all about one thing: C-CLEF
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all about one thing: C-clef
C-CLEF
index CONTENT Definition Placement of the stave Individual clefs History The clef sign Etymology Importance Alto clef instruments
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19 25 31 37
Mandola Alto Trombone Viol Viola
CLEF INTRO
DEFINITIOn A clef (from French: clef “key�) is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the stave, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the stave may be determined. Only one clef that references a note in a space rather than on a line has ever been used. There are three types of clef used in modern music notation: F, C, and G. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line (and in rare cases, the space) on which it is placed. (G and F clefs are placed as treble and bass clefs, respectively, in the vast majority of modern music.)
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CLEF INTRO
G-clef >> G4 >> passes through the curl of the clef.
C-clef >> C4 (Middle C) >> passes through the centre of the clef.
F-clef >> F3 >> passes between the two dots of the clef.
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CLEF INTRO
Once one of these clefs has been placed on one of the lines of the stave, the other lines and spaces can be read in relation to it. The use of three different clefs makes it possible to write music for all instruments and voices, even though they may have very different tessituras (that is, even though some sound much higher or lower than others). This would be difficult to do with only one clef, since the modern stave has only five lines, and the number of pitches that can be represented on the stave, even with ledger lines, is not nearly equal to the number of notes the orchestra can produce. The use of different clefs for various instruments and voices allows each part to be written comfortably on the stave with a minimum of ledger lines. To this end, the G-clef is used for high parts, the C-clef for middle parts, and the F-clef for low parts—with the notable exception of transposing parts, which are written at a pitch different from their sound, often even in a different octave.
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CLEF INTRO
placement of the sTAVe To facilitate writing for different tessituras, any of the clefs may theoretically be placed on any of the lines of the stave. The further down on the stave a clef is placed, the higher the tessitura it is for; conversely, the higher up the clef, the lower the tessitura. Since there are five lines on the stave, and three clefs, it might seem that there would be fifteen possible clefs. Six of these, however, are redundant clefs (for example, a G-clef on the third line would be the same as a C-clef on the first line). That leaves nine possible distinct clefs, all of which have been used historically: the G-clef on the two bottom lines, the F-clef on the three top lines, and the C-clef on any line of the stave except the topmost, earning the name of “movable C-clef�. (The C-clef on the topmost line is redundant because it is equivalent to the F-clef on the third line; both options have been used.) Each of these clefs has a different name based on the tessitura for which it is best suited.
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CLEF INTRO
In modern music, only four clefs are used regularly: the treble clef, the bass clef, the alto clef, and the tenor clef. Of these, the treble and bass clefs are by far the most common.
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C-CLEF
iNDIVIDUAL CLEFS Here follows a list of the C- clefs, along with a list of instruments and voice parts notated with them. Each clef is shown in its proper position on the stave, followed by its reference note. An obelisk (†) after the name of a clef indicates that that clef is no longer in common use.
ALTO CLEF Where the C-clef is placed on the third line of the stave, it is called the alto or viola clef. This clef (sometimes called the viola clef) is currently used for the viola, the viola da gamba, the alto trombone, and the mandola. It is also associated with the countertenor voice and therefore called the counter-tenor (or countertenor) clef, A vestige of this survives in Sergei Prokofiev’s use of the clef for the cor anglais, as in his symphonies. It occasionally turns up in keyboard music to the present day (for example, in Brahms’s Organ Chorales, John Cage’s needed).
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C-CLEF
TENOR CLEF Where the C-clef is placed on the fourth line of the stave, it is called the tenor clef. This clef is used for the upper ranges of the bassoon, cello, euphonium, double bass, and trombone. These instruments use bass clef for their low- to mid-ranges; treble clef is also used for their upper extremes. Where used for the double bass, the sound is an octave lower than the written pitch. The tenor violin parts were also drafted in this clef (see e.g. Giovanni Battista Vitali’s Op. 11). Formerly, it was used by the tenor part in vocal music but its use has been largely supplanted either with an octave version of the treble clef where written alone or the bass clef where combined on one stave with the bass part.
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C-CLEF
BARITONE CLED (t) Where the C-clef is placed on the 5th line of the stave, it is called the baritone clef. It is precisely the equivalent to the other more common form of the baritone clef, an F clef placed on the 3rd line.
