Musical notation
In integer notation, or the integer model of pitch, all pitch classes and intervals between pitch classes are designated using the numbers 0 through 11. It is not used to notate music for performance, but is a common analytical and compositional tool when working with chromatic music, including twelve tone, serial, or otherwise atonal music.
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Computer musical notation
Beside notations developed for human readers and performers, there are also many computer oriented representations of music designed to either be turned into conventional notation, or read directly by the computer.
There are a great many software programs designed to produce musical notation. These are called musical notation software, or sometimes Scorewriters. In addition to this software, there are many file formats used to store musical information that this software and other programs can convert into notation, sound, or into some other usable form. In a sense, these file formats are a "notation" for computers.
The most common musical file format is probably the MIDI file format, which stores pitch and timing information about music (as well as velocity, volume, pitch bend, and modulation) and can be used to control a MIDI instrument which will produce the specified sound.
There are also hybrid formats, such as ABC notation, Lilypond, and MusicXML that are text files that can be read and edited by a capable human, but can also be manipulated by the computer. One notable system is the NEUMES standard, which is being used to form a computerized catalog of Medieval plainchant that can be searched by melody, text, or any encoded aspect of the music. Similarly the Mutopia project maintains a library of scores available in such formats (though they are not searchable by content).
Finally there are notational forms that are not intended to be processed by computer, but are nonetheless commonly used to transmit information via computer, such as text file guitar tablature which has become extremely popular following the growth of the world wide web.
- See also: List of scorewriters
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Perspectives of musical notation in composition and musical performance
According to Richard Middleton (1990, p.104-6), and also Philip Tagg (1979, p.28-32), musicology and to a degree European-influenced musical practice suffer from a 'notational centricity'; a methodology slanted by the characteristics of notation.
Notation-centric training induces particular forms of listening, and these then tend to be applied to all sorts of music, appropriately or not. Musicological methods tend to foreground those musical parameters which can be easily notated...they tend to neglect or have difficulty with widened parameters which are not easily notated. Examples include the unique vocal style of Joni Mitchell and the String Quartets of Elliott Sharp. Because of the limitations of conventional musical notation, many present-day composers of various genres prefer to compose music which is either not notated, or notated only through the computer language of digital recording.
A further perspective on musical notation is provided in the "Composer's Note" from "Brushed with Blue", Op. 55, by Fredrick Pritchard[2] (pub. Effel Publications, 2002):
- "The written language of music is at once indispensable yet hopelessly inadequate in conveying every detail of a musical concept. While musical scores are static, music itself is a living art, and as such requires the freedom to change, not only from bar to bar but from day to day and from year to year, the elements of experience and spontaneity unleashing the various potentials of a given work. The composer therefore entrusts the performer as co-creator of his art."
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Patents
In some countries, new musical notations can be patented. In the United States, for example, about 90 patents have been issued on new notation systems. The earliest patent, U.S. Patent 1,383 was published in 1839.
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See also
- Modern musical symbols
- Guido of Arezzo, inventor of modern musical notation
- Znamennoe singing
- Time unit box system, a notation system useful for polyrhythms
- Tongan music notation, a subset of standard music notation
- Eye movement in music reading
- Music OCR
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Notes
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References
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
- Tagg, Philip (1979). Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
- Albrecht Schneider: Music, sound, language, writing. Transcription and notation in comparative musicology and music ethnology, in: Zeitschrift für Semiotik, 1987, Volume: 9, Number: 3-4.
- Sotorrio, José A (1997). Bilinear Music Notation –A New Notation System for the Modern Musician, Spectral Music, ISBN 978-0-9548498-2-5.
- Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn (1965). The Strings of Musical Instruments: their Names, Numbers, and Significance, Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger = Assyriological Studies, xvi, 261-8
- Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn (1986). Journal of Cuneiform Studies, xxxviii, 94-98
- West, M. L., The Babylonian Musical Notation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts, Music & Letters, Vol. 75, No. 2. (May, 1994), pp. 161-179
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Further reading
- Hall, Rachael (2005). Math for Poets and Drummers. Saint Joseph's University.
- Stone, Kurt (1980). Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook. W. W. Norton & Company
- Read, Gardner (1987). Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms. Greenwood Press.
- Read, Gardner (1978). Modern Rhythmic Notation. Victor Gollance Ltd.
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External links
- Contains a Guide to Byzantine Music Notation (neumes)
- On-line activity that counts musical notes!
- Glossary of U.S. and British English musical terms
- A collection of interactive lessons and trainers that can be downloaded for offline use
- Extremes of Conventional Musical Notation
- Information on Stanford University Course on music representation. Links page shows examples of different notations
- Abstracts on Musical Notation from Zeitschrift für Semiotik
- Collection of lessons covering Rhythmic Musical Notation for drummers
- Potato print - examples of musical symbols from the 16th and 17th century
- The Music Notation Project - alternative music notation systems that use chromatic staves
- Ensemble Kerylos, who has reconstructed ancient instruments and plays Ancient Greek melodies.
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