Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of apiece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The process of interpreting musical notation is often referred to asreading music.
Distinct methods of notation have been invented throughout history by various cultures. Much information aboutancient music notation is fragmentary. Even in the same time frames, different styles of music and different cultures use different music notation methods.
For example,classical performers most often usesheet music usingstaves,time signatures,key signatures, andnoteheads for writing and decipheringpieces. But even so, there are far more systems just that, for instance in professionalcountry music, theNashville Number System is the main method, and forstring instruments such asguitar, it is quite common fortablature to be used by players.
The symbols used include ancient symbols andmodern symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into stone, made inclay tablets, made using a pen onpapyrus orparchment ormanuscript paper; printed using aprinting press (c. 1400), acomputer printer (c. 1980) or otherprinting ormodern copying technology.
Although many ancient cultures used symbols to representmelodies andrhythms, none of them were particularly comprehensive, which has limited today's understanding of their music. The direct ancestor of the modernWestern system of notation emerged inmedieval Europe, in the context of theChristian Church's attempts to standardize the performance ofplainsong melodies so that chants could be standardized across different areas. Notationdeveloped further during the Renaissance andBaroque music eras. In theclassical period (1750–1820) and theRomantic music era (1820–1900), notation continued to develop as thetechnology for musical instruments developed. In thecontemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries, music notation has continued to develop, with the introduction ofgraphical notation by some modern composers and the use, since the 1980s, of computer-basedscorewriter programs for notating music. Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music, includingclassical music,popular music, andtraditional music.
The earliest form of musical notation can be found in acuneiform tablet that was created atNippur, inBabylonia (today'sIraq), in about 1400 BCE. Thetablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed inharmonies ofthirds, and that it was written using adiatonic scale.[2]
A tablet from about 1250 BCE shows a more developed form of notation.[3] Although the interpretation of the notation system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on alyre, thetuning of which is described in other tablets.[4] Research indicates these notations had dual purposes for liturgical and secular musical pieces since music was essential in both religious ceremonies and courtly activities.[5] Although they are fragmentary, these tablets represent the earliest notatedmelodies found anywhere in the world.[6]
Ancient Greek musical notation was in use from at least the 6th century BCE until approximately the 4th century CE; only one complete composition (Seikilos epitaph) and a number of fragments using this notation survive.
The notation for sung music consists of letter symbols for thepitches, placed above text syllables. Rhythm is indicated in a rudimentary way only, with long and short symbols. TheSeikilos epitaph has been variously dated between the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.
Three hymns byMesomedes ofCrete exist inmanuscript. TheDelphic Hymns, dated to the 2nd century BCE also use this notation, but they are not completely preserved.
Ancient Greek notation appears to have fallen out of use around the time of thedecline of the Western Roman Empire.
Byzantine music once included music for court ceremonies, but has only survived as vocalchurch music within variousOrthodox traditions of monodic (monophonic) chant written down in Byzantine round notation (see Macarie'sanastasimatarion with the Greek text translated intoRomanian and transliterated into its correspondingCyrillic script).[7]
Since the 6th century, Greek theoretical categories (melos,genos,harmonia,systema) played a key role to understand and transmit Byzantine music, especially the tradition ofDamascus had a strong impact on the pre-IslamicNear East comparable to the impact coming fromPersian music. The earliest evidence arepapyrus fragments of Greek tropologia. These fragments just present the hymn text following a modal signature or key (like "ΠΛ Α" forechos plagios protos or "Β" forechos devteros).
Unlike Western notation, Byzantineneumes used since the 10th century were always related tomodal steps (same modal degree, one degree lower, two degrees higher, etc.) in relation to such a clef or modal key (modal signatures). Originally this key or the incipit of a common melody was enough to indicate a certainmelodic model given within theechos. Next toekphonetic notation, only used inlectionaries to indicate formulas used during scriptural lessons, melodic notation developed not earlier than between the 9th and the 10th century, when atheta (θ),oxeia (/) ordiple (//) were written under a certain syllable of the text, whenever a longermelisma was expected. This primitive form was called "theta" or "diple notation".
