A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Clef

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Clayton, Thomas

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
edited by George Grove

Clef

Clegg, John

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From volume 1 of the work.

1503810A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Clef

CLEF (Ital. Chiave, from the Lat. Clavis; Ger. Schlüssel), i.e. key, the only musical character by which the pitch of a sound can be absolutely represented. The clefs now in use are three only— , , and . These severally represent the sounds known as middle C (of the pianoforte), the G a fifth above it, and the F a fifth below it. Two other clefs, severally representing the D, a fifth above , and the G, a seventh below have been long obsolete. From the last of these, Γ, the Greek gamma, which represents the lowest sound of the musical system, is derived the word gamut, still in use.

The following tables (from Koch's Musikalisches Lexicon) will show that the three clefs now in use are but corruptions of old forms of the letters C, G, and F:—

One or other of these characters, placed on one or other of the lines of a stave, indicated, and still indicates, the name and pitch of the notes standing on that line, and by inference those of other notes on lines and spaces above and below it.

The stave which, at various times and for various purposes, has consisted of various numbers of lines, consists now commonly of five. [Stave.] On any one of these each of the three clefs might be (almost every one has been) placed. In the following examples they occupy the positions in which they are now most commonly found:—

$\new Staff { \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \cadenzaOn \hideNotes d1 \override Staff.Clef.full-size-change = ##t \set Staff.clefGlyph = #"clefs.varC" \set Staff.clefPosition = #-4 d1 \clef varC d1 \clef tenorvarC d1 \clef bass d1 }$

Only however in its relation to the stave of five lines can a clef be said with truth to change its place. On the Great Stave of Eleven Lines [Stave] the clefs never change their places; but any consecutive set of five lines can be selected from it, the clef really retaining, though apparently changing, its place:—

From the above it will be seen that when notes are written 'in the tenor clef' (more properly 'on the tenor stave') they are written on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th lines of the 'great stave' of eleven; that when written 'in the alto clef they are written on the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th lines of this great stave; and when 'in the soprano clef on the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th.

The more familiar 'bass and treble staves' consist severally of the lowest and the highest five lines of the great stave:—

In early musical MSS. two, and even three, clefs are sometimes found on the same stave. It would be in no way inconsistent with modern theory, and indeed might be convenient in books of instruction, so to place them now:—

[ J. H. ]