[gsharp-devel] suggested change of terminology

[Christophe Rhodes]

Robert Strandh <strandh at labri.fr> writes:

> In private email, Magnus Johansson told me that a "treble clef" is a
> "G clef" on line 2 (in Gsharp terminology) and a "bass clef" is an "F
> clef" on line 6 (idem).  This is not the terminology that Gsharp uses
> at the moment.  In the book by Ross, I can't find any support for what
> Magnus told me, but on the other hand, it is consistent with it.  Ross
> simply says that the treble clef and the bass clef never move.  

This is true.  There are other names for other clef/line combinations
(e.g. "tenor", "alto" and "soprano" for various positions of the C
clef).

> Having thought about it for a while, I am now suggesting a change in
> the behavior of Gsharp, and a corresponding change to the
> documentation.  My suggestion is partly based on the difficulty for an
> end user to know the number of each staff line.  

Heh, yes, this has bitten me several times.

>   I suggest changing the "Insert Staff Above/Below" commands so that
>   they do not prompt for a line number for the clef, and instead just
>   use the default staff line for each clef.  Furthermore, I suggest
>   that "f" and "bass" be equivalent choices and that "g" and "treble"
>   be equivalent choices.  Finally, I suggest adding commands to move
>   the clef of a staff up or down one line. 

Up or down n lines, maybe?  Ideally with the numeric prefix argument,
so that I can do C-u 2 C-c C-u (or whatever) when I want a tenor clef
instead of a viola / alto clef...

Incidentally, there's a tricky terminological issue.  Moving a clef
higher means lowering the pitch of the lines: so naming the command
should aim to be clear; maybe Move Clef Up?

>   Internally, I suggest changing the names of the clefs to :g, :f, and
>   :c. 

Fine by me, though it gets more complicated, again.  Firstly, there's
the issue of the 8va treble clef, which has a (slightly) different
glyph.  Secondly, there's the issue that several orchestral
instruments have transposing clefs -- that is, a clef where the
pitches played sound a constant interval away from the notated pitch.
(Normal examples: trumpets and clarinets, the latter having the
additional amusement that there are several instruments and several
transpositions).  This should probably be handled by the clef object
rather than the name for the glyph, but it does add to the complexity.

Cheers,

Christophe