‘High’ clefs in composition and performance
Identifieur interne : 000136 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000135; suivant : 000137‘High’ clefs in composition and performance
Auteurs : Andrew JohnstoneSource :
- Early Music [ 0306-1078 ] ; 2006-02.
English descriptors
- KwdEn :
- Teeft :
- Barbieri, Bass part, Bass parts, Bassa, British library, Canta, Canta principalmente, Cantus prius factus, Certain modes, Chant, Chapel choirs, Chiave, Chiavette, Chiavi, Chiavi alte, Clef, Clef changes, Concordance, Contratenor, Dispositiones modorum, Doni, Dual notation, Early music, Early music february, Eripe, February, Flat signature, Gombert, Hermelink, Historical evidence, Ioannes apostolus, Jachet, Jean mouton, Lowest limit, Maioribus duplicibus, Medici codex, Missa, Missa eripe, Modal transposition, Molle, Monteverdi vespers, Motet, Musica, Normal clefs, Normal notation, Notated, Notation, Palestrina, Parrott, Polyphony, Praetorius, Quadro, Quando, Quarta bassa, Rism, Scotto, Signature, Standard combinations, Such compositions, Transposing, Transposition, Vergine, Vergine pura, Vespers, Voci, Willaert.
Abstract
Modern musicians have treated ‘high’-clef notation like a dead language that has to be translated into their vernacular. In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. In this context, the low effect of the so-called ‘high’ clefs makes sense.
Url:
DOI: 10.1093/em/cah190
Links to Exploration step
ISTEX:6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3Le document en format XML
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In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. 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In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. 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Bellermann</json:string><json:string>Patrizio Barbieri</json:string><json:string>J. Schmidt</json:string><json:string>R. Bowers</json:string><json:string>D. Master</json:string><json:string>Kenneth Kreitner</json:string><json:string>U. Hertin</json:string><json:string>Trinity College</json:string><json:string>Francisco Guerrero</json:string><json:string>Jeffrey Kurtzman</json:string><json:string>G. Haydon</json:string><json:string>Joshua Rifkin</json:string><json:string>Heinrich Besseler</json:string><json:string>Auctor Lampadius</json:string><json:string>Heinrich Faber</json:string><json:string>Siegfried Hermelink</json:string><json:string>H. Powers</json:string><json:string>Roger Bowers</json:string><json:string>M. Di</json:string><json:string>Rocco Rodio</json:string><json:string>Cappella Giulia</json:string><json:string>John C. Barnes</json:string><json:string>Giovanni Battista</json:string><json:string>G. Nugent</json:string><json:string>D. Fallows</json:string><json:string>L. 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Judd</json:string><json:string>Adrian Willaert</json:string><json:string>A. Seay</json:string><json:string>J.C.G. Schiedmayer</json:string><json:string>A. Parrott</json:string></persName><placeName><json:string>Leipzig</json:string><json:string>Venice</json:string><json:string>Blackburn</json:string><json:string>Jena</json:string><json:string>Kassel</json:string><json:string>Carpentras</json:string><json:string>Madrid</json:string><json:string>Louvain-la-Neuve</json:string><json:string>Dublin</json:string><json:string>Amsterdam</json:string><json:string>Frankfurt</json:string><json:string>Rome</json:string><json:string>Chicago</json:string><json:string>York</json:string><json:string>MA</json:string><json:string>New Josquin</json:string><json:string>Cambridge</json:string><json:string>Italy</json:string><json:string>New Haven</json:string><json:string>Palestrina</json:string><json:string>Netherlands</json:string></placeName><ref_url></ref_url><ref_bibl><json:string>Munich, 1974</json:string><json:string>Chicago, 1968</json:string><json:string>Naples, 1609</json:string><json:string>Paolucci et al.</json:string><json:string>Rome, 1640</json:string><json:string>Naples, 1631</json:string><json:string>New York, 1997</json:string><json:string>Berlin, 1862</json:string><json:string>Bologna, 1774</json:string><json:string>[1595]</json:string><json:string>Ottawa, 1992</json:string><json:string>Chicago, 1972</json:string><json:string>W. 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Haberl et al.</json:string><json:string>New York, 1988</json:string><json:string>American Institute of Musicology, 1949</json:string><json:string>New York, 1999</json:string><json:string>Leipzig, 1937</json:string><json:string>London, 1987</json:string></ref_bibl><bibl></bibl></unitex></namedEntities><ark><json:string>ark:/67375/HXZ-FNTS9M02-5</json:string></ark><categories><wos></wos><scienceMetrix><json:string>arts & humanities</json:string><json:string>visual & performing arts</json:string><json:string>music</json:string></scienceMetrix><scopus><json:string>1 - Social Sciences</json:string><json:string>2 - Arts and Humanities</json:string><json:string>3 - Music</json:string></scopus><inist><json:string>sciences humaines et sociales</json:string><json:string>prehistoire et