Today, one can study the evolution of this notation in Greek monastic chant books like those of thesticherarion and theheirmologion (Chartres notation was rather used onMount Athos and Constantinople, Coislin notation within the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria), while there was another gestic notation originally used for theasmatikon (choir book) and kontakarion (book of the soloist or monophonaris) of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite. The earliest books which have survived, are "kondakars" in Slavonic translation which already show a notation system known asKondakarian notation.[8] Like theGreek alphabet notational signs are ordered left to right (though the direction could be adapted like in certainSyriac manuscripts). The question of rhythm was entirely based oncheironomia (the interpretation of so-called great signs which derived from different chant books). These great signs (μεγάλα σῃμάδια) indicated well-known melodic phrases given by gestures of thechoirleaders of the cathedral rite. They existed once as part of an oral tradition, developed Kondakarian notation and became, during the 13th century, integrated into Byzantine round notation as a kind of universal notation system.[9]
Today the main difference between Western and Eastern neumes is that Eastern notation symbols are "differential" rather than absolute, i.e., they indicate pitch steps (rising, falling or at the same step), and the musicians know to deduce correctly, from the score and the note they are singing presently, which correct interval is meant. These step symbols themselves, or better "phonic neumes", resemble brush strokes and are colloquially calledgántzoi ('hooks') inmodern Greek.
Notes as pitch classes or modal keys (usually memorised by modal signatures) are represented in written form only between these neumes (in manuscripts usually written in red ink). In modern notation they simply serve as an optional reminder and modal and tempo directions have been added, if necessary. In Papadic notation medial signatures usually meant a temporary change into another echos.
The so-called "great signs" were once related to cheironomic signs; according to modern interpretations they are understood as embellishments and microtonal attractions (pitch changes smaller than asemitone), both essential in Byzantine chant.[10]
SinceChrysanthos of Madytos there are seven standard note names used for "solfège" (parallagē)pá, vú, ghá, dhi, ké, zō, nē, while the older practice still used the four enechemata or intonation formulas of the four echoi given by the modal signatures, the authentic orkyrioi in ascending direction, and the plagal orplagioi in descending direction (Papadic Octoechos).[12] With exception ofvú and zō they do roughly correspond to Western solmization syllables asre, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do. Byzantine music uses the eight natural, non-tempered scales whose elements were identified byĒkhoi, "sounds", exclusively, and therefore the absolute pitch of each note may slightly vary each time, depending on the particularĒkhos used. Byzantine notation is still used in many Orthodox Churches. Sometimes cantors also use transcriptions into Western or Kievan staff notation while adding non-notatable embellishment material from memory and "sliding" into the natural scales from experience, but even concerning modern neume editions since the reform of Chrysanthos a lot of details are only known from an oral tradition related to traditional masters and their experience.
In 1252,Safi al-Din al-Urmawi developed a form of musical notation, whererhythms were represented bygeometric representation. Many subsequent scholars of rhythm have sought to develop graphical geometrical notations. For example, a similar geometric system was published in 1987 by Kjell Gustafson, whose method represents a rhythm as a two-dimensional graph.[13] Rhythmic notation during its early stages developed Eastern musical traditions while simultaneously establishing concepts that Western music used to build its notation systems later on.[14]
The scholar and music theoristIsidore of Seville, while writing in the early 7th century, considered that "unless sounds are held by the memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down."[15] By the middle of the 9th century, however, a form of neumatic notation began to develop in monasteries in Europe as amnemonic device forGregorian chant, using symbols known asneumes; the earliest surviving musical notation of this type is in theMusica Disciplina ofAurelian of Réôme, from about 850. There are scattered survivals from theIberian Peninsula before this time, of a type of notation known asVisigothic neumes, but its few surviving fragments have not yet been deciphered.[16] The problem with this notation was that it only showed melodic contours and consequently the music could not be read by someone who did not know the music already.
