Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/224

* MTJSICAX NOTATION. 186 MUSICAL NOTATION. cently discovered. The Greeks employed uncial letters which appeared in a great variety of positions — inverted, sideways, divided in halves, etc. Thus no less than 120 ditlereut combina- tions were obtained. Example 1. ABFAEZH9I Long after the downfall of Greece this system of notation remained in use, especially in the writings of the theorists. During the sixth cen- tury A.D. Roman letters were first used. Boethius employed the first fifteen letters of the alphaljot. But these were later reduced to seven and "applied to the degrees of the scale. These letters — as the Greek letters had also been — were placed in a straight line above the syl- lables of the words. Although in themselves sufficiently definite, the letters did not present to the eye the rising or falling of the melody, as does our mcidern notation. This need gave rise, in the eighth century, to a series of dots, hooks, curves, and peculiar figures which were placed above the syllables of the text at distances pro- portionate to the musical pitch of the note. These characters are known as yeumes. (See Nei'mes.) From a combination of the signs of these Neumes and the alphabetical notation arose our modern system. But its progress was slow, and the complex system of nicnsurahle music (q.v.) had first to outlive itself before the present simpler system was established. The Stave. The introducticm of lines we owe to the Neumes. In the tenth century Hucbald took up the idea of using lines. He wrote the syllables between the lines, and at the beginning he indicated by the letters T and S whether the voice was to proceed by tones or semitones. Example 2 ■1' M T Ji" ■1' K.-, .Is-ra. s -(■.•. ,« 'tl.- T 'vc-re« This, in modern notation, reads Example 3 Ec - ce ve - re is - ra - e • II - ta. By increasing the number of lines Hucbald was enabled to write even four-part compositions in this manner. Soon after his time dots were u.sed OH tlir lines, leaving the spaces vacant, and the degree of the scale was indicated by a Greek letter placed at the beginning of each line. But the great number of lines necessary rendered the reading of this manner of notation difficult, and it was soon abandoned. Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century added two black lines to the red and yellow lines of the Xeumes. in such a manni-r that the upper black line nbnve the yellow represented E, and the second black line, drawn between the vellow and red lines, A, E Example i. hiack C vellow A black F ' red lines and spaces. The advantages of this system were so obvious that this stave was soon adopted in every country of Europe. As long as music was homophonous, i.e. consisted of only a single melody, this stave answered all purposes. But the growth of polyphony soon rendered a greater number of lines and spaces an absolute neces- sity. No one seems to have thought of the simple idea of writing each voice on a separate stave. Instead the four lines were extended to six, eight, twelve, and even mine. In the Paris Library there is a score, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century, in which all the voices are written on a single stave. The difliculty of reading scores written in this manner led mu- sicians to adopt a uniform stave of nine lines arranged in two groups, each containing four black lines. The two groups were se])aiatcd by a red line. In the fifteenth century we find three staves employed for different kinds of music. Plain chant melodies were written on a stave of four lines; all other vocal music on a stave of five lines; and a stave of six lines was used for all compositions written for the organ and virginal. After the invention of nuisie- printing the five-line stave became the universal standard of all music, except the i)lain chant melodies, which to this day are written on a stave of four lines. The FoK^^ of the Notes. As long as music had no distinctive rhythm of its own and the musical accents were determined only l)y the word-accent, Guido's system of using simple dots answered all purposes. But it was not long be- fore the need of notes having a fi.xed time-value made itself felt. Franco of Cologne, in the twelfth century, replaced the dots by notes of various shapes to indicate their relative dura- tion. He also indicated the time-value of pauses or rests by a .scries of signs corrcs])i]ndiiig in duration to the different notes. A full account of this elaborate and difficult system will be found under ilEX.suRABLE JIusiC. This system has become the foundation of our modern system of notation. The notes of larger value, the large, hinfi, and breve, have disappeared, the .semi!; re re having become our standard of vahie or irhole note. The development of instrumental music during the eighteenth century brought with it a great advance in the tcchnicpic of the instru- ments, and this led composers to write ])assagcs requiring more rapidity of execution than is possible to olitain from choral masses. Round notes were substituted for the scpuirc ones, be- cause the former can be written more easily and rapidly. Another im[)ortant innovation, and one which greatly facilitated the reading of scores, was the joining of all notes having hooks into groups readily recognized by the eye. Thus a passage which formerly was written Example 6. Became __^ Whereas before his time only the spaces or the lines had been used, Guido made use of both Whereas formerly the scmifusa (corresponding to our sixteenth) was the note of smallest value, the increased rapidity rendered possible by in-