MEZZO SOPRANO CLEF (T) Where the C-clef is placed on the second line of the stave, it is called the mezzo-soprano clef.
SOPRANO CLEF (T) Where the C-clef is placed on the first line of the stave, it is called the soprano clef. This clef was used for the right hand of keyboard music (particularly in France; see Bauyn manuscript) as well as in vocal music for sopranos, and sometimes in high viola da gamba parts alongside the alto clef.
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C-CLEF
HISTORY Originally, instead of a special clef symbol, the reference line of the stave was simply labeled with the name of the note it was intended to bear: F and C and, more rarely, G. These were the most often-used ‘clefs’, or litteræ-clavis (key-letters), in Gregorian chant notation. Over time the shapes of these letters became stylised, leading to their current versions. Many other clefs were used, particularly in the early period of chant notation, including most of the notes from the low Γ (gamma, the note written today on the bottom line of the bass clef) up to the G above middle C, written with a small letter g, and including two forms of lowercase b (for the note just below middle C): round for Bb, and square for B(natural). In order of frequency of use, these clefs were: F, c, f, C, D, a, g, e, Γ, B, and the round/square b. In printed music from the 16th and 17th centuries, the C clef often assumed a ladderlike form, in which the two horizontal rungs surround the stave line indicated as C:
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C-CLEF
The C-clef was formerly written in a more angular way, sometimes still used, or an, even more, simplified K-shape, when writing the clef by hand. In modern Gregorian chant notation, the C clef is written (on a four-line stave) in the form and the F clef as . C clefs (along with G, F, Gamma, D, and A clefs) were formerly used to notate vocal music. Nominally, the soprano voice parts were written in first- or second-line C clef (soprano clef or mezzo-soprano clef) or second-line G clef (treble clef), the alto or tenor voices in third-line C clef (alto clef), the tenor voice in fourth-line C clef (tenor clef) and the bass voice in third- fourth- or fifth-line F clef (baritone, bass, or sub-bass clef). However, in practice transposition was applied to fit the range of the music to the available voices, so that almost any clef might be used by all voice types.
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C-CLEF
Until the 19th century, vocal music used the following standardised clefs: Soprano = soprano clef (first-line C clef) Alto = alto clef (third-line C clef) Tenor = tenor clef (fourth-line C clef) Bass = bass clef (fourth-line F clef)
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C-CLEF
THE CLEF SIGN To set the pitch of any note on the staff a graphical symbol called a clef (from the Latin clavis meaning key), clef sign or clef signature, is placed at the far left-hand side of the staff. The clef establishes the pitch of the note on one particular line of the staff and thereby fixes the pitch of all the other notes lying on, or related to, the same staff. It is common practice to visualise each clef as a part of a much larger grid of eleven horizontal lines and ten spaces known variously as the Great Staff, Grand Staff, Great Stave or Grand Stave. Note the relationship between the Great Staff and most commonly used clefs, treble (top left in the picture below), bass (bottom left in the picture below) and alto (right in the picture below). It should be stressed that, historically, there never was a staff of eleven lines. It is solely a ‘construct’ or ‘device’ used by theorists to demonstrate the relationship between various staves and clefs.
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C-CLEF
The note we call middle C and which lies in the middle of the alto clef (for clarity, we have shown it in red), lies one line below the five lines of the treble clef and lies one line above the five lines of the bass clef.
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C-CLEF
ETYMOLOGY From French: key, clef, from Latin clavis; related to Latin claudere to close. Clef, clef sign, clef signature, chiave (Italian f.), Schlüssel (German m.), clef (French f.), clé (French f.), clave (Spanish f.)
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C-CLEF
IMPORTANCE IMPOrtance of reading other clefs: c-clef Most of the time you only need to know the clef for your own instrument, so it may make you wonder why the Easy Music Theory course has an entire lesson devoted to different clefs. Why learn other clefs if you’ll likely not ever use them? The answer to that has to do with one of the main reasons we study theory. As you become a better musician, you may want to try your hand at composing music for string quartets or orchestras. That will require you to know the different clefs and how to read them. It’s also important for conductors of music to be able to read and understand many different clefs so that they know what the various instruments under their direction are playing.
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C-CLEF
examples of instruments that use the alto clef
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