A database of pitch characteristics of musical instruments

This is a little database of the playable ranges of musical instruments. Also included is the amount of transposition between the written pitch in clef notation and the actual pitch as-played. By inference it is possible to determine what clefs are commonly used for each instrument.

Definition of the fields

IN:
Name
EL:
extreme low pitch
WL:
low pitch
WH:
high pitch
EH:
extreme high pitch
AS:
difference in semitones between the pitch as-written in clef notation and the actual pitch as-played
pl:
lowest pitch
el:
extreme low pitch
cl:
low pitch
ch:
high pitch
eh:
extreme high pitch
ph:
highest pitch
All pitches are expressed as-written using the ABC notation implied by the graphics included in the document on proposed extended clef notation for abc. Some instruments were historically notated in a different clef with different pitch offset; this database includes only the modern notation. The redundant notation about the ranges is a result of combining information from multiple sources.

The database itself

Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org>

1997-12-08