Skip to main content Skip to Search Box

musical notation

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
symbols used to make a written record of musical sounds. 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 (c. A.D. 470– A.D. 525) applied the first 15 letters of the alphabet to the notes in use at the end of the Roman period. Notation of Gregorian chant was by means of neumes, which are thought to have been derived from symbols used in the Greek language to indicate pitch inflection. Neumes were certainly in use by the 6th cent., although the earliest extant manuscripts containing them are fragmentary ones from the 8th cent. These neumes indicated only the grouping of sounds in a given melody, evidently to recall to a singer the approximate shape of a melody already learned by ear. Heighted neumes, arranged above and below a line, made the intervals of a melody more discernible in 10th-century notation, and by the end of the 12th cent. the staff perfected by Guido d'Arezzo…
4,782 results

Full text Article Braille musical notation

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
Braille musical notation
A system of musical notation for the blind, based on the Braille system, and first proposed by Louis Braille (1809–52) himself. The system employs six dots arranged in two columns of three each, any combination of which may be raised so as to form a pattern that can be felt by the reader. The letter…
| 236 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article musical notation

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Common symbols used in modern musical notation....
Written, printed, or other visual representation of music. There are two basic approaches to notating music. Tablature (such as guitar chord diagrams) depicts the actions a performer is to take (in particular, showing where to put the fingers to produce a given sound). Symbolic notation describes…
| 145 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article What is musical notation?

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Background When a composer creates music, he or she can usually imagine how it will sound. However, if the composer requires the music to be played by more than one person, it is necessary to write it down for them. This is certainly the case for most Western music. There are literally hundreds of…
| 491 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article musical notation

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
symbols used to make a written record of musical sounds. 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 (c. A.D. 470– A.D. 525) applied the first 15 letters of the alphabet to the notes…
| 713 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article musical notation

From Philip's Encyclopedia
| 26 words
Key concepts:
Plate showing musical notation systems used by Greeks, Latins, Gregorians and Guido d'Arezzo, Engraving from Denis Diderot, Jean Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert, L'Encyclopedie, 1751-1757 Entitled Musique (Music)
Credit: Plate showing musical notation systems used by Greeks, Latins, Gregorians and Guido d'Arezzo, Engraving from Denis Diderot, Jean Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert, L'Encyclopedie, 1751-1757 Entitled Musique (Music) / De Agostini Picture Library / The Bridgeman Art Library Description: Plate…
| 114 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Page of musical notation with a historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum)
Artist: Italian School, (15th century) Location: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy Credit: Page of musical notation with a historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum), Italian School, (15th century) / …
| 100 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Page of musical notation with historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum)
Artist: Italian School, (15th century) Location: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy Credit: Page of musical notation with historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum), Italian School, (15th century) / Biblioteca…
| 102 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Ms Med. Pal. 87 Page of Musical Notation with historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum)
Artist: Italian School, (15th century) Location: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy Credit: Ms Med. Pal. 87 Page of Musical Notation with historiated initial, from the Squarcialupi Codex, produced at the Florentine monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (vellum), Italian School, (15th…
| 103 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article staff

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in musical notation, a set of horizontal lines upon and between which notes are written so as to determine their relative pitch, and in connection with a clef, their absolute pitch. Staffs with several lines survive from the late 9th cent., the lines denoting only pitches. In early attempts at the…
| 159 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources