I am doing a little work on a duet for flute and clarinet.
I have put it into my Finale Printmusic. If the top part is flute and in C major, the clarinet comes out in D major.
If I have the top part for flute done ,how do I write the bottom for clarinet?? Is it one note below what the flute would be if there was a second flute part instead.
If any of that makes sense, you have passed
Bev

If the flute is in C major, the clarinet part will be written in D major, and each note will be written a whole tone above how it's meant to sound.

Assuming it's a Bb clarinet then it needs to be written a tone above what the 2nd flute part would have been. Bb clarinets sound a tone below what's written so if it plays a C it will sound like a Bb, and to get a concert A a Bb clarinet needs to play a B.

Hope that makes sense. If not I'll try again when I'm less tired.

Do you actually need to transpose it? Some players can easily transpose at sight, which i do if I'm playing non clarinet music on my clari.

For a Bb instrument like clarinet, if the music says C the sound produced will be Bb. To transpose a melody for Bb clarinet, you put everything up a tone.

Therefore for your duet, if the flute is playing say C and you want the note a third down for the clarinet (i.e. A), you would need to write a B for the clarinet part. In general, the clarinet part will be written in the key two sharps higher e.g. C in flute (no sharps), D in clarinet (2 sharps); F in flute (1 flat), G in clarinet (1 sharp).

Sorry - just seen that others have posted before me. I'd second what Flossie says about transposing at sight; most players get used to this. A lot of orchestral music is written for C clarinet, which very few people own, so clarinettists have to learn to transpose for that anyway.

I don't think the person would be transposing at sight at the moment.
I got mixed up and thought it would be one note lower because the C flute and Bb clarinet, but now I see it's one note up. That all makes sense now. Thanks everyone.
Bev

That seems slightly odd - as others have said, you'd expect a simple transposition to come out as D Major.

However, I'm not sure but it might be better to have the clarinet part lower (eg an octave lower), rather than a simple transposition at the same octave of the flute part Can anyone else advise on this?




Very much depends on the clarinettist And whilst I can transpose some vocal music at sight if I'm at home, albeit quite slowly, and ensemble players might do it because it matters less if they miss a bar or get the wrong note, I suspect it might be a lot more challenging if a player was having to do as part of a duet under pressure in a concert Gulp....



Edit: ah, I see you've just posted Bev!