Your score and proper Cleffs?

[Styxx]

Who can give me a run down of proper clefs for a score for full orchestra?
No biggies, just curious as to how many discrepancies emerge. ;)

[DZComposer]

I think the Bass Clarinet is written in Treble clef. Though I am not entirely sure about that.

I know a Bass Clarinet player. I'll ask him to be sure.

[gugliel]

treble treble treble bass treble treble treble bass bass percussion bass treble treble alto bass bass

[Jeff Turner]

For a transposed score:

Treble clef: Flutes, Piccolo Oboes, English Horn, Clarinets, (incl. Bass Clarinet), F Horns, Trumpets, Orch. Bells, Glock, Violins

Alto clef: Viola

Bass Clef: Bassoons, Trombones, Tuba, Celli, Basses

Tenor Clef is also used for Bassoons, Trombones, Celli

Viola & Celli can be written in treble clef for their high register

I think that covers the basics.
JT

[BlueMax]

The real trick is that while we all probably write our music in concert pitch, the individual parts need to be transposed for each instrument.

The brass family (I know little about strings in this regard) has all kinds of changes... in Bb concert, flutes and low brass are all concert-pitch, but trumpets are in C, clarinets in something else, french horn (or german horn as the french call it.. not to be confused with the cor englais!) is doing something completely weird.

Thank goodness there's notation software that will automatically re-write your score from concert to what the musician expects to see in order to play what you've written. ;)

[FredProgGH]

And basses are written an octave above pitch played... that's all I know!! :p

[DPDAN]

And basses are written an octave above pitch played... that's all I know!! :p
WOW! after reading that I think I'm actually glad I do everything by ear and don't have to worry about none of that stuff,, sounds like too many different unions :)

[Styxx]

http://www.orchestralibrary.com/reftables/rang.html and all that jive cosmic debris! ;)

[Christopher Duncan]

Thank goodness there's notation software that will automatically re-write your score from concert to what the musician expects to see in order to play what you've written. ;)
Yeah, no doubt! I have not so fond memories of arranging for bands in high school, painstakingly transposing for each instrument with my little homemade transposition wheel. Yuck!

[Joseph Burrell]

You should hear these post zip over my head. Styxx, you can guarantee some emails will be flying your way from me tonight. This is getting a little too technical for a music noob like me.

[KevinKauai]

"Noob" or "newbie" or not, I hear that there is a trend developing called a "C Score" in which neither key signatures nor clefs other than Treble and Bass are used (with obvious and non-obvious 8va extensions).

Frankly, my addled brain is embracing this as it just simplifies things (not to mention that I have trouble transposing from Bb for clarinets and trumpets and, although I once played Viola, the "C" clef -- where the middle line is middle C -- never really made sense to me once I was 10 minutes away from it).

So all of the scores that I use (for interim development) and "publish" with a 'trial piece' here are constructed that way. I searched the web for references that I thought that I had previously found (including on Mike Kelly's composeforums.com) but came up dry. Perhaps someone can pipe in with an authoritative reference.

my $0.02 ... KevinKauai :)

[FredProgGH]

The whole thing with alto clef, and the transposed instruments (like trumpet) is satanic and evil and should be stamped out. :D :D
When I play in a viola to sequencer from a score I just play in the wrong key like it was a treble clef and then transpose the whole thing when I'm done. Of course, you have to remember to make the key signature right.

[Joseph Burrell]

See here's the thing...

I've got a score see, and its supposedly written in Eb. Well, theres a few of the clefs in the score that aren't shown in the key of Eb. Some are written without a key, some are in F Major. I don't know what to do by looking at it. So what's the deal with stuff like this. Why say it's in Eb when the staves aren't marked that way. It's confusing to morons like me.

[jmc]

I write almost everything in concert pitch, and transpose it at the end, just before creating parts. It's just easier visually for me to see the parts. Sometimes I will transpose piccolo or other instruments that read an octave below or above where they sound. The only consistent exception is the viola. I force myself to read and write in alto clef just because.

J.B. when the score says that a given piece is in E-flat, it refers to the concert pitch the piece is written in, and the reason why some of the instruments are in different keys is because they need their parts transposed. In order for the clarinet to produce a sounding E-flat, it would play an F. Same with the trumpet. The reason why they transpose has to do with the way the instrument is constructed and the desire to keep as consistent a fingering system as possible.