Robin Padgham Piano Teacher

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Today is Wednesday 23 April 2025.

Oddly inconsistent:
The Cor Anglais is also known as an Alto oboe, and also rather confusingly, a Tenor oboe. It is a transposing instrument sounding a perfect fifth lower that written. You see an 'E' on the page, play an 'E' and a 'B' comes out. Consequently, the music has to be written a perfect fifth higher than it is required to sound. And that's how it is and it all works fine. Keeps the conductor on his toes but otherwise, beaming smiles all round.

What of the Viola then? It's basically a violin that sounds a perfect fifth lower than a violin. It's just the same as a Cor Anglais in that respect. But it's not a transposing instrument. It has its own clef and is written at pitch!

If the music was to be written a perfect fifth higher, using the treble clef we could all play the viola (well, all violinists, I mean) as if it was a violin, just as Cor Anglais players play the Cor Anglais as if it were an oboe.

Clef of the day:
Continuing the theme from above, we might as well cover the Alto clef.

The viola uses the alto clef and you can see the viola's part about half-way down the score (above). The clef is actually called the 'C' clef, and is only an alto clef when it is positioned on the middle line.

A versatile clef, the 'C' clef can be positioned on any line, and that line becomes middle C.

This example is from the score from "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" by J. S. Bach (BWV 140). As was common in those days, the alto clef was used for the Alto voice also. (In more modern music the treble clef is used). Notice also how the C clef is used for the tenor voice too, but placed on the fourth line instead of the third.

Instrument of the day:
Taille
Did you notice the instrument line in the score labelled 'Taille'? Did you also notice that it uses the alto clef?

The taille is also called an alto oboe and was a Baroque instrument pitched in 'F', i.e. a perfect fifth lower than written, just like the Cor Anglais that you've already read about.

In those days though, rather than treating it as a transposing instrument, it used the alto clef and was written 'at pitch', just like I said the modern day cor anglais could be today. And just like the viola still is today.

The instrument is rarely seen today, having been largely replaced by the cor anglais, but is used in Baroque ensembles where the aim is authenticity of the original sound. The taille has a rather more piercing sound than its modern counterpart.

More on clefs...:
If you are interested in the rather bewildering array of clefs available, there will be further "Clef of the day" entries on this page in the future.

Remember:
That's all for today. Don't forget to come back tomorrow!

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