Clefs in early music

[probertson167]

I edit early music. I setup my score using the clefs indicated in the source eg Soprano clef, Alto clef Tenor clef etc.
When I come to edit my score for modern use by updating the clefs there are no issues with Alto and Soprano clefs but Tenor clefs refuse to rewrite correctly into the Octava Treble clef they appear an octave lower. I haven’t found a way around this as yet. Any help would be appreciated.

[Vadian]

There are two different settings, they interfere with each other:

The “instrument” itself

And the clef Notation Option

[benwiggy]

The epic saga is recorded here:

Choir: Odd Tenor playback behavior

Gather round, and I will sing you the Ballad of the Tenors. The early versions of Dorico treated the Tenor as a transposing instrument, like a Contrabass, or a Piccolo – where the octave transposition is implied, but not explicitly stated. (There are, after all, plenty of scores where the Tenor part just has a standard G clef with no 8.) Octave clefs were “cosmetic”, in that they didn’t affect the pitch: that was done in the instrument definition itself. (I believe Sibelius works the same way.…

[probertson167]

Thank you so much Stefan for such a speedy response! I thought I was missing something, and I was!!! So much to learn about Dorico.

[probertson167]

Thank you Ben for another quick response. This must be amongst the most responsive forums on the web!!!

[sbloch1964]

Thanks for the storytelling. I’ve been frustrated by octava clefs – I switch something from treble-clef to treble-clef-octava-basso, the notes stay in the same place, and they playback at the same pitch as before, as though the octava had made no difference whatsoever. I had noticed that the “tenor voice” instrument had a “sounds an octave lower than written” option, but no other instrument seems to have that. It never would have occurred to me to look under “notation options” for another way to do this, and I still find it very weird that “ignore octave indicator” is the default behavior. But I learned something today, so it’s all good…