▪ I. clef1
(klɛf)
Forms: 6 cliefe, 6–7 cliffe, 7 Sc. cleiffe, 7–8 cleave, 7–9 cliff, 8 cleff, 8– clef.
[a. F. clef:—L. clāv-em key. In spelling formerly confused with the various forms of cliff, cleve; cf. quots. 1658, 1674.]
Music. A character placed on a particular line of a stave, to indicate the name and pitch of the notes standing on that line, and hence of those on the other lines and spaces. Sometimes loosely = stave.
There are three clefs in use, the C, tenor, or alto clef, the G or treble clef, and the F or bass clef, which denote respectively the middle C on a piano, the G above, and the F below.
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 28 How many keyes, how many cliffes, how many moodes. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. i. 77. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 3 A Cliefe is a charecter set on a rule at the beginning of a verse shewing the height and lownes of euery note standing on the same verse. Ibid. 104 Of how manie parts the Canon is, so manie Cliefes do they set at the beginning of the verse. 1658 Cokaine Elegy Pilkington 22 Poems (1669) 78 The Muses two-clif'd Hill he did surpass Whose Musick had three Cliffs to do it grace. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. i. 2 Called seven Cliffs or more properly Cleaves. a 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. II. 477 The circle, with a note of interrogation, placed at the beginning of each line where the Clef should be, seems to ask the Singer in what Key or Clef he means to begin. 1833 Brewster Nat. Magic ix. 230 His ears were insensible to all sounds below F, marked by the base cliff. 1880 Hullah in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 370/2 When notes are written ‘in the tenor clef’ (more properly ‘on the tenor stave’). |
† b. B clef: the name formerly given to the two characters now called flat (♭) and natural (♮), both of which originated from modifications of the letter b, used to denote B flat and B natural respectively. Cf. B II. 1.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 3 The ♭ cliefe which is common to euery part, is made thus ♭ or thus ♮ the one signifying the halfe note and flatt singing: the other signifying the whole note or sharpe singing. 1706 Phillips s.v., The fourth is nam'd the B-cliff, or B-fa-be-mi Cliff, and apply'd to all Parts indifferently; its Property being only to shew, when Notes are to be sung, or play'd Flat, and when Sharp. |
| fig. 1625 Pemble Justification 219 Needlesse speculations telling vs, that now the Apostle hath altered his cliffe. a 1657 Sir J. Balfour Ann. Scotl. (1824–5) II. 140 They tempered ther stringes to such a cleiffe of ambition and superstitious foolriy. 1868 Whitman On Beach at Night Alone, I think a thought of the clef of the universes. |
▪ II. † clef2 Obs. rare.
[app. Anglo-Fr. *clef ad. L. clāvus pin: cf. quots. (Grafton not knowing the word, tried to make sense with cleft.) Cf. clave2 3.]
The pin or needle of a weighing-beam.
| 1494 Fabyan vii. 342 Was ordeynyd, y{supt} the beame shulde stande vpryght, the cleffe thereof enclynynge to neyther partye, as it doth in weyinge of golde and syluer. 1568 Grafton Chron. Hen. III, II. 131 Ordeyned that the Beame should stande vpright in the cleft thereof enclinyng to neyther partie. |
| Cf. 1256 Lib. de Antiq. Leg. (Camd.) 25, in fine 40 Hen. III, De Correctione Statere Domini Regis..Excepto auro et argento quod semper ponderatur per medium clavum, neque trahens ad pondam neque ad aurum sive ad argentum. 1269 ibid. (53 Hen. III) De Stateris et Pond. Mercatorum extran. Ponderato per medium clavum [mispr. clavium; but MS. has clauū] sicut aurum et argentum. 1353 Act 27 Edw. III, c. 10 (Statute of the Staple) Issint que la lange du balance soit owele, saunz encliner a lune partie ou a lautre. Pulton transl. So that the tongue of the ballance be euen without bowing to one side or to the other. |
▪ III. clef
obs. pa. tense of cleave.