vbl. sb. [f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. TRANSPOSE, in various senses.
1550. Acc. St. Andrew’s, Canterb. (MS.). Item for the transposyng of a cope xviij d.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 141. By a certain metempsychosin, that is a transposinge of the soules or principal vertues.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 210 b. The cup of his wrath…. The transposing of the woorde Cup from his owne proper signification … is very ryfe in the Scriptures.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., vii. 156. We hardly meet with a Verse…, but with Transposing would admit of … Rhymes.
1908. Contemp. Rev., April, 414. There is not much more in it than a transposing of words.
b. attrib.: transposing instrument (Mus.). (a) an instrument having a mechanical device for transposing into a different key, as a transposing harpsichord, organ, piano; (b) a name for those orchestral instruments the parts for which are written in a different key from that in which they sound.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 142/2. This instrument was called by Mr. Trotter a transposing piano-forte.
1883. W. S. Rockstro, in Grove, Dict. Mus., III. 433/1. In all these Scores, the Parts for the so-called ‘Transposing-Instruments’ correspond with the separate ‘Parts’ used in the Orchestra.
1889. A. J. Hipkins, ibid., IV. 160/1. Prætorius (A.D. 1619) speaks of transposing clavicymbals (harpsichords) which by shifting the keyboard could be set two notes higher or lower…. Burney in his musical tour met with two transposing harpsichords; one … at Venice; the other … at Bologna.
