Liszt Consolations 2

[jono1]

I have just started learning this piece and am a bit stuck on the first page.  The treble cleff suddenly dives down into the bass staff and then up and down.  How am I supposed to play this?

Many thanks.

[nystul]

The treble clef does not "dive down".  You have a top staff and a bottom staff.  The top staff is in treble clef throughout the piece.  It never changes, so you never change the way you read it.  The bottom staff starts in bass clef but at times changes to treble.  When the bottom staff changes to treble, and the top is still treble, both occupy the same range of the keyboard.  In this case, you read the bottom staff just the same as if it were the top staff.  The reason he would do that, in this case, is to keep space for the left hand part on the bottom staff without using a huge number of added lines.

I apologize if you already know this and were asking technically how to play it.  It seems like a lot of people have been asking lately about these clef changes.

[jono1]

Many thanks nystul.  I did realise just after I posted this, and thanks for clarifying it so well.  Of course there wouldn't be room on the bass staff to put the notes in above the stave, whereas in the treble this wouldn't be a problem.