Notation had developed far enough to notate melody, but there was still no system for notating rhythm. A mid-13th-century treatise,De Mensurabili Musica, explains a set of sixrhythmic modes that were in use at the time,[17] although it is not clear how they were formed. These rhythmic modes were all in triple time and rather limited rhythm in chant to six different repeating patterns. This was a flaw seen by German music theoristFranco of Cologne and summarised as part of his treatiseArs Cantus Mensurabilis (the art of measured chant, ormensural notation). He suggested that individual notes could have their own rhythms represented by the shape of the note. Not until the 14th century did something like the present system of fixed note lengths arise.[citation needed] The use of regular measures (bars) became commonplace by the end of the 17th century.[citation needed]
The founder of what is now considered the standard music staff wasGuido d'Arezzo,[18] an Italian Benedictine monk who lived from about 991 until after 1033. He taught the use ofsolmization syllables based on a hymn toSaint John the Baptist, which beginsUt Queant Laxis and was written by theLombard historianPaul the Deacon. The first stanza is:
Guido used the first syllable of each line, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si, to read notated music in terms ofhexachords; they were not note names, and each could, depending on context, be applied to any note. In the 17th century, Ut was changed in most countries except France to the easily singable, open syllable Do, believed to have been taken either from the name of the Italian theoristGiovanni BattistaDoni, or from the Latin wordDominus, meaningLord.[19]
Christian monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church,[20] and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music, and its many derivatives. TheBaroque style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.[21]
Modern music notation is used by musicians of many different genres throughout the world. The staff (or stave, in British English) consists of 5 parallel horizontal lines which acts as a framework upon which pitches are indicated by placing oval note-heads on (ie crossing) the staff lines, between the lines (ie in the spaces) or above and below the staff using small additional lines calledledger lines. Notation is read from left to right, which makes setting music for right-to-left scripts difficult. Thepitch of a note is indicated by the vertical position of the note-head within the staff, and can be modified byaccidentals. Theduration (note length ornote value) is indicated by the form of the note-head or with the addition of a note-stem plus beams or flags. A stemless hollow oval is awhole note or semibreve, a hollow rectangle or stemless hollow oval with one or two vertical lines on both sides is adouble whole note or breve. A stemmed hollow oval is ahalf note or minim. Solid ovals always use stems, and can indicatequarter notes (crotchets) or, with added beams or flags, smaller subdivisions. Additional symbols such asdots andties can lengthen the duration of a note.
A staff of written music generally begins with aclef, which indicates the pitch-range of the staff. Thetreble clef or G clef was originally a letter G and it identifies the second line up on the five line staff as the note G above middle C. Thebass clef or F clef identifies the second line down as the note F below middle C. While the treble and bass clef are the most widely used, other clefs, which identify middle C, are used for some instruments, such as thealto clef (forviola andalto trombone) and thetenor clef (used for somecello,bassoon,tenor trombone, anddouble bass music). Some instruments use mainly one clef, such as violin and flute which usetreble clef, anddouble bass andtuba which usebass clef. Some instruments, such aspiano andpipe organ, regularly use both treble and bass clefs.
Following the clef, thekey signature is a group of 0 to 7sharp (♯) orflat (♭) signs placed on the staff to indicate thekey of the piece or song by specifying that certain notes are sharp or flat throughout the piece, unless otherwise indicated withaccidentals added before certain notes. When a flat (♭) sign is placed before a note, the pitch of the note is lowered by one semitone. Similarly, a sharp sign (♯) raises the pitch by one semitone. For example, a sharp on the note D would raise it toD♯ while a flat would lower it toD♭.Double sharps anddouble flats are less common, but they are used. A double sharp is placed before a note to make it two semitones higher, a double flat - two semitones lower. Anatural sign placed before a note renders that note in its "natural" form, which means that any sharp or flat applied to that note from the key signature or an accidental, is cancelled. Sometimes acourtesy accidental is used in music where it is not technically required, to remind the musician of what pitch is required.
Following the key signature is thetime signature. The time signature typically consists of two numbers, with one of the most common being4
4. The top "4" indicates that there are four beats per measure (also calledbar). The bottom "4" indicates that each of those beats are quarter notes. Measures divide the piece into groups ofbeats, and the time signatures specify those groupings.4
4 is used so often that it is also called "common time", and it may be indicated with
rather than numbers. Other frequently used time signatures are3
4 (three beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note);2
4 (two beats per bar, with each beat being a quarter note);6
8 (six beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note) and12
8 (twelve beats per bar, with each beat being an eighth note; in practice, the eighth notes are typically put into four groups of three eighth notes.12
8 is acompound time type of time signature). Many other time signatures exist, such as2
2 or3
8.
