WebFacts 1
Why do we have B trumpets and clarinets and F horns? The makers of those
instruments in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries discovered that making the "tube" of the
instruments a certain length produced a particularly good sound. For trumpets, the best length
resulted in the B trumpet, and for horns, the F horn.
Brass and wind instruments evolved in design during the nineteenth century, and
transposing parts were needed to allow them to play all the chromatic pitches in their range.
However, even on modern brass and wind instruments, some keys sound better than others or are
easier to play. This is true also of string instruments (violins, violas, and cellos)-they can play
in any key, but, because of the arrangement of the strings, keys with sharps in their signatures are
the easiest to finger. (Have you ever noticed that band music is often written in keys with flats in
the signature, while string orchestra music is often notated in keys with sharps?) Sharp keys also
use open (unstopped) strings, which have a different timbre.
Because saxophones are made in E and B (some also transposing an octave), a player
may use the same fingerings to play in bass, baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano ranges while
always reading in a familiar treble clef-the music is transposed to fit the fingerings rather than
changing the fingering to fit the range of notes. Professional clarinetists who play in orchestras
will own an A clarinet as well as the more common B-it sounds better and is easier to play in
the sharp keys that are preferred by the string instruments.
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