Create a grand staff with a C clef in the middle.

• Nov 6, 2023 - 00:54

There was some discussion on the Viola da Gamba Facebook group about an edition of music that had a treble and bass staff, but the only clef was a C clef in the middle. See the sample attached. This is not common, but it was known to several in the group and seems to be a German variant. I don't know if there is historical precedent. A lot of players thought it was a useful idea.

Can anyone think of a way to do this in MuseScore? Viol music often uses the alto clef because it often falls in this middle range, but it also has a wide range, so it often changes clefs in the middle of things, which is challenging for some people (like me) to read. This arrangement seems rather more intuitive to allow basically a continuous staff with middle C on a ledger line. It's basically a grand staff, but without the treble or bass clef showing and with the added C clef visually centered. It may be complicated for note entry to have runs like this that cross staves.

Attachment Size
C staff.jpg 58.91 KB

Comments

This might be a start for you. I started with a grand staff. Used staff properties to not show clefs. Used a staff spacer to bring the two together. Downloaded the clef and copied it into the score.

Attachment Size
gamba.mscz 26.79 KB

In reply to by bobjp

An interesting solution and close to what I was looking for. I would prefer to use the text font clef for the sake of transparency and resolution, but I haven't used the frames feature in MuseScore before and am puzzling about how it works. It seems unable to place a frame on top of a system, so everything gets shifted.

I'm also unsure where to find the font characters used by MuseScore.

What is thsi music? I know this kind of notation only from the Luteworks in the Old Bach-GA (but with standard Treble + Bassclefs)

In reply to by wolfgan

Yes, I gather this is familiar to lute players. It's not clear from the discussion what the source of this example is, but it is apparently something, probably German, for viola da gamba. As you may know, the viol is closely related to the lute in terms of tuning (in 4ths with a third in the middle) and the use of tablature for polyphonic playing. The discussion has cited editions of Abel, Bach, and others.

In reply to by oriscus7

I just kind of threw my idea together just to see if it was possible. Drag the C clef to the left. You will see handles to resize it. Yes it isn't transparent. I couldn't get the one in MuseScore to place where I wanted it. There is a website that will remove the white background if you want. https://www.remove.bg/upload

Where the clef was, you can see a gray line between the staves. Select it, move your mouse slightly until a handle appears at one end. Select the handle and drag it up or down to set the distance that you want

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