The history of Musical notations: Musical scores and the Father of

Modern Musical notations

By: De Mesa J.

Introductions

Music has been another form of art over the years. Playing melodies with certain chords to create

songs for its audience to adore. Tracing music back to ancient Greece and Rome, music is a way

of entertainment, poetry, and art. From history until the modern age, music evolved in certain

ways and has been experimented with. Throughout the years, musicians have mastered the

logical, mathematical, and scientific explanations of music. Music theory is one of the major

studies done on music, a piece has notes to create different sounds for a song to come together

and harmonize; these notes may be high-pitched or low-pitched and can be a mix to create a

melody, but memorizing the notes by ear is difficult and is mostly ineffective. And that is where

one of the branches of music theory comes in.

What are Musical Notations

In music theory, one of the most helpful guides is to organize or even visualize the notes to

compose a song. It tells when to play fast or slow, high or low, and long or shot. Just like a

script, the performer follows through with every pitch and scores in the sheet with every note

performed precisely like said in its guided sheet. Musical notations are responsible for creating a

pleasant melody, putting every note together with the physical copy of the musical piece.

Notations date back to ancient history. These are called musical notations. But musical notations

have evolved throughout the years, tracing back to ancient history where scriptures and drawings

of music have been found. Today, musical notations have been westernized, contributing to the

modern notations we have today, and we are most accustomed to musical sheets and

compositions. Diving into its history shows how music was molded into something simple yet

complex.

Musical notes are visual aids or instructions to perform music. It acts as a guide with the

corresponding patterned sound. These are simply visual records that are often carefully and
precisely written, or with modern notes, printed. This process is difficult without any visual

records of the piece as musical notes are used for two things; a visual copy or communication

(Bent. 2024). Similar to any other language, music has its alphabet. In any musical sheet, is

arranged with a staff to indicate the placements of the solfège, clefs to indicate the pitch, time

signatures to tell the beats, accidentals to maximize or minimize the pitch, rests to indicate beats,

and lastly, notes that are carefully arranged into the staff. And these musical notations are its

alphabet. Although with its simple notes, it can be very complex to arrange them into a melody

pleasant enough to hear. Music has a deep history, and these notations were modified to modern

notes that are well-known today.

The history of when musical notations were invented is still unknown, and where it originated

from remains unclear due to ancient or early evidence of musical notations from different

regions. However, there are a few documentation of the created musical notations from ancient

to medieval that have contributed to modern music today.

The man behind of the Modern system of the Musical Notation:

A man by the name, most fondly called, Guido d’Arezzo (Guido of Arezzo) was a monk under

the Benedictine church and is the Father of Modern Musical notations. Guido taught his choir

new chants and often visited monasteries around Arezzo to polish the choir’s vocals and
performance. His creation of music notation was to help his choir with their chants. In the

account of his invention of the notations soon later contributed to Europe’s musical culture.

Guido d’Arezzo was responsible for the notations we know today such as the creation of the

solfege and the staff. With Guido d’Arezzo’s work, musicians right after him developed and

polished his work.

Conclusion:

Despite modern music often heard from any platform or place, its history can only echo through.

If it weren’t for the evolution of music, everything else wouldn’t exist. From orchestras to any

musical genres produced today, mathematical and scientific explanations made their way to

music to make it make sense. Without the tools that were passed through over the years, music

would just simply be a sound. The creation of musical notations wasn’t simply created as a mere

guide but rather helped open the art to everybody to construct their compositions.

Appendix:
Glossary:

Notes – (Verb) Music notation are the symbols used in written music.

Melody – (Noun) a musically satisfying sequence of single notes.

Pitch – (Noun) the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the

degree of highness or lowness of a tone.

Score – (Verb) orchestrate or arrange (a piece of music), typically for a specified

instrument or instruments.

Precisely – (Adverb) exactly (used to emphasize the complete accuracy or truth of a

statement).

Accustomed – (Adj) customary; usual.

Solfege – (Noun) the application of the sol-fa syllables to a musical scale or to a melody

Clef – (Noun) pitch of the notes on the staff

Staff – (Noun) The 5 horizontal lines that indicates the arrangement of the solfege

Construct – (Verb) build or erect (something, typically a building, road, or machine).

References:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, December 19). neume. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/neume

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Neumes | Music Appreciation 1. Retrieved from

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-musicappreciationtheory/chapter/neume/

Bent, I. D. (2024, February 9). musical notation. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-notation

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2018, February 15). staff. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/staff

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, March 8). Guido d’Arezzo. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guido-dArezzo-Italian-musician