Notating a note sustained over clef change

Question

I found this very interesting notation in Wiklund's first piano concerto, final bars of movement 1 (the transcription for two pianos):

See the final left-hand bars: the low E is sustained over a clef change, then into the next bar where the two clefs are stacked atop each other, both applying to one note.

I have never seen that notation before and I doubt that many music notation programs would support it. So that sparked my curiosity; how would a modern musician notate the same passage? Is the only alternative to move the high B to the right-hand stave?

Concerning whether music notation programs could produce this output: I suspect you could induce Lilypond to produce that output if you really wanted to. But I'm not experienced enough with it to be able to produce a working example quickly. — Michael Seifert, Dec 24 '21 at 14:43
Any notation program could easily produce it, as long as it had non-functional symbols available of treble and bass clef. Playback would need to be cheated though. — Laurence Payne, Dec 24 '21 at 20:30
@LaurencePayne Definitely true, I meant that I doubt any software supports it natively. — KeizerHarm, Dec 24 '21 at 21:29

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 24 '21 at 14:22

3 alternatives to that notation that I can notate with Musescore are these:

Cross-staff the lower staff's uppermost B so the slurred beam in the lower staff of the 3rd last measure connects a chord in the lower staff with a note in the upper staff
Use 3 staves instead of 2 (heck, this also looks appropriate for the 4th last measure)
Notate the lower staff's uppermost B with 4 ledger lines in the bass clef instead of using the treble clef

I don't have the greatest clue which of these is the best, but given that I had to count out the ledger lines in order to determine what the bottommost notes are (turns out they're E's), I personally would not want to read my last option.

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 24 '21 at 15:46

Occasionally, this can be a useful and clear way to notate something which would otherwise look messy. I don't think it's a particularly 'old' way.

Any notation program that supports clef symbols as simple, non-functioning graphic objects could notate this. Playback would be another matter! (Though easily enough achieved by muting the displayed notes and adding them in an additional, hidden voice).

Here's a practical alternative. I suspect I prefer it as notation. But it's not fun getting the ties to go where you want them. in Sibelius at any rate! (You'll note that I copped out of the challenge. Give it a try in YOUR notation program.)

Notating a note sustained over clef change

2 Answers2