Music Publishing
Notation Software
Glossary for non-musicians
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Introduction
If we picture music notation, we may think of something like the graphic in the upper left corner. In a general sense, music notation's early beginnings gave the performers very little instruction, and over time came to be much more specific, in terms of pitch, duration, dynamics, expression and tempo. It took hundreds of years for Western music to come to look like this, only to be challenged, and in some cases, changed drastically in the 20th century.In The Notation of Western Music, Richard Rastall provides an over reaching definition of music notation: "The written symbols (which may include verbal instructions) by which musical ideas are represented and presented for future performance or study." (1) Rastall provides two reasons why staff notation has stood the test of time. First, staff notation holds all the necessary characteristics for both vocalists and instrumentalists. Second, the nature of staff notation makes it easy to transcribe from one instrument or key to another. (2)