I've got a question for any of you musicians out there. When writing a conductor's score, do you transpose for the different instruments, or leave them all in the concert pitch? Can it go either way? I printed out a 44 page score before thinking about this... I need to know if I have to go back and transpose some of the staves for their respective pitches (like trumpet, clarinet, etc.)

Also- does anyone know the range of the viollin, cello, and viola? What clef does the viola use, alto?

Grazie!

You print them out in their native pitch usally, Trumpet transposed to Bb, etc... The conductors score has them all transposed differently, from my experience.

Bloody, that's what I was afraid of. Need to get some more paper then.

Do you by chance know if violas and violins and cellos are all C instruments, or if soem of them also need to be transposed?

I know the violon is a C instrument, I don't know if they all are though. Cellos, my guess is that they would be a C instrument, but would play in bass clef. But I'm not a reference.

In almost all cases, the various parts are transposed on the score. However, I do know that there are some that are written in concert pitches.

Violins, violas and cellos are all C instruments.

Violins are written in treble clef. Their bottom note is the G below middle C, and their top note is squeaky high.

Viola is generally written in alto clef, until you go above about the E an octave and a bit above middle C. Then you can switch to the treble clef, although too much of this and we whinge (I'm a viola player. The Violas bottom note is the C below middle C. You can go quite high on a viola too, but it starts sounding odd if you get too far up.

Cellos are bass clef type thingies. Their bottom note is an octave below the violas bottom note (I think). They also go as high as you are brave enough to make them go, although again, it starts getting nasty when you get too high.

Hope this is of some help, and that I haven't totally missed the point of what you were asking/taked total rubbish - I'm really tired at the moment!

Not at all, you've been of much help!

Hmm.. and I even forgot we had a music discussion forum...

Cellos are really only written in bass cleff if they stay below the G above middle C. If you go higher than that, it's niver on the cellists to use tenor cleff (basically alto cleff, except centered on the second line from the top, instead of the middle one) or treble cleff. [Edit: that is, if they're up there for long periods of time. If it's just one or two notes, it's no big deal]

And like EralC said, our lowest note is two ledger lines below the staff in bass clef, and we have no upper limit. =D

All string instruments are C instruments, although double basses are written an octave higher than they sound.

I'll just reconfirm what other people said about conductors' scores usually being transposed.

Thank you all very much. I hope that this is the absolute final copy of the Bloodwing Overture. I shall now plan on spending tomorrow double-sided printing it. dropped it to 38 pages by lowering it to size 11 font. Woo!