Well, just to make sure, what clef does the contrabass clarinet (B-flat) play in? Several sources tell me treble, but that sounds a little strange...

What I mean to say is, if you have a contrabass clarinet part, what would the clef/range be? Thanks for advance for your help. I just want to confirm this from somebody who actually knows for sure.

They're right, it's treble. But it's a transposing instrument that sounds a 2 octaves and a major second lower than written.

It IS in Treble Clef... What happens is that (at least, most are) tuned 2 octaves below the Bb Soprano Clarinet (the beginner clarinet)... but it is still notated the same way ;) . This is so that one that had played Bb Clarinet before does not have to learn many fingerings, as, for example, when I switched from Bb Clarinet to Bass Clarinet, the fingerings were almost the same, except for some extensions. It's notated as if you were playing a Bb. Not many clarinet players (except if they started reading bass clef before treble) are used to see bass clef as the clef for REALLY low notes.

Example.... The lowest note on a Bb Clarinet is an E (Concert Pitched D). If you had to slur from a really high note (Example: Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, requires that you slur from an A (3 above 3rd space E, Concert Pitched: G) to the E (the lowest note on the Clarinet). It would be hard to see the clefs alternating like crazy, because obviously, when you're playing clarinet, you're not playing Piano ;) .

THE MAIN REASON IS: Not many Clarinet players are used to bass clef ;) .

@_@ Sorry for the REALLY long explanation.

Ha ha, thanks for clearing that up. Because I was really confused when Sibelius translated the full score, and the contrabass clarinet part was like, 10 leger lines above the base clef...