Instruments That Use Alto Clef

Musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes

Diagram of treble, alto and bass clefs with identical-sounding musical notes aligned vertically

Middle C represented on (from left to right) treble, alto, tenor and bass clefs

Iii clefs aligned to eye C

A clef (from French: clef 'primal') is a musical symbol used to bespeak which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical stave. Placing a clef on a stave assigns a particular pitch to one of the 5 lines, which defines the pitches on the remaining lines and spaces.

The iii clef symbols used in modern music notation are the G-clef, F-clef, and C-clef. Placing these clefs on a line fixes a reference note to that line—an F-clef fixes the F below middle C, a C-clef fixes middle C, and a G-clef fixes the G above middle C. In modern music note, the Thousand-clef is nearly frequently seen as treble clef (placing 1000₄ on the second line of the stave), and the F-clef as bass clef (placing F_iii on the fourth line). The C-clef is mostly encountered equally alto clef (placing middle C on the 3rd line) or tenor clef (middle C on the fourth line). A clef may be placed on a space instead of a line, but this is rare.

The employ of different clefs makes it possible to write music for all instruments and voices, regardless of differences in range. Using dissimilar clefs for dissimilar instruments and voices allows each role to exist written comfortably on a stave with a minimum of ledger lines. To this finish, the G-clef is used for loftier parts, the C-clef for middle parts, and the F-clef for low parts. Transposing instruments can be an exception to this—the aforementioned clef is generally used for all instruments in a family, regardless of their sounding pitch. For example, fifty-fifty the low saxophones read in treble clef.

A symmetry exists surrounding heart C regarding the F-, C- and G-clefs. C-clef defines middle C whereas treble clef and bass clef define the notation at the interval of a fifth above middle C and below middle C, respectively.

Two common mnemonics for learning the clef lines are:

Good Boys Do Fine Always^[ane] (bass clef)
Due eastvery Yardood Boy Does Fine (treble clef)

Placement on the stave [edit]

Theoretically, any clef may be placed on whatever line. With five lines on the stave and three clefs, there are fifteen possibilities for clef placement. Six of these are redundant because they result in an identical assignment of the notes to the lines (and spaces)—for example, a G-clef on the third line yields the aforementioned note placement as a C-clef on the bottom line. Thus, at that place are ix possible distinct clefs, all of which accept 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 except the topmost. The C-clef on the topmost line is equivalent to the F-clef on the 3rd line merely both options accept been used.

Each of these clefs has a different proper name based on the tessitura for which it is all-time suited.

In modern music, just 4 clefs are used regularly: treble clef, bass clef, alto clef, and tenor clef. Of these, the treble and bass clefs are by far the most common. The tenor clef is used for the upper register of several instruments that usually utilise bass clef (including cello, bassoon, and trombone), while the alto is mostly only used by the viola. Instruments with ranges also low (such as the double bass) or too high (such as the piccolo) to use a standard clef tin be notated with an octave clef, which transposes the unabridged stave upwardly or downwards by ane or more octaves.

Proper name	Note	Note Location
Thousand-clef	Chiliad_four	on the line that passes through the curl of the clef
C-clef	C₄ (Middle C)	on the line that passes through the center of the clef
F-clef	F_three	on the line that passes between the ii dots of the clef

Individual clefs [edit]

This section shows a complete list of the clefs, along with a listing of instruments and voice parts notated with them. A dagger (†) subsequently the name of a clef indicates that the clef is no longer in mutual use.

One thousand-clefs [edit]

Treble clef [edit]

The only G-clef still in use is the treble clef, with the G-clef placed on the second line. This is the most mutual clef in use and is generally the first clef learned by music students.^[2] For this reason, the terms "G-clef" and "treble clef" are often seen as synonymous. The treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or pre-pubescent, voice office.

