Re: Repeating the same clef

[Richard Sabey]

> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:30:59 +0100
> From: Wols Lists <address@hidden>
>
> On 15/10/10 22:18, Phil Holmes wrote:
> > I made the comment since there had been a discussion about this
> > terminology on .devel.
> >
> > BTW - staffs is a perfectly good plural of staff. Stave is a
> > perfectly good singular of staves.
>
> And in music, as in English, the two words are pretty much interchangeable.
>
> Cheers,
> Wol

There is a difference. "Staffs" is the correct plural of "staff" in some senses other than the music sense, e.g. the staffs of several schools. However, the plural of the music word has always been "staves". It's one of those plurals where f or fe (or in this case ff) changes to ve, as we see with half/halves and wife/wives.  It is not "staffs", and has never been "staffs".

As for the singular, it was originally "staff", but "stave" then became more popular. What people actually say is always "stave", and it's been that way since I started learning music in the 60s. Even back then, "staff" was to be found only in old books.