At 9:40 AM -0500 9/14/11, Patrick Sheehan wrote: > >My question is: WHY is this treble "8" clef used in printed >music today when it used to be printed in bass clef most of the time. And, >does this bother anyone else, and do you agree that it should be abolished?
Hi, Patrick. Although I'm not a pianist, I understand your problem, and it's a problem that every accompanist faces. Which is why they simply have to suck it up and learn to read the darned clef!! To set the record straight, tenor parts have NEVER been "printed in bass clef most of the time," with the single exception of hymn-style publications with both soprano and alto parts on a single staff and tenor and bass parts on a single staff. And we all know that creates its own problems, with the tenor part sticking up and running into verses 4 and 5!! In fact historically tenor parts were written in a tenor C-clef, with middle C on the 4th line up. So one could make a good argument that the tenor G-clef comes closest to that historical method of writing, since there is only a single line or space difference between them. But we really have to go further back in history to understand why the system of 9 movable clefs (yes, NINE! with C, F, and G clefs located in 9 different positions on the staff!!!) developed in the first place, and continued in use for quite literally centuries. The staff, after all, is nothing but a hugely-simplified graph, and the clefs simply label the vertical axis of that graph, and can be placed on ANY line at all. The goal was quite simple, really: to keep the notes within the staff so the scribes wouldn't have to turn their hands at an awkward angle and risk smearing the ink in order to write in ledger lines. When Guido d'Arezzo invented the first chant notation in the early 11th century he used two clefs, the letter C representing middle C and the letter F representing the F a 5th below. (The G clef didn't come into use until the 15th century, and was used only for parts intended for choirboys, known in England as "trebles"!) >From the first introduction of music printing in 1501 through the beginning of the 20th century, the system of 9 movable clefs continued in use for exactly that same reason. Student learned it, composers used it, and musicians read it. Bach did not write for woodwind or stringed instruments as transposing instruments--a practice introduced in the later 18th century and fully developed in the 19th--but in concert pitch using tenor, alto, mezzo-soprano and soprano C-clefs. And Brahms was still writing his chorus music using soprano, alto, and tenor C-clefs, plus bass clef, just as Bach did.. Nadia Boulanger was still teaching the movable clefs as late as the mid-20th century, because one has to read them in order to read any early music in the original. It is only we Americans--and of course pianists!!!--who have never been taught to read clefs that are routinely used by other instrumentalists. So my gentle suggestion would be to buckle down, get yourself a good score-reading book to work through, and just learn to read the tenor C-clef. You are NOT going to overturn a thousand years of tradition, used by virtually all publishers and understood quite well by all singers, just to make your job a little easier! All the best, John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music School of Performing Arts & Cinema College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön." (Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!) --Johannes Brahms _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
