This is where knowing about transposing recorders becomes important. Both the soprano and bass recorders, as well as the sopranino and great bass, sound an octave above the pitches that are written, while the alto and tenor, as well as the contra bass, sound the pitch written. There are times, however, when this is not the case, particularly with the alto, where we find it necessary to read that line an octave higher, or “alto-up.”
Such a situation would occur with the formatting explained in
fig. 2
, example 2. Knowing the transpositions of the instruments and the clefs will clearly help us know the proper octave to play. This example would be a format where we’d either play the alto up an octave, or perhaps the range would be such that a second soprano would be desirable.
The examples in
fig. 2
have the instruments identified, but there are many publications on the market, and in our libraries, where this is not the case. In some editions, the alto line being written well below the instrument’s range is an accurate indicator that it would need to be played an octave higher, rather than given to an instrument of lower pitch.
There is no standard format of clefs for the SATB recorder quartet. One particular oddity I’ve seen is the bass recorder written at pitch in the Treble Clef; unusual, but it actually works quite well. Example 1 of
fig. 2
is an illustration of what I would consider the preferred format, and this is fairly recent in concept. As you can see, the use of transposing clefs removes any ambiguity as far as pitch is concerned.
Because there is no universal standard, the formatting of clefs can, and does, vary with composers, arrangers, publishers, and dates of publication. Formatting may also differ in music from one period to another, especially when reading scores arranged for instruments other than recorders. Our understanding of clefs and transposition can help us select the ideal instrumentation to play any musical composition with pitch accuracy.
