Mystery clef...

[Trapdoor2]

Ok, music sleuths...

My 1909 vintage "Jacobs' No. 1 Amateur Folio for Orchestra and Mandolin Orchestra, Banjo Solo" (which is where I've been getting all my Weidt stuff), has a strange version of the treble clef (G clef). This is simply your basic G clef but it has an added bar or 'strike' thru the clef, right at the staff line for the D note.

Go here: http://www.classicbanjo.com/tutors/WeidtCollection/Weidt.pdf and look at the first three tunes for an example.

My question is: What does this indicate? It doesn't seem to affect the time signature, key signature or tuning...I've found it in variations of all of those.

So? I'm stumped, please enlighten me!

===Marc

[David Wade]

Dunno Marc - all I can think of is that it is an indication of pitch similar to putting 8ve under the clef.

[Trapdoor2]

I've been snooping around a bit. Nothing yet. However, I have discovered that this odd clef seems to only occur in Walter Jacobs' publications (not limited to Weidt tunes). It is strange! It shows up seemingly randomly in both plectrum and fingerstyle pieces. It occurs with no regard to key or time signature. There are duets both with and without, tunings both normal and raised.

It has to be there for some mundane reason. I keep going back to the structure of the treble clef itself, the loops of which encircle both G notes in the staff. Somehow I suspect the "strike" is tied to the D staff line (although at least one piece in the Weidt collection has the "strike" over the E space).

For a moment, I thought it might indicate the piece is in a minor key...nope.

I guess I'm going to have to dig up a Walter Jacobs' published tutor. I have Weidt's tutor (a Jacobs' pub.) but it is packed away.

===Marc

[Jody Stecher]

I asked my sister the choral director what a slashed treble clef meant and right away she said it's sometime used for a tenor vocal part to indicate that the actual pitch is an octave lower. That saves having to write and read all those extra lines below the usual five. I noticed that while some of the pieces in the PDF Weidt book have the slash going through the D line, others are clearly going through the E space, the top space, and don't cross the D line. I asked her what that meant and she didn't know.

[Trapdoor2]

I cross posted this to the Banjohangout and got one authoritative reply from the tenor/plectrum side. Evidently a 1927 tutor ("McNeil Chord System for Plectrum Banjo") indicates that this modified clef is indeed an octave notation indicator. Now we have two authoritative sources!

Quote: "The bar across the Clef signifies Octave Pitch notation. These notes are expressed in Octave Notation , therefore, they are in reality written an octave higher than the sound of the open strings. In this method we use Octave Notation, as adopted by the American Guild of Banjoists."

So...now I'm wondering why it wasn't consistently used on all their "banjo" sheet music. I hate having my research materials packed away!