Reading a piece of classical music (Grade 7 abrsm practice paper 2006, pg 10); one of the many instruments in the score is a ''Klarinetten in A 1 2'' - what does the A 1 2 mean? Many thanks x

I don't have a copy of that paper sorry, I would assume that they are telling you there are 2 Clarinets in A - does it look like there are 2 parts written on the 1 stave?

That is a good point! There is only one stave, but some of the bars written for the clarinet do have two lines written out.

One melodic line tails up one line tails down on the same 1 stave would mean there are 2 clarinets

Ok I have two different lines of music on one stave, in one bar. Both the tails are downwards though

I would say that means there are 2 clarinets then - I don't think they would be playing 2 notes at once!

yeah me too! hehe! thanks for your help!

and one more thing... if a 2 is written above a bar, does that then suggest that clarinet 1 does not play that particular bar?

"a 2" or "a deux" means they both play.

Is this written anywhere in the ABRSM theory guides (either book 1 or 2) at all?

I reckon, but don't have one to hand it might be in the pink one with the list of words at the back.

Klarinetten in A means Clarinets in A, 1 2 means there are 2 of them. If you look at bar 13 and 14 (the bars you were asking about in the transposition threads you started) you'll see that some of the notes have stems down, and some have stems up. Clarinet 1 plays the notes with stems up, Clarinet 2 plays those with stems down. "a 2" means both of them play in unison (bars 9, 11 and 12), if there are two notes on the stave (bar 10) with the the stems down, one clarinet will play the bottom note, the other will play the top note.

The AB Guide to Music Theory has a Glossary at the end of part 1 which has meanings of these words - it really would be worth getting it.

Thanks for the reply jm-hamilton!! It really helped. I see now how it works!! YAY

Glad to help. Do you mind if I ask if you have a teacher for the theory or if you're doing it on your own? I ask as you seem to be having quite some difficulties with the questions on scores.

Yeah I am teaching myself for the time being. I did Grade 6 in my first year at Uni and I did really well in the exam. During the Summer months while off Uni, I'm looking at doing Grade 7 and Grade 8 theory work. I've put myself in for taking a Grade 8 exam in November too!! Since working on Grade 7 recently, I'm thinking of taking that theory grade instead of doing the Grade 8 in November, and just keep working towards the BIG 8 until I feel I'm ready for it!! I'm enjoying the work, and the challenge too. I do miss my lecturer's help, but not having a teacher has also taught me self-motivation!!! I'll be getting help with it again from September.

Hi yet again
I've worked through Grade 6 and Grade 7 theory - did Grade 7 theory in February, and now I'm working towards Grade 8. I'm doing it on my own. There are loads of resources out there, and a useful one for helping with transposition and the names of the orchestral instruments in other languages is
Dolmetsch. Scroll down quite a long way to find the names of all the orchestral instruments in German, Italian, French, English. At Grade 8 I'm coming across some musical terms I don't know and sometimes I just put the word or term into Google and see what comes up.

What a helpful website! I have added it as a fav

Good luck with the Grade 8 work