Am confused - I am looking at G5 paper for 2007, paper A, Q3ciii. It ask what standard orchestral instrument could play the RH part of a passage of keyboard music given, so it sounds at the same pitch. 2 of the possible answers are clarinet and trumpet.

If I played the piano and a clarinet played the same right hand part, we certainly wouldn't sound at the same pitch - so does it mean "what instrument could play it (if it was transposed) and sound at the same pitch - ie: is the question more to do with knowing the range that standard orchestral instruments can play ? It's the "sounds at the same pitch" that is confusing me.

Hi keentoteach (great nickname btw...)

I assume that when they say 'sounds at the same pitch' they intend that to mean at concert pitch (as sounding, not as written if transposed for clarinet), so you would need to bear in mind the range of the clarinet when considering that as your answer, and compare it with the notes as they appear on the page.

If the right hand part in question is pretty much 'sitting on the stave' (i.e. few or no ledger lines) it's playable by either trumpet or clarinet ...

denmark

If you have a look at this thread, it already answers the question (although the title of the thread is a little bit misleading). http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=39366

You say two of the possible answers are trumpet and clarinet - what are the other possible answers? I think this question is looking for a non-transposing instrument. one that will play the notes as written in the extract and the same note as the piano plays will come out.

I have the question in front of me and it says "Name a standard orchestral instrument that could play the right-hand part of bars 1-6 so that it sounds at the same pitch and name the family to which it belongs."

You'd be pretty safe with violin, flute or oboe. Where do you get clarinet or trumpet from?

This sounds like the question I recently discussed with my piano teacher.
I remember telling her that clarinet was fine as the answer (don't remember trumpet as one of the choices).
I don't think you need to get too bogged down with the transposing instrument thing here.
Yes, it would have to read a tone higher to play at the given pitch as you pointed out.

Sorry I didnt explain - clarinet and trumpet are two of the acceptable answer options, in the answer booklet that goes with the paper.


Clarinet and trumpet are two of the acceptable answers in the answers booklet.


Yes, that is how I had interpreted it - but clarinet and trumpet are acceptable answers in the answers booklet.

Easy to interpret that as meaning that transposing instruments would not be acceptable. They ought to use musicians as proof checkers; I think I would have picked that up as ambiguous.

Of course, to be on the safe side, you could answer "Clarinet in C" (Schubert and, IIRC, Beethoven used it) or "Trumpet in C".

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter whether it's a transposing instrument or not. It just means any intrument that can play the melody, at that sounding pitch. So trumpet, clarinet, flute, violin or oboe would probably all be fine, as long as it stays pretty much on the treble clef stave. No need to make it more complicated than it is.