Text: (1) A mechanical contrivance for closing or opening ventages, as in flutes, clarinets, ophicleides, etc. By means of keys on such instruments, apertures too remote to be reached by the outstretched fingers are brought under control ofthe player. (2) A lever which brings the pallets ofan organ under the control of the hand or foot of an organist. (3) A lever which controls the striking apparatus of a key-stringed instrument. In the harpsichord it acted on the jack, in the pianoforte it acts on the hammer. (4) The wrest or key used for tuning instruments having metal pegs. Its end is hollowed out, so as tofit over the four-sided end ofthe peg, and the crossbar with which it is surmounted gives leverage tothe hand of the tuner, so that he is enabled to tighten or loosen a string, or (in the case of a drum) slacken or strain a parchment. (5) The sign placed at the commencement of the musical stave which shows the pitch ofthe notes, was originally called a clavis or key. This sign is called in modern music a clef. (6) Key, in its modern sense, is the starting point of the definite series of sounds which form the recognised scale. Different starting points require the relative proportion of the steps of the scale to be maintained by means of sharps or flats in the signature. The key of C requires no flats or sharps for this purpose, hence it is called normal key.

See Also: CLEF; NORMAL; SCALE; KEYNOTE

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