Clefs: how many do we really need?

MRC · 2025-02-07T15:38:49+00:00

Some of the posts in the thread on alternative music notation got me thinking about clefs. Most musicians need to learn to deal with different clefs: pianist...

MRC

MRC For a violinist, the place of a note on the page is associated with a place on the string

keystring This is absolutely incorrect.

I beg to differ. Maybe I could have put it more precisely: the place of a note on the page is associated with a particular position on any string on which it can be played. Of course this position is different depending on the string in question.
I used to be a cellist, and I can still feel my reflexes when I look at cello music: if I see a certain passage that could be played either on the D or the G string, for instance, I will instantly feel where my left hand should go, depending on which string I had decided to use for the passage.

The important thing is this: if I see 8va written above that passage, I don't instantly know where those notes are on any particular string. The best thing for cello is to use one of the other clefs: the tenor clef has the wonderful property of being set exactly a fifth above the bass clef, and the bottom line of the treble clef is a fifth above the top line of the bass clef: for an instrument tuned in fifths, this is most convenient. But often it's better for the continuity of a phrase not to change clefs in the middle. An 8va sign also beaks the continuity. In this case, I prefer ledger lines.

pseudonym58 I worked as a full-time professional cellist in opera and symphony orchestras, and the violinists would often bemoan the ridiculous number of ledger lines.

It's interesting how our experiences differ. I was a Kapellmeister in various German opera theatres for many years and the violinists usually hated 8va signs. A particular case in point: in 2004 I was conducting rehearsals for Crazy For You and the violins were having trouble with a particular passage because of the changes between ledger lines and 8va. I asked the concertmaster if they would be happier if I wrote out all the passage with ledger lines and no 8va signs – he said that they most certainly would be, so I did just that and was warmly thanked for it. I've kept that page: here it is!

keystring

MRC I beg to differ. Maybe I could have put it more precisely: the place of a note on the page is associated with a particular position on any string on which it can be played.

Well that I agree with. But what you wrote made it sound as if a note only has one single location. That is true for piano or any keyboard, but not string instruments. The problem was with your wording.

MRC The important thing is this: if I see 8va written above that passage, I don't instantly know where those notes are on any particular string.

I felt iffy about the 8va idea as well. When I saw a D with 8va somewhere up there, my reflex had my hand go to the A string because there's an association. I would have played an octave too low.

MRC If you audition as a violinist for a British orchestra, you will find that reading is absolutely crucial.

I would think so. But I rarely saw notation or reading discussed in violin fora, whereas it's always discussed in piano fora. I cannot see reading as a crucial problem and the reasons for that are rather clear. I didn't complete my thoughts either, it seems. 🙂

MRC

keystring When I look at violin music, it doesn't often get higher than a few ledger lines except for advanced music with shifts into high positions. Reading is also less crucial than piano

If you audition as a violinist for a British orchestra, you will find that reading is absolutely crucial.

Animisha

WieWaldi , I would set 8va,

Instead of using 8va, which creates all these lines everywhere, I would use a clef with an 8 (or a 15) above. I discovered these clefs when using Musescore, and I think that for long passages with notes either (very) high above or below the five lines, they are perfect.

WieWaldi

Animisha This just another 8va notation. I personally like it, but not everyone is a fan of it. Sam pointed out, this small 8 above or below the cfef sign is easy to overlook for old eyes.

MRC

WieWaldi Sam pointed out, this small 8 above or below the cfef sign is easy to overlook for old eyes

Not only for old ones. I've seen competent young readers with excellent eyesight get tripped up by these clefs.

There are many cases where one of these clefs is implied, but a normal treble or bass clef is used. In a lot of choral music, the tenor part is written in treble clef, but everybody knows that it should sound an octave lower. Similarly, piccolo parts are written in treble clef, but sound an octave higher. And contrabass parts are usually written in bass clef, but sound an octave lower. Some editions use one of the clefs with the little 8 above or below, but many just don't bother.

pseudonym58

@MRC
I have done some arranging for piano and also for strings, and it's very important to place an 8va properly so that it doesn't break up a line any more than necessary. Placement after a rest, if possible, is best.

WieWaldi

MRC The problem is not that there are those octave shifted clefs. The problem is how the symbol looks like. But if one wants to play a piece and practices it over and over again, this small marks are not a problem at all, because very soon the player memorizes where to pay attention to those details.

keystring

WieWaldi But if one wants to play a piece and practices it over and over again, this small marks are not a problem at all, because very soon the player memorizes where to pay attention to those details.

Playing something over and over again is not a practical way of doing music. This gets into a whole set of other aspects of working on pieces and so on. It would have to be another thread, or existing threads on such topics.

MRC

WieWaldi The problem is not that there are those octave shifted clefs. The problem is how the symbol looks like.

Agreed. The two clefs we currently use for piano music look totally different and are immediately recognisable, which is very important when reading fast. If there's a clef change I immediately see which region of the keyboard my hand needs to move to:

(Beethoven op. 53)

I'm happy that we don't have more than one G clef. When reading fast, it's really easy to confuse the treble clef and the French violin clef, but happily we only use the treble. If we were only to use the French violin clef I'm sure I could adapt as well!

thepianoplayer416

So far nobody mentioned the C-clef. The reference note is the middle-C. There are variations of it including Tenor, Alto & Soprano for voices in a choir. The Alto clef is used by just 1 instrument (viola) which is the bigger version of a violin with the 4 strings tuned 1 octave higher than a cello: C-G-D-A instead of G-D-A-E on a violin.

An Alto clef the middle-C is in the middle of the staff. A Tenor clef it's 2nd line from the top. A Soprano clef it's 1st line from the bottom.

keystring

thepianoplayer416 So far nobody mentioned the C-clef. The reference note is the middle-C.

An important thing to mention, and glad you did. I think I might have talked about it here - but it's a long thread.
Here are all of them. (I rather like this clef because it points so definitely, and better than the G clef's swirly-gig, or the F clef's dotty things.)

MRC

There is a fifth C clef, the Baritone Clef:

If you take the grand staff,

the five C clefs fill the space of all possible 5-line clefs between the treble and bass clefs.

Do you need them all? Only if you are working with old scores. (Or if you study Solfège at an advanced level. But I'd better not get started on that subject!)

In modern scores, the Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano clefs have been replaced by the treble clef, and the Baritone clef by the bass clef. The only C clefs that are still used are the Alto and Tenor clefs.

The alto clef is used by viola and alto trombone, the tenor clef by cello, contrabass, bassoon and tenor trombone, and possibly some other bass instruments that I'm forgetting. Conductors need to be able to read something like this (from the overture to Mozart's Zauberflöte):

pseudonym58

In the 19th and 20th orchestral reductions I've worked on, I've only seen treble, alto, tenor, and bass clefs. Of course you have the many different transpositions, and some instruments are written in octave higher than they sound. For example: low Bb horns (with an additional whole step transposition!), certainly string bass.

MRC

In 17th century music you can find all these clefs. During the 18th century the mezzo-soprano and baritone clefs stopped being used, but the soprano clef was still standard for vocal music well into the 19th century.

Here are a few bars from Beethoven's 9th Symphony:

You can still find the soprano clef in later vocal scores: Verdi's Rigoletto, for instance.

TLH21

Animisha Anybody who sings tenor knows this approach well. Although also the feeling of being dumped on as the composer or arranger randomly switches between bas clef and the treble clef an octave down, sometimes in the same line of music.

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