Placement of F# on Alto Clef

Question

For the past four or so years now, I have been playing the Viola. Y'all know what that means: Alto clef. Up until just a few weeks ago, I have always seen an F# displayed in a key signature like this:

However, I have noticed in a few Italian pieces I have been practicing lately, that the F# in the key signature, appears like this:

_{From Bellini - Norma Overture}

This can also be seen in the Viola part for The Barber of Seville - Sinfonia by Rossini published by Edwin F. Kalmus & Co,. Inc. Music Publishers, which version I couldn't find online.

Does anyone know why the F# in these pieces's key signatures are shown an octave below normal? Is that way technically wrong, or is there no set "correct" method?

Answer 1

The key signature should always fit nicely inside the staff for any key and any clef and are defined and standardized so it all looks the same no matter what piece you play. Putting the F# on the bottom line will put the C# on a ledger line or it will break the common pattern.

This site shows what the standard key signatures for many diffrent keys on bass, tenor, alto, and treble clef: http://www.learnmusicfree.com/lesson/fundamentals/clefs_key_signatures.html

That being said, these pieces that you brought up are almost 200 years old and the standards may not have been as strict, or they could have learned the wrong way. The pieces aren't "correct" from a music theory perspective, but the idea is still understood. They could have even done it like some poets don't capitalize after periods, just to make a statement on how it looks different but is still the same exact thing.

I can't tell you exactly why the F# is where it is, but I can tell you from a music theory stand point it is wrong and should not be mimicked.

Answer 2

I used to play stuff that was hand-written. The guy who wrote it put the key signature any old where. As long as we could count how many # or b there were, did it matter where they where? Of course not ! The 3 flats for Eb will always be Bb, Eb and Ab, and, yes, convention says in that order, and on those lines or spaces, but with 3 flats, it can only be Eb ( or relative Cmin.). So actually it didn't matter. However, your F# at the bottom of the clef does look odd !

200 years or so ago, covention was still being covened, so I'm not surprised by this form; maybe there were no high F# in the piece, so the composer thought he was being helpful ?