Alto clef

How to read it

The C clef can sit on different lines, and wherever it sits, the line through its centre is middle C. On the middle line it is the alto clef. Richardson’s Elements of Music (1893) gives the alto clef for the viola and the alto trombone, and for contralto and counter-tenor voices; the tenor clef, the same sign on the fourth line, is for the tenor trombone and the higher notes of the cello and bassoon.

Also searched as: C clef, viola clef.

Other positions

On the fourth line the same sign is the tenor clef; on the first line, the soprano clef. Karl Gehrkens (1914) wrote that the movable C clef, “formerly in very common use”, was then used only in parts for some orchestral instruments and, less and less, for the tenor part in vocal music.

Where the shape comes from

The sign is an altered letter C. Stainer and Barrett’s dictionary (1898) says that C and F were the letters most used as clefs in church music up to the time of Palestrina.