Re: Change staff clef immediately after time signature

[Christopher R. Maden]

On 2/4/19 12:36 AM, Andrew Bernard wrote:
> This comes up reasonably often. May I ask why you don't simply start
> the piece with the treble clef? If you immediately change to treble,
> what is the point of having the bass clef at this point? It's a
> musical decision up to you, but it always strikes me as a bit
> unnecessary. Any player will know the lower staff is the left hand,
> assuming this is normalish piano music, so there is no need for a
> bass clef to remind them. What you want is not wrong. just clumsy,
> and adds more visual noise to a score for the brain to deal with.

I’m transcribing Sousa’s “A Typical Tune of Zanzibar,”[*] and I’m trying 
not to change the notation too much unnecessarily.

I also think it kind of makes sense — the lower staff is almost entirely 
in the bass clef, and it makes sense to set that expectation right at 
the start, even if the first two bars are in treble clef.

~Chris

[*] <URL: http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/073/057 >
--
Chris Maden, text nerd
<URL: http://crism.maden.org/ >
Emperor Norton had the right idea.