History of Music Notation
By Micah Wheeler
- A Millenium of Music at the Morgan, Part I
- The Morgan Library and Museum has curated a significant music collection including manuscripts, published and unpublished, works notated in the hand of the composer, and much more. In chronological order, it shows an evolution of music notation from the 8th century on. This is Part I of II of Robin McClellan's online exhibit (access to Part II can be found at the bottom of Part I).
- Musical Notation - Evolution of Western Staff Notation
- Ian D. Bent gives a simple but detailed appraoch to the evolution of music notation, beginning with neumes, and includes simplified examples of each style and new piece. They also delve into other and non-Western forms of notation, such as alphabetical, numerical, graphic, and still neume-like notations.
- A Brief History of Musical Notation from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
- This website offers a closer inspection of music notation in the medieval and renaissance periods, written by Sonja Maurer-Dass. It begins with plainchant, as the history tends to do, and ending with the Renaissance motet. Links to further reading are at the bottom of the article.
- Musical Elements | Ancient & Non-Western Music Notation
- Here are descriptions of music notation from non-Western sources, compiled by Peter Kun Frary. While some are remeniscent of Western notation, especially in the time of neumes, others are distinct according to their written language of the time and their own evolution of notation. Explore brief country-by-country depictions of written music from around the world.
- Music notation on a 4000-year timeline and more of music beyond Europe
- Peter Kirn offers a broader world sense of music notation, rather than the strictly-Western histories more commonly known. Here, music notation starts as far back as the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, almost 3,000 years BCE. Included throughout the article are links to further resources and reading, including the next two entries below.
- Chironomy in the Ancient World
- This archived website, accessed through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, details a form of ancient music notation that shows hand/finger movements and gestures rather than notes as many people read today. The te`amim were for the conductor and follow the idea of neumes that is widely known in the history of Western notation.
- Non-CWN Music Notation Software
- Jon Silpayamanant compiled a bibliography of softwares for writing music in notation styles outside of the Common Western Notation (CWN). Some notable (hah) examples include Braille, Arabic, Iran, Tonga, and Dance notation softwares.
- Saul Steinberg, the evolution of notation, and the musical line
- Saul Steinberg begins with a brief personal anecdote to explain the purpose of this article. When an audience member at a concert asked "what do all those little black dots on the paper mean?" Saul happily explained what music notation was, and now takes the reader on a historical ride of how music notation came to be written. Included within are examples and scans of pieces from ancient times to modern, including some of the less-common and weird forms of notation that are used and circulated today.
- Musical Notation
- Michael Dickson takes a philosophical approach to the history and meaning today of musical notation. This article, made available through Ergo, an open-access journal of philosophy, is a peer-reviewed academic read for those wanting a deeper and different view of music notation adjacent to the musical world.
- From Neumes to Notes: The Evolution of Music Notation
- Hope Strayer from Cederville University in Ohio (represent!) again offers a more academic history of music notation, beginning with defining the two different classes of notation: phonetic and diastematic. Strayer also outlines some of the academic discource and dissonance of the evolution, including whether Guido de Arezzo really created the music staff himself or just contributed to its development. This article is made available via ResearchGate with a link to download.
- Out of Context #2: Modern Development of Non-Western Music
- Hon Ki Cheung gives a personal account of her experience in the musical world and being a Chinese musician and her findings of how musical notation and history, and indeed the music world in general, can be too Western-centric even in non-Western parts of the world. While this is less a history and more anecdotal article, Cheung details the importance of broadening the historical understanding of music notation and music itself to include non-Western influences where they belong.
E-mail: micah.wood@usm.edu
Created 03/11/2022