Music Notation and Terminology Part 25

If this statement has any basis of fact whatsoever to support it then it must be evident to the merest novice in musical work that the popular use of many common terms by musicians is keeping a good many people from clear and logical thought in a field that needs accurate thinkers very badly! However this may be, it must be patent to all that our present terminology is in many respects neither correct nor logical, and the movement inaugurated by the Music Section of the National Education a.s.sociation some years ago to secure greater uniformity in the use and definition of certain expressions should therefore not only command the respect and commendation, but the active support of all progressive teachers of music.

[Footnote 43: Floyd S. Muckey--"Vocal Terminology," _The Musician_, May, 1912, p. 337.]

Let it be noted at the outset that such reforms as are advocated by the committee will never come into general use while the rank and file of teachers throughout the country merely _approve_ the reports so carefully compiled and submitted each year: these reforms will become effective only as individual teachers make up their minds that the end to be attained is worth the trouble of being careful to use only correct terminology every day for a month, or three months, or a year--whatever length of time may be necessary in order to get the new habits fixed in mind and muscle.

The Terminology Committee was appointed by the Department of Music of the N.E.A. in 1906 and made its first report at Los Angeles in 1907.

Since then the indefatigable chairman of the committee (Mr. Chas. I.

Rice, of Worcester, Ma.s.s.) has contributed generously of both time and strength, and has by his annual reports to the Department set many of us to thinking along certain new lines, and has caused some of us at any rate to adopt in our own teaching certain changes of terminology which have enabled us to make our work more effective.

In his first report Mr. Rice says:

"Any one who has observed the teaching of school music in any considerable number of places in this country cannot fail to have remarked the great diversity of statement employed by different teachers regarding the facts which we are engaged in teaching, and the equal diversity of terminology used in teaching the symbols by which musicians seek to record these facts. To the teacher of exact sciences our picturesque use of the same term to describe two or more entirely different things never ceases to be a marvel.... Thoughtful men and women will become impressed with the untruthfulness of certain statements and little by little change their practice. Others will follow, influenced by example. The revolutionists will deride us for not moving faster while the conservatives will be suspicious of any change."

At this meeting in Los Angeles a list of thirteen points was recommended by the committee and adopted by the Music Department. These points are given in the N.E.A. Volume of Proceedings for 1907, p. 875.

Since 1907 the committee (consisting of Chas. I. Rice, P.C. Hayden, W.B.

Kinnear, Leo R. Lewis, and Constance Barlow-Smith) have each year selected a number of topics for discussion, and have submitted valuable reports recommending the adoption of certain reforms. Some of the points recommended have usually been rejected by the Department, but many of them have been adopted and the reports of the committee have set many teachers thinking and have made us all more careful in the use and definition of common terms. A complete list of all points adopted by the Department since 1907 has been made by Mr. Rice for _School Music_, and this list is here reprinted from the January, 1913, number of that magazine.

TERMINOLOGY ADOPTIONS, 1907-1910

1. _Tone:_ Specific name for a musical sound of definite pitch. Use neither _sound_, a general term, nor _note_, a term of notation.

2. _Interval:_ The pitch relation between _two_ tones. Not properly applicable to a single tone or scale degree. Example: "Sing the fifth tone of the scale." Not "sing the fifth interval of the scale."

3. _Key:_ Tones in relation to a tonic. Example: In the key of G. _Not_ in the scale of G. Scales, major and minor are composed of a definite selection from the many tones of the key, and all scales extend through at least one octave of pitch. The chromatic scale utilizes all the tones of a key within the octave.

4. _Natural:_ Not a suitable compound to use in naming pitches. Pitch names are either _simple_: B, or _compound_: B sharp, B double-sharp, B flat or B double-flat, and there is no pitch named "B natural." Example: Pitch B, _not_ "B natural."

NOTE:--L.R.L. thinks that B natural should be the name when the notation suggests it.

5. _Step, Half-step:_ Terms of interval _measurement_. Avoid _tone_, _semi-tone_ or _half-tone_. Major second and minor second are interval _names_. Example: How large are the following intervals? (1) Major second, (2) minor second, (3) augmented prime. Answer: (1) a step, (2) a half-step, (3) a half-step.

6. _Chromatic:_ A tone of the key which is not a member of its diatonic scale. (N.B.) An accidental (a notation sign) is not a chromatic sign _unless_ it makes a staff-degree represent a chromatic tone.

7. _Major; Minor:_ Major and Minor keys having the same signature should be called relative major and minor. Major and minor keys having the same tonic, but different signatures, should be called tonic major and minor. Not "parallel" major or minor in either case.

8. _Staff:_ Five horizontal lines and their s.p.a.ces. Staff _lines_ are named (numbered) upward in order, first to fifth.

_s.p.a.ces:_ s.p.a.ce below, first-second-third-fourth-s.p.a.ce, and s.p.a.ce above[44]. (Six in all.) Additional short lines and their short s.p.a.ces numbered outward both ways from the main staff, viz: line below, second s.p.a.ce below. The boundary of the staff is always a s.p.a.ce.

[Footnote 44: NOTE:--Not "s.p.a.ce below the staff" or "s.p.a.ce above the staff."]

