The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol

Music is a form of human communication as ancient as language itself. Like written lan guage, the need for a more reliable system of music communication was felt very early in history. Until very recently, the vast majority of music belongs to some form of oral tradition. It was passed from one performer to another by rep etition and memory. Having no manner of visual notation, pieces of music changed their character through the ages. Systems of signs and symbols for writing music developed alongside written language as the need to pass along consistent information presented itself. Very little is known about the ancient music world, and notation systems are virtually unknown to us. It is likely that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians devised symbols to accompany the system of hand signs they used to indicate the pitch, tone, and shape of the melody. The Chinese had a quite sophisticated system of notation as early as the 3rd century BC. These early systems consisted of either symbols to represent separate vocal syllables - a form of solmization; or signs and instructions for playing specific instruments - a form of tablature. The use of letters of the alphabet to name notes of the scale dates back to ancient Greece and possibly earlier. This system was well established by 500 BC. Soon after, letter names were given to whole tones of the diatonic scale, and inflections of a semitone or even a quartertone could be expressed by rotation of the letter symbols. Two different systems of letters were used to write down the instrumental and the vocal music of ancient Greece. In his five textbooks on music theory, Boethius applied the first 15 letters of the alphabet to the notes in use at the end of the Roman period. Also, their system was capable of indicating rhythmic value, a complexity that did not reappear until well into the middle ages. We have no written music after classical antiquity until the ninth

Gabriella F. Scelta

Greek musical notation on a funeral column. The notation begins above the sixth line of the inscription.

Manuscript from St. Gall 359, ninth century. This is an example of early neumes, the major form of notation for medieval europe.

tenth century. measured by cycles per second. but the addition of a horizontal line removed its main drawback by fixing an absolute Gabriella F. contributing to the history of art and design with manuscripts like the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. horizontal lines for the frets. Solmization. These have vertical lines representing strings of the instrument. These solmization syllables are now com monly known in the form do. si (or ti). As religious practices greatly varied from region to region. These neumes indicated only the grouping of sounds in a given melody. 2 . The neumatic system gave a very graphic indication of the shape of a melody. he made it his duty to unify all of his realm. la. Part of this was to stabilize the liturgies of the church. This variation in notation made the intervals of a melody more discernible. When Charlemagne was crowned emperor in 800. It was also responsible for the founding of the monastery of St. Scelta Pitch The position of a tone in the musical scale. An international conference held in 1939 set a standard for A above middle C of 440 cycles per second. measured in decibels. Pitch is determined by the frequency of the vibration. or loudness. and the communi cation of a stable repertoire throughout the vast territory of the empire required a standard ized system of musical notation.990-1080) for the purpose of vocalization and for practice in sightsinging. Scale Any series of tones arranged in a step-by-step rising or falling of Manuscript from Loan 239. and dots to show the position of the fingers. and quality. While this system widely varied throughout the different parts of europe. sol. is determined by the amplitude. intensity. By the Middle ages. Solfege Systems of vocal exercises employ ing a series of syllables originally devised by the Benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo (c. Chant was an important piece of any Christian worship service. today designated by a let ter name and determined by the fre quency of vibration of the source of the tone. Tablature Non-note based systems of musical notation using letters. but did not give a precise idea of pitch or rhythm. re. Any tone possesses the attributes of pitch.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol century. Tablatures are used today to notate music for guitar and ukulele. In sixth and seventh century Ireland. numbers. caused by the regularity of the vibrations that pro duce it. Quality is determined by the overtones (subsidiary tones). He standardized the neume sys tem. These graphic signs showed the rise and fall of the notes of a melody. Heighted neumes. neumes whose pitch relationship is represented on the page appeared in the tenth century. where a large number of early manuscripts of notated music were produced. do. but the fundamental characteristics remained the same. but was still not designed to inform people of melodies that they had never heard before. Tone A tone is distinguished from noise by its definite pitch. fa. Intensity. Gall in central Europe. an example of heightened neumes. monasticism flourished. Neumes developed into a complex system in which an individual neume could represent a single note or as many as four notes in a particular sequence. A form of notation using signs called neumes had developed as a means of writing down plainsong. or symbols to indicate pitch and dura tion of tone. Christianity was the driving force behind any social or artistic advances. the distinctive timbre of any instru ment being the result of the number and relative prominence of the over tones it produces. evidently to remind a singer the approximate shape of a melody already learned by ear. he sought to create a standard that would be consis tent throughout his Holy Roman Empire. mi. which was still only intended to remind singers of relative melodies that they had already been taught.

1280). In his system. which would not only provide a pitch reference. and sentenced to death. A consul (510) in Rome.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol pitch as a point of reference. latin 10508. he also suggested the use of a stave of four horizontal lines. and established the relationships between different note values. Semitone The interval of a minor second. and it was not until the 13th century that any systematic reform of rhythmic notation was achieved. as in moving from a white key to the adjoining black key on the piano. the placement of those two unruled pitches. was the diatonic scale.) The intervals of the diatonic scale were defined by Pythagoras in the 6th cent. defines this sequence as an octave. The first to tackle this was Franco of Cologne. Guido's innovations were.475-525. all concerned with notating pitch. but would also graphically represent relative pitch by the vertical placing of notes on its lines and spaces. Plainsong All early unharmonized melody in free rhythm. but based on triple rather than duple divisions. Quarter Tone An interval less than a minor sec ond. By the time of J. The lines represented the pitches of C and F and were often drawn in differ ent colors. with a frequency twice that of the lowest note. two lines were adopted. Below the F and C lines there were sometimes written the letters E and A to indicate respectively. Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius). however. The letters evolved into the clef signs used today. a series of seven tones. Roman philosopher and statesman. 3 . Soon after the use of a single line to represent an absolute pitch came about. the long value was in principle equal to three of the short values. Scelta pitch. but was falsely accused of treason. Gabriella F. Generally not found in west ern music. His treatise on ancient music was for many centuries the unquestioned authority on Western music. imprisoned. and the scales beginning on these notes. as in moving from one white key to the adjoining white key on the piano. as five whole tones and two semitone. B. The pentatonic scale of five whole tones is prevalent in Asian music. later.S. twelfth century. in his Ars cantus mensura bilis (c.C. the chromatic scale of 12 equal semitones (as in the white and black keys of a keyboard scale) had become established. Bach. c. As well as inventing his own version of solmization. At first. Whole Tone The interval of a major second. These refined versions of neumes were called ligatures. He is also placed the letters C or F in their appropriate places at the beginning of each line. who codified and rationalized the existing system. because of their appearance as individual notes that had been tied together. These two pitches were most important because they represented the beginning and middle of an eight note scale. further refining the accura cy of the system. the basis of Western tonality. certain patternings of neumes were used to represent the various rhythmic modes. The scale most used in Western musical composition until the end of the 19th cent. (The addition of a final top note. the The very beginning of pitch delineation is evident in this manuscript from Paris. but usually synony mous with Gregorian chant. A system similar to present-day rhythmic notation had evolved from this by the middle of the 15th century. Guido of Arezzo further improved the system of notating plainsong in the first half of the 11th century. he became min ister under Emperor Theodoric. Franco of Cologne created a clear indica tion for each note of its exact rhythmic length and selected certain neumes to represent tones of long and short duration.

This manuscript from Passau. 4 . with a four line staff. and a five line staff. sparse ligature. and yellow) was added by hand. rich in ligature. Any color used in the book (red. is one of the earliest examples of music printing. characterizes gothic notation. blue. The square C clef is used throughout. It characterizes roman notation with square notes.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol Gabriella F. ca 1489 with diamond shaped notation. Scelta This missal for Rome use c. The C clef is seen throughout.1476.

These alchemy symbols for gold and silver are the same as those for Perfect Tempus and Imperfect Tempus. All of the universe was theorized to operate on musical terms. and Anglican branches of Christianity. and bas soon. are harmonized. Polyphony Music which contains more than one composed part at a time. In addition to these time signature symbols. Scelta liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church. Printed manuscript from Venice. Roman Catholic. Chant General name for one-voiced. The C clef is now comparatively rare. the division of a composition into units of equal time value. This was shown graphically by different combinations of a dot inside a circle or half circle. the bible. a rhythmic relationship was implied. which was a half circle with no dot in the center. the perfect and near perfect metals. Emperor of the West (800-814). the symbols for Perfect Tempus. Clef A symbol prefixed to a five-line stave indicating the pitch range to which the written notes apply. usually referring to melodies of the Orthodox. Not coincidentally. or 6/4 time are the same alchemical symbols used at the time to represent Gold and Silver. The modern symbol for common time or 4/4. 5 . In the 14th cent. in which each note has a specific time value. Charlemagne (742-814) The first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. The formulation in the 12th century of basic rhythmic patterns (modes) led to the development of meter. may have also derived from this form of rhythmic notation. contained only one part. and Carolingian King of the Franks (768-814). The correlations between the disciplines are not surprising. unaccompanied liturgical music. Rhythm Basic element of music concerned with the duration of tones and the stresses or accents placed upon them. At the various rhythmic levels of a given piece. unlike the Roman Catholic plainsong. or 9/4 time and Imperfect Tempus. codified the duple divisions of the long and short notes. though sometimes sung by many voices. Its melodies. became a necessity with the development of polyphony. a system of signs and colored notes devel oped for indicating which relationships were in use or were being temporarily altered. for most other instruments the G and F clefs are standard. Early chant. the evolution and standardization of the printed symbols is evident. Philippe de Vitry.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol Mensural notation. Both 9/4 time and 6/4 time were considered preferable in music. The Music of the Spheres was the term given to the harmonies or dissonances of the planets in motion. Texts are taken from the mass. cello. When compared to the first printed Italian missal. respectively. except for viola. Gabriella F. author of Ars nova. 1552. which expands the system of Franco. and hymns.

