Re: changes to Clef

[Reinhold Kainhofer]

On Sunday 31 January 2010 09:47:36 David Kastrup wrote:
> Carl Sorensen <address@hidden> writes:
> > Dear Patrick,
> >
> >> If there's a desire to emphasize the abbreviated nature -- and
> >> really, "abbreviated" is not the right word, since G is not an
> >> abbreviation of "treble" -- a comment in the @lilypond would do
> >> this.
> >
> > Instead of "abbreviated", I've used the word "synonym".
> 
> Is "G" really a proper alternative name?  I'd tend to call it
> "shorthand" rather than "synonym".

Yes, the treble clef is alternatively also called the G-clef, since it defines 
the position of the g' (see also the wikipedia article on clef...). Before 
~1800, the G clef was mainly used for violins, while all choral voices and 
most other instruments used either a C-clef of the bass clef, thus in 
German, it is now usually called the "Violin-Schlüssel". The English name 
"treble clef" seems to come from an even later time, after the notation 
for soprano has switched away from the C-clef to the G-clef.

But the original name is still C-clef.

Cheers,
Reinhold