Hi,
Why is the key sharp even so high on the staff in the first place? Is there a
point to it beside the maybe visually? If not, we will just change it all
around the world I guess! ;)
I’m not a music historian, so can’t tell you that. Once a player has some
familiarity with key signatures, they’re not read note by note but perceived as
a shape which says “G major” or “E minor” etc. The shape is conventional, and
at some stage your pupil will have to switch from your chosen shape to the
conventional one.
In old sheet music it's not uncustomary to print the key signature in
different positions from what we're now used to, and - perhaps more
surprisingly - it's not even uncommon to find the "same" sharp in
different octaves. For example, see the following key signatures in
Heinichen:
So, "three sharps" (but not in modern arrangement) for the two violins,
"four sharps" (which are actually three) for soprano and bass. That's
interesting insofar as today we're basically used to only counting the
total number of flats/sharps. So, if one looks only at the soprano line,
one might mistake the key signature for e major, but in fact it's a
major. (As an additional twist, Heinichen's example piece is actually in
e major, but he writes all the d-sharp's in-place.)
I can't tell when the layout of the key signatures became standardised.
But I definitely recall instances of non-standard key signature
configuration in manuscripts by Clara Schumann, for example.
Back on topic: How hard would it be in LilyPond to print \key g \major
in treble clef with two f-sharp accidentals in the key signature (for f'
and f'')?
Lukas
