Are the "Semi-Pitched Percussion Clefs" Realistically Used?
I noticed if you search for "percussion" clefs in the Symbol Pallet (in Bravura), there are two "Semi-Pitched Percussion Clefs" that can be manually added to the score. (Images attached)
I was wondering if anyone knows of any music pieces of music that actually make use of these strange clefs.
I find them rather interesting and thought I might use them for maybe 'high and low sleigh bells' or a single pitched bell plate, but not if readers/performers will look at that and ask "what the heck is that supposed to mean?"
I did a bit of Google searching and I could only find these clefs wherever I found "smufl".
And nobody online is talking about them.
Does anyone know if there has been any use of these clefs?
Do you think I should use them? Or just stick with the classic "railroad" percussion clef?
| Attachment | Size |
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| Semi-Pitched Percussion Clef.png | 511 bytes |
| Semi-Pitched Percussion Clef 2.png | 1.13 KB |
Comments
a drum quad has 4 different pitches, but its not really used as a pitched instrument
In reply to a drum quad has 4 different… by [DELETED] 27349432
I am aware that there are percussion instruments that have "pitches" but aren't necessarily "pitched instruments" - including marching bass, temple blocks, etc. - but my question was whether or not the clefs (attached in the original post) have been used for these types of instruments in the past.
In reply to a drum quad has 4 different… by [DELETED] 27349432
Marching tenors are actually a good example of semi-pitched percussion, as the distinction is relative pitch, not actual pitch.
It is common that they are notated on a standard 5 line staff with percussion clef simply for practical reasons, particularly now due to complex articulations and techniques (pings, skanks, etc.) that should be described and that it is up to 6 drums is very common.
As a bit of trivia, the evolution of marching tenor notation started with notation being on a single rail, then duo toms (above and below rail), then in 1970's as tri-toms started to become more popular with the shift from military style marching bands to corps style, people were using either a rail with below, on line, and above or moving to 2-4 line staffs we have now.
Tri-toms in those days were actually much bigger than the drums now, with drum 1 or 2 being the size of what is drum 4 now. You can see here at 7:30 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUDsV-NuIw
There was quite a lot of exploration of the tenor sound, configuration and construction until the early 1980s. Check out the bottom heads on tenors with scoops? 1980 Blue Devils - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RqXsjDsJ40
One of the most crazy explorations in the evolution of marching tenors was 1976 Blue Devils where they used what were called North drums, made of fiberglass, that looked like something out of Dr. Seuss. They actually pulled them back out in 1986 for a short section.
You can see them here:
1976 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob7W93ZO4LE
1986 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq6wCY5A1fo
By the way, long before became popular with groups like Chino Hills, Ayala, Dartmouth and others, the first group ever to use Flubs the way we do now is 1993 Star of Indiana - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6O9yIBTTt8.
It was their writing along with 1991 SCV that really are the roots of current marching percussion writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHzlU0ASZAA
Semi-pitched percussion refers to things like temple-blocks or windchimes that are not necessarily standardized as pitched according to a specific tones, but refer to relative pitches between the tones the instrument can make (ex: blocks pitched in 3rds, 5ths, octaves, etc.).
In MuseScore, same as in most other notation software and with most major publishers, un-pitched and semi-pitched percussion are lumped together.
True pitched percussion would assume that notation is assigned to a specific pitch and the instrument has chromatic or semi-chromatic capability.
Anyway, this clef seems useful only when needing to make that specific distinction. It has become more common to notate this in standardized ways.
In reply to Semi-pitched percussion… by Daniel
Maybe MuseScore needs a distinct type of staff for semi-pitched instruments. #95941: Add temple blocks instrument is an unresolved struggle with the current limitations.
In reply to Maybe MuseScore needs a… by Isaac Weiss
While it is technically and academically correct for temple blocks to be on a distinct staff, this is not commonly done for 2 reasons:
1) Publishers - music publishing traditionally limited to what you can fit on a physical piece of paper. In order to fit everything in a score, publishers have traditionally combined un-pitched and semi-pitched percussion into a single staff.
2) Performers - because of the first point performers are unfamiliar with semi-pitched clef and effort would be required to educate both performers and composers. Also, due to common performer responsibilities, there are often multiple clef changes between semi-pitched and un-pitched. Alternatively, this would require a dedicated semi-pitch staff just hanging out waiting for some blocks, etc.
Instead, I propose to keep the neutral clef and adopt 5 line staff as standard for semi-pitched percussion, then modify the templates and presets for these instruments accordingly (I am working on securing samples).
In reply to While it is technically and… by Daniel
How would you propose handling temple blocks?
In reply to How would you propose… by Isaac Weiss
In general, I propose all percussion instruments/notation to be aligned with VDL. Here is how blocks should be according to VDL.
![test_percussion_semipitched_blocks.png]()
In reply to In general, I propose to… by Daniel
VDL = "Virtual Drumline", a specific commercially-available collection of sounds?
In reply to VDL = "Virtual Drumline", a… by Marc Sabatella
Yep. It is Virtual Drumline. While it started out originally as a commercial VST, but there were lighter versions of VDL that were incorporated into both Sibelius and Finale and it has become a sort of defacto standard among percussion specific publishers and prominent percussion composers and arrangers.
While it started first in the marching percussion segment, it now encompasses orchestral and world percussion.