Many shortclassical music pieces from theclassical era and songs fromtraditional music andpopular music are in one time signature for much or all of the piece. Music from theRomantic music era and later, particularlycontemporary classical music androck music genres such asprogressive rock and thehardcore punk subgenremathcore, may usemixed meter; songs or pieces change from one meter to another, for example alternating between bars of5
4 and7
8.
Directions to the player regarding matters such astempo (e.g.,Andante) anddynamics (e.g., forte) appear above or below the staff. Terms indicating themusical expression or "feel" to a song or piece are indicated at the beginning of the piece and at any points where the mood changes (e.g., "Gelassen") For vocal music, lyrics are written near the pitches of the melody. For short pauses (breaths),retakes (retakes are indicated with a ' mark) are added.
In music forensembles, a "score" shows music for all players together, with the staves for the different instruments and/or voices stacked vertically. Theconductor uses the score while leading anorchestra,concert band,choir or other large ensemble. Individual performers in an ensemble play from "parts" which contain only the music played by an individual musician. A score can be constructed from a complete set of parts and vice versa. The process was laborious and time consuming when parts were hand-copied from the score, but since the development ofscorewriter computer software in the 1980s, a score stored electronically can have parts automatically prepared by the program and quickly and inexpensively printed out using a computer printer.
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Jeongganbo is a traditional musical notation system created during the time ofSejong the Great that was the first East Asian system to represent rhythm, pitch, and time.[22][23] Among various kinds of Korean traditional music, Jeong-gan-bo targets a particular genre, Jeong-ak (정악, 正樂).
Jeong-gan-bo specifies the pitch by writing the pitch's name down in a box called 'jeong-gan'. One jeong-gan is one beat each, and it can be split into two, three or more to hold half beats and quarter beats, and more.
Also, there are many markings indicating things such as ornaments. Most of these were later created by Ki-su Kim.
TheSamaveda text (1200 BCE – 1000 BCE) contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world's oldest surviving ones.[24] The musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the SamavedicSakha (school).[25] The Indian scholar and musical theoristPingala (c. 200 BCE), in hisChanda Sutra, used marks indicating long and short syllables to indicate meters in Sanskrit poetry.
A rock inscription from circa 7th–8th century CE atKudumiyanmalai, Tamil Nadu contains an early example of a musical notation. It was first identified and published by archaeologist/epigraphistD. R. Bhandarkar.[26] Written in the Pallava-grantha script of the 7th century, it contains 38 horizontal lines of notations inscribed on a rectangular rock face (dimension of around 13 by 14 feet). Each line of the notation contains 64 characters (characters representing musical notes), written in groups of four notes. The basic characters for the seven notes, 'sa ri ga ma pa dha ni', are seen to be suffixed with the vowels a, i, u, e. For example, in the place of 'sa', any one of 'sa', 'si', 'su' or 'se' is used. Similarly, in place of ri, any one of 'ra', 'ri', 'ru' or 're' is used. Horizontal lines divide the notation into 7 sections. Each section contains 4 to 7 lines of notation, with a title indicating its musical 'mode'. These modes may have been popular at least from the 6th century CE and were incorporated into the Indian 'raga' system that developed later. But some of the unusual features seen in this notation have been given several non-conclusive interpretations by scholars.[27]
In the notation of Indianrāga, a solfege-like system calledsargam is used. As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven basic pitches of a major scale (Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada, usually shortened to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The tonic of any scale is named Sa, and the dominant Pa. Sa is fixed in any scale, and Pa is fixed at a fifth above it (aPythagorean fifth rather than anequal-tempered fifth). These two notes are known as achala swar ('fixed notes').
Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, can take a 'regular' (shuddha) pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, shuddha Re, the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower (Komal-"flat") (thus, komal Re is a half-step higher than Sa).
Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher (teevra-"sharp") (thus,tivra Ma is an augmented fourth above Sa). Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni are calledvikrut swar ('movable notes'). In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the achala swar, and for the higher variety of all the vikrut swar. Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the vikrut swar.
Other systems exist for non-twelve-toneequal temperament and non-Western music, such as the IndianSwaralipi.
Znamenny Chant is a singing tradition used in theRussian Orthodox Church which uses a "hook and banner" notation. Znamenny Chant isunison,melismaticliturgical singing that has its own specific notation, called thestolp notation. The symbols used in the stolp notation are calledkryuki (Russian:крюки, 'hooks') orznamyona (Russian:знамёна, 'banners'). Often the names of the signs are used to refer to the stolp notation. Znamenny melodies are part of a system, consisting of Eight Modes (intonation structures; called glasy); the melodies are characterized by fluency and well-balancedness.[28] There exist several types of Znamenny Chant: the so-calledStolpovoy,Malyj (Little) andBolshoy (Great) Znamenny Chant. Ruthenian Chant (Prostopinije) is sometimes considered a sub-division of the Znamenny Chant tradition, with theMuscovite Chant (Znamenny Chant proper) being the second branch of the same musical continuum.
Znamenny Chants are not written with notes (the so-called linear notation), but with special signs, calledZnamëna (Russian for "marks", "banners") orKryuki ("hooks"), as some shapes of these signs resemble hooks. Each sign may include the following components: a large black hook or a black stroke, several smaller black 'points' and 'commas' and lines near the hook or crossing the hook. Some signs may mean only one note, some 2 to 4 notes, and some a whole melody of more than 10 notes with a complicated rhythmic structure. The stolp notation was developed inKievan Rus' as anEast Slavic refinement of theByzantineneumatic musical notation.
The most notable feature of this notation system is that it records transitions of the melody, rather thannotes. The signs also represent a mood and a gradation of how this part of melody is to be sung (tempo, strength, devotion, meekness, etc.) Every sign has its own name and also features as a spiritual symbol. For example, there is a specific sign, called "little dove" (Russian: голубчик(golubchik)), which represents two rising sounds, but which is also a symbol of theHoly Ghost. Gradually the system became more and more complicated. This system was also ambiguous, so that almost no one, except the most trained and educated singers, could sing an unknown melody at sight. The signs only helped to reproduce the melody, not coding it in an unambiguous way.(SeeByzantine Empire)
The earliest known examples of text referring to music in China are inscriptions on musical instruments found in the Tomb ofMarquis Yi of Zeng (d. 433 B.C.). Sets of 41 chimestones and 65 bells bore lengthy inscriptions concerning pitches, scales, and transposition. The bells still sound the pitches that their inscriptions refer to. Although no notated musical compositions were found, the inscriptions indicate that the system was sufficiently advanced to allow for musical notation. Two systems of pitch nomenclature existed, one for relative pitch and one for absolute pitch. For relative pitch, asolmization system was used.[29]
Gongche notation used Chinese characters for the names of the scale.
Japanese music is highly diversified, and therefore requires various systems of notation. In Japaneseshakuhachi music, for example, glissandos and timbres are often more significant than distinct pitches, whereastaiko notation focuses on discrete strokes.
Ryukyuansanshin music useskunkunshi, a notation system ofkanji with each character corresponding to a finger position on a particular string.
Notation plays a relatively minor role in the oral traditions ofIndonesia. However, inJava andBali, several systems were devised beginning at the end of the 19th century, initially for archival purposes. Today the most widespread are cipher notations ("not angka" in the broadest sense) in which the pitches are represented with some subset of the numbers 1 to 7, with 1 corresponding to either highest note of a particular octave, as inSundanesegamelan, or lowest, as in thekepatihan notation ofJavanesegamelan.
Notes in the ranges outside the central octave are represented with one or more dots above or below the each number. For the most part, these cipher notations are mainly used to notate the skeletal melody (thebalungan) and vocal parts (gerongan), although transcriptions of the elaborating instrument variations are sometimes used for analysis and teaching. Drum parts are notated with a system of symbols largely based on letters representing the vocables used to learn and remember drumming patterns; these symbols are typically laid out in a grid underneath the skeletal melody for a specific or generic piece.
