Re: Re: Transposition Aids


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on August 23, 2000 at 21:13:24:

In Reply to: Re: Transposition Aids posted by Doug on August 23, 2000 at 20:53:53:

The answer to your question is because of the way brass instruments developed. For example, early trumpets had no valves. So they had a limited number of notes they could play (the harmonic progression). The composer would write, for example, "trumpet in A", and the player would know to bring his A trumpet to perform this piece. Later, instrument manufacturers developed a slide switching technique which allowed players to swap out the main tuning slide, or "crook", to put their instrument into any key desired. The player would bring the crooks for his instrument to the gig and switch them, even in the middle of a piece, as the composer indicated. This is why modern trumpet parts sometimes switch transpositions in the middle of the piece, and the tradition has carried on. At least that is what I was taught...


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