Instruments that use the treble clef include violin, flute, oboe, cor anglais, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn, trumpet, cornet, vibraphone, xylophone, mandolin, recorder, bagpipe and guitar. Euphonium and baritone horn are sometimes treated equally transposing instruments, using the treble clef and sounding a major 9th lower, and are sometimes treated as concert-pitch instruments, using bass clef. The treble clef is as well the upper stave of the grand stave used for harp and keyboard instruments. Most high parts for bass-clef instruments (east.thou. cello, double bass, bassoon, and trombone) are written in the tenor clef, merely very loftier pitches may exist notated in the treble clef. The viola also may apply the treble clef for very high notes. The treble clef is used for the soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices. Tenor voice parts sound an octave lower and are often written using an octave clef (see below) or a double-treble clef.

French violin clef^† [edit]

A K-clef placed on the commencement line is called the French clef, or French violin clef. This clef was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in France for violin music and flute music.^[3]

F-clefs [edit]

Baritone clef^† [edit]

When the F-clef is placed on the third line, information technology is called the baritone clef. Baritone clef was used for the left hand of keyboard music (specially in France; run across Bauyn manuscript) and for baritone parts in vocal music. A C-clef on the fifth line creates a staff with identical notes to the baritone clef but this variant is rare. (see beneath).

Bass clef [edit]

The only F-clef still in use is the bass clef, with the clef placed on the fourth line. Since it is the merely F-clef commonly encountered, the terms "F-clef" and "bass clef" are often regarded every bit synonymous.

Bass clef is used for the cello, double bass and bass guitar, bassoon and contrabassoon, bass recorder, trombone, tuba, and timpani. It is used for baritone horn or euphonium when their parts are written at concert pitch, and sometimes for the everyman notes of the horn. Baritone and bass voices also use bass clef, and the tenor vocalization is notated in bass clef if the tenor and bass are written on the same stave. Bass clef is the bottom clef in the grand stave for harp and keyboard instruments. Double bass, bass guitar, and contrabassoon sound an octave lower than the written pitch; some scores evidence an "8" beneath the clef for these instruments to differentiate from instruments that sound at the actual written pitch. (see "Octave clefs" beneath).

Sub-bass clef^† [edit]

When the F-clef is placed on the fifth line, it is chosen the sub-bass clef. It was used by Johannes Ockeghem and Heinrich Schütz to write low bass parts, by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for low notes on the bass viol, and by J. S. Bach in his Musical Offering.

C-clefs [edit]

Alto clef [edit]

A C-clef on the third line of the stave is chosen the alto or viola clef. It is currently used for viola, viola d'amore, alto trombone, viola da gamba, and mandola. It is also associated with the countertenor vocalism and sometimes called the countertenor clef.^[4] A vestige of this survives in Sergei Prokofiev's use of the clef for the cor anglais in his symphonies. Information technology occasionally appears in keyboard music (for example, in Brahms's Organ Chorales and John Muzzle'southward Dream for pianoforte).

Tenor clef [edit]

A C-clef on the fourth line of the stave is called tenor clef. It is used for the viola da gamba and for upper ranges of bass-clef instruments such as the bassoon, cello, euphonium, double bass, and tenor trombone. Treble clef may also exist used for the upper extremes of these bass-clef instruments. Tenor violin parts were too written in this clef (run across e.thousand. Giovanni Battista Vitali'southward Op. eleven). It was used by the tenor part in vocal music simply its employ has been largely supplanted^{[ why? ]} either with an octave version of the treble clef or with bass clef when tenor and bass parts are written on a single stave.

Mezzo-soprano clef^† [edit]

A C-clef on the 2nd line of the stave is chosen the mezzo-soprano clef, rarely used in modern Western classical music. Information technology was used in 17th century French orchestral music for the second viola or outset tenor part ('taille') by such composers as Lully, and for mezzo-soprano voices in operatic roles, notably by Claudio Monteverdi.^[5] Mezzo-soprano clef was also used for certain flute parts during renaissance, peculiarly when doubling vocal lines.^[vi] In Azeri music, the tar uses this clef.^{[ citation needed ]}

Soprano clef^† [edit]

A C-clef on the first line of the stave is called the soprano clef. It was used for the right manus of keyboard music (specially in France – see Bauyn manuscript), in song music for sopranos, and sometimes in high viola da gamba^{[ clarification needed ]} parts along with the alto clef.^{[ citation needed ]} Information technology was used for the second violin part ('haute-contre') in 17th century French music.

