Re: Instrument line in header block - first piece only?

[Tim Reeves]

> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:05:18 +0100
> From: David Kastrup <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Instrument line in header block - first piece only?
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain
> 
> Brent Annable <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > Actually, now that I think about it, the default 'instrument' line
> > behaviour in the header seems a little odd to me. Does the instrument
> > really need to be so demonstratively announced between movements or
> > pieces if they are all part of the same document?
> 
> It is common for wind instrument players to have to switch instruments
> between parts.
> 
> -- 
> David Kastrup

It might be somewhat common for wind musicians to switch instruments 
during the course of a multi-movement work, or even during a movement, but 
it is not common to notate which instrument to play (apart from the top of 
the page) UNTIL one has to change.
I'm a horn player, so I'm not switching physical instruments except by my 
own choice (and I don't), but we frequently have different transpositions 
(which correspond to switching horns or crooks back in the old days) 
within a work, and I can assure you that the normal practice is to 
*assume* horn in F, until told otherwise. Clarinet players switch actual 
instruments more than anyone I'd say, and I don't play clarinet, so I 
can't speak to that, but I have a feeling that they likewise assume B-flat 
until they are told something else.

Tim Reeves