Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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450 SIGNA SIGNATURE
According to Hawkins tliis happened about the
year 1699. He is referred to in Durfey'a ' Fool's
Preferment' (1688), Act I. Sc. i. f. a. m.
SIGITA. Opera in two acts, libretto (founded
on Ouida's story) by G. k Beckett, H. Budall,
and F. E. Weatherley ; Italian version by G.
Mazzucato. Music by Frederic H. Cowen.
Produced in the Italian version at the Teatro
dal Verme, Milan, Nov. 12, 1893, in four acts,
reduced to three, and ultimately to two. At
Covent Garden, June 30, 1894. m.
SIGNALS. The drum and bugle calls or
'sounds 'ofthe army. [See vol. iii. p. 204ir.] G
SIGilATURE. I. Key - Signature (Fr.
Signes accidentales ; Ger. Vorseichnung, properly
reguldre
'
Vorseichnung). The signs of chromatic
alteration, sharps or flats, which are placed
at the comm«ncement of a composition, immediately
after the clef, and which affect all notes
of the same names as the degrees upon which
they stand, unless their influence is in any case
counteracted by a contrary sign.
The necessity for a signatui-e arises from
the fact that in modern music every major scale
is an exact copy of the scale of 0, and every
minor scale a copy of A minor, so far as regards
theanterva,l3—tones and semitones— by which
the degrees of the scale are separated. This
uniformity can only be obtained, in the case of
a major scale beginning on any other note than
C, by the use of certain sharps or flats ; and
instead of marking these sharps or flats, which
are constantly required, on each recurrence of
the notes which require them, after the manner
of Accidentals, they are indicated once for
all at the beginning of the composition (or, as
is customary, at the beginning of every line),
for greater convenience of reading. The signature
thus shows the key in which the piece is
written, for since all those notes which have
no sign in the signature are understood to be
naturals (naturals not being used in the signature),
the whole scale may readily be inferred
from the sharps or flats which are present,
while if there is no signature the scale is that
of 0, which consists of naturals only. [See
Key. ] The following is a table of the signatures
of major scales.
1. Sha/rp Signatures.
DBF sharp C sharp.
Flat Signatv/res.
fsp^ii^i^ii^i^a^
^|T B flat B flat A flat D flat Gflat Oflat.
The order in which the signs are placed in
the signature is always that in which they have
been successively introduced in the regular formation
of scales with more sharps or flats out
of those with fewer or none. This will be seen
in the above table, where Fjf, which was the
only sharp required to form the scale of G,
remains the first sharp in all the signatures, C j
being the second throughout, and so on, and
the same rule is followed with the flats. The
last sharp or flat of any signature is therefore
the one which distinguishes it from all scales
with fewer signs, and on this account it is known
as the essential note of the scale.
If a sharp, it
is on the seventh degree of the scale ; if a flat,
on the fourth. In the present day the place
of the signature is marked only once on the
stave ; but in the 18th century it was usual
to mark it as often as it appeared, so that the
keys of B flat and E flat were written thus :
'^nd
$^
The signature of the minor scale is the same
as that of its relative major, but the sharp
seventh— 'Whioh, though sometimes subject to
alteration for reasons due to the construction
^m
of melody, is an essential note of the scaler—is
not included in the signature, but is marked as
an accidental when required. The reason of
this is that if it were placed there it would interfere
with the regular order of sharps or flats,
and the appearance of the signature would become
so anomalous as to give rise to possible
misunderstanding, as wiU be seen from the
following example, where the signature of A
minor (a) might easily be mistaken for that of
G major misprinted, and that of F minor (b)
toT.E\f major. [E. J. Loder tried the oddlooking
experiment of indicating the flat sixth
and the sharp seventh ia the key signature,
as at (c) in his ' Moonlight on the Lake.']
(a) (i>) (0)
In former times many composers were accustomed
to dispense with the last sharp or flat of
the signature, both in major and minor keys,
and to mark it as an accidental (like the sharp
seventh of the minor scale) wherever required,
possibly in order to call attention to its importance
as an essential note of the scale, or more
probably on account of the influence of the
ecclesiastical modes. Thus Handel rarely wrote
F minor with more than three flats, the D|>
being marked as an accidental as well as the Et|
(see And with His ' stripes ' from Messiah ' ') ;
and a duet Joys ' in gentle train appearing
('Athalia'), which is in reality inE major, has
but three sharps. Similar instances may be
found in the works of Corelli, Geminiani, and
others.
When in the course of a composition the key
changes for 9ny considerable period of time, it
is frequently convenient to change the signature,
in order to avoid the use of many accidentals.
In afiecting this change, such sharps or flats as