Music Notation

1
Music Notation

• How was music notation invented?

2
Before we get to how people started writing
music, We need to visit what it was like before
written music.
3
Roman Empire

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

4
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.

5
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.
6
Why not just write it down?

• Even though paper was invented, it was hard to
  make, and so very rare and expensive.

7
Great, but how did we get to writing down music?

• Around the 5th century, Rome was invaded many
  times by cruel and visous barbarians, whose
  leader was Attila The Hun.

8
In fact Rome paid many pounds of Gold for Attila
not to be attacked by Attilas army, but in the
end he attacked and burned Rome as well as many
other cities.
9
One way for people to stay safe from attack, was
to build walls around your town, or even build a
castle.
10
Attilas 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.
11
Many times he would stay for many months,
sometimes a year. The people inside would not be
able to leave to replenish their food and water.
12
Sometimes people had stored enough food, they
could out wait the Barbarians, sometimes not
13
So what does this have to do with music?
14
The next few centuries is the medieval era, or
otherwise referred to as the dark ages. This is
a time in human history where we did not advance
forward, but in some respects, backwards.
15
Much knowledge was lost during this era.

• How can you loose information?

16
There are many theories for why this happened.
Some experts say the weather turned cold and
there was a mini ice age, which brought forth
much famine.A famine is where food is scarce.
17
There was also many episodes of disease running
rampant. Other theories attribute this time all
they way back to Attila and making castles and
fortresses necessary for protection.
18
This made all strangers dangerous and unwelcome.
Trade between regions stopped.
19
So what! What does this have to do with music?

• Well, during this time the Church becomes the
  center of society. It was a time where people
  where attending mass every day, sometimes mass
  was held every hour of the day.

20
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.
21
CATHEDRAL PICTURES
22
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.
23
These voices singing in unison acted as a natural
microphone and filled the building.
24

• The songs they sung were called plainchant or
  chant. Sometimes they are referred to as
  Gregorian chant after Pope Gregory I.

25
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.
26
In the twelfth century a monk named Guido
Dazarro came up with a method for keeping the
choir together.
27
He would point to a spot on his hand, which would
indicate a pitch, and it became known as the
Guido hand method.
28
This worked for the slow, simple tunes, but his
abbey was so astounded that they thought it was
witchcraft and threw him out.
29
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.
30
Guido was aware that musicians used so me
manuscripts 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.
31
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 Guidos writing.
32
Next Guido added more lines to control more
voices.
33

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

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

34
For the bass and tenor vocal part, he added more
lines and marked the tenor line in yellow with
the starting pitch of f.
35
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 read.
36
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?
37
It will take another couple of centuries for our
current grand staff to be adopted.
38
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.
39
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.

40
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.
41
Eventually, Guido ended back with his original
abbey, who welcomed him in, and said they were
sorry for ever doubting him.
42
The End.

• PowerPoint by Val Iven North Marion
  Intermediate School
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.
  aspx?refid761552863
• http//www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b3atilla_p1d
  z.htm
• http//www.realm-of-shade.com/zarathustra/attila.h
  tml
• http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/02061b.htm
• http//www.boglewood.com/timeline/attila.html
• http//www.stanford.edu/moore/HistoryEcon.html
• http//www.propheticwitness.org/gregory_the_great.
  htm
• http//guidoshandrocks.com/historyofname/
• http//italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa092700c.
  htm