Siegmund
Well-known member
In Russian sheet music, it is very common to see RH parts that use the bassoon/bandoneon/organ registers marked 8va alta, even if they lie in a fairly normal middle-of-the-staff range. Somewhat less commonly, the piccolo register marked 8va bassa.
This is a distinctly different usage from the usual reason for 8va marks, reducing ledger lines on extremely high and extremely low parts.
It usually stays in effect for the entire time a given register is in use. It will be cancelled when the register changes, with e.g. a violin or clarinet register indication and 'loco'.
They do this for a semi-sensible reason: your ear hears the lowest active as "the note being played" and the higher reeds as overtones added to it. They use this notation so that the written part indicates how the melody will sound, rather than telling you how to play it. In effect, they temporarily write for the accordion as a transposing instrument like bass clarinet.
As a composer and as a listener, I find this sort of appealing - it makes it easier to think about how the music sounds. As a player... I find it a mild inconvenience. And I don't seem to see it done in Western sheet music, only in music printed in Russia or the DDR.
Good or bad idea? Should a modern composer, or modern re-typesetter of older music, do this or not?
(For anyone who hasn't run into this notation: attached is the first page of Zolotarev's Children's Suite No. 1. Watch the first minute of this youtube clip, and see how he plays the opening and how his hand moves downward after the register switch at 0:35. If you watch other clips of the same piece, you'll see other performers opt to play it an octave lower in clarinet register. Yes, this particular passage lies high enough that 8va alta makes sense on its own merits if you insist on bassoon register - many other examples don't.)
This is a distinctly different usage from the usual reason for 8va marks, reducing ledger lines on extremely high and extremely low parts.
It usually stays in effect for the entire time a given register is in use. It will be cancelled when the register changes, with e.g. a violin or clarinet register indication and 'loco'.
They do this for a semi-sensible reason: your ear hears the lowest active as "the note being played" and the higher reeds as overtones added to it. They use this notation so that the written part indicates how the melody will sound, rather than telling you how to play it. In effect, they temporarily write for the accordion as a transposing instrument like bass clarinet.
As a composer and as a listener, I find this sort of appealing - it makes it easier to think about how the music sounds. As a player... I find it a mild inconvenience. And I don't seem to see it done in Western sheet music, only in music printed in Russia or the DDR.
Good or bad idea? Should a modern composer, or modern re-typesetter of older music, do this or not?
(For anyone who hasn't run into this notation: attached is the first page of Zolotarev's Children's Suite No. 1. Watch the first minute of this youtube clip, and see how he plays the opening and how his hand moves downward after the register switch at 0:35. If you watch other clips of the same piece, you'll see other performers opt to play it an octave lower in clarinet register. Yes, this particular passage lies high enough that 8va alta makes sense on its own merits if you insist on bassoon register - many other examples don't.)
