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Scan 110
The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
33 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1system of characters, representing certain particular effects, partly single tones, partly small tone-figures (see table in Grove's Dictionary, iii. 394-5). The form of these characters and their relative position are obviously adjusted to the tone-system as made definite by means of letter-names. In a given case the neumes were brought into connection with the letter-system either by marking one or more letter-names on the margin or by drawing a horizontal line across the page to show the position of some tone of reference (usually at first f, the line being colored red), to which a second line might be added (usually c, the line colored yellow). From such lines the scale-relation of the neumes could be calculated with fair precision.
3The Staff (or Stave). Lines had been used still earlier (by Hucbald, about 900), but in a different way, as mere guides for writing the words to be sung so that the intervals of the melody might be seen (the syllables of the text being written in the spaces). This usage had no permanent importance. But the pitch-line or lines added to a series of neumes was a first step toward a system of such lines, what we now call a staff. At first there was no agreement about the form or use of this. Varying numbers of lines were tried (from 4 to 15). At times only the lines were regarded as significant, but at length both the lines and the spaces between them were counted as together making the degrees or steps of the staff (numbered from below upward in all cases) and corresponding to successive degrees or steps in the tone-system. A 4-line staff early became standard for plain-song, since its melodies rarely exceed a range of nine tones. A 6-line staff was for a time much used for organ- and virginal-music. But for secular song a 5-line staff proved so convenient that from about 1500 it tended to take the place of all others (except for plain-song). As writing for more than one voice became frequent it began to be seen that the eye can readily interpret two or more staffs at once, if only they be ranged under each other so as to match. Such staffs are now united into a system by a vertical mark at the beginning that is called a brace or accolade (compressed vocal harmony and piano-music on two staffs, songs with accompaniment and organ-music on three, quartet-music on four or, if accompanied, on six, orchestral music on as many as there are separate parts, etc). Any staff can be temporarily extended up or down (to accommodate unusual ranges of pitch) by means of added or leger lines and spaces.
5Clefs. To make a staff serviceable as a diagram of pitch, its degrees must be connected with definite tones by means of some sort of a 'key.' At the outset, following the usage used with the neumes, certain lines were marked by a letter as assigned to f or c or g. Theoretically, any line might be given to either of these pivotal pitches. Out of these key-letters, as they were variously shaped by successive scribes, grew the conventional characters now known as clefs, one of which stands at the head of every staff as a basis of reckoning.
7In Gregorian music two forms only are used, an f-clef and a c-clef:
9For the 5-line staff three forms are used, an f-clef for lower parts, a c-clef mostly for parts of medium range and a g-clef for higher parts. Of these, the placing of the c-clef has been most variable, whereas in modern usage that of the f-clef and the g-clef has become almost fixed on the fourth and second lines respectively. When so placed, these stand at the extremes of a series of seven, which may be regarded as derived from a single system of 11 lines, sometimes referred to as the great staff. (See cut below).
11This scheme required further extension so as to cover the case of the extra or chromatic members of the tone-system. As each of these normally replaces one of the primary tones, it may naturally occupy the same staff-degree, but with a special mark to show that that degree has a special significance. The signs # and b are thus used as required, standing on the degree to be altered; and, further, in case the ordinary force of the degree is restored, a = is now regularly used in the same way (usually called a natural, but when following and counteracting a # or b, a cancel). In much early music these chromatic signs of change in the meaning of the staff-degrees were scattered through the music wherever needed (or in some cases written above the staff). But, with the development of fixed schemes of keys (tonalities) and especially in view of the representation of these on the keyboard by fixed combinations of white and black keys (digitals), much complication was saved by grouping together at the head of the staff such sharps or flats as are necessary in the particular piece or passage. Such grouped signs are called signatures or key-signatures, but when sharps, flats or naturals occur in the midst of the music, with momentary or at least transient effect, they are accidentals. For a table of these, with their adaptation to the system of major and minor scales, see under Scale.
13Notes and Rests. The special function of the staff is to furnish a framework into which may be fitted marks whose placing on the lines or spaces shall indicate the precise tones desired and whose form shall show the proportional length of those tones. These marks are called notes; with each form of them is a corresponding rest, marking a silence of equal duration.
15In plain-song the relative duration of tones depends chiefly on the words sung and is never supposed to be regularly rhythmical. For such song the pictographic neumes served fairly well. But from the 12th century, when two or more voices began to be fitted together in rude harmony, and much more later, when true polyphony began to develop, the necessity for a definite notation for time-values became urgent, especially as all composition was adopting a clearly rhythmical character.
17Hence appeared what was called musica mensurata, measured or mensural music, which was distinguished from plain-song by its minute attention to tone-quantity. Its notes were derived from the neumes called the virga, | and the punctus or punctum, ♪, which had stood for tones relatively long and short. The characters first introduced were the longa, |, and the brevis, ♩, with a maxima or larga, ♪, for the longest tones. To these others were later added, especially to provide for the rhythmical freedom of subdivision in part-writing. As these medieval notes became the source of the modern system, the two series may well be given together, though in detailed handling the two are not alike.
19MEDIEVAL MODERN
21maxima
23longa
25brevis = breve, double whole-note
26semibrevis = semibreve, whole-note
27minima = minim, half-note
28semiminima = crotchet, quarter-note
29fusa = quaver, 8th-note
30semifusa = semiquaver, 16th-note
31demisemiquaver, 32d-note
32hemidemisemiquaver, 64th-note
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