Notation Must Die
Many people feel that western notation makes it unnecessarily hard to read music. If we want to sight read, learn music theory or just practice an instrument, surely there's a better way? Right? This has been a hot topic for almost 1000 years... AND I PUT IT TO BED RIGHT HERE!
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Subtitles by Pentameron
---------- CHAPTERS ----------
00:00 - Setting the stage
09:26 - Notation must die INTRO!
15:12 - Ancient Greek notation
19:40 - The history of western notation
31:57 - Chromatic staves
36:15 - The piano roll
42:54 - Clefs (and resistance to change)
44:42 - Muto method
46:45 - Notation & the aristocracy
48:25 - Tablature
51:40 - Guitar Hero
52:51 - Klavarskribo
54:08 - Other types of keyboard notation
55:47 - Musitude!
1:01:18 - Dodeca
1:03:01 - Accessibility
1:04:31 - Farbige Noten
1:06:49 - Jullian Carrillo's system
1:08:26 - The best of the rest
1:11:52 - Where can we go from here?
---------- BIBIOGRAPHY ----------
BOOKS
Julian Carrillo: Sistema General de Escritura Musical (Mexico City: Ediciones Sonidos 13, 1895)
Charles Francis Abdy Williams: The Story of Notation (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903)
https://archive.org/details/storynotation00willgoog/page/n28/mode/2up
Willi Apel: The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900-1600 (The Mediaeval Academy of America, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953)
https://archive.org/details/notationofpolyph1953apel/page/32/mode/2up
Gardner Read: Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1987)
ARTICLES AND BLOGS
Adémar de Chabannes, Carolingian Musical Practices, and Nota Romana - James Grier - Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 43-98. - University of California Press
Musical Clefs and their Abolition, T. L. Southgate - The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 30, No. 559 (Sep. 1, 1889)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3360190?typeAccessWorkflow=login
Cross eyed pianist on the topic of notation being ‘elitist’. https://crosseyedpianist.com/tag/elitism-in-music-education/
The Muto Method
https://muto-method.com/en/score.html
Proposed redesign of piano sheet music
https://medium.com/alex-couch-s-portfolio/how-i-d-redesign-piano-sheet-music-355c4f9012f1
Musitude
https://musitude.com/
The Modes of Ancient Greek Music
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40288/40288-h/40288-h.htm
VIDEOS
Reconstruction of Greek music, led by Professor Armand D'Angour https://youtu.be/4hOK7bU0S1Y
Offertorium: Jubilate Deo universa terra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0Ny4Z4wD4&ab_channel=GradualeProject
An introduction to mensural notation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1F2FSLakVA&ab_channel=EarlyMusicSources
OTHER LINKS
Daseian notation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daseian_notation
Style similar to Nonantolian notation
https://unipub.uni-graz.at/obvugrscript/content/pageview/5564611
Mensural notation wikipedia page (which is very good)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensural_notation
Database of high-res scans of early Christian music
https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/subproject/stgall_music
Mensural notation scan: Missae partes decantari solitae: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus et Agnus Dei cum notis musicalibus
https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21295855650003338&context=L&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE
Mouth pictogram imagery by pch.vector https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/mouth-animation-set_9176068.htm#query=mouth%20speaking&position=0&from_view=keyword&track=ais