There are many notation methods that have been used and are currently in use at home and abroad in ancient and modern times. Do you know what categories of notation methods there are? Let me introduce to you the classification of notation!

Classification of notation

Simple musical notation

Use Arabic numerals 1, 2, and 3 , 4, 5, 6, 7 as musical notation.

Simplified musical notation refers to a simple notation method. There are two types of alphabetical notation and number notation. It originated in France in the 18th century, and was later improved by the Germans and became what it is today. Generally speaking, simplified musical notation refers to digital musical notation.

The digital musical notation is based on the movable solfa method, using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to represent the 7 basic levels of the scale, which are pronounced as do, re, mi, and fa , sol, la, ti (si in China), represented by C, D, E, F, G, A, B in English, and rest is represented by 0. The duration name of each number is equivalent to a quarter note on the staff.

Literal notation

A notation method that uses words, numbers, etc. to express the pitch of each note, and uses other auxiliary means to express the rhythm, has appeared in ancient times.

For example, ancient Greek music used two different sets of text symbols for notation of vocal music and instrumental music respectively. The written notation that can still be seen is the numerical notation and alphabetic notation that appeared in the early 19th century.

Asian countries, including India, Japan and China, use different scripts. Unique to China are Gongshang Pu, Lu Lu Pu, Gongchi Pu and Gong and Drum Pu.

Guqin music score

Guqin music score was first recorded in words, it is a written music score. Literal notation is a notation method that uses words to describe the fingering, string sequence and phonemes of the guqin. The only existing written music score in my country is "Jieshi Diao Youlan".

In the Tang Dynasty, Cao Rou, a qin player, reduced the number and developed it into a reduced-character notation. The subtracted notation is generally divided into four parts. The left fingering is recorded at the top, and the right fingering is recorded at the bottom. The upper left is the fingers used by the left hand to press the strings, the upper right is the position of the finger, the outer part is the fingering of the right hand, and the inner part is the strings played and pressed.

In addition, subtracted notations also have annotations, which are generally used to mark subtle changes in pronunciation. Most of the symbols used in Yanle half-character notation are shaped like half Chinese characters and are mostly used to record Yanle music. Hence the name.

Xiansuo notation is a kind of fingering notation, and its principle is similar to that of today’s guitar notation. It has been lost to this day.

Wind spectrum is a phoneme spectrum, which may have originally been the evolution of wind instrument fingering symbols.

The popular character Pu is the predecessor of the Gongchi Pu.

Lülu Zipu is a notation method that uses twelve rhymes and Lu names to record the pitch of each sound in the tune. China once used this to record elegant music. It is still widely used in Japan and South Korea.

Phoneme spectrum

Recording the pitch of phonemes in different positions according to fixed lines first appeared in ancient Greece.

At that time, symbols were used above the lyrics to indicate the ups and downs and stresses of the tone, but not the pitch. Later, they were also used in Gregorian chants, etc. By the 7th century, this method developed into using a line to represent the fixed pitch of F, and using symbols above and below the line to represent different pitches.

An introduction to notation

A piece of music generally contains elements such as high and low, length, strength and weakness. The method of recording music using symbols, words, numbers or diagrams, and the resulting record is called a score.

There are many notation methods that have been used and are currently in use at home and abroad. As far as China is concerned, there are many notation methods used in ancient and modern times. It is said that as early as the Warring States Period, a musician named Shi Juan under Wei Linggong was able to use a certain notation method to notate music. According to written records, Gongchipu and Jiazipu (for guqin) were produced during the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, and vulgar character Pu was produced in the Song Dynasty. Gongchipu has been modified several times and is still used by folk artists today. However, in modern times, simplified musical notation and five-line musical notation are more commonly used in China, with the largest number of people using simplified musical notation. From a global perspective, the most commonly used instrument is the staff. In the process of historical development, various notation methods have been produced due to the different contents and needs of music. Such as the guqin score for guqin, the gong and drum score for gongs and drums, as well as the five-line score, simplified music score and Gongchi score used among Chinese folk, etc.

Although various notation methods are constantly improving in their development, as of the 21st century, there is still no notation method in the world that can record music perfectly.

For example, subtle differences in pitch, intensity, and speed, as well as the playing methods of many decorative sounds, all require specific analysis and processing by the performers based on their different understandings. Correct notation is very important for both creation and performance. Everyone who studies music should have a good grasp of notation. It is especially important for those who study composition.

Ancient Greek music used two different sets of text symbols for notation of vocal music and instrumental music respectively. Medieval Gregorian chant, Byzantine chant and early polyphonic music also used written notation. The written notation that can still be seen in the world today is mainly the numerical notation and letters that appeared in the early 19th century.

