Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <clefs>
Title: Where was the D clef used?
Question: I recently came across  this score  by Henry Work called "Grandfather's Clock". And i was a bit confused at first regarding this clef in the chorus. It seems to be a D clef.   I was wondering if this clef was popular at the time, or was used for any particular instrument?

Answers:
sents: text: Common notation for tenor voice prior to 1900, especially if older than that.
text: See, for example, this TTBB arrangement of Cornell's Alma Mater at Wikipedia .
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/15536/Kevin_Kinsey
score: 11
sents: text: I’m not familiar with this particular clef.
text: However, judging by the context, this is equivalent to a treble clef lowered by an octave for the tenor voice part.
text: In choral music today, this is usually represented by a treble clef with an 8 below it, sometimes called an octave clef:
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/6851/Ben Miller - Remember Monica
score: 9
sents: text: This is very speculative and I hope someone can give a more reliable answer.
text: At some stages in the history of printed music, printers may have only had accidentals available on lines; if an accidental was required on a space, for example low F# in treble clef, they would put it on one of the neighbouring lines instead ( reference - see footnote on page 4).
text: Perhaps the same thing was true of clefs in your example, and the "D clef" is actually a C clef which the printer was unable to print correctly on the space below.
text: This would make the part treble clef (presumably sounding an octave lower), which seems right.
text: The general shape is similar to that of some variant C clefs which are relatively rare today ( image ).
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/50421/David
score: 6
sents: text: This is most likely a C-clef, and not a D-clef.
text: In the History section on the Wikipedia article on clef, there is an indication that an older way of writing the C-clef assumed a "ladder like form".
text: In the sample you have provided, the clef is indicating the third space on the staff (and not the fourth line) is Middle C.
text: This is obscured by the stylistic slanting of the clef.
text: Wikipedia also has another example of this clef in its article on TTBB choral music, which appears to have held onto this form of writing the C-clef longer than other genres.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/50430/nicholas
score: 5
sents: text: My understanding is that the C clef was a mobile clef prior to being in a fixed location.
text: It designated where the C (below middle C) was located.
text: Much the same as the G clef designated where the G above middle C was located.
text: If you go far enough back to where the staff was split away from 16 lines, there needed to be a clue to what notes would be represented on the particular staff.
text: Alas, my understanding may be entirely wrong.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/62039/Randy
score: 1
sents: text: As can be looked-up in the Havard Dictionary of Music , the C clef has some very different appearances (middle three of first picture), and the middle one matches your example.
text: I would not pay to much attention to the placement, which seems somewhat high.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/2600/guidot
score: 0
sents: text: This was the original sign of the tenor clef, that defines that the middle C (C4) is on the 4th line.
text: The tenor part is transcript to G - but the notation is an octave to high.the soprano voice is missing (cut)
text: , we see at the sheet copy that it is a SATB setting, where the tenor voice originally was set in a C-clef and now it is transcript in a G-clef, that's why the C-clef is written between two brackets.
text: Irritating is that it's not a G clef with an 8ve below the clef as the tenor must be transposed an octave down.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/56219/Albrecht Hügli
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
 In the  History section on the Wikipedia article  on clef, there is an indication that an older way of writing the C-clef assumed a "ladder like form". n choral music today, this is usually represented by a treble clef with an 8 below it, sometimes called an octave clef. Perhaps the "D clef" is actually a C clef which the printer was unable to print correctly on the space below.  
The 'D' is actually a 'C' which the printer was unable to print in the corrected space