The Cello is by far one of my favorite instruments. It can be soft, providing a symphony with those beautiful swells that seem to rise and fall through shimmerings of higher pitches, but it can also be quite terrifying.
Played with vigor and in a way that subverts listener expectation, the cello can strike horror in the heart, the low, lurking, creeping notes inspiring the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end as shivers undulate your spine.
The cello is then, undoubtedly, an incredibly versatile instrument, one with power, expressive not just of a universal sadness felt by all mankind and surely some sensitive animals too, but also triumph and glee.
In fact, no other instrument threads together the major and minor keys with such aplomb, such sinuate sweet and sour elegance as the cello.
If you’re just beginning your musical journey with this magical instrument, one of the first things you need to know is which clef its notes are written, so without further ado, let’s begin.
What is a Clef?
Simply put, a clef is a musical symbol that tells you how notes correspond to the ledger lines on a stave. It illustrates the spread of notes by using a singular reference note. Having learned the order of notes, using the clef’s reference point, a musician can then allocate other notes to the remaining lines.
Let’s examine the bass clef for example. The bass clef’s reference note is an F on the fourth line of the stave. This means that the note on the third line is a D, and in the gap between these two notes is an E. So you see, clefs are the context in which the notes of the octave exist.
So, What Clef is Cello Music Written In?
The simplified answer to this question is bass clef…mostly. The cello is predominantly known for its deep and somber timbre underscored an octave below by the droning buzz of the double bass.
In orchestras and chamber music, it often plays this low key role as there are scores of higher register instruments present such as clarinets and violins to shimmer and frolic over the soundscape the cello provides.
When is a Cello Not Written in Bass Clef?
I love the cello in these traditional settings, but not as much as I adore hearing it take center stage as a solo instrument, the leader of a duet, or as a quartet, and as it happens, it’s these formats that complicate the clef situation.
Given the opportunity to really spread its wings, you’ll notice a cello’s range is actually quite wide. With a written range of C2 to C6, three octaves in all, it’s life on the staves far exceeds the capacities of the bass clef.
Many people don’t realize this, but cello and sung ranges mirror one another very closely. In the cello’s lowest reaches, it covers practically all possible vocal depths, and as it soars through its falsetto range, it matches quite closely those highest of vocal notes achievable.
The human voice is spread across three different clefs, and so, the cello can also be annotated in three different clefs.
Beyond the C4 of the bass staff, the cello can be transcribed in tenor clef. Tenor clef accounts for the central range of the cello that is reached by using higher finger positions or the thinnest strings.
It stretches from C3 to C5. Then, finally, for notes C4 to C6, you’re in the realms of the treble clef, accessed by using the very highest section of the neck on the thinnest strings.
What’s the Deal with Alto Clef?
If you’ve begun studying music or if you’re looking at diagrams as you read this, you’ll have noticed that between the bass clef and the tenor clef, there’s yet another clef. This is known as alto clef, and it’s never – or rarely anyway – used for the cello.
To confuse matters, there is no difference between the notes within the alto and tenor clef. The alto clef in its visual form frames the middle C (C4) of the octave and expresses notes from C3 to C5.
Tenor clef also conveys notes from C3 to C5, but the symbol for the tenor clef frames what would be E3 in alto clef. In tenor clef, that E3 is then read as middle C and the notes continue above the confines of the stave into imaginary ledger lines.
So why is this mysterious clef leap-frogged as the notes of the cello ascend? Well, firstly, alto clef is widely considered the clef of the viola as it expresses most of its commonly utilized range on a minimum of ledger lines. Secondly, well…people don’t really like it.
In the past, far more than four clefs existed, but over time, as music evolved and transcription was modernized, some began to fall out of use and have subsequently been forgotten by all besides those who endeavor to rediscover them. The alto clef will be the next one to fall into obscurity. The only reason it’s still used is tradition.
The death of a clef is a slow one because there is no standardized governing body to decide, “Right…that one’s had its time, we’re not going to use it anymore”. It’s more of a natural process driven by individual distaste for the way the clef displays notes and their relationship to the notes in other clefs.
There’s also the matter of hundreds of years of music having been written in said clef. If that clef falls out of use and is no longer taught, pages upon pages of sheet music would then be redundant.
Dvorak Treble
This article probably raises more questions than it answers, but that’s the way with music; everything is connected. To explain one thing, you have to explain the fifty things that branch off it and into it. Dvorak treble clef is one of these branches.
Also known as false treble clef or trouble clef to some players with a penchant for puns, Dvorak treble is written exactly like normal treble clef, but the notes are intended to be played a whole octave below the written ones.
It’s known as Dvorak treble clef because the famous composer, Antonin Dvorak, would write music in this way for instruments with a lower register. Cello, on occasion, at the whim of composers, can be written this way.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it, prodigious players of the future. The Cello is written around 70% in bass clef, but it can also be expressed in both tenor and treble clef to accurately represent the breadth of its range.
On rare occasions, cello passages may even be written in Dvorak treble clef, in which case, all notes should be played an octave below the notes on the stave.
Clefs can be incredibly confusing for beginners, and if they were being honest, many highly skilled musicians too, but keep at it. It might all seem like a rather tangled ball of musical yarn now, but with time and effort, it will all make sense and unravel into perfect harmony.
