Range (music) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_(music)

Range (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from

the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice,
the equivalent is vocal range. The range of a musical part is the
distance between its lowest and highest note.
The terms sounding range, written range, designated range,
duration range and dynamic range have specific meanings.
Written range of a Saxophone.
The sounding range[1] refers to the pitches produced by an
instrument, while the written range[1] refers to the compass
(span) of notes written in the sheet music, where the part is sometimes transposed for convenience.
A piccolo, for example, typically has a sounding range one octave higher than its written range.[2]
The designated range is the set of notes the player should or can achieve while playing. All
instruments have a designated range, and all pitched instruments have a playing range. Timbre,
dynamics, and duration ranges are interrelated and one may achieve registral range at the expense
of timbre. The designated range is thus the range in which a player is expected to have comfortable
control of all aspects.

The duration range is the difference between the shortest and longest rhythm used. Dynamic
range is the difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part or piece of
music.
Although woodwind instruments and string instruments have no theoretical upper limit to their
range (subject to practical limits), they generally cannot go below their designated range. Brass
instruments, on the other hand, can play beyond their designated ranges. Notes lower than the brass
instrument's designated range are called pedal tones. The playing range of a brass instrument
depends on both the technical limitations of the instrument and the skill of the player.
Classical arrangements seldom make woodwind or brass instruments play beyond their designed
range. String musicians play the bottom of their ranges very frequently, but the top of a string
instrument's range is rather fuzzy, and it is unusual for a string player to exceed the designated
range. It is quite rare for wind musicians to play the extremes of their instruments. The most
common exception is that in many 20th century works, pedal tones are called for in bass
trombones.
This chart uses standard numberings for octaves where middle C corresponds to C4. In the MIDI
language middle C is simply referred to as 'Middle C', which is MIDI note number 60.
The lowest note that a pipe organ can sound (with a true pipe) is C-1 (or CCCC), which is 8 Hz, not
visible on this chart. However, if acoustic combination (a note and its fifth) counts, the lowest note
is C-2 (or CCCCC), which is 4 Hz.

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Typical ranges

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*This chart only displays down to C0, though some pipe organs, such as the Boardwalk Hall
Auditorium Organ, extend down to C1 (one octave below C0). Also, the fundamental frequency
of subcontrabass tuba is B1,

See also
Tessitura
Extension (music)

Notes
1. "Music theory online : musical instrument ranges & names", Brian Blood, Dolmetsch.com, 2009,
webpage: Dolmetsch-M29 (http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory29.htm).
2. http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory29.htm

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Categories: Music performance Pitch (music)
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