Transposing instruments

Anthony C. Baines, revised by Janet K. Page

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28272
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

Instruments for which the music is not notated at the actual pitch of the sound, but is transposed
upwards or downwards by some specific musical interval. Transposition is traditionally reckoned
relative to the pitch C; an instrument ‘in C’ is non-transposing (or transposing by an exact number of
octaves), and an instrument, for example, ‘in F’, sounds F when C is notated. The intention is to
maintain the relationship between notation and execution (fingering etc.) among instruments of a
similar kind but of different pitch. The music is therefore written in a transposition whereby a player
may read it in the same manner for each instrument in the group. (See Instrumentation and
orchestration.)

1. Strings and organ.

During the Renaissance and Baroque eras, before the modern concepts of absolute pitch and a
universal standard of performing pitch had developed, some instruments – particularly harpsichords
and organs – were capable of rendering the same piece of music at two or (occasionally) more pitch
levels without altering its relation to the pattern of the keyboard (see Transposing keyboard). In one
sense these may be called transposing instruments, but not in the specific modern sense of departing
from a standard relation between notation and pitch level. Rather, their purpose was evidently to allow
the performer a choice between options of equal status, no one pitch level being deemed the ‘real’ one
by which the others were judged ‘transpositions’. Even so, on an instrument not tuned in equal
temperament this would have been, at best, a stopgap measure, as the pitch relationships at the
second level would have differed from those at the first unless (as was frequently the case) extra
strings or pipes were provided.

Transposing instruments in the common sense of the term have not been common among bowed
instruments, although the double bass sounds an octave below the written notes (in order to sound an
octave below the cello when both read from the same part). The violino piccolo, usually tuned a 4th
above the violin, is likely to have its part written a 4th below the actual sound so that the player may
read the part as though written for the normal violin (e.g. in the cantata Es ist ein grosser Gewinn by
Johann Michael Bach, Altbachisches Archiv, ii). In some music of the late 18th and 19th centuries cello
parts written in the treble clef are to be read an octave lower. On fretted instruments a Capo tasto
permits music to be transposed upwards by one or more semitones without altered fingering.

2. Woodwind.

A typical woodwind transposition is illustrated by the english horn, which is generally played by a
musician whose primary instrument is the oboe. The english horn is pitched a 5th below the oboe, so
that each fingering produces on the english horn a sound a 5th lower than that given by the same
fingering on the oboe. The english horn part is therefore notated a 5th higher than it will sound so that

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the player can read it with oboe fingering. This practice was introduced early in the 18th century but
did not become standard until later in the century. Bach, for example, wrote for the oboe da caccia (a
curved tenor oboe with an open bell) in a C clef at sounding pitch, as had been the practice with the
straight tenor oboe (taille) at the end of the 17th century (for further information on the notation of
tenor oboe parts, see Oboe, §III, 4). In some works by Bach the woodwind parts are written in a
different key from the organ part in order to allow lower-pitched woodwind instruments to play with a
higher-pitched organ; this is not strictly a matter of transposition, as neither pitch level was standard.

Clarinet transpositions are reckoned against the model of clarinet on which the fingering (in the
principal register for Classical music, i.e. the upper register) matches that of the oboe in the actual
pitches produced. This is the ‘clarinet in C’, so termed because it sounds at written pitch. The B♭
clarinet, a longer instrument, sounds a major 2nd lower when played with the same fingerings; its
music is accordingly notated a major 2nd higher than it is intended to sound. Music for the A clarinet is
written a minor 3rd higher than the sound. Clarinet parts must be headed ‘in B♭’ or ‘in A’ (etc.) so that
the player can select the correct instrument. Where there exist two instruments pitched an octave
apart, conventional nomenclature prevents ambiguity: ‘clarinet in E♭’ is understood as the small
clarinet pitched a minor 3rd above the C clarinet (the part notated a minor 3rd below the sound) while
‘alto clarinet in E♭’ denotes an instrument pitched a major 6th below the C clarinet (the part written at
this interval above the sound). The bass clarinet is normally understood as being ‘in B♭’ (or
occasionally ‘in A’), and the part is written a major 9th (or minor 10th) above the actual sound. Wagner,
however, wishing to assist the conductor by making the part look more ‘bass’, notated it an octave
lower, i.e. a major 2nd or minor 3rd above the sound, causing the parts to lie mainly in the bass clef.
Various composers have followed this practice, though it obliges the player to become accustomed to
an otherwise unfamiliar octave transposition and so interferes with the basic purpose of transposing
instruments. The basset-horn pitched in F is usually notated a 5th above the sound, but passages
involving the lowest notes are frequently written an octave lower in the bass clef (as in traditional
notation for the horn), thus appearing on paper a 4th below the actual pitch. In the late 18th century
B♭ clarinet parts were sometimes notated in the tenor clef an octave below sounding pitch; such parts
could be easily played by imagining the clef to be the treble and adjusting the key signature.

