The notation of western music : an introduction / by Richard Rastall.
| Author/creator | Rastall, Richard |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First U.S. edition. |
| Publication Info | New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, 1983. |
| Description | xiv, 306 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: The nature of musical notation. Musical characteristics and notational precision ; Staff notation and tablature ; The format of the musical source ; Primary and secondary interpretations -- Part I: The development of staff notation. The notation of the St Gall manuscripts. The notation of pitch ; Special neumes ; Liquescence ; Rhythmic modification and Romanian letters -- Later neumatic notations and the development of the staff. Accent-neumes and point-neumes ; The development of the staff ; Square notation ; Notated rhythm in plainsong -- Modal notation. The modal patterns ; Modification of the basic patterns -- The later thirteenth century. Mid-century innovations ; Franco of Cologne ; Petrus de Cruce and the transition to Ars nova -- Ars nova. The innovations of Ars nova. Italian notation ; French notation ; Ars nova notation in England -- Mannerism and the fifteenth century. Mixed notation ; Mannered notation ; Mid-century changes ; Void notation -- The age of transition. The revolution in durational measurement ; Additive and divisive rhythm ; Early orthochronic notations ; Ternary metres ; The features of staff notation ; The effects of music printing ; The sources of the period -- Part II: Didactic notations. Early didactic notations. Systems of note-naming ; Notations using heighted symbols ; Notations without heighting -- Later didactic notations. Guido of Arezzo and 'Ut queant laxis' ; The developed solmization system ; Later variants of solmization ; Phonetic systems derived from solmization -- Part III: Tablatures. Keyboard tablatures. German tablatures ; Spanish tablatures -- Lute tablatures. The basic notation ; French tablature ; Spanish and Italian tablatures ; German tablature -- Miscellaneous tablatures. Close relatives of lute tablature ; Tablatures for the cittern ; Tablatures for guitar ; Graphic tablatures -- Part IV: Staff notation since 1600. The perfection of the system. The symbols of pitch and duration ; Accidentals ; The tonal system ; Incidental symbols and directives -- The notation of expression. Expression and expression-words ; Tempo and mood ; Dynamics ; Accent and articulation -- Notation and convention. Basso continuo and the notation of harmony ; Cues and aids to rehearsal ; Rhythmic conventions ; Conventions of ornamentation ; Conventions of transposition -- The limits of the system. Extensions of the system ; Chromaticism and atonality ; The limits of precision -- Notational reforms. Requirements and means ; Areas of reform ; Three revisions of the staff -- Innovation and stability. Precise notations ; Indeterminacy ; The needs of musicology ; Analogue notation. |
| Abstract | The author traces the development of staff notation from the earliest plainsong neumes to the end of the Middle Ages, paying special attention to the problems of rhythmic notation and the rhythmic revolution of the late fifteenth century and the sixteenth. He complements this with a discussion of early pitch-notations, and describes how the ideas contained in some of these were adapted for use in musical instruction up to the nineteenth. He then examines the principal instrumental tablatures of the fifteenth and later centuries. Finally, he considers how the potential of staff notation has been exploited, extended, and sometimes overburdened by the demands of composers since 1600, discussing some attempts at notational reform and the main notational trends of the twentieth century. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 288-298) and index. |
| LCCN | 83009546 |
| ISBN | 0312579632 : |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML431 .R27 1983 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |