From Neumes to Clefs and Staves

The Problem

How can anyone analyze, codify, or transcribe something as ephemeral and as fleeting as the supple sounds of smooth jazz,  the scintillating intricacies of the finest symphonies, the crashing fanfare of the halftime show, the raucous chorus of a rock concert? The task of compartmentalizing, of breaking down, of  decomposing music into such basic elements as pitch, duration, silence, tone, and tempo seems to me a Herculean feat. Throughout the centuries, the system we have today underwent quite the evolutionary process. Which brings me to the subject of neumes.

The Solution

Nuemes are the symbols above the text that indicate the “shape” of a melody. They provide a link from oral to written tradition by reinforcing the memory of a song learned by rote. Not very precise, but they could prove invaluable as memory cues for common songs. That’s the catch, I suppose. The symbols remain meaningless to anybody unacquainted with the original tune. These were common in the tenth century.

Eventually, somebody had the idea of representing a standard pitch with a horizontal line. By the mid-eleventh century, Guido d'Arezzo “suggested the use of a stave of four horizontal lines, which would not only provide a pitch reference, but would also graphically represent relative pitch by the vertical placing of notes on its lines and spaces” (Gabriella F. Scelta).

As you can see, this closely resembles the system we have today. Since plainsong and chants were the most common form of music in those days, such a system was adequate for most musical purposes because the text itself would dictate rhythm.

With the development of polyphonic music (music with more than one melody sounding simultaneously), writing systems became even more important. Especially when it came to rhythm. Instead of mere squares to denote pitch, flags were added to suggest rhythm. This came about around the 13^th century AD, due to the work of Franco d’Cologne. His work Ars cantus mensurabilis paved the way for the notation of rhythm that we have today.

Note the difference between this and the picture posted above. The lines attached to the notes here indicate rhythm. Short notes are a third of the length of long notes under the system developed by Franco d' Cologne.

Contrast the current system of rhythmic notation with the rough depiction in the above 12^th century manuscript of Pérotin’s "Alleluia nativitatis." Philippe de Vitry, author of Ars nova (14^th century), is responsible for much of that evolution, including shifting from a system of thirds to a system of halves.

I’d like to conclude this post with an anecdote from Tang Dynasty China, in which Emperor Xuangzong asks his court musician Huang Fangchao to write a score for clappers. Huang Fangchao graciously obliges, and draws a picture of a human ear. He explains that as long as the ear is wise, the Emperor could not strike the clappers wrongly. Although hearing a song is of tantamount importance, thanks to the contributions of various people throughout the ages, we can interpret the symbols of a written score, and through reading, hear songs we’ve never heard before.

Who knows what changes the future will bring to the way we read and write music? 

Can you imagine reading a score like this someday?