Under the influence of clarinet nomenclature (‘in B♭’ etc.) members of the oboe and flute families have
often been described in similar terms. The english horn is ‘in F’, and the non-transposing instrument of
the family, the oboe, is said to be ‘in C’. The oboe d’amore is ‘in A’ (notated a minor 3rd above the
sound); bass oboes and the bass heckelphone are ‘in (low) C’ (written an octave higher). Flute
transpositions are reckoned against the ordinary flute (usually in C): the piccolo is notated an octave
below its sound, the ‘alto flute in G’ (in some scores ‘bass flute in G’) a 4th above. The tierce flute
(Terzflöte) often found in older music, especially military, is pitched a minor 3rd above the ordinary
flute, with the parts written at this interval below the sound; it is therefore a ‘flute in E♭’, and is so
described on the Continent. In Britain, however, it was long a traditional practice to describe the
ordinary flute as ‘in D’, because in its early days D was its lowest note (similarly, the pitches of
recorders are often given in terms of the lowest actual note, with the treble recorder, which in the USA
is called ‘alto’, thus being said to be ‘in F’). By this terminology the piccolo is ‘in D’ (rather than C), and
the tierce flute is in F and in Britain called ‘F flute’. Although this did not affect the interval of
transposition when writing the parts, it can confuse score-reading of British band music. Similarly, a
semitone-transposing flute may be known as ‘in D♭’ or ‘in E♭’. The correct transposition can be found
by inspecting the whole score, except where doubt arises over the octave. This also applies to early

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18th-century scores with transposed parts for flauti piccoli etc., as in Handel’s Water Music, where
these parts are written a 4th above the violins for small recorders pitched a 5th above the treble
recorder and fingered as the latter ( ex.1).

Saxophone transpositions are similar to those of the clarinet, being reckoned against a ‘soprano
saxophone in C’. Parts for all saxophones are notated in treble clef at the interval above the actual
sound that is equal to the interval by which the instrument is pitched below the soprano ‘in C’. Thus
the ‘E♭ alto saxophone’ is written a major 6th higher; the ‘B♭ tenor’, a major 9th higher; and the ‘E♭
baritone’, an octave and a major 6th higher (with these last two a score-reader may prefer to imagine
tenor and bass clefs respectively, and adjust the key signature accordingly). Sarrusophones are treated
in the same way, apart from the ‘contrabass in C’, for which parts are written in the bass clef sounding
an octave lower (as are double-bassoon parts). Among other bassoons a few transposed parts exist for
small instruments from the 18th century (see H.J. Hedlund, ‘Ensemble Music for Small Bassoons’, GSJ,
xi, 1958, pp.78–84).

Ex.1

3. Brass.

For most brass instruments the basic convention is to write the notes of the harmonic series (in the
case of valve instruments the ‘open notes’, i.e. those produced without lowering a valve) always in the
key of C, whatever key the instrument actually sounds in. This practice arose in Germany in the 17th
century with trumpet parts (the associated timpani sounds always being correspondingly written C and
G) but became standard only during the course of the 18th (it had been used regularly from the
beginning of that century for the horn, which from the first was played in a considerable number of
tonalities). As technique on a natural brass instrument was based on producing the correct harmonics
one after another, the player required a notation that expressed harmonics rather than absolute
musical pitches. The notation fixed in C provided this and has remained in use even with valved
instruments. Two distinct schemes of C notation eventually arose: the original scheme for the trumpet
(still used with the horn), in which middle C (c′) denotes the 4th harmonic; and a later scheme, used for
bugles, cornets, modern trumpets and brass band instruments, in which middle C denotes the 2nd
harmonic. For example, in the earliest days of the B♭ valve trumpet in Germany its parts were notated
a minor 7th below the sound (written c′ sounding b♭′, the 4th harmonic); but later parts have been
notated a tone above the sound (written c′ sounding b♭, the 2nd harmonic of the same instrument).
Octave ambiguity occurs among parts in the older notation written for trumpets or horns in times
when these instruments were used with crooks that put them into the tonality required. The most
familiar case is that of horn parts from the Classical period marked simply ‘in B♭’, because this can be
understood either as ‘B♭ alto’ (sounding a major 2nd lower) or ‘B♭ basso’ (sounding a major 9th lower).

