What are the practical reasons for still having transposing instruments?

Question

I understand that historically there was a need for transposing instruments. e.g. Brass instruments would use lead pipes to change their key and players in brass bands would like to stick to the same fingering when swapping between instruments. However, I'd have thought that all these instruments could be remade to sound just as good as the originals and to have the same fingerings as one another, but written in C (i.e. concert pitch). It also seems strange that bass clef isn't moved a couple of lines to read the same as treble clef (but two octaves lower), with alto/tenor clefs being removed.Is the reason purely academic, is it because of the chaos caused during the transition period, or is there some practical reason for this?

Answer 1

Trombonist here! You pose a great question, and I am a lover of concert pitch. However, instruments are carefully designed so that they resonate and sound their best. Some transposing instruments actually have varieties in concert pitch (such as the C Melody Saxophone) but choose not to use them due to their timbre. Therefore, keeping the instruments built as they are now and having the musicians transpose will keep the notes they play in the staff, allowing for greater readability in a universal clef (such as treble clef).