Attempted spec for low-C bass clarinet diagrams

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

On 02/07/2013 02:26 PM, Wim van Dommelen wrote:
> The "clarinet-with-low-gis", "bass-clarinet" and "low-bass-clarinet" will then
> be "intermediate" stencils, but otherwise complete and callable from the
> outside, which is fine for example for writing down a specific thing in the high
> registers or a special effect in a general fashion. The generic stencil for the
> bass-clarinet" will suit the Buffet Crampon and Selmer current top-models to
> low-ees and will do for specific notations in the high register for all of them.
> All the key variations are in the low range as far as I know.

So, I thought I'd have a go at preparing a tentative spec that may handle most 
of these issues.

This spec is based on the following assumptions.

     (i) Historically, most low-C bass clarinets used 4 thumb keys for low
         ees, d, cis, c, with no assumptions being possible about little finger
         keys.

    (ii) The 2 main modern models have the following keys:

           * lh little-finger low gis and low d.

           * rh little-finger low ees (bottom row of keys) and cis (top row).

           * rh thumb low d, cis and c (Buffet and Selmer).

           * rh thumb low ees (Selmer only).

   (iii) The diagrams need to support both a pictorial mode and a key-name mode.

    (iv) The key-name mode should to the greatest possible degree generalize to
         other bass clarinet models (we can't really have a generalized
         pictorial mode).

So, the spec would be roughly as follows:

   * Key names should follow the following convention: fis, cis, gis and not
     ges, des or aes; bes, ees and not ais, dis.  The same convention should
     be followed for the names that appear in key-name mode (i.e. F# not Gb,
     etc.).
        [... note that this should apply to _all_ clarinet fingering diagrams,
         not just bass clarinet!]

   * The default bass clarinet diagram should follow the Selmer Privilege model,
     i.e. with lh little-finger low gis and d; rh little finger low ees and cis;
     rh thumb low ees, d, cis, c.

   * An alternative model would lack the rh thumb ees.  This might be achieved
     by an option: thumb-ees = ##f, rather than via a whole new diagram.
     Pictorially, the thumb keys would reflect the Buffet layout.

   * In key-name mode, lh and rh little finger key names should be written in
     their usual place, i.e. one would write

                                     o
                                   o o
                                     o
                                     -
                                     o G#
                                     o
                                     o

     ... for the lh little-finger low gis, or

                                     o
                                   o o
                                     o
                                     -
                                     o
                                     o
                                     o
                                  Eb

     ... for the rh little finger low ees.

   * Thumb keys should be written in a special thumb key location, e.g.

                                     o              o
                                   o o            o o
                                     o              o
                              _____  -        _____ -
                               Eb |  o         C# | o
                                     o              o
                                     o              o

     ... this should be checked against references (e.g. Harry Spaarnay's book).

   * Some possibilities:

        -- make lh low gis an option (lh-low-gis = ##t or ##f).

        -- make lh low d an option (lh-low-d = ##t or ##f).

        -- make rh low cis an option (rh-low-cis = ##t or ##f).

     ... which might be useful in allowing customization of key diagrams,
     including other extended members of the clarinet family.

With all of this taken together, we should have a low-C bass clarinet diagram 
setup that:

    (i) supports pictorial diagrams for both of the main modern bass clarinet
        models;

   (ii) supports key-name diagrams which work for both of the modern bass
        clarinet models and also work well as generalized bass clarinet
        fingering indicators.

Let me know what you think of the above.  It may be possible to generalize this 
to make a more general extended clarinet diagram spec.