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In such instances the correct solution must be found by inspecting the tessitura of the parts (those
with many high notes probably being ‘basso’) or the score as a whole; even so the correct alternative
cannot always be decided with certainty.

For score-reading purposes, the following particulars about brass instruments may be helpful:

(i) Horn.
For parts in ‘C alto’ there is no transposition, but those in ‘C basso’ (implied by ‘in C’, unqualified)
sound an octave lower; parts in ‘B♭ alto’ sound a major 2nd lower, in ‘B♭ basso’ a major 9th lower;
those ‘in A’ sound a minor 3rd lower, and so on down to D♭ sounding a major 7th lower, except for parts
in ‘A♭ basso’ (e.g. in Verdi), which sound a major 10th lower. Traditionally, passages written in the bass
clef sound higher than written, instead of lower (e.g. c written in the bass clef sounds the same as c′
written in the treble clef etc.). There was a move during the 20th century to abolish this irrational
system and use the bass clef in continuation of the treble as in other music. But, quite apart from
tenacity of tradition, it would be impractical to reprint the existing body of horn music – scores as well
as parts – to comply. An instruction is often printed to indicate the reformed bass-clef notation;
otherwise it has to be discovered by context. Some 18th-century works use the bass clef as a visual
trick: parts for horns in E♭ (in Germany ‘ex Dis’) are notated in bass clef an octave lower than the
actual sound with the key signature of E♭, and as E♭ falls in the bass clef where C falls in the treble
clef, the player reads the part by imagining the treble clef. Similarly, D and F horn parts occasionally
appear in alto and mezzo-soprano clefs respectively (but in the correct octave), the player again
imagining the treble clef.

(ii) Trumpet.
For parts ‘in C’, there is no transposition; those ‘in B♭’ sound a major 2nd lower, ‘in A’ a minor 3rd
lower, ‘in A♭’ generally a major 3rd lower (in some early 19th-century scores, however, parts ‘in A♭’
sound a minor 6th higher through use of the older notation of harmonics). Beginning with parts ‘in G’,
trumpets (including the modern small trumpets from ‘in D’ up to ‘in G’) sound higher than written:
those ‘in G’ sound a 5th higher, and so on down to D♭ sounding a semitone higher. Parts written
expressly for A or B♭ ‘piccolo’ trumpets also sound higher.

(iii) Bass trumpet.

Parts ‘in E’ sound a minor 6th lower, and so on down to ‘in B♭’ sounding a major 9th lower (in some
early 19th-century military music, parts ‘in B♭’ sound only a major 2nd lower than notated).

(iv) Cornet.
For parts ‘in C’ there is no transposition; those ‘in B♭’ sound a major 2nd lower (as do the bugle and
flugelhorn in B♭), ‘in A’ a minor 3rd lower and so on down to ‘in E♭’ sounding a major 6th lower (as in
the fifth movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique). Parts for ‘soprano cornet’, however, sound
higher than written, so that ‘in E♭’ is a minor 3rd higher (in some early brass band compositions, ‘in E♭’
or ‘in D’ should be read higher than written, though ‘soprano’ is not stated).

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(v) Other band instruments.
Parts for the E♭ tenor horn (American ‘alto horn’), E♭ mellophone etc. sound a major 6th lower than
notated. The B♭ baritone and euphonium, when written in treble clef, sound a major 9th lower (as does
the tenor or B♭ trombone in brass band parts), but in the bass clef there is no transposition. Parts
written in the treble clef for the E♭ bass (tuba) sound an octave and a major 6th lower, and B♭
contrabass (BB♭ bass) two octaves and a major 2nd lower (see also Wagner tuba).

A number of 20th-century composers, notably Schoenberg, advocated the abolition of transposed

notations, and in scores of atonal music all the parts are often written at sounding pitch (usually with
an instruction to that effect). Clarinettists find no difficulty in reading complex parts ‘in C’, and
trumpeters are so accustomed to transposing and re-transposing (e.g. to play parts for trumpet ‘in B♭’
on C trumpets of their own choice) that writing for trumpet ‘in C’, at sounding pitch, is in many ways
the most convenient for the players. If horn parts are written at pitch, there is need for constant
shifting from the treble clef to the bass, confusing the visual flow of the part. A C clef would be apt, but
totally strange to most players. Standard notation for modern horn, therefore, continues to be ‘in F’,
sounding a 5th lower than written.

See also

Pitch, §II, 1: Non-Western and traditional concepts: Pitch standards

Tenor horn

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