Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/85

 MUSIC 77 letters of the alphabet, in this manner : A, B, 0, D, E, F, G; a, b, c, d, e, f, g; aa, bb, cc, dd, ee. Subsequently they added another note lower in pitch than those already embodied in their system, and this note was indicated by the Greek gamma (y), whence the name gamut. Others say that gamut comes from the fact that the letter y was placed on the lowest line of the staff. Guido replaced the letters by points which he wrote on parallel lines (the staff), each of which belonged to a certain let- ter, called the key or clef of that line. Thus when an F had been written at the beginning of a line, it indicated that all points on that line represented the note F. Afterward they enlarged these points, placed them between the lines, and increased the number of the lines and spaces as they were needed. In order to indicate a chord, or the simultaneous sound- ing of two or more notes, these notes were placed one below the other, and from this method of notation arose the name of counter- point, or the science of accords. Musical no- tation at first only indicated the heights of the various notes on the musical scale ; in 1338 De Muris invented squares to indicate their dura- tion. This system was improved by Ottavio Petrucci (1470), who in 1502 was the first to print music by means of movable types. The syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la did not origi- nally stand for fixed notes, but simply the degrees of any gamut whatever. They stood for the hexachord of Guido, and were written below the letter which designated the fixed gamuts, beginning with 0, with F, or with G : C D E F G A do re mi fa sol la. . do re mi fa sol la . do re mi fa. B c d e f Thus the same note could occupy different positions in the movable gamut, which was often incompatible with the preservation of the established intervals of the notes, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Hence arose different modes, more or less harmonious, and a great confusion in the ancient system of music. They then felt the necessity of changing slightly the pitch of certain fixed notes when, by the transposi- tion of the movable gamut, the intervals of the corresponding fixed notes did not give the in- tervals originally given to the series do, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Thus, when do was written below F, and fa below B, the interval of F to B should have been a fourth ; but as in reality it was greater, they diminished it by flattening B a semitone. The latter note was then called B molle, while it was B durum in the gamut which began in 0. They indicated these changes by writing a ft, round or square, and this is the origin of the signs (, and fy The origin of these signs is shown in the French language, in which they are respectively termed Umol and lecarre. By many modifications musical notation grew quaver r, / and demi- ployed in music denote the length, pitch, and force of tones, or rhythm, melody, and expres- sion. The length of a note is represented by its shape. The notes are the breve sj or fa, semibreve ffl , minim P, crotchet f , semiquaver f, demisemiquaver quaver 8, but the first and last^of these are little used. The breve is twice as long as the semibreve, the semibreve twice as long as the minim, and so on. A dot following a note lengthens it one half, thus, f "= f f. Rests, indicating silence, are: n ', equal in length to a , or a whole bar ; * = P; f =s ^ ; ?f =e P- ther marked by the division of time into mea- sures of equal length indicated by vertical lines drawn across the staff. Measures again are divided into two, three, four, or six parts, and the first part of a measure is almost always accented. There are four measures in common use : double, triple, quadruple or common, with a secondary accent on the third part, and sex- tuple, with a secondary accent on the fourth part, each represented by figures placed at the beginning of the staff, as follows : or or Thus, taking the crotchet as a standard, in double time there must be two crotchets or their equivalent in every bar or measure, in triple three, in quadruple four, in sextuple six. There are exceptions to these rules, however, and even five crotchets to a bar have been used with eccentric effect. The pitch of a tone is determined by its position on the staff, which consists of five parallel lines and the four in- tervening spaces, and by the clef, which indi- cates the pitch of all the notes on one line or space of the staff, whence the rest are easily found. In the early Italian school every kind of voice had its own clef, but at present only two are in general use, the treble or G clef of the violin, 5E=E, and the bass or F clef, )^ . In some musical scores, however, par- ticularly Italian, the C clef is retained for the tenor and alto parts. For the former it is placed on the fourth line, tzz, which thus be- comes the position of 0, and for the latter on the third, _JMI The popular plan in wri-
 * into the present system. The signs now em-
 * f = j^'^=p; * =$. Rhythm is fur-