C clef

What it means

The C clef fixes on which line middle C lies. Unlike the treble and bass clefs, which today are bound to fixed lines, it is movable: depending on which line it is placed on, a different clef with a different name results. The idea behind it is practical — the range of a voice should fit onto the staff as far as possible without ledger lines.

In the notation

The sign consists of two arcs opening to the right on a vertical double line; the point where the arcs meet marks middle C. On the first line the result is the soprano clef, on the second the mezzo-soprano clef, on the third the alto clef, on the fourth the tenor clef, on the fifth the baritone clef. Today only the alto and tenor clefs are still in common use; the others are met in older sources and in scholarly editions that retain the original clefing.

Musical use

The viola notates throughout in the alto clef; cello, bassoon, and trombone change to the tenor clef in high registers. In vocal music before the nineteenth century every voice carried its own C clef, so that a four-part score could show four different clefs. Renaissance sources also know particular clef combinations whose interpretation — whether they indicate a transposition — is discussed in scholarship; anyone working with such editions is best advised to follow the editor's report.

The C clef as a generic term is to be distinguished from its individual forms: alto clef and tenor clef are not two related signs but the same sign on different lines.

Performance practice

Do not memorize five clefs but one rule: where the arcs meet lies middle C. From this one point every C clef can be worked out, even an unfamiliar one. Practise reading with short melodies that are familiar to you in sound, so that notation and sound connect directly. If your part changes between two clefs, mark the places of change beforehand and play the bars concerned individually before you practise the whole context.