# Old Hundredth: Soprano key options

## Title and instrumentation

**Old Hundredth** (Genevan Psalter, 1551), in your four-part SATB choir setting.
Only the **Soprano** line was checked, against your singer's comfortable sounding range of **A3 to C5**.

## Duration and form

Your setting is 8 bars of 4/4 in G major: 32 quarter notes in the Soprano, in four two-bar phrases. No tempo is marked, so no timing is given. Nothing about the form, length or notes was changed.

## Difficulty and playability notes

- Each of the four options keeps every Soprano note within A3–C5:
  - **D major:** A3–A4
  - **E♭ major:** B♭3–B♭4
  - **E major:** B3–B4
  - **F major:** C4–C5
- In every option the lowest note falls in bar 2, beat 1, and the highest in bar 7, beat 1. Each occurs once.
- The check covers the lowest and highest notes only. It does not measure how long the line stays near either edge of the range, breathing, or vowels. In your original the line spends most of its time on G4, A4 and B4 (24 of its 32 notes). Those three notes shift down with each option.
- The Alto, Tenor and Bass were not checked, so these options say nothing about whether those voices sit well in the new keys.

## Performance notes

No music was written or changed in this delivery, so there are no new performance markings. When you choose a key, name it (for example "E♭ major" or "down a major third") in your next request.

## What was done and what was not

Task: existing music with only the requested changes. Old Hundredth. The requested work was a check of the source; the music itself is unchanged.

**Done**
- Read your MusicXML in full, with no notation lost.
- Confirmed that the Soprano is a single, unambiguous voice at concert pitch, with written notes equal to sounding notes.
- Confirmed the source key: one sharp, read as G major by two separate key-finding methods with no rival reading.
- Searched every spelled transposition up to 6 semitones up or down for the Soprano's full set of notes (D4 to D5).
- Found ten fitting spellings, all 2 to 5 semitones down. Left out **6** whose key signatures need double sharps or double flats. Re-tested each of the remaining **4** on its own and confirmed each one fits.
- The options are in the table in **key-options.md**, unranked: D major, E♭ major, E major and F major. Each shows its key signature and its written and sounding Soprano ranges. The six left-out spellings are listed with the double accidentals each needs; each sounds the same as one of the four kept keys.

**Not done, as the brief asked**
- No key was chosen, recommended or ranked.
- The table order is the order the check produced (by size of transposition). It is not a preference.
- Your score was not transposed or edited. Your original file is untouched.
- Your range, search limit and melody were not changed.
- No octave displacement was considered.
- No other voice's range was checked.

**Not in this delivery**
- There is no score, MIDI or audio. This commission delivers no recording.

## Files in this folder

- **key-options.md**: the four fitting options, unranked, with each key, key signature, and written and sounding Soprano ranges. Also the six spellings left out and why.
- **source-and-range-checks.md**: what was read from your file, the Soprano's range in the source, why the original key and every other transposition in the search do not fit, and how the options were verified.
- **key-options.json**: the same options and left-out spellings in machine-readable form, with the check's own option labels.
- **GUIDE.md**: this guide.