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Transposition (music)

 

 
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Transposition (music)
 
 
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In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 transposition refers to the process of moving a collection of notes (pitches
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
) up or down in pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 by a constant interval
Interval (music)

In music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitch of two notes.Intervals may be described as:*vertical if the two notes sound simultaneously...
. For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key
Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row
Tone row

In music, a tone row or note row , also series and set, refers to a non-repetitive ordering of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale....
 or an unordered collection of pitches such as a chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 so that it begins on another pitch. See also Transposing instrument
Transposing instrument

A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from Pitch #Concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play....
 and modulation
Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature....
.

e are two different kinds of transposition, depending on whether one is measuring intervals according to the chromatic scale or some other scale.






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In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 transposition refers to the process of moving a collection of notes (pitches
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
) up or down in pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 by a constant interval
Interval (music)

In music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitch of two notes.Intervals may be described as:*vertical if the two notes sound simultaneously...
. For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key
Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row
Tone row

In music, a tone row or note row , also series and set, refers to a non-repetitive ordering of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale....
 or an unordered collection of pitches such as a chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 so that it begins on another pitch. See also Transposing instrument
Transposing instrument

A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from Pitch #Concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play....
 and modulation
Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature....
.

Two different types

There are two different kinds of transposition, depending on whether one is measuring intervals according to the chromatic scale or some other scale. In chromatic transposition one shifts every pitch in a collection of notes by a fixed number of semitones. For instance, if one transposes the pitches C4-E4-G4 upwards by four semitones, one obtains the pitches E4-G?4-B4. In scalar transposition one shifts every pitch in a collection by a fixed number of scale steps
Musical scale

In music, a scale is a group of musical note collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony....
 relative to some scale. For example, if one transposes the pitches C4-E4-G4 up by two steps relative to the familiar C major scale, one obtains the pitches E4-G4-B4. If one transposes the same pitches up by two steps relative to the F major scale, one obtains instead E4-G4-B?4. Scalar transposition is sometimes called diatonic transposition, but this term can be misleading, as it suggests transposition with respect to a diatonic scale. However, scalar transposition can occur with respect to any type of scale, not just the diatonic.

Sight transposition

Although transpositions are usually written out, musicians are occasionally asked to transpose music "at sight", that is, to read the music in one key while playing in another. Musicians who play transposing instrument
Transposing instrument

A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from Pitch #Concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play....
s sometimes have to do this (for example when encountering an unusual transposition, such as clarinet in C), as well as singers' accompanists, since singers sometimes request a different key than the one printed in the music to better fit their tessitura
Tessitura

In music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable Range for a given singing or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given voice type presents its best-sounding texture or timbre....
.

There are three basic techniques for teaching sight transposition: interval, clef, and numbers.

Interval

First one determines the interval between the written key and the target key. Then one imagines the notes up (or down) by the corresponding interval. A performer using this method may calculate each note individually, or group notes together (e.g. "a descending chromatic passage starting on F" might become a "descending chromatic passage starting on A" in the target key).

Clef

Clef
Clef

A clef is a musical notation used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff , it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line....
 transposition is routinely taught in Belgium and France. One imagines a different clef than the one printed so that the lines and spaces correspond to different notes. Seven clefs are used for this: treble, bass, baritone, and C-clefs on the four lowest lines; these allow any given staff position to correspond to each of the seven note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
 names A through G. The octave may also have to be adjusted, but this is a trivial matter for most musicians.

Numbers

Transposing by numbers means, one determines the scale degree
Degree (music)

In music theory, a scale degree is the name of a particular note of a scale in relation to the Tonic . The degrees of the traditional major and minor scales may be identified several ways:...
 of the written note (e.g. first, fourth, fifth, etc.) in the given key. The performer then plays the corresponding scale degree of the target key.

Transpositional equivalency

Two musical objects are transpositionally equivalent if one can be transformed into another by transposition. It is similar to enharmonic equivalence and octave equivalence. In many musical contexts, transpositionally equivalent chords are thought to be similar. Transpositional equivalence is a feature of musical set theory.

Using integer notation
Integer notation

In integer notation, or the integer model of pitch, all pitch classes and interval s between pitch classes are designated using the numbers 0 through 11....
 and modulo
Modular arithmetic

In mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" after they reach a certain value — the modulus....
 12, to transpose a pitch x by n semitones: or For pitch class
Pitch class

In music, a pitch class is a set of all Pitch that are a whole number of octaves apart, e.g. the pitch class C consists of the Cs in all octaves....
 transposition by a pitch class interval: (Rahn 1980)

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