The same line on the stave in different clefs ways different pitches.
The line indicating C (going from the heart of a clef) is marked in orange.

soprano clef
mezzo-soprano clef
alto clef
tenor clef
baritone clef

Other clefs [edit]

Octave clefs [edit]

Three types of suboctave treble clef showing middle C

C major scale, "sopranino" clef. Play(help·info) (this is i octave higher than the treble clef without an viii)

Starting in the 18th century, music for some instruments (such as guitar) and for the tenor vocalism take used treble clef, although they sound an octave lower. To avoid ambivalence, modified clefs are sometimes used, peculiarly in choral writing. Using a C-clef on the third space places the notes identically, but this notation is much less common^[seven] ^[8] as it is easily confused with the alto and tenor clefs.

Such a modified treble clef is most oftentimes found in tenor parts in SATB settings, using a treble clef with the numeral 8 below information technology. This indicates that the pitches audio an octave lower. As the true tenor clef has fallen into disuse in vocal writings, this "octave-dropped" treble clef is ofttimes chosen the tenor clef. The same clef is sometimes used for the octave mandolin. This can also be indicated with ii overlapping G-clefs.

Tenor banjo is unremarkably notated in treble clef. However, notation varies betwixt the written pitch sounding an octave lower (as in guitar music and chosen octave pitch in most tenor banjo methods) and music sounding at the written pitch (called actual pitch). An attempt has been made to utilise a treble clef with a diagonal line through the upper half of the clef to indicate octave pitch, only this is not always used.

To bespeak that notes sound an octave college than written, a treble clef with an 8 positioned in a higher place the clef may be used for penny whistle, soprano and sopranino recorder, and other high woodwind parts. A treble clef with a 15 above (sounding 2 octaves above the standard treble clef) is used for the garklein (sopranissimo) recorder.

An F-clef can also exist notated with an octave marker. While the F-clef notated to sound an octave lower can be used for contrabass instruments such equally the double bass and contrabassoon, and the F-clef notated to sound an octave higher can be used for the bass recorder, these uses are extremely rare. In Italian scores up to Gioachino Rossini'due south Overture to William Tell, the cor anglais was written in bass clef an octave lower than sounding.^[9] The unmodified bass clef is then common that performers of instruments whose ranges lie below the stave simply learn to read ledger lines.

Octave-marked clefs are useful in music notation software to go on the score readable while having the notes play dorsum at their right pitch.

Neutral clef [edit]

The neutral or percussion clef is not a truthful clef like the F, C, and G clefs. Rather, information technology assigns different unpitched percussion instruments to the lines and spaces of the stave. With the exception of some mutual drum-kit and marching percussion layouts, the consignment of lines and spaces to instruments is non standardised, and then a legend is required to show which instrument each line or infinite represents. Pitched percussion instruments do not use this clef — timpani are notated in bass clef and mallet percussion instruments are noted in treble clef or on a chiliad stave.

If the neutral clef is used for a single percussion musical instrument the stave may only have one line, although other configurations are used.

The neutral clef is sometimes used where non-percussion instruments play non-pitched extended techniques, such as hitting the trunk of a string musical instrument, or having a vocal choir clap, stamp, or snap. However, information technology is more mutual to write the rhythms using × noteheads on the instrument's normal stave, with a comment to indicate the advisable rhythmic action.

Tablature [edit]

C major scale, guitar tablature and stave notation (suboctave is assumed). Play(help·info)

For guitars and other fretted instruments, information technology is possible to notate tablature in place of ordinary notes. This TAB sign is non a clef — it does not betoken the placement of notes on a stave. The lines shown are not a music stave merely rather represent the strings of the musical instrument (six lines would be used for guitar, four lines for the bass guitar, etc.), with numbers on the lines showing which fret should be used.

