before on a much smaller project, and I think I came up with a solution; however, this project is pretty big, so I would like to cover all my bases. What I had done before was go through the part and change all of the sharps and naturals to enharmonic flats. I'm assuming this wouldn't affect anything because they are enharmonic notes. Another option (I think) might be to change the key signature itself (after transposition); however, I fear that might throw off the whole transposition itself.
P.S. The transposition also gave the Trumpets and Clarinets 5 sharps (B Major). I've heard that most instrumentalist do not like sharps. Would there be a way to fix this, i.e. my last idea in the first paragraph, or should I leave it be and the instrumentalist will simply have to tough it out?
Thank You,
Morgan Resendes
Comments
I find MuseScore to be counter-intuitive here, but you need to create your score with Concert Pitch ON. This way you enter everything in the same key and don't worry about transposing instruments. When you turn Concert Pitch OFF the transposing instruments reveal themselves in their expectd keys.
It is rather clever once you've got your head round it.
To sort your score out you have the task of transposing everything appropriately so it looks ok. Can't help there: my head would explode!
If you wrote the piece in A Major (Concert Pitch) then YOU gave the (Bb) clarinets the 5 sharps since they need to play in B Major to match Concert A Major. If you want your clarinets and Bb trumpets, tuba's etc, to play in A then create an empty score, turn Concert Pitch on and set the key signature for EVERYONE to G Major. If you want the clarinets to play in F, create an empty score, set the key signature to Eb for everyone etc.
BTW the trumpets would probably cope with 5 sharps just by holding down valves 2 and 3 and wiggling the first valve up and down a bit. They may even hit a few correct notes.
Post the score and see if people here can help.
My first question, in a nutshell, was: Can I change "sharped" and "natural-ed" notes to their enharmonic, flat counterparts and still be readable and sound okay?
About the Clarinets and Trumpets: I realize it was ME who gave them 5 sharps, because that's the key Bb instruments need to be in to play in A Major. I'm fine with them not being in A Major after transposition. I understand why that is.
My second question was: Should I leave the 5 sharps or should I attempt to fix them in a similar way to my first question?
In reply to I Don't Think You Guys Understand My Problem... by MResendes
When a transposition leaves lots of messy accidentals you can, of course, change to an enharmonic equivalent. Sometimes it's as easy as selecting everything and pressing the Up arrow once and then the Down arrow (or vice versa).
Personally, I'd think about transposing everything up a semitone and having the Bb instruments play in C, the Flutes etc. in Bb, the Alto and Baritone Saxes in A, the F horns in F. Except for the "Adiemus" bit where the key changes around measure 61.
In reply to I Don't Think You Guys Understand My Problem... by MResendes
My first advice would be to simply transpose the whole piece to either Ab or Bb. It is very unlikely to be played well in the current key.
But assuming for whatever reason you decide to leave it in the treble-for-marching-band key of A, you have no choice but to let the the Bb instruments be in B. People might not like that many sharps, but I guarantee they like loads of Cb's and Fb's even less.
The parts for the Eb instruments you *could* leave in Gb (after fixing the accidentals by selecting all, up arrow, then down arrow to force everything to respell with flats). It probably wouldn't be much worse than moving it t F#. But it is probably better to move it to F#. Do that by simply dragging the F# key signature onto the staff. Do this after you are all done fiddling with the concert pitch button or you'll have to do it again.
In reply to I Don't Think You Guys Understand My Problem... by MResendes
Alright. I believe I have received solutions to my problems; and several solutions at that. I think I'll just try them all and see which one I like best.
Thank you all for your help.