Key |

French clef, english key, germ. Schlussel

A sign on a musical staff that determines the name and height (belonging to one or another octave) of a sound on one of its lines; sets the absolute pitch value of all sounds recorded on the stave. K. is affixed in such a way that one of the five lines of the stave intersects it in the center. Placed at the beginning of each stave; in the case of a transition from one K. to another, a new K is written out in the corresponding place of the stave. Three different ones are used. key: G (salt), F (fa) and C (do); their names and inscriptions come from lat. letters denoting sounds of the corresponding height (see Musical Alphabet). On Wednesday. centuries began to use lines, each of which denoted the height of a certain sound; they facilitated the reading of incoherent musical notation, which previously only approximately fixed the pitch contours of the melody (see Nevmas). Guido d’Arezzo at the beginning 11th c. improved this system, bringing the number of lines to four. The lower red line denoted the pitch F, the third yellow line denoted the pitch C. At the beginning of these lines, the letters C and F were placed, which performed the functions of K. Later on, the use of colored lines was abandoned and the absolute pitch value was assigned to notes. only letters. Initially, they were written several (up to three) on each stave, then their number was reduced to one stave. Of the letter designations of sounds, G, F, and C were mainly used as K. The outlines of these letters gradually changed until they acquired the modern. graphic forms. The key G (sol), or treble, indicates the location of the sound salt of the first octave; it is located on the second line of the stave. Another type of K. salt, the so-called. old French, placed on the first line, modern. is not used by composers, however, when reprinting works in which it was used before, this code is preserved. The key F (fa), or bass, indicates the position of the sound fa of a small octave; it is placed on the fourth line of the staff. In ancient music, K. fa is also found in the form of a bass-profundo K. (from the Latin profundo – deep), which was used for the low register of the bass part and was placed on the fifth line, and baritone K. – on the third line. Key C (do) indicates the location of the sound up to the first octave; modern The key C is used in two forms: alto – on the third line and tenor – on the fourth line. In the old choral scores, the key C of five types was used, that is, on all lines of the stave; in addition to those mentioned above, the following were used: soprano K. – on the first line, mezzo-soprano – on the second line, and baritone – on the fifth line.

Modern choral scores are recorded in violin and bass k., but the choristers and the choir. conductors constantly encounter the clef C when performing works from the past. The tenor part is written in treble K., but is read an octave lower than written, which is sometimes indicated by the number 8 below the key. In some cases, a double violin K. in the same meaning is used for the tenor part.

The meaning of the application of sect. K. consists in avoiding as much as possible a large number of additional lines in the notation of sounds and thereby making it easier to read notes. Alto K. is used for notation of the part of bowed viola and viol d’amour; tenor – for the notation of the tenor trombone part and partially the cello (in the upper register).

In the so-called. “Kyiv banner” (square musical notation), which became widespread in Ukraine and Russia in the 17th century, various. types of the C key, including the cefaut K., which acquired special significance when recording monophonic everyday chants. The name of the cefaut K. comes from the one used in the church. music practice of the hexachordal system of solmization, according to which the sound do (C), taken as the basis of the key notation, accounted for the names fa and ut.

The hexachord system of solmization as applied to the church scale. The full volume of the scale, its notation in the cefout key and the solmization names of the steps.

With the help of a cefaut K., all the sounds of a full church were recorded. a scale that corresponded to the volume of male voices (see Everyday scale); later, when to the church. Boys, and then women, began to be attracted to singing, the cefaut K. was also used in their parties, which were performed an octave higher than men’s. Graphically, the cefaut K. is a kind of square note with a calm; it is placed on the third line of the stave, assigning to it the location of the 4th step of the church. scale – up to the first octave. The first printed edition, in which the system of cefaut chanting was outlined, was The ABC of Simple Musical Singing According to the Cefaut Key (1772). With a monophonic presentation of everyday tunes, the cefaut K. retains its significance to this day.

References: Razumovsky D.V., Church singing in Russia (Experience of historical and technical presentation) …, vol. 1-3, M., 1867-69; Metallov V. M., Essay on the history of Orthodox church singing in Russia, Saratov, 1893, M., 1915; Smolensky S.V., On Old Russian singing notations St. Petersburg, 1901; Sposobin I. V., Elementary theory of music, M., 1951, posl. ed., M., 1967; Gruber R., History of musical culture, vol. 1, part 1, M.-L., 1941; Wolf J., Handbuch der Notationskunde, Bd 1-2, Lpz., 1913-19; Ehrmann R., Die Schlüsselkombinationen im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, “AMw”, Jahrg. XI, 1924; Wagner P., Aus der Frühzeit des Liniensystems, “AfMw”, Jahrg. VIII, 1926; Smits van Waesberghe J., The musical notation of Guido of Arezzo, “Musica Disciplina”, v. V, 1951; Arel W., Die Notation der Polyphonen Music, 900-1600, Lpz., 1962; Federshofer H., Hohe und tiefe Schlüsselung im 16. Jahrhundert, in: Festschrift Fr. Blume…, Kassel, 1963.

V. A. Vakhromeev