Since the sixteenth century, musical notation has been largely unchanged. Until that time, considerable experimentation occurred to develop a means of recording on paper the many obvious as well as subtle directions for performance of music. In addition to providing information on pitches and rhythms, musical notation is designed to . . .

 

. . . convey to performers the composer's intentions regarding speed, style, dynamic level, and mood. Italian is the international language of music, and most of the terms are of Italian origin. Words from other languages, with a few exceptions, are associated with the music of a particular country. Most performance terms are indicative or relative rather than precise; they only point the way to authentic interpretation, which ultimately rests with the performer.  

   

Our purpose here is not to learn the intricacies of musical notation--but to understand their application and implications for their use. The symphonic musical model is not based on 'made-up' or improvisational music. Such music enjoys a long history in religious and baroque music of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries--as well as a healthy tradition in jazz and folk music in our time.

 

 

Symphonic music--though subject to interpretation by conductors and musicians--is highly programmed. Composers--who labor extensively in an attempt to instill meaningful content into their work, provide detailed instructions--not only to the orchestra overall, but to each individual section and individual within the orchestra. In an organizational sense, such instructions can be considered highly interrelated and integrated processes, with each player's contribution mapped out and metered to go along with that of all of the others. The mechanism for accomplishing this is a repetitive counting system that is unique to Western music.

     

The pulses or beats of music combine into groups of varying dimensions with characteristic accentual patterns called meters. The end of each complete pattern and the beginning of the next is market in music notation by a bar line. Double bars--two adjacent bar lines--are placed at the ends of compositions and major sections. The rhythmic unit between bar lines is a measure. The accent pattern traditionally is constant, and the time signature (or meter signature) at the beginning of a work or passage specifies the underlying rhythmic structure of the music that follows. Each metric group in music begins with an accented beat. The type of meter depends upon the number of unaccented beats and the distribution of secondary accents, if any. Rhythm is the inclusive term for all temporal aspects of music, including both metric groupings and duration relationships.  

   

These tempo considerations are held in common by all players--who are to follow the gestures of the conductor and keep track of where they are in relation to all other players even for large stretches in which they themselves do not play. Such gestures are more or less standardized among conductors--with special emphasis on the first beat of each measure as a natural element in the musical cadence. The emphasis is also helpful in keeping everyone together.

 

 

Notation of pitch is standard among the instruments--though each section of players is understandably given notes that are different from the rest--allowing for harmonies, counter-melodies, and many other musical effects. All notes--whether high or low--are represented on a staff consisting of five horizontal equidistant lines enclosing four spaces. These lines and spaces are individually numbered from bottom to top--each line and each space representing a pitch. Ledger lines above and below the staff can represent notes that are higher or lower than could be recorded within the five lines. Thus, even though the piccolo and the tuba play very different parts--the former typically very high and fast and the latter very low with less notes--they both read notes based on the same system.

 

Not only are the notes for each section different in most cases, there are other sources of difference between players in an orchestral setting that must be expressed in the notation. For one thing--depending on the preferences and the intent of the composer--one section may hold precedence over another that need to be reflected in the notation. For example, even though brass instruments are typically louder and project more heartily than the string sections, a particular composer may want the violins to play out while the trumpets play soft, sustained notes in the background. This can produce a very interesting effect--in part because it is somewhat unexpected.

 

By the same token, a composer may wish that certain sections play notes in a hard, percussive manner while instruments in other sections of the orchestra play with a more gentle, smooth sound.

 

It is a tribute to the notational system--the underlying common language of music--that the one system can be so understood by performers to record both their common instructions and unique orders to each section or player without the confusion that would come from misunderstandings or misinterpretations. As we have studied in the sections on the individual instruments--and will discuss in the section on the Grand Score, the system is far from perfect--requiring that some instrumentalist transpose notes from one key to the other on the fly. This alone would be a risky proposition if the musicians in question did not have training and experience in making such judgments.

 

 

Of course, the symphony conductor must see through such imperfections in the system of notation sufficient to guide individual performers through their parts. The conductor must not only understand the capabilities of the various instruments, he or she must have the ability to recognize transposition issues to recognize errant notes and to adequately interpret the Grand Score that is the repository of all of the instructions from the composer to the orchestra members.