C clef
- noun
- /siː klɛf/
- Specialized
:
clave de sol
- Before reading the music, she had to remind herself where the C clef was positioned on the staff.
Examples
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Many vocal scores employ the C clef for different voices, such as alto or tenor.
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The viola part was written using the C clef to indicate middle C.
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Before reading the music, she had to remind herself where the C clef was positioned on the staff.
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The viola part was written using the C clef to indicate middle C.
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The C clef is essential for reading music.
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Many musicians learn to read the C clef early in their training.
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Many vocal scores employ the C clef for different voices, such as alto or tenor.
How Low
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a 'clef' is a pitch-indicating symbol and 'C' names the pitch, so 'C clef' denotes the clef that marks the C line (middle C). This standard technical noun–noun combination is predictable from its parts and therefore should be clear to a learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
C clef is a music sign that points to the line for middle C on the staff. Because the sign looks like the letter C and can move to different lines, the C clef came to mean 'a clef that marks middle C on one of the lines of the staff'.
