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Transposing instruments are generally families of instruments, with each family having several instruments sounding at different pitches. There are usually soprano, alto, tenor and other voices in the family of instruments. Using saxophones as the example, it is advantageous for a player to be able to change to a different instrument in the family, say alto to tenor, without learning an entirely different set of fingerings. If all of the saxes were scored in concert pitch, the Eb instruments ( alto, baritone, sopranino, and contrabass) and Bb instruments (soprano, tenor and bass) would have different fingerings. To avoid that, music for the different instruments is transposed.

When the saxophones were first patented, Adolph Sax intended for there to be two families of saxes, the Bb and and Eb family for use in military bands, and the F and C instruments for use in orchestras. The Bb and Eb instruments were extremely useful in bands and they caught on pretty quickly. The F and C instruments never caught on in orchestras, but if they had, the C instruments would have been in concert pitch (or even octaves from concert pitch).

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