Bass clarinet typically reads treble clef a major ninth higher than written, however it’s useful for it to be in bass clef when writing in concert pitch. The instrument definition is such that “non-transposing layouts” are set to bass clef, however I can only get one or the other. If I set it to treble clef, it’s treble clef for both concert pitch and transposed. How do I set this up to be so that when i switch to concert pitch it’s in bass clef and when it’s a transposed score that it’s in treble clef (and frankly, why is this not the default???)?
It works fine for me. Can you upload your project?
This has come up a number of times. If you do not want to upload your project, you can search here at the forum, you might find the information you need.
Here you go
Sky-Tinted Water V78.dorico (2.0 MB)
I’ve tried the three different bass clarinet instruments and I’ve tried the clef overrides and neither solution seems to work. I found an ok workaround that involves putting in a treble clef before the first note, several measures into the piece, but the piece still starts in bass clef, which looks unprofessional.
Ok I did end up finding a workaround, which was to put it in treble clef, then add a bass clef right before the first note, and in the properties panel set it so that the bass clef only shows up in concert pitch. Still annoyed that this isn’t the default.
Actually this is the default.
When you add a bass clarinet to your project you get this offer
which is treble clef in transposed pitch and bass clef in concert pitch.
You don’t need a workaround. The bass clarinet in your project is defined as this instrument, but there is a manual clef change at the beginning of the first movement. Delete it: Select the clef and press Delete