History [edit]

Before the advent of clefs, the reference line of a stave was merely labeled with the name of the annotation it was intended to acquit: F, C, or sometimes G. These were the virtually mutual 'clefs', or litterae clavis (cardinal-messages), in Gregorian chant note. Over time the shapes of these messages became stylised, leading to their current versions.

Many other clefs were used, especially in the early period of chant notation, keyed to many unlike notes, from the depression Γ (gamma, the Thousand on the bottom line of the bass clef) to the Thou above eye C (written with a small letter thousand). These included two different lowercase b symbols for the annotation just below center C: round for B ♭ , and square for B ♮ . In order of frequency of use, these clefs were: F, c, f, C, D, a, g, e, Γ, B, and the round and square b.^[10] In later medieval music, the round b was often written in addition to some other clef letter to signal that B ♭ rather than B ♮ was to be used throughout a piece; this is the origin of the key signature.

Early on forms of the G clef—the 3rd combines the G and D clefs vertically

In the polyphonic period up to 1600, unusual clefs were occasionally used for parts with extremely high or low tessituras. For very low bass parts, the Γ clef is found on the centre, fourth, or 5th lines of the stave (e.g., in Pierre de La Rue'due south Requiem and in a mid-16th-century dance volume published past the Hessen brothers); for very loftier parts, the high-D clef (d), and the even higher ff clef (e.thousand., in the Mulliner Book) were used to represent the notes written on the fourth and top lines of the treble clef, respectively.^[11]

The practice of using dissimilar shapes for the same clef persisted until very contempo times. The F-clef was, until as belatedly as the 1980s in some cases (such equally hymnals), or in British and French publications, written like this:

In printed music from the 16th and 17th centuries, the C clef oftentimes causeless a ladder-similar form, in which the ii horizontal rungs surround the stave line indicated as C: ; this class survived in some printed editions (see this example, written in four-part men's harmony and positioned to go far equivalent to an octave G clef) into the 20th century.

The C-clef was formerly written in a more angular way, sometimes still used, or, more often, as a simplified K-shape when writing the clef by mitt:

In mod Gregorian chant notation the C clef is written (on a 4-line stave) in the form and the F clef as

The flourish at the summit of the G-clef probably derives from a cursive S for "sol", the proper name for "G" in solfege.^[12]

Vocal music tin can be contracted into two staves, using the treble and bass clefs.

C clefs (along with G, F, Γ, D, and A clefs) were formerly used to notate song music. Nominally, the soprano voice parts were written in kickoff- 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 vox in fourth-line C clef (tenor clef) and the bass voice in tertiary-, 4th- or fifth-line F clef (baritone, bass, or sub-bass clef).

Until the 19th century, the most mutual organisation for vocal music used the following clefs:

Soprano = soprano clef (first-line C clef)
Alto = alto clef (tertiary-line C clef)
Tenor = tenor clef (fourth-line C clef)
Bass = bass clef (fourth-line F clef)

In more than modern publications, four-part music on parallel staves is unremarkably written more but every bit:

Soprano = treble clef (second-line Chiliad clef)
Alto = treble clef
Tenor = treble clef with an 8 below or a double treble clef. Many pieces, peculiarly those from earlier the 21st century, use an unaltered treble clef, with the expectation the tenors will withal sing an octave lower than notated.
Bass = bass clef (fourth-line F clef)

This may be reduced to two staves, the soprano and alto sharing a stave with a treble clef, and the tenor and bass sharing a stave marked with the bass clef.

Further uses [edit]

Clef combinations played a function in the modal system toward the end of the 16th century, and information technology has been suggested sure clef combinations in the polyphonic music of 16th-century vocal polyphony are reserved for accurate (odd-numbered) modes, and others for plagal (even-numbered) modes,^[13] ^[14] but the precise implications have been the subject of much scholarly fence.^[fifteen] ^[xvi] ^[17] ^[eighteen]

Reading music as if it were in a different clef from the one indicated can be an assist in transposing music at sight since it volition move the pitches roughly in parallel to the written part. Key signatures and accidentals need to exist accounted for when this is done.

