A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/C

by George Grove

C.The keynote of the 'natural' scale, so called because it requires neither flats nor sharps in its signature. In German also it is C, C♯ being called Cis; but in Italian and French it is called Ut and Do, the former from the name given it by Guido d'Arezzo. [Scale.]

It is the Ionic scale of the Church tones or modes, and in it were written 'Ein' feste Burg,' 'Gott der Vater,' 'Jesaia der Propheten,' 'Vom Himmel hoch,' and others of the earliest German chorales. In the 16th century it was much employed for dance tunes, and perhaps on that account was known as 'il modo lascivo' (Zarlino, in Hullah, 'Hist, of Mod. Music,' Lect. 3). In more modern times it has been rendered illustrious among other masterpieces by Gibbons's 'Hosanna,' the Jupiter and C minor Symphonies, and the Overture to Leonora. Schubert's great Symphony and Handel's 'Dead March in Saul' are written in C major.

The name of 'C clef' is given to all clefs when thus written, the line on which the clef mark stands [App. p.574 amends to "the line enclosed by the horizontal lines in the clef mark"] being middle C, and the clef mark itself a corruption of the letter C. Those shown in the example are the Soprano, Alto, and Tenor, but the C clef has been used on every line of the stave.

Horns and trumpets are made to play the scale of C, and are written in the score in that key; they transpose into the key of the piece by the addition of crooks. The drums used formerly to be given in the score in the key of C, with an indication, at the beginning of the movement, of the key in which they were to be tuned. But they are now usually printed as played.

As a sign of time stands for common time, 4 crotchets in a bar; and for allabreve time, with 2 or 4 minims in a bar.

Cf. is occasionally used in church music, or in instruction books, as an abbreviation for canto fermo.

[ G. ]