so did the symbols used in notation. 6 . As the printing process got more refined.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol Gabriella F. Scelta This piece from Mikrokosmos by Bela Bartok shows basic modern notation as we know it today.

signatures indicating a major key or its relative minor became conventional. Methods of indicating microtones. With the adoption of equal temperament and the major and minor modes. the use of both lines and spaces to indicate successive scale degrees and the use of extra symbols such as accidentals were solved comparatively rapidly. and even clas sical traditions such as Chinese music now make use of Western notation. others. such as Pierre Boulez and Gabriella F. Bar lines. The letters correspond to written directionals. were found early in the century. Scelta Dynamics Symbols indicating relative loudness. indicated that one pro portionality of rhythmic values was temporarily being substituted for another. double flats. The essential problems in pitch notation. This piece from The Banshee by Henry Cowell shows more avante garde forms of modern notation. such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. they have developed new means of writing them down. virtually abandoned conventional notation in favor of graphic representations or even passages of text. and symbols borrowed from mathematics have been used to notate complex rhythmic relationships. Eventually the modern version of music notation was established with the help of widespread music printing practices. Music of previously oral traditions is being transcribed. The lines tell the musician to pull their fingers across the strings of the open piano instead of striking the keys. new ways of notating must be found. The history of music notation is one of continual evolution. As new ways of playing instruments are experimented with. flats. numbers with the appearance of fractions. particularly in notating non-diatonic pitches and complex rhythms. A stave of five lines for vocal music was adopted in France and one of six lines in Italy. Signs for chromatic alteration of tones appear almost from the beginning and had assumed their present shapes by the end of the 17th century. Some composers. and naturals are accidentals. changes in loudness such as crescendo and diminuendo. By about 1700. and the 20th century is no exception. had become firmly established. and Italian terms to indicate tempo and dynamics came into use in the 17th century. Accidentals Symbols used to raise or lower a tone by a half step or more. using a stave of five lines as opposed to the four used in plainsong. double sharps. Despite its drawbacks.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol In the 15th century. the modern system of notation. or loudness in accentuation such as rinforzando. conventional modern notation is also being used outside of Western music. Sharps. Modern signatures evolved from these numbers. As composers have found new means of expression. 7 . expression signs. intervals less than a semitone.

Much of modern day electronic music is composed with graphic repre sentations of sound on computer screens. particularly in the first half of the century. There have even been attempts. have attempted to refine it and improve its accuracy. Graphic representation of sounds that began with medieval plainchant originally aimed at recording the real inflection of a singing voice. A computer generated visual interpretation of an audio file shows purely sound quality as it relates to frequency. Musical symbols. to invent completely new systems. This entirely new and different way of visualizing music may be the precursor to a new era in musical notation. but these have not been enthusiasti cally received. With the advent of global communication Gabriella F. applies optical sound prin ciples on a larger scale. Scelta Electronic Music Term applied to compositions whose sounds are either produced or modified electronically. is ever-changing. In 1940 VillaLobos composed New York Skyline based on the outline of a photograph projected onto graph paper and thence to music manuscript. time delay (which affects reverberation). called concrete music. such as voices and street noise. as with any form of graphic communication. 8 . including filtering (which affects loudness). The early examples of electronic compositions. Development of the sound spectograph in 1944 by engineers at Bell Telephone Laboratories introduced a much improved projection of audio events in pitch and time. were taped montages of electroni cally altered sound obtained by microphone from nonelectronic sources. Percy Grainger's proposed Free Music Machine 1948.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol Luciano Berio. a technique continued in digital syn thesizers today. and frequency shifting (which affects pitch). In software synthesis a computer mathematically represents sounds. which are manipulated by various techniques.

as it has done through the ages. the musical symbol will adapt to the needs of society. The Art of Music Engraving and Processing. Atlas. Notation in New Music: a critical guide to interpretation and realisation. The Notation of Polyphonic Music. 1953. Gardner. W. New York: Taplinger Publishing. Read. Charles. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Norton & Company. New York: W. 5th ed. Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America. 1972. Gabriella F. Allen. 1957. 1970. 900-1600. Karkoshka. 1400 . 3rd ed. The Story of Notation. 1989. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.F. Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe. and acceptance of non western musical tradi tions.1600. Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice. 9 . The Printed Note: 500 Years of Music Printing and Engraving. Abdy. Ted. 1903. Miami Beach: Hansen Books. C. Jeremy. Anthology of Musical Analysis. The Toledo Museum of Art. advances in non diatonic music. Burkhart. New York: Praeger Publishers. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1998. Williams. Erdhard. W. 1992.The History and Evolution of the Musical Symbol and technology. Ross. Scelta Sources Apel. Toledo: The Toledo Museum of Art. Yudkin. 1972. Music in Medieval Europe.

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