Page:How to Write Music.djvu/17

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HOW TO WRITE MUSIC
9

to move, being sometimes on the third and sometimes on the fourth line. Really it is always on the same line, and it is the selection of lines which varies. Hence the misdescription of the treble and bass clefs as "immovable," the C clef as "movable."

Note that all clefs are on lines; no clef is in a space. This is because the first attempt to accurately represent music to the eye was by means of a single line with a letter at the beginning. This was what has since become the fourth line, the clef line, of the bass stave.

In pianoforte and organ music, high parts for the left hand, or low ones for the right, may be written either:

By means of leger lines (Fig. 3, a);

By changing the clef (b); or

By writing the part in the stave proper to the other hand (c).


\relative c'' {
  \new PianoStaff <<
    \new Staff {
      \numericTimeSignature
      \time 4/4
      r4_\markup { \italic (a) } g8 a b4 d | c1
      \bar "||"
      r4_\markup { \italic (b) } g8 a b4 d | c1
      \bar "||"
      r4_\markup { \italic (c) } <<
        { g8 a b4 d | c1 }
        \\
        { g8_\markup{ \small L.H.} f d4 f | e1 }
      >>
      \bar "||"
    }
    \new Staff {
      \numericTimeSignature
      \time 4/4
      % By default, Lilypond shows clef changes with a smaller clef.
      \override Staff.Clef #'full-size-change = ##t
      \clef "bass"
      r4 g8 f d4 f | e1
      \bar "||"
      % By default, Lilypond places clef changes before the bar
      \override Score.BreakAlignment #'break-align-orders = #(
        make-vector 3 '(
          span-bar
          breathing-sign
          staff-bar
          clef
          key-cancellation
          key-signature
          time-signature
        ))
      \clef "treble"
      r4 g8 f d4 f | e1
      \bar "||"
      \clef "bass"
      s1 | s1
      \bar "||"
    }
  >>
}

Fig. 3

The example, of course, illustrates a high part for the left hand.

The first method is the hardest to write and read. There is not much to choose between the second and third. If the third be adopted