Clefs
VHV will automatically choose the most suitable clef (either bass
or treble) to fit the pitch range of the notes on a staff, but
typically a clef is encoded explicitly for the music. Clefs are
encoded in interpretation tokens that start with a single *
followed by the string clef
and then the shape and line position
of the clef. For example, a treble clef is *clefG2
, with G
meaning a G-clef, and 2
meaning that the clef is centered on the
second line up from the bottom of the staff. The bass clef is
*clefF4
since it is an F-clef on the fourth line of the staff.
Try moving the clefs to different staff lines by changing the number after the clef shape in the above example textbox.
A vocal tenor clef is represented by *clefGv2
, where the v
means
the music should be played an octave lower than the regular clef’s
sounding pitches. Try creating a vocal tenor clef in the above
interactive example. The v
operator also works on the other clefs
(but these sorts of clefs are very rare). Another rare clef is
*clefG^2
which is the opposite of *clefGv2
, where the music is
written an octave lower than actually sounding pitch for the normal
form of the clef. You can also try to create exotic two-octave
clefs by doubling the ^^
and vv
markers.