Plagal and authentic tunes

[David Barnert]

In another thread, Adrian wrote:

 

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MIke (and David will correct me if I am wrong here) I don’t think it's the upper range of the tune that indicates plagal or authentic here, rather how low the tune generally sits under the tonic.

 

Yes, that’s exactly what I was trying to say all along.

 

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As David says, most tunes were written within a range of one and a half octaves from D - presumably to avoid too many ledger lines and to keep most of the tune within the stave, but was the choice of key signature generally otherwise arbitrary?

 

Actually, the “ledger lines” aspect hadn’t occurred to me. I think the range of low D to high g comes from ease of playing on commonly available instruments (fiddle, penny whistle, soprano recorder, tabor pipe, with the middle two sounding an octave higher and the last sounding two octaves higher). I’d be more inclined to believe that the placement of the G clef comes from the desire to minimize ledger lines in music whose pitch was fixed.

[Mikefule]

3 hours ago, David Barnert said:

I’d be more inclined to believe that the placement of the G clef comes from the desire to minimize ledger lines in music whose pitch was fixed.

 

Yes, a lot people forget there are several clefs.  Probably most of us only use one and have passing familiarity with one more.

 

 

Think of one continuous series of lines and spaces big enough to encompass the entire piano keyboard.

 

For convenience, we choose to display only 5 of these lines, relying on ledger lines above and below when required.  It makes sense to choose the 5 lines we're going to use most often, with the minimum use of ledger lines.

 

Most of us will know the treble clef with the stylised G circling the line for the note G.

 

Many of us will know the bass clef, with the stylised F with the two dots straddling the note F.

 

Less well known is the C clef, with the heavily stylised C straddling middle C.

 

Even less well known (I had to look it up) is that the C clef is "commonly" used in two positions: for Alto or Tenor, as required.

 

These 4 give us treble, bass, alto and tenor.

 

 

Even less well known than that (I just found out today) is that each of the stylised G, F and C symbols can be positioned in more than one way providing a total 9 distinct clefs".  These 9 are all just 5 line (4 space) "slices" selected from the all of the lines and spaces that are possible.

 

Then there are the octave clefs...

 

So yes, it makes perfect sense that the staves/clefs were chosen to fit what was most convenient.

 

However, it follows from that that familiarity with a convention will encourage writers to remain within the convention.  If I write a tune, it will usually be in G or D, and I'll choose which key according to how far up or down I need to go on the treble clef.

 

The clefs, chosen for convenience, become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  "These are the notes you're most likely to need" has become "These are the easiest notes for me to write down and sight read."

 

 

[JimLucas]

40 minutes ago, Mikefule said:

The clefs, chosen for convenience, become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  "These are the notes you're most likely to need" has become "These are the easiest notes for me to write down and sight read."

 

But it's not entirely "circular".  Those who only play by ear are unlikely to compose a tune with the intent of easy reading-writing in a common clef.  Instead, they're likely to simply have it fit in the range of other tunes with which they're familiar.  And the commonly-known clef will also have been chosen to comfortably cover that same range.

 

Of  course, many tunes will also have a range that is limited by the composer's instrument.  E.g., a flute player is unlikely to compose a tune that goes down to a violinists' low G, and somebody with only a 20-button anglo is unlikely to compose a tune with accidentals.

[Mikefule]

1 hour ago, JimLucas said:

 

But it's not entirely "circular".  Those who only play by ear are unlikely to compose a tune with the intent of easy reading-writing in a common clef.  Instead, they're likely to simply have it fit in the range of other tunes with which they're familiar.  And the commonly-known clef will also have been chosen to comfortably cover that same range.

 

Of  course, many tunes will also have a range that is limited by the composer's instrument.  E.g., a flute player is unlikely to compose a tune that goes down to a violinists' low G, and somebody with only a 20-button anglo is unlikely to compose a tune with accidentals.

All true.  There is no single "catch all" description or analysis.

 

Another important thing for folk music is which keys fit the singing style and the range of the typical untrained voice.

 

As for instruments suiting particular keys, there is probably a two way street here.  The current convention has not always existed, and we still have the irritatingly tricky situation of transposing instruments.  When I used to play trumpet, what I read as C came out as B flat, so if I wanted to play in "real G"  (Greenwich Mean G?  British Standard G?) I had to do a calculation.  Then there are E flat instruments with a similar problem.

 

The violin is a great example, because it is not only a crucial instrument in the orchestra and the string quartet, but also a standard part of English folk, American country and Irish traditional music.  The present violin as we know it is the product of evolution and selection.  The size, range, and even number of strings, have changed over time, and will no doubt continue to do so.

 

I'm no musicologist, but my general impression is that what we have today in terms of conventional instruments, popular keys, the stave and clefs are what has survived from a far wider range of options.  The instruments, the music, and the notation have developed together, sometimes one influencing another, sometimes vice versa.