KEY, in heraldry, a heraldic bearing used in eccesiastical connections. The idea of itt use originally seems to be that the places bearing it were under the protection of Saint Peter, the traditional beirer of the keys of heaven. It seems probable that the use of the key grew out of that of the official insignia' of some one of the ancient heathen deities; and this view is borne out by the many peculiarly heathen leg ends and superstitions connected with the key, among others, the one already cited, that Saint Peter is the bearer of the keys of the gate of heaven. See HERALDRY.
KEY, in music: (1) A mechanical contriv ance 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 appar atus of a key-stringed instrument. In the harp
sichord 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. Its end is hollowed out so as to fit over the four-sided end of the peg, and the cross-bar with which it is surmounted gives leverage to the hand of the tuner, so that he is enabled to tighten or loosen a string, or (in the case of a drum) slacken or strain a parchment. (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 defi nite series of sounds which form the recognized scale. Different starting points require the rela tive 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.