The first line to be thus used was for the tone F and was originally colored red, and the second was for C, colored yellow or green. The use of colored lines was not long continued.
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Fig. 47.—Genesis of Clefs from Gothic Letters.
Although experiments with a kind of
staff began in the 9th century, its significant
use dates from the 10th.
The modern arrangement of treble and bass staffs braced together is supposed to have come from an old eleven-line or 'great' staff, from which the middle line is omitted to facilitate seeing to what pitch the notes refer.
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Eleven-Line 'Great' Staff
30. The Letter-Names.—Parallel with the growth of the neumes came the adoption of letter-names for tones. The idea had already been applied by the Greeks (see sec. 21), but the old Greek system was not directly imitated.
The Byzantines seem to have used the letters [Greek: d, ph, l, m] (initials of
Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian) for certain tones, and they
also applied the letters [Greek: a, b, g, d, e, z, ê] to the successive tones of an
octave-scale—incorporating them also into a set of solmization-syllables,
[Greek: pa, bou, ga, di, ke, zô, nê.] But these usages had no lasting result.
The use of Latin letters had many varieties. At one time
fifteen letters were employed (A to P) to designate the tones of
two octaves. More satisfactory was the use of but seven letters
(A to G), repeated in successive octaves. The precise tone with
which such names began was not necessarily the tone now
called A, but might be any tone that was assumed as a starting-point.
In all cases the series was counted upward from
the gravest tone (the reverse of the Greek method). As the
system reached its final form, the lowest G was added, and was
called [Greek: G] (gamma) for distinction. (See table on p. 68.)
As the tone-system developed, the need was felt for both B and B[b],
which were distinguished by differently shaped forms, B being angular
([Symbol]*) and called B durum or quadratum, while B[b] was rounded ([b]) and
called B molle or rotundum. From the former ultimately came the
modern 'natural' ([Symbol]*) and also the peculiar German name H for B[Symbol]*,