protohistoire</json:string></inist></categories><publicationDate>2006</publicationDate><copyrightDate>2006</copyrightDate><doi><json:string>10.1093/em/cah190</json:string></doi><id>6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3</id><score>1</score><fulltext><json:item><extension>pdf</extension><original>true</original><mimetype>application/pdf</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/document/6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3/fulltext/pdf</uri></json:item><json:item><extension>zip</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/zip</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/document/6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3/fulltext/zip</uri></json:item><istex:fulltextTEI uri="https://api.istex.fr/document/6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3/fulltext/tei"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title level="a" type="main" xml:lang="en">‘High’ clefs in composition and performance</title><respStmt><resp>Références bibliographiques récupérées via GROBID</resp><name resp="ISTEX-API">ISTEX-API (INIST-CNRS)</name></respStmt></titleStmt><publicationStmt><authority>ISTEX</authority><publisher scheme="https://publisher-list.data.istex.fr">Oxford University Press</publisher><availability><licence><p>Early Music, Vol. xxxiv, No.1 © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</p></licence><p scheme="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-GTWS0RDP-M">oup</p></availability><date>2006</date></publicationStmt><notesStmt><note type="research-article" scheme="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-1JC4F85T-7">research-article</note><note type="journal" scheme="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</note></notesStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct type="inbook"><analytic><title level="a" type="main" xml:lang="en">‘High’ clefs in composition and performance</title><author xml:id="author-0000"><persName><forename type="first">Andrew</forename><surname>Johnstone</surname></persName><affiliation>Andrew Johnstone is a lecturer in music at Trinity College, Dublin. He is working on a book about modes and vocal scoring in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.</affiliation></author><idno type="istex">6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3</idno><idno type="ark">ark:/67375/HXZ-FNTS9M02-5</idno><idno type="DOI">10.1093/em/cah190</idno><idno type="local">cah190</idno></analytic><monogr><title level="j">Early Music</title><title level="j" type="abbrev">Early Music</title><idno type="pISSN">0306-1078</idno><idno type="eISSN">1741-7260</idno><idno type="publisher-id">earlyj</idno><idno type="PublisherID-hwp">earlyj</idno><imprint><publisher>Oxford University Press</publisher><date type="published" when="2006-02"></date><biblScope unit="volume">34</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">1</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="29">29</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="54">54</biblScope></imprint></monogr></biblStruct></sourceDesc></fileDesc><profileDesc><creation><date>2006</date></creation><langUsage><language ident="en">en</language></langUsage><abstract xml:lang="en"><p>Modern musicians have treated ‘high’-clef notation like a dead language that has to be translated into their vernacular. In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. In this context, the low effect of the so-called ‘high’ clefs makes sense.</p></abstract><textClass xml:lang="en"><keywords scheme="keyword"><list><head>KWD</head><item><term>pitch</term></item><item><term>high clefs</term></item><item><term>transposition</term></item><item><term>notation</term></item><item><term>Renaissance music</term></item></list></keywords></textClass></profileDesc><revisionDesc><change when="2006-02">Published</change><change xml:id="refBibs-istex" who="#ISTEX-API" when="2017-10-6">References added</change></revisionDesc></teiHeader></istex:fulltextTEI><json:item><extension>txt</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>text/plain</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/document/6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3/fulltext/txt</uri></json:item></fulltext><metadata><istex:metadataXml wicri:clean="corpus oup, element #text not found" wicri:toSee="no header"><istex:xmlDeclaration>version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"</istex:xmlDeclaration><istex:docType PUBLIC="-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v2.3 20070202//EN" URI="journalpublishing.dtd" name="istex:docType"></istex:docType><istex:document><article xml:lang="en" article-type="research-article"><front><journal-meta>
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<journal-id journal-id-type="hwp">earlyj</journal-id><journal-title>Early Music</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">Early Music</abbrev-journal-title><issn pub-type="ppub">0306-1078</issn><issn pub-type="epub">1741-7260</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Oxford University Press</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="other">cah190</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/em/cah190</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>ARTICLES</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>‘High’ clefs in composition and performance</article-title></title-group><contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Johnstone</surname><given-names>Andrew</given-names></name>
