| Mike,
A quick reply to two of your points before shutting down for tonight (and framing replies to J-C and 22925H, which I hope to start tomorrow).
I teach transposition skills (and note that we are in a new world of Finale/Sibelius literacy now) for two reasons: 1.) the one that you suggest. Professional musicians have the literacy to get it right the first time, and are often engaged as such due to limited rehearsal time. This is even more evident in a commercial call/jingle when the composer (often conducting) (poorly) suggests "that was great, but let's try it up a third, shall we?"
Of equal importance (at least to me) is that 2.) transposition teaches us to split our attention into two parts; attention to the notes we are playing as well as how they sound. This may sound obvious, but it's vitally important to be able to multi-task -- concentrating on the information around you while sounding good yourself. More on this later, I'm sure.
Most North American orchestras favor the C trumpet in the orchestra due to playing in larger halls than most of their European counterparts (much to the detriment of the music and total experience, in my opinion). Each generation of "modern" instruments has gotten louder than, say, their Wiener counterpart, resulting in an upward sonic spiral of sorts.
That said, I had the great honor of teaching at the St. Petersburg Conservatory for two weeks back in the early 90s, and the Philharmonic (formerly Mravinsky's Leningraders) absolutely blew the doors off the back wall on their Bbs. So.............perhaps we're wrong over here?
I played a Yamaha C, a Lechner C, and a Monke Bb in Rotterdam. I suppose this shows that I didn't know where the hell I was (still don't).
Cheers,
EC |