Citations [edit]

^ Every Practiced Boy Does Fine – What does EGBDF stand up for?
^ Greer, Amy (2003). "In Praise of Those Grass-Eating Cows". American Music Teacher. 53 (1): 22–25. JSTOR 43547681.
^ "Dolmetsch Online – Music Theory Online – Other Clefs". world wide web.dolmetsch.com . Retrieved 1 September 2016.
^ Moore 1876, 176; Dolmetsch Arrangement 2011.
^ Curtis, Alan (1989-04-01). "La Poppea Impasticciata or, Who Wrote the Music to La Poppea Impasticciata (1643)?". Journal of the American Musicological Order. 42 (1): 23–54. doi:10.2307/831417. ISSN 0003-0139. JSTOR 831417.
^ Thomas, Bernard (1975). "The Renaissance Flute". Early Music. 3 (one): two–x. doi:10.1093/earlyj/3.i.two. JSTOR 3125300.
^ There was a vogue in 20th-century Oliver Ditson Co. editions, for example Chief Choruses selected by Smallman & Matthews (Boston 1933)
^ This annotation is also used in the 1985 Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for many of the men's arrangements, i.e. Hymns 323 and 325–337
^ Del Mar 1981, 143.
^ Smits van Wasberghe 1951, 33.
^ Hiley 2001; P. and B. Hessen 1555.
^ Kidson 1908, 443-44.
^ Powers, Harold S. (1981). "Tonal Types and Modal Categories in Renaissance Polyphony". Journal of the American Musicological Lodge. 34 (3): 428–470. doi:10.1525/jams.1981.34.iii.03a00030.
^ Kurtzman, J. G. (1994). "Tones, Modes, Clefs, and Pitch in Roman Cyclic Magnificats of the 16th Century". Early on Music. 22 (4): 641–664. doi:10.1093/earlyj/xxii.iv.641.
^ Hermelink, South. (1956). "Zur Chiavettenfrage". Musikwissenschaftlicher Kongress. Vienna: 264–271.
^ Smith, A. (1982). "Über modus und Transposition um 1600". Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis: nine–43.
^ Parrott, Andrew (1984). "Transposition in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610: an "Aberration" Dedicated". Early Music. seven (iv): 490–516. doi:ten.1093/earlyj/12.iv.490.
^ Wiering, F. (1992). "The Waning of the Modal Ages: Polyphonic Modality in Italia, 1542–1619". Ruggiero Giovannelli: Palestrina and Velletri: 389–419.

References [edit]

Del Mar, Norman. 1981. Anatomy of the Orchestra. Berkeley: University of California Printing. ISBN 0-520-04500-9 (cloth); ISBN 0-520-05062-2.
Dolmetsch Arrangement. 2011. "Counter-tenor clef". In Music Dictionary Online Dolmetsch Online (Accessed 23 March 2012).
Hessen, Paul, and Bartholomeus Hessen. 1555. Viel feiner lieblicher Stucklein, spanischer, welscher, englischer, frantzösischer Composition und Tentz, uber drey hundert, mit sechsen, fünffen, und vieren, auff alle Instrument ... zusamen bracht. Breslau: Crispin Scharffenberg.
Hiley, David. 2001. "Clef (i)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
Kidson, Frank. 1908. "The Evolution of Clef Signatures." The Musical Times 49, no. 785 (1 July), pp. 443–444.
Kidson, Frank. 1909. "The Development of Clef Signatures" (2nd article). In The Musical Times 50, no. 793 (one March), pp. 159–160.
Moore, John Weeks. 1876. A Dictionary of Musical Information: Containing as well a Vocabulary of Musical Terms, and a List of Modern Musical Works Published in the United States From 1640 To 1875. Boston: Oliver Ditson.

External links [edit]

Media related to Clefs at Wikimedia Commons

Instruments That Use Alto Clef,

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clef

Posted by: alexanderdellittef1972.blogspot.com

Instruments That Use Alto Clef

Placement on the stave [edit]