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The History of Musical Notations
The History of 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
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
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
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
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.
Pitch – (Noun) the quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the
instrument or instruments.
statement).
Solfege – (Noun) the application of the sol-fa syllables to a musical scale or to a melody
Staff – (Noun) The 5 horizontal lines that indicates the arrangement of the solfege
References:
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/neume
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-musicappreciationtheory/chapter/neume/
https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-notation
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/staff
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guido-dArezzo-Italian-musician