9. _G Clef, F Clef, C Clef:_ These clefs when placed upon the staff, give its degrees their first, or primary pitch meaning.

Each makes the degree it occupies represent a pitch of its respective name. Example: The G clef makes the second line represent the pitch G. Avoid "_fixes G on_." The staff with clef in position represents only pitches having _simple_ or _one-word_ names, A, B, C, etc.

10. _Sharps, Flats:_ Given a staff with clef in position as in example above, sharps and flats make staff degrees upon which they are placed represent pitches a half-step higher or lower.

These pitches have compound or two-word names. Example: The second line stands for the pitch G (simple name). Sharp the second line and it will stand for the pitch G sharp. (Compound name.) The third line stands for the pitch B. (Simple name.) Flat it, and the line will stand for the pitch B flat.

(Compound name.) N.B. These signs do not "_raise_" or "_lower_" notes, tones, pitches, letters or staff degrees.

11. _Double-sharp, Double-flat:_ Given a staff with three or more degrees sharped in the signature, double-sharps are used (subject to the rules governing composition) to make certain of these degrees, already sharped, represent pitches one half-step higher yet. Similarly, when three or more degrees are flatted in the signature, double-flats are used to make certain degrees already flatted, represent pitches one half-step lower yet. Examples: To represent sharp 2 in the key of B major, double-sharp the C degree, or (equally good) double-sharp the third s.p.a.ce (G clef). To represent flat 6 in the key of D flat major, double-flat the B degree, or (equally good) double flat the third line (G clef). _Do not say_: "Put a double-sharp on 6" or "put a double-sharp on C," or "_indicate"_ a higher or lower pitch "_on_" a sharped or flatted degree.

12. _Signature:_ Sharps or flats used as signatures affect the staff degrees they occupy and all octaves of the same.

Example: With signature of four sharps, the first one affects the fifth line and the first s.p.a.ce; the second, the third s.p.a.ce; the third, the s.p.a.ce above and the second line; the fourth, the fourth line and the s.p.a.ce below. _Do not say_: "F and C are sharped," "ti is sharped," "B is flatted," "fa is flatted." "Sharpened" or "flattened" are undesirable.

13. _Brace:_ The two or more staffs containing parts to be sounded together; also the vertical line or bracket connecting such staffs. _Not_ "line" or "score." "Staff" is better than "line" for a single staff, and "score" is used meaning the book containing an entire work, as "vocal score," "orchestral score," "full score."

14. _Notes:_ Notes are characters designed to represent relative duration. When placed on staff-degrees they _indicate_ pitch. (Note the difference between "represent" and "indicate.") "Sing what the note calls for" means, sing a tone of the pitch represented by the staff degree occupied by the note-head. The answer to the question: "What is that note?"

would be "half-note," "eighth-note" according to the denomination of the note in question, whether it was on or off the staff.

15. _Measure-sign:_ 4-4, 2-4, 6-8, are _measure-signs_. Avoid "time signatures," "meter-signatures," "the fraction,"

"time-marks." Example: What is the measure-sign? (C) Ans. A broken circle. What is its meaning? Ans. Four-quarter measure.

(Not four-four time, four-four rhythm, four-four meter.)

16. _Note Placing:_ Place a quarter note on the fourth line.

Not "put a quarter note on D."

17. _Beat-Pulse:_ A tone or rest occurs on a certain beat or pulse of a measure. Not on a certain _count_.

18. _Signature Terminology:_ The right hand sharp in the signature is on the staff degree that represents seven of the major scale. Not "always on 7 or ti."

19. _Signature Terminology:_ The right hand flat in the signature is on the staff degree that represents four of the major scale. Not "always on fa."

20. _Rote, Note, Syllable:_ Singing by rote means that the singer sings something learned by ear without regard to notes.

Singing by note means that the singer is guided to the correct pitch by visible notes. Singing by syllable means that the singer sings the tones of a song or part to the sol-fa syllables instead of to words, neutral vowels or the hum.

"Sing by note" is not correct if the direction means simply to sing the sol-fa syllables, whether in sight reading, rote singing, or memory work. "Sing by syllable" would be correct in each case.

ADOPTIONS OF THE 1911 MEETING AT SAN FRANCISCO

Arabic numerals, either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, or 12, placed on the staff directly after the signature and above the third line, show the number of beats in a measure.

A note, either a quarter or a dotted quarter, placed in parenthesis under the numeral, represents the length of one beat and is called the beat-note.

The numeral and the beat-note thus grouped const.i.tute the measure-sign.

Ill.u.s.trative statements covering proper terminology: the tune "America" is written in three-quarter measure. The chorus: "How lovely are the Messengers" is written in two-dotted quarter measure.

The above forms of statement were adopted at Denver in 1909, and are recommended for general use when speaking of music written with the conventional measure-signs, etc.

In place of: "two-two time, three-eight time, four-four time,"

say as above: "This piece is written in two-half measure, three-eighth measure, four-quarter measure."

MINOR SCALES

_Primitive Minor (ascending)_

The minor scale form having minor sixth and minor seventh above tonic to be called Primitive Minor.

Ill.u.s.trative examples. A minor: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, a; C minor: c, d, e flat, f, g, a flat, b flat, c. [Transcriber's Note: Supplied b flat missing from original.]