Staff (music)

[[Image:Staff240.svg|frame|alt=Musical staff|right|A typical five-line staff]] In [[Western culture|Western]] [[musical notation]], the '''staff'''<ref name=collins>[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/staff "staff" in the Collins English Dictionary]: "in British English: also called: stave; plural: staffs or staves"</ref><ref name=mw>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/staff "staff" in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary]</ref> ([[British English|UK]] usually '''stave''');<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stave|title=stave Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary|website=dictionary.cambridge.org|access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref> (plural: ''staves''),<ref name=collins/> also occasionally referred to as a '''pentagram''',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Antunes |first1=Ines P. |last2=Rosa |first2=Carlos |last3=Almeida |first3=Flávio |chapter=Information Design and Semiology: A Visual Study on Deconstructing Musical Notation for Improving First-Grade Children's Learning |date=2024 |editor-last=Martins |editor-first=Nuno |editor2-last=Brandão |editor2-first=Daniel |title=Advances in Design and Digital Communication IV |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-47281-7_53 |series=Springer Series in Design and Innovation |volume=35 |language=en |location=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |pages=639–650 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-47281-7_53 |isbn=978-3-031-47281-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dolmetsch Online – Chart of Musical Symbols |url=https://www.dolmetsch.com/musicalsymbols.htm |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=www.dolmetsch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-06 |title=How To Read The Notes On The Pentagram » The Art Of Playing |url=https://www.theartofplaying.net/en/read-notes-pentagram-easy-and-fast/ |access-date=2023-12-03 |language=en-GB}}</ref> is a set of horizontal lines (usually five) with spaces between them, that each represent a different musical pitch. However in the case of a [[percussion staff]], there may be from one to five (or perhaps more) lines which denote different percussion instruments, as may the spaces in between. In [[guitar tab]] there are up to six (or perhaps more) lines denoting different strings.

Appropriate music symbols, depending on the intended effect, are placed on the staff with the vertical position showing their pitch, percussion instrument or string, and the horizontal position showing their approximate location in time.

The absolute pitch of each line of a pitched staff is indicated by the placement of a [[clef]] symbol at the appropriate vertical position on the left-hand side of the staff (possibly modified by [[transposing instrument|conventions for specific instruments]]). For example, the [[treble clef]], also known as the G clef, is placed on the second line (counting upward), fixing that line as the pitch first G above "[[middle C]]".

The lines and spaces are numbered from bottom to top; the bottom line is the ''first line'' and the top line is the ''fifth line''.

The musical staff is analogous to a mathematical [[Graph of a function|graph]] of [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] with respect to [[duration (music)|time]]. Pitches of notes are given by their vertical position on the staff and notes are played from left to right. Unlike a graph, however, the number of [[semitone]]s represented by a vertical step from a line to an adjacent space depends on the key, and the exact timing of the beginning of each note is not directly proportional to its horizontal position; rather, exact timing is encoded by the musical symbol chosen for each note in addition to the [[tempo]].

A [[time signature]] to the right of the [[clef]] indicates the relationship between timing counts and note symbols, while [[bar (music)|bar lines]] group notes on the staff into [[Bar (music)|measures]].

==Staff positions== [[Image:Staff lines and spaces SVG.svg|400px|right|thumb|Staff, with staff positions indicated]] When a staff is used for pitched instruments other than guitar tab, the vertical position of the notehead on the staff indicates which note to play: higher-pitched notes are marked higher on the staff. The notehead can be placed with its center intersecting a line (''on a line'') or in between the lines touching the lines above and below (''in a space''). Notes outside the range of the staff are placed on or between [[ledger line]]s—lines the width of the note they need to hold—added above or below the staff.

Which staff positions represent which [[Note (music)|notes]] is determined by a [[clef]] placed at the beginning of the staff. The clef identifies a particular line as a specific note, and all other notes are determined relative to that line. For example, the [[treble clef]] puts the G above [[middle C]] on the second line. The [[Interval (music)|interval]] between adjacent staff positions is one [[steps and skips|step]] in the [[diatonic scale]]. Once fixed by a clef, the notes represented by the positions on the staff can be modified by the [[key signature]] or [[Accidental (music)|accidentals]] on individual notes. A clefless staff may be used to represent a set of [[Percussion instrument|percussion]] sounds; each line typically represents a different instrument.

==Systems, braces and brackets==

[[Image:Brace (music).png|right|240px|Musical brace.]] [[Image:Bracket (music).png|right|240px|Musical bracket.]] A '''vertical line''' drawn to the left of multiple staves creates a '''system''', indicating that the music on all the staves is to be played simultaneously. A '''[[Bracket#Curly brackets or braces .7B .7D|brace]]''' (curly bracket) is used to join multiple staves that represent an instrument, such as a piano, organ, harp, or marimba.<ref name="IrvinePauly1999"/> A '''bracket''' is an additional vertical line joining staves to show groupings of instruments that function as a unit, such as the string section of an orchestra. Sometimes a second bracket is used to show instruments grouped in pairs, such as the first and second oboes or first and second violins in an orchestra.<ref name="Rachmaninoff1965">{{cite book|last=Rachmaninoff|first=Sergei|title=Piano concertos nos. 1, 2, and 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kIXcT_ooWpoC&pg=PA261|access-date=18 October 2011|year=1965|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-26350-2|page=261}}</ref> In some cases, a brace is used for this purpose.<ref name="IrvinePauly1999">{{cite book|last1=Irvine|first1=Demar|last2=Pauly|first2=Reinhard G.|last3=Radice|first3=Mark A.|title=Irvine's writing about music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RrYmediD2QC&pg=PA213|access-date=18 October 2011|year=1999|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-1-57467-049-3|page=213}}</ref><ref name="Strauss1904">{{cite book|last=Strauss|first=Richard|title=Eine Alpensinfonie and Symphonia domestica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FE08SeSZnYC&pg=RA1-PA71|access-date=18 October 2011|orig-year=1904|year=1993|location=New York|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-27725-7|page=71}}</ref>

