IWBNI in addition to the existing diatonically and chromatically radio buttons on the Transposition Dialog box there were another button that might be called simple chromatically that would cause the interval list box to contain the following options:

minor second
major second
minor third
major third
perfect fourth
tritone
perfect fifth
minor sixth
major sixth
minor seventh
major seventh
octave

These are the simplest names for the 12 possible interval sizes. And, this list box could display all 12 items at once so that no scrolling would be needed to find the desired interval.

Much contemporary music is not in any particular key. So, (at least during the compositional process) one wouldn't care if a transposition of C by a tritone resulted in an F# or Gb. For many, what would be more important is the melodic intervals between this note and the previous notes and any harmonic intervals between this note and other simultaneous notes. One might prefer the choice (F# or Gb) that resulted in the simplest intervals. For example, if the note were preceded by E, one might want F# (yielding a melodic interval of a major second vs. a diminished third). If the note were preceded by Eb, one might want Gb (yielding a melodic interval of a minor third vs. an augmented second).

In Finale, such note-spelling edits may be accomplished after transposing, by using the respell notes
utility (using default spellings). Then, one can manually scan the part for any intervals that need to be spelled differently based upon one's preferences for spelling notes.

There is no question of the usefulness of the intervals that are currently available for the chromatic case. But, for some, it would be more efficient to be able to select from a third (shorter) list (called simple chromatic) in addition to diatonic and chromatic that contains a list of the simplest/common names for each of the possible intervals as measured by step size. That is, there would be only one choice for each step size.

Created: February 16, 1999
Last Updated: November 25, 1999
Version: Finale 2000b