The symbols used for drum notation (as well as the vocables represented) are highly variable from place to place and performer to performer. In addition to these current systems, two older notations used a kind of staff: theSolonese script could capture the flexible rhythms of thepesinden with a squiggle on a horizontal staff, while inYogyakarta a ladder-like vertical staff allowed notation of the balungan by dots and also included important drum strokes. In Bali, there are a few books published ofGamelan gender wayang pieces, employing alphabetical notation in the old Balinese script.
Composers and scholars both Indonesian and foreign have also mapped theslendro andpelogtuning systems of gamelan onto the western staff, with and without various symbols formicrotones. The Dutch composerTon de Leeuw also invented a three line staff for his compositionGending. However, these systems do not enjoy widespread use.
In the second half of the twentieth century, Indonesian musicians and scholars extended cipher notation to other oral traditions, and adiatonic scale cipher notation has become common for notating western-related genres (church hymns, popular songs, and so forth). Unlike the cipher notation for gamelan music, which uses a "fixed Do" (that is, 1 always corresponds to the same pitch, within the natural variability of gamelan tuning), Indonesian diatonic cipher notation is "moveable-Do" notation, so scores must indicate which pitch corresponds to the number 1 (for example, "1=C").
![A short melody in slendro notated using the Surakarta method.[30]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSurakarta_gamelan_notation_slendro.png)
![The same notated using the Yogyakarta method or 'chequered notation'.[30]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aYogyakarta_gamelan_notation_slendro.png)
![The same notated using Kepatihan notation.[30]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKepatihan_gamelan_notation_slendro.png)
![The same approximated using Western notation.[30] Playⓘ](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWestern_gamelan_notation_slendro.png)
Ancient Jewish texts include a series of marks assigning musical cantillation notes. Known in Hebrew as Ta'amim and Yiddish as Trope, there are records of these marks from the 6th and 7th centuries, having been passed down as a tradition for Jewish prayers and texts. Traditionally a series of marks written above and around the accompanying Hebrew texts, Trope marks represent a short musical motif. Throughout the Jewish diaspora there are variations in the accompanying melodies. There are three main systems of Hebrew cantillation: The Babylonian System, The Palestinian System, and the Tiberian System.
Cipher notation systems assigning Arabic numerals to themajor scale degrees have been used at least since the Iberian organ tablatures of the 16th-century and include such exotic adaptations asSiffernotskrift. The one most widely in use today is the ChineseJianpu, discussed in themain article. Numerals can also be assigned to different scale systems, as in the Javanesekepatihan notationdescribed above.
Solfège is a way of assigning syllables to names of the musical scale. In order, they are today:Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do' (for the octave). The classic variation is:Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do'. The first Western system of functional names for the musical notes was introduced byGuido of Arezzo (c. 991 – after 1033), using the beginning syllables of the first six musical lines of the Latin hymnUt queant laxis. The original sequence wasUt Re Mi Fa Sol La, where each verse started a scale note higher. "Ut" later became "Do". The equivalent syllables used in Indian music are:Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. See also:solfège,sargam,Kodály hand signs.
Tonic sol-fa is a type of notation using the initial letters of solfège.
The notes of the 12-tone scale can be written by their letter names A–G, possibly with a trailingaccidental, such as A♯ or B♭.
ABC notation is a compact format using plain text characters, readable by computers and by humans. More than 100,000 tunes are now transcribed in this format.[31]
Tablature was first used in theMiddle Ages for organ music and later in theRenaissance forlute music.[32] In most lute tablatures, a staff is used, but instead of pitch values, the lines of the staff represent the strings of the instrument. Thefrets to finger are written on each line, indicated by letters or numbers. Rhythm is written separately with one or another variation of standard note values indicating the duration of the fastest moving part. Few seem to have remarked on the fact that tablature combines in one notation system both the physical and technical requirements of play (the lines and symbols on them and in relation to each other representing the actual performance actions) with the unfolding of the music itself (the lines of tablature taken horizontally represent the actual temporal unfolding of the music). In later periods, lute and guitar music was written with standard notation. Tablature caught interest again in the late 20th century for popularguitar music and other fretted instruments, being easy to transcribe and share over the internet inASCII format.