When more than one system appears on a page, often two parallel diagonal strokes are placed on the left side of the score to separate them.<ref name="Grove System">{{Cite Grove |last=Rastall |first=Richard |title=System}}</ref>

Four-part [[SATB]] vocal settings, especially in [[hymnal]]s, use a ''divisi'' notation on a two-staff system with [[soprano]] and [[alto]] voices sharing the upper staff and [[tenor]] and [[Bass (voice type)|bass]] voices on the lower staff.

Confusingly, the German ''System'' (often in the combined forms ''Liniensystem'' or ''Notensystem'') may refer to a single staff as well as to the ''Akkolade'' (from the French) or system in the English sense; the Italian term is ''accollatura''.<ref name="Grove System" /><ref name=Wikipedia-DE>[[:de:Notensystem (Musik)#Akkolade|description in the German language Wikipedia]]{{Circular reference|date=January 2025}}</ref>

== Grand staff == [[Image:Grand staff.svg|thumb|The grand staff]] When music on two staves is joined by a [[Bracket#Curly brackets or braces .7B .7D|brace]], or is intended to be played at once by a single performer (usually a [[keyboard instrument]] or [[harp]]), a '''grand staff''' ([[American English]]) or '''great stave''' ([[British English]]) is created.{{Dubious|date=December 2023}} Typically, the upper staff uses a [[treble clef]] and the lower staff has a [[bass clef]]. In this instance, [[middle C]] is centered between the two staffs, and it can be written on the first [[ledger line]] below the upper staff or the first ledger line above the lower staff. Very rarely, a centered line with a small C clef is written, and usually used to indicate that B, C, or D on the line can be played with either hand (ledger lines are not used from a center alto as this creates confusion). When playing the [[piano]] or harp, the upper staff is normally played with the right hand and the lower staff with the left hand. In music intended for [[organ (music)|organ]] with [[Pedal keyboard|pedalboard]], a grand staff normally comprises three staves, one for each hand on the manuals and one for the feet on the pedalboard. [[Image:Piano staff.png|400px|thumb|none|A simple grand staff. Each of the staves shown above has seven notes and one rest.]] [[File:Musical Keyboard and Stave.svg|thumb|Musical keyboard and treble and bass clef]]

==History== {{Multiple image | direction = vertical | image1 = Beneventan music manuscript example.jpg | caption1 = 12th-century Beneventan manuscript showing diastematic neumes and a single-line staff | caption2 = Excerpt from a keyboard work by William Byrd written on a six-line staff, 1591 | total_width = 260 | image2 = Byrd manuscript sample.jpg }} Early Western medieval notation was written with [[neume]]s, which did not specify exact pitches but only the shape of the melodies, i.e. indicating when the musical line went up or down; presumably these were intended as mnemonics for melodies which had been taught by rote.

During the 9th through 11th centuries a number of systems were developed to specify pitch more precisely, including '''diastematic neumes''' whose height on the page corresponded with their absolute pitch level (Longobardian and Beneventan manuscripts from Italy show this technique around the year 1000). '''Digraphic''' notation, using letter names similar to modern [[note (music)|note names]] in conjunction with the neumes, made a brief appearance in a few manuscripts, but a number of manuscripts used one or more horizontal lines to indicate particular pitches.

The treatise ''[[Musica enchiriadis]]'' ({{circa|900}}) uses [[Daseian]] notation for indicating specific pitches, but the modern use of staff lines is attributed to [[Guido d'Arezzo]] (990–1050), whose four-line staff is still used (though without the red and yellow coloring he recommended) in [[Liber usualis|Gregorian chant publications]] today. Five-line staves appeared in Italy in the 13th century and it was promoted by [[Ugolino da Forlì]]; staves with four, five, and six lines were used as late as 1600.<ref>Harvard Dictionary of Music (2nd edition, 1972): Neume, Staff</ref>

== See also == * [[Tablature]] * [[Sight reading]] * [[Rastrum]]

== Notes == <references />

==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last=Haines |first=John |year=2008 |title=The Origins of the Musical Staff |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |volume=91 |issue=3/4 |pages=327–378 |doi=10.1093/musqtl/gdp002 |jstor=20534535 }}

==External links== *[http://www.dolmetsch.com/manuscriptpaper.htm Dolmetsch Online]: Printable [[PDF]] files of musical staff (A4 size) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090418154531/http://www.audiograffiti.com.au/dwn_ms.htm Audio Graffiti Free Manuscript Paper]: Printable [[PDF]] files of musical staff (A4 and Letter size; standard, TAB and more; with or without clefs) *[http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pdr4h/musicpaper Printable files of musical staff] in [[PDF]] and [[PostScript]] formats provided by Perry Roland of Alderman Library at The University of Virginia *[http://www.williamburnson.com/engraving/staff-paper.html Customizable Manuscript Paper]: Customizable staff paper in varying dimensions, staff heights, thicknesses, and margins in PDF format

[[Category:Musical notation]]

[[fi:Nuottikirjoitus#Nuottiviivasto]]