Staff Notation: Clefs and Key Signatures

Some issues regarding the above excerpt for your consideration: 1] What are the clefs and key signature? 2] Which contrapuntal technique is freely used? 3] Which harmonic device appears from the beginning to the downbeat of measure 3?

Staff Notation: Clefs and Key Signatures

The excerpt - in 3/4 meter - shown above is obviously for 3 instruments. The top line repeats a 1-measure motive, while the voice notated on the middle staff moves along in a continuous dotted rhythm. The lowest instrument plays a two-measure figure punctuated by a quarter rest.

For your consideration: 1] What are the clefs and key signature of the excerpt? 2] Where during the course of the 6-measures do complete triads occur on the beat? incomplete ones? 3] What is the significance of the chromaticism?

I am most interested in finding out different musicians’ methodologies in deriving the solution, so do write me a comment explaining your rationale if you have a moment.

Score Reading: A Bach Autograph

There are many special features to be observed on the beautiful manuscript of Bach’s [Prelude and] Fugue in G minor, BWV 535 for organ, the opening page of which is shown above: 1] Bach notated his organ works on only two staves, usually with the soprano clef above the bass. 2] While the fugue is in G minor, the key signature contains only one flat. It was common practice in the Baroque period and earlier to notate music in the minor mode with a key signature of one flat less than we use today. This is known as the ‘Dorian’ key signature. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor [the so-called ‘Dorian’] has no flats in the key signature. Interestingly, in the Peters edition, the G minor fugue has a modern key signature while the Dorian adheres to the original. The one-flat key signature works as well for G minor as the modern two-flat version: Bach writes the flat symbol when E flat is required, and writes nothing when he needs E natural. In the modern signature, a natural sign needs to be written before E when that pitch occurs, but nothing is necessary when E flat is intended. It is a perfect illustration of the old saying ‘six of one, a half dozen of the other. 3] In the 4th measure, Bach rewrites the flat symbol in the 1st repeated group of 16th notes. This is the case in subsequent statements of the fugue’s subject in the home key of G minor and in several other instances throughout the piece. 4] Both the 1st and 2nd systems end with a half-measure, thus no bar line appears. 5] Two additional staff lines, rather than individual ledger lines, appear on the top staff toward the beginning of the 3rd system, and extra staff lines appear briefly in other places. 6] Bach often notates three voices on the upper staff alone, with crystal clarity. 7] The third entrance of the fugue subject, in the tenor, takes place on the 3rd beat of the 1st complete measure of the 2nd system, signifying an invisible shift of the bar line. The ‘displaced’ bar line shifts back to the notated downbeat when the bass voice enters in the last full measure of the 2nd system, where Bach writes in ‘Ped.’ The pedal begins a long rest in the last measure of the 3rd system, and does not return until the following page. 8] The prominent diminished 5th in the 2nd measure of the fugue subject is replaced by a perfect 5th later in the fugue, when the tonality shifts to the relative major.

Score Reading: The Vocal Clefs

Like his contemporaries and predecessors, J. S. Bach used the soprano, alto and tenor clefs in all of his vocal compositions as well as in numerous instrumental works. The three ‘C’ clefs appear throughout the Cantatas, Masses, Passions and Motets. In the harpsichord and organ works, we encounter Bach’s use of soprano clef, not treble, in the right hand part. He also frequently wrote in the alto or tenor clefs for the inner voices in the organ music.

The first eight measures of a facsimile of the autograph of ‘Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen’, one of Bach’s hundreds of chorale harmonizations, is given above. Several features are worth noting. There is a large bow brace joining the four staves. Bar lines do not connect through the system. The key signatures for the soprano and bass voices involve pitches that are above their respective staves. Bach copied both lines of German text four times and assigned each pair of sentences a bow brace. The downward stems of half notes are drawn to the right of the note head. The eighth notes from measure 6 to 7 are beamed across the bar line. There is a thickening of ink in the tenor part in measure 5 and a few smudges above the tenor in measure 6. Not that it interferes in any way with the beauty of the autograph, it appears that the tool Bach used to create the 5-line staves was not calibrated properly: the first and fourth spaces are noticeably narrower than the two inner spaces on each staff. The staves, being hand drawn with the staff tool, are not always straight and parallel.

Structurally, there are many beautiful features. The eight measures are almost entirely diatonic: the only chromaticism is in measure 7 in the alto - a lower neighboring tone. With the exception of the subdominant harmony throughout measure 2 and on the last beat of measure 3, the excerpt is limited to tonic and dominant chords. A prominent motive, first appearing in the soprano in measure 1 and consisting of a quarter note followed by a neighboring tone figure connected to a chord tone skip in eighth notes, is restated in the a] bass - measure 2, b] soprano - measure 6, c] bass - measure 7, and d] tenor and bass - measure 5, a rhythmic variant, in parallel 3rds.

Staff Notation: Clefs and Key Signatures

Some questions for your consideration: 1] What are the clefs and possible key signature[s] of this three-part contrapuntal piece? 2] What is the harmonic basis for each measure? [example: F minor, root position; C# diminished, first inversion]. 3] Where does the greatest distance between any pair of voices occur? 4] The smallest? 5] Where do accented neighboring tones occur? 6] Where do consonant passing tones occur?

Staff Notation: Clefs

In Lesson 11 of ‘Studies in Music Theory’ by James Harrison, Louis Martin and Myron Fink, the alto clef is introduced. The lesson also includes a first glimpse at second species counterpoint, wherein the Cantus Firmus begins to appear consistently in the alto clef against treble or bass. The treble-alto and alto-bass combinations are favorable because in two part music, these pairs of vocal ranges produce a better overall balance.

A beautiful summary of the clefs that have been in use throughout common practice is given above. While not all of these clefs are currently in use, a responsible musician would need to be fluent in most of them in order to read complex scores more readily. The soprano clef facilitates reading instruments in A, while the mezzo soprano clef serves well in reading the English horn and the horn in F. The alto clef is the primary clef for the viola and alto trombone, and works well in reading instruments in D. Bassoon and violoncello parts often change to the tenor clef, the primary clef of the tenor trombone. The tenor clef is also used to read the B flat clarinet and trumpet. And the baritone clef is useful for reading the horn in G and the alto flute.

The next post will be [another] puzzle in determining the clefs and key signature of a three-voice texture.

The examples are quoted by permission of the authors.