# Old Hundredth: source and range checks

## What was read

- **File:** your uploaded Old Hundredth MusicXML (four parts: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass). It was read in full, with no notation lost: every pitch spelling and voice came through as written.
- **Voice checked:** the part named **Soprano**, the only part with that name. It has one voice: 32 quarter notes in 8 bars of 4/4, four phrases of two bars each. Since you selected no bars, all eight bars were checked. The Alto, Tenor and Bass ranges were **not** checked.
- **Pitch frame:** you said the score is at concert pitch. The Soprano part carries no transposition and sits on a plain treble clef, so its written notes are its sounding notes.
- **Source key:** the key signature has one sharp. The file doesn't state major or minor. Two separate key-finding methods both read **G major**, with no competing reading, and the tune begins and ends on G4. The key is clear, so the options are given as key names.

## The Soprano's range in your source

| | Note | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | D4 | bar 2, beat 1 (the only D4) |
| Highest | D5 | bar 7, beat 1 (the only D5) |

The line spans one octave, D4 to D5. It uses eight different notes: D4, E4, F♯4, G4, A4, B4, C5 and D5. Most of its time is on G4 (9 notes), B4 (8) and A4 (7). C5 appears twice (bar 4 beat 2, bar 8 beat 1).

## Checking it against A3–C5

- **As written (G major):** the top D5 is a whole step above your C5, so the original key does not fit. The lowest note, D4, is well inside your range.
- **Room available:** your range, A3 to C5, spans 15 semitones. The line spans 12. That leaves 3 semitones of room, so exactly four pitch levels fit, with the lowest note on A3, B♭3, B3 or C4. These are transpositions of 5, 4, 3 and 2 semitones down.
- **Everything else in the search fails:**
  - No change, or any move up (1 to 6 semitones): the top note is D5 or higher, above C5.
  - 1 semitone down: the top note becomes C♯5/D♭5, above C5.
  - 6 semitones down: the lowest note becomes A♭3/G♯3, below A3.

  Each pitch level in your 6-up, 6-down window was searched in every spelling that can be written. The full list contained only the four levels above. As a spot check, no change, down a minor second, down a diminished fifth, down an augmented fourth, up a minor second, up a major second and up a perfect fourth were each tested on their own, and none fits.
- **Octave displacement:** none was considered, as you asked.
- **Verification:** the check listed every fitting spelling, ten in all. It reported each one's written and sounding range for the Soprano's complete set of notes. Each of the four kept options was then tested again on its own against that same list, and each was confirmed to fit. The key signature of each resulting key was then read off the circle of fifths. That is how the six spellings needing double sharps or flats were found and left out.

## Result

Four options fit: **D major, E♭ major, E major and F major** (5, 4, 3 and 2 semitones down). They are listed in the options table without ranking. Six further spellings were left out for double accidentals in the key signature. No key was chosen and your score was not transposed.