Comparison of Chinese and Western notation

Music is the art of time, but time is fleeting and beautiful sound is gone forever. In order to preserve the sound, people invented musical notation and tried to spread the music for a long time through the evolution of notation. However, different regions and different histories determine the differences in the development of Chinese and Western notation. This reminds us to a certain extent that we should correctly examine the issue of notation in music teaching and practice, and gain a glimpse of its different values ??in the development of Chinese and Western music.

China is a country with a lot of writing. After thousands of years of reproduction and replacement, it has adapted to the characteristics of its own musical language and formed its own unique notation method. It can be said that traditional music scores have become a mark of the development of ancient music culture.

Musical notations such as drum notation, zigzag music, Chinese notation, reduced word notation, lülu notation, and Gongchi notation have become the carriers for the spread of ancient Chinese music culture. Especially when transportation was underdeveloped in ancient times, music notation Taking on the important task of recording, disseminating and preserving music information, it has made historic contributions to promoting the development of music and preserving the music of various dynasties. To this day, notation patterns such as subtractive notation and Gongchi notation are still widely used in music teaching and practice.

In Europe, along with the spread and development of music culture, alphabetical notation came into being. Catholic musicians invented "Newm music notation" and formulated four-line music notation, five-line music notation, simplified notation, etc. Record the musical notation.

From the perspective of the development of Western music notation, the mainstream is the staff notation. It took about seven centuries from the beginning of the use of "Newm music notation" in the 9th century AD to the production of five-line music notation in the 15th century AD. This was mainly the result of church musicians. It took about five centuries from the initial completion and comprehensive establishment of the staff notation method in the 16th century AD, and the staff gradually moved from the church to the entire society and the people. In the 18th century AD, the staff notation method formed the scale and theoretical structure used today, and went global with the development of European music culture. By the 20th century, the staff notation had developed into the only commonly used musical text in the world. In the teaching and practice of music, the widespread application of Western staff notation has promoted the development of world music.

2. China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, and its development in many aspects was earlier than that of Western countries. As far as the development of traditional Chinese music notation is concerned, it is about 600 years earlier than the emergence of Western music notation. Due to the different social systems and economic development status of various countries, the development status of music notation is also completely different.

China is mainly based on written notation. Compared with Western countries, it pays more attention to the expressive value of sound color changes and fundamentally despises the rational abstraction of music score rhythm. Historical records record that Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty asked Huang Banchuo to design a clapper score, but she drew an ear and said: "But if there is an ear canal, there will be no loss of rhythm." ?This is the most distinctive evidence. The "musical score" in traditional Chinese music pays attention to the fixed score but not the fixed tone, the fixed pattern and the fixed tune. It is ever-changing, but it never departs from its origin. This is what makes Chinese music notation particularly outstanding. Gongchipu, for example, only records the paneye, and the specific expression of the finer points of the music requires the performer's subjective improvisation. The Western music notation is a line score based on letters and symbols. It emphasizes that the sound has a fixed pitch, the beat has a fixed value, and the music is played and sung according to the score. Rhythm originates from dance beats, and the mainstream of its development is the solution and improvement of pitch problems. It can be seen that the grasp of the difference in rhythm information forms the difference between Chinese and Western concepts of melody and rhythm.

China was restricted by the feudal system, and music served the interests of the feudal lords, maintaining the traditional Chinese notation. Under the control of the church, Western countries, while promoting the spread and development of culture, have increasingly perfected the development of music notation, especially the popularity of staff notation and simplified musical notation, which has become a trend in the world.

Therefore, the first batch of professional musicians in China's modern history, in the trend of "Western learning spreading eastward", completely appropriated line music and simplified musical notation with simple information and a particularly complete rhythm system. To this day, Chinese music education still focuses on promoting the fixed pitch of the staff, while the performance of national instrumental music and the notation of opera music always adhere to the system concept of the first tune of the simplified musical notation. This has enabled the Chinese music scene to form a new music culture trend that is different from the increasingly rigid and conservative Chinese tradition and the West.

It can be said that music score is an important medium for disseminating music. Whether it is text score, digital score or staff score, they all have their own advancements and limitations. With the continuous introduction of noise and percussion instruments with no fixed pitch in the band, the development of atonal music and noise music, the increasingly complex and free harmonic rhythm relationship, and the awakening of composers' musical consciousness, Attention is increasingly paid to parameters such as dynamics, timbre, and playing methods that are difficult to measure accurately. The reform of notation has become urgent. Precision notation, action prompt notation, frame notation, and approximate value notation have emerged. There are six categories: method, graphic notation and music graphics. It can be seen that this new and fluid notation method in modern society has become more and more accepted by people. In our teaching and practical applications, we should also appropriately change our cognitive concepts. While mastering the basic music communication methods, we should also broaden the areas of involvement. Musical score is no longer a set of restrictive instructions, and this is the inspiration that musical language gives to mankind in the trend of the times.