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| Tempyō Biwa Fu 天平琵琶譜
(circa 738 AD), musical notation for Biwa. (Shōsōin,
at Nara, Japan). |
Notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to
visually represent aurally perceived music played with
instruments or sung by the human voice through the use
of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols,
including notation for durations of absence of sound
such as rests.
Types and methods of notation have varied between
cultures and throughout history, and much information
about ancient music notation is fragmentary. Even in the
same time period, such as in the 2010s, different styles
of music and different cultures use different music
notation methods; for example, for professional
classical music performers, sheet music using staves and
noteheads is the most common way of notating music, but
for professional country music session musicians, the
Nashville Number System is the main method.
The symbols used include ancient symbols and modern
symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into
stone, made in clay tablets, made using a pen on papyrus
or parchment or manuscript paper; printed using a
printing press (c. 1400s), a computer printer (c. 1980s)
or other printing or modern copying technology.
Although many ancient cultures used symbols to represent
melodies and rhythms, none of them were particularly
comprehensive, and this has limited today's
understanding of their music. The seeds of what would
eventually become modern Western notation were sown in
medieval Europe, starting with the Catholic Church's
goal for ecclesiastical uniformity. The church began
notating plainchant melodies so that the same chants
could be used throughout the church. Music notation
developed further in the Renaissance and Baroque music
eras. In the classical period (1750–1820) and the
Romantic music era (1820–1900), notation continued to
develop as new musical instrument technologies were
developed. In the contemporary classical music of the
20th and 21st century, music notation has continued to
develop, with the introduction of graphical notation by
some modern composers and the use, since the 1980s, of
computer-based score writer programs for notating music.
Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music,
including classical music, popular music, and
traditional music. |
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History
The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a
cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in
Babylonia (today's Iraq), in about 1400 BC. The tablet
represents fragmentary instructions for performing
music, that the music was composed in harmonies of
thirds, and that it was written using a diatonic scale.
A tablet from about 1250 BC shows a more developed form
of notation. Although the interpretation of the notation
system is still controversial, it is clear that the
notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre, the
tuning of which is described in other tablets. Although
they are fragmentary, these tablets represent the
earliest notated melodies found anywhere in the world. |
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Modern staff notation
Modern music notation is used by musicians of many
different genres throughout the world. The staff acts as
a framework upon which pitches are indicated by placing
oval noteheads on the staff lines or between the lines.
The pitch of the oval musical noteheads can be modified
by accidentals. The duration (note length) is shown with
different note values, which can be indicated by the
notehead being a stemless hollow oval (a whole note or
semibreve), a hollow rectangle or stemless hollow oval
with one or two vertical lines on either side (double
whole note or breve), a stemmed hollow oval (a half note
or minim), or solid oval using stems to indicate quarter
notes (crotchets) and stems with added flags or beams to
indicate smaller subdivisions, and additional symbols
such as dots and ties which lengthen the duration of a
note. Notation is read from left to right, which makes
setting music for right-to-left scripts difficult.
A staff (or stave, in British English) of written music
generally begins with a clef, which indicates the
position of one particular note on the staff. The treble
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. The bass clef or F clef shows
the position of the note F below middle C. While the
treble and bass clef are the most widely used clefs,
other clefs are used, such as the alto clef (used for
viola and alto trombone music) and the tenor clef (used
for some cello, tenor trombone, and double bass music).
Notes representing a pitch outside of the scope of the
five line staff can be represented using ledger lines,
which provide a single note with additional lines and
spaces. Some instruments use mainly one clef, such as
violin and flute, which use treble clef and double bass
and tuba, which use bass clef. Some instruments
regularly use both clefs, such as piano and pipe organ. |
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Following the clef, the key signature on a staff
indicates the key of the piece or song by specifying
that certain notes are flat or sharp throughout the
piece, unless otherwise indicated with accidentals added
before certain notes. When a sharp is placed before a
note, this makes that note one semitone higher. When a
flat is placed before a note, this makes that note one
semitone lower. Double sharps and double 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 is placed before a note to make it two semitones
lower. A natural sign placed before a note renders that
note in its "natural" form, which means that any sharps
or flats applying to that note from the key signature or
from accidentals are cancelled. Sometimes a courtesy
accidental is used in music where it is not technically
required, to remind the musician of what pitch the key
signature requires. |
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