Music Notation

How was music notation invented?

Before we get to how people started writing music, We need to visit what it was like before

written music.

Roman Empire

• The Roman Empire existed at a time in history where a ruling government was centered around Italy and a city named Rome.

Here music was very common. You would have many different instruments such as the lyre, or a small flute, made out of wood

or bone.

But what is interesting is how they passed music from one person to another. If you wanted to learn a song, you would have to learn it aurally. That is where you would hear the music, copy it, and commit it to memory.

Why not just write it down?

• Even though paper was invented, it was hard to make. It was very rare

and expensive.

Great, but how did we get to writing down music?

Around the 5th century, Rome was invaded many times by an army of cruel and vicious barbarians, whose leader was “Attila The Hun”.

In fact Rome paid many pounds of Gold for Rome not to be attacked by Attila’s army, but in the end

he attacked and burned Rome as well as many other cities.

One way for people to stay safe from attack, was to build walls around their

town, or even build a castle.

Attila’s favorite way to attack a city, would be to arrive with his army, and

wait outside the walls. No one came in and no one

came out.

Often he would stay for many months, sometimes a

year. The people inside would not be able to leave to

replenish their food and water.

So what does this have to do with music?

The next few centuries are referred to as the Dark Ages

and the Medieval Era. This is a time in human history where

people did not advance forward and, in some respects, moved

backwards.

Knowledge Disappeared

How can this happen?

Some experts

believe the weather

turned cold and there was a mini

ice age, which

caused a famine.

A famine is where food is scarce.

There was also many episodes of disease running rampant like the Black Plague

Other theories blame Attila for making castles and fortresses necessary for protection.

This made all strangers dangerous and unwelcome.

Trade between regions stopped.

So what! What does this have to do with

music?Well, during this time the Church became the center

of society. It was a time where people were

attending mass every day, sometimes mass was held

every hour of the day.

The church was doing so well, that it started to build massive buildings to hold all the people. These were called Cathedrals. One famous example is the

Cathedral of Notre Dame.

With all the people and

masses, came the need for music. To be heard in the

large buildings,

several voices

needed to sing together

to fill the building.

These voices singing in unison acted as a natural microphone and filled the building.

The songs they sang were called plainchant.

Sometimes they are referred to as Gregorian Chant

after Pope Gregory I.

Even with several voices together, there was a need for new chants and hymns. At this

time all music was still memorized, but with all the new music, it was to difficult to keep

adding new material.

In the twelfth century a

monk named “Guido

D’azarro came up with a method for keeping the

choir together.

He would point to a

spot on his hand, which

would indicate a

pitch, and it became

known as the “Guido hand

method”.

This worked for the slow, simple tunes, but his abbey was so astounded that they thought it was witchcraft

and threw him out.

Guido was soon taken in by

another abbey, and he also soon

dropped the method of

pointing to his hand, as the

music became more complex.

Guido was aware that musicians used cheat sheets scribbled with

neums. Neums were square notes that generally indicated what

direction the pitch was directed. Since the singer already knew the

piece and just needed to be reminded of where in the chant he

was.

Guido began to write a red line through the neums to indicate where a specific voice range

was to centered (i.e. alto voice). Above is an actual picture of

Guido’s writing.

Next Guido added more lines to control more voices.

•This is a medieval manuscript with the red line present.

• The Red lines are very faint. Can you see them?

For the bass and tenor vocal part, he added more

lines and marked the tenor line in yellow with the starting pitch of “f”.

One problem with this

system, was Guido had not fixed a clef to a specific line.

Guido had pitches starting anywhere and on any line.

This made reading music hard to do.

So in the next century the

successors to Guido still

experimented with adding lines to the

staff.Can you tell where one

staff ends and another begins?

It will take another couple of centuries for our

current grand staff to be adopted.

If you look closely, you may be able to tell that

the treble clef that we use today resembles a fancy looking G, and the bass clef resembles a fancy

looking F.

So What happened to Guido?

Guido showed his work to his abbot, but this time instead of

being thrown out, he was commended for his work.

His abbot liked it so much that he sent him to Rome to meet with the Pope. The Pope liked his work

so much that he sent Guido all around the

country to teach as many priest and monks this new system of reading notes.

Eventually, Guido ended back with his original

abbey, who welcomed him in, and said they were sorry for ever doubting

him.

Assignment

• Draw a picture of you hands palm down.• Label each hand with illuminated letters

on the fingers and illuminated numbers above the fingers.

• Place a Bass Clef on the Left Hand.• Place a Treble Clef on the Right Hand.• Put an LH and a RH below each wrist.• Color your work and pass it in by the end

of class.• See the link for an example.• Basic finished product