Some chromatic systems have been created taking advantage of the layout of black and white keys of the standard piano keyboard. The "staff" is most widely referred to as "piano roll", created by extending the black and white piano keys.
Klavarskribo (sometimes shortened toklavar) is a music notation system that was introduced in 1931 by theDutchman Cornelis Pot. The name means "keyboard writing" inEsperanto. It differs from conventional music notation in a number of ways and is intended to be easily readable. Many klavar readers are from the Netherlands.
Over the past three centuries, hundreds of music notation systems have been proposed as alternatives to traditional western music notation. Many of these systems seek to improve upon traditional notation by using a "chromatic staff" in which each of the 12 pitch classes has its own unique place on the staff. An example is Jacques-Daniel Rochat'sDodeka music notation.[33][34] These notation systems do not require the use of standard key signatures, accidentals, or clef signs. They also represent interval relationships more consistently and accurately than traditional notation, e.g. major 3rds appear wider than minor 3rds. Many of these systems are described and illustrated in Gardner Read's "Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms".
The term 'graphic notation' refers to the contemporary use of non-traditional symbols and text to convey information about the performance of a piece of music. Composers such asJohanna Beyer.Christian Wolff,Carmen Barradas,Earle Brown,Yoko Ono,Anthony Braxton,John Cage,Morton Feldman,Cathy Berberian,Graciela Castillo,Krzysztof Penderecki,Cornelius Cardew,Pauline Oliveros andRoger Reynolds are among the early generation of practitioners. The bookNotations, by John Cage andAlison Knowles, is another example of this kind of notation.
Simplified Music Notation is an alternative form of musical notation designed to makesight-reading easier. It is based onclassical staff notation, but incorporatessharps andflats into the shape of thenote heads.Notes such asdouble sharps anddouble flats are written at thepitch they are actually played at, but preceded bysymbols calledhistory signs that show they have beentransposed.
Modified Stave Notation (MSN) is an alternative way of notating music for people who cannot easily read ordinary musical notation even if it is enlarged.
Parsons code is used to encode music so that it can be easily searched.
Braille music is a complete, well developed, and internationally accepted musical notation system that has symbols and notational conventions quite independent of print music notation. It is linear in nature, similar to a printed language and different from the two-dimensional nature of standard printed music notation. To a degree Braille music resembles musical markup languages[35] such asMusicXML[36] orNIFF.
Ininteger notation, or theinteger model of pitch, allpitch classes andintervals between pitch classes are designated using the numbers 0 through 11.
The standard form of rap notation is the "flow diagram", where rappers line up their lyrics underneath "beat numbers".[37] Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams that rappers use: the booksHow to Rap andHow to Rap 2 extensively use the diagrams to explain rap's triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques.[38] Similar systems are used by musicologists Adam Krims in his bookRap Music and the Poetics of Identity[39] and Kyle Adams in his work on rap's flow.[40] As rap usually revolves around a strong 4/4 beat,[41] with certain syllables aligned to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have four beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat.[41]
It is being used for six-hole woodwind instruments, basically for Irish folk songs. Tin whistle tabs are particularly useful for those unfamiliar with sheet music notation.
TheMusical Symbols Unicode block encodes an extensive system of formal musical notation.
TheMiscellaneous Symbols block has a few of the more common symbols:
TheMiscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block has three emoji that may include depictions of musical notes:
Various computer programs have been developed for creating music notation (calledscorewriters ormusic notation software). Music may also be stored in various digital file formats for purposes other than graphic notation output.
According to Philip Tagg andRichard Middleton, musicology and to a degree European-influenced musical practice suffer from a 'notational centricity', a methodology slanted by the characteristics of notation.[42][43] A variety of 20th- and 21st-century composers have dealt with this problem, either by adapting standard Western musical notation or by using graphic notation.[clarification needed] These includeGeorge Crumb,Luciano Berio,Krzystof Penderecki,Earl Brown,John Cage,Witold Lutoslawski, and others.[44][45]
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