stavework

Stavework refers to the organization and presentation of staves and musical notation within a score or part, in Western music notation. The term "stave" is British English for "staff".

Stavework encompasses the design and construction of the musical staff, the grouping of staves into systems, and the alignment of symbols across staves to convey pitch, rhythm, and expression. A stave, or staff, consists of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which notes and rests are placed. A single line of music for one instrument or voice forms a staff; a group of staves bound by a brace or bracket is called a system, such as a piano system with two staves or a vocal–instrument score with separate staves for each part. In grand staff notation, two staves are joined by a brace to indicate simultaneous parts.

Common elements of stavework include clefs, key signatures, and time signatures at the beginning of a system, followed by barlines that divide the music into measures. Notes, rests, dynamics, articulation and tempo markings are placed on or between the lines and spaces. Cross-staff notation, where notes may be beamed or stemmed across staves, is also a feature in more complex scores. The spacing and alignment of staves across a page are part of stavework and affect readability and engraving quality.

Historically, the standardized five-line stave became widely adopted in early modern music printing, replacing more variable stave designs. In the digital era, stavework is produced with music-notation software and professional engraving practices to ensure consistent, legible scores across pages.