</contrib><aff>Andrew Johnstone is a lecturer in music at Trinity College, Dublin. He is working on a book about modes and vocal scoring in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.</aff></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><month>February</month><year>2006</year></pub-date><volume>34</volume><issue>1</issue><fpage>29</fpage><lpage>54</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement><italic>Early Music</italic>, Vol. <sc>xxxiv</sc>, No.1 © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2006</copyright-year></permissions><abstract xml:lang="en">
<p>Modern musicians have treated ‘high’-clef notation like a dead language that has to be translated into their vernacular. In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. In this context, the low effect of the so-called ‘high’ clefs makes sense.</p>
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</article></istex:document></istex:metadataXml><mods version="3.6"><titleInfo lang="en"><title>‘High’ clefs in composition and performance</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="alternative" lang="en" contentType="CDATA"><title>‘High’ clefs in composition and performance</title></titleInfo><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">Andrew</namePart><namePart type="family">Johnstone</namePart><affiliation>Andrew Johnstone is a lecturer in music at Trinity College, Dublin. He is working on a book about modes and vocal scoring in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.</affiliation></name><typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource><genre type="research-article" displayLabel="research-article" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-1JC4F85T-7">research-article</genre><originInfo><publisher>Oxford University Press</publisher><dateIssued encoding="w3cdtf">2006-02</dateIssued><copyrightDate encoding="w3cdtf">2006</copyrightDate></originInfo><language><languageTerm type="code" authority="iso639-2b">eng</languageTerm><languageTerm type="code" authority="rfc3066">en</languageTerm></language><abstract lang="en">Modern musicians have treated ‘high’-clef notation like a dead language that has to be translated into their vernacular. In the 19th century the translation was achieved by substituting clefs and signatures, creating the false impression that ‘high’ clefs implied transposition by a 3rd. In the 20th century it was achieved by universally adopting an easy-to-read vocal-score format that obliterated essential characteristics of the original clef-combinations. Hermelink tried to bring those characteristics back to the fore, but posited a false origin (the ten-line staff) for the normal and ‘high’ standard clef-combinations that attached more discrete meanings to them than they ever really had. They seem instead to be a product of imitative counterpoint, which necessitated a uniform configuration of the vocal ensemble, and modal factors, which necessitated transpositions that could be either committed to the page or entrusted to the performers. Normal-clef concordances of ‘high’-clef works show how the ‘high’ clefs were interpreted in practice, and accord with the edicts of later theorists. ‘High’-clef bass parts were frequently set a 3rd, rather than a 5th, below the tenor to facilitate transpositions that yielded lower tenor, alto and soprano parts than those yielded by the normal clefs. The late Renaissance habit of using of high-looking notation for low-sounding music is counterintuitive (and somehow harder to accept than the no less anomalous later habit of using of short note-values for adagios and longer ones for allegros). But ‘high’ notation was a vestige of the time when composers dealt with relative rather than absolute pitches, and the gradual consolidation of pitch standards caused it to become associated with specific rules of transposition. In this context, the low effect of the so-called ‘high’ clefs makes sense.</abstract><subject lang="en"><genre>KWD</genre><topic>pitch</topic><topic>high clefs</topic><topic>transposition</topic><topic>notation</topic><topic>Renaissance music</topic></subject><relatedItem type="host"><titleInfo><title>Early Music</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="abbreviated"><title>Early Music</title></titleInfo><genre type="journal" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</genre><identifier type="ISSN">0306-1078</identifier><identifier type="eISSN">1741-7260</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID">earlyj</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID-hwp">earlyj</identifier><part><date>2006</date><detail type="volume"><caption>vol.</caption><number>34</number></detail><detail type="issue"><caption>no.</caption><number>1</number></detail><extent unit="pages"><start>29</start><end>54</end></extent></part></relatedItem><identifier type="istex">6B6656293CF12B35DE1A6D74FF357C9AEA7727B3</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.1093/em/cah190</identifier><identifier type="local">cah190</identifier><accessCondition type="use and reproduction" contentType="copyright">Early Music, Vol. xxxiv, No.1 © The Author 2006. 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