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Key (Portable instrument of metal)

a portable instrument of metal for shooting the lock-bolt of a door. In music: (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 of the player. (2) A lever which brings the pallets of an 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 harpischord 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. (5) The sign placed at the commencement of the musical stave which shows the pitch of the 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 recognized 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 major requires no flats or sharps for this purpose, hence it is called the normal key.