Lines a Whole Step Apart,  6 Lines per Octave

From the Guided Tour: If there were six standard lines per octave, it would be very difficult to discriminate pitches when reading music on two contiguous staves. So some inventors substitute bold or dashed lines in the place of some of the normal lines. This permits the use of six lines per octave without sacrificing the ability to "stack" multiple staves contiguously for a greater pitch range.

 

Untitled by Klaus Lieber

The standard staff has seven lines, with the top and bottom lines being bold and five standard solid lines between them. The bold lines are C. In the image above two of these staves have been stacked to show a two octave span. Lieber's piano staff consisted of six of his staves stacked for a span of six octaves.

Earliest documentation: Albert Brennink's Chromatic Notation (1983), p. 11, 26.

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 13/51

Notation for the System of Equal Tones Applied to the Chromatic Keyboard by Gustave Decher and Seven-tone or Twelve-tone Notation by Hans Krenn

Both of these systems use the same seven line staff as Lieber above, with the top and bottom lines being bold and the intervening five lines standard solid lines. The bottom and top lines represent A. The staff above shows two standard staves stacked for a two octave range.

Decher's piano staff resembles the traditional grand staff with two standard staves spaced apart vertically. Bar lines extend through to connect the two piano staves, but short bar lines are used within each staff to separate the beats within a measure. All notes have the appearance of traditional quarter notes. Two notes appearing in the same beat are equivalent to two eighth notes, four are equivalent to four sixteenth notes, etc. Notes are tied across beat separations to represent longer durations, the equivalents of half notes and whole notes. Traditional leger lines are used for notes extending beyond the staff.

Earliest documentation: 1877 (Decher), 1910 (Krenn)

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 13/23, 13/46

Untitled by Franz Grassl

The staff is similar to the basic 4-line staff designs, but now the two lines that alternate with the four-line staff are dashed instead of being ledger lines. The noteheads are colored according to the 7-5 pitch pattern, with the notes of the C major scale being white/hollow, and the other five notes black/solid. Like Parncutt's 6-6 Tetragram, the bottom line of the four-line staff is an F which aligns the staff with the 7-5 pattern. The two dashed lines are (C#/Db) and (D#/Eb), while the three spaces between the four solid lines are (F#/Gb), (G#/Ab), and (A#/Bb). The standard staff has ten lines, two groups of four solid lines with one group of two dashed lines in between them. The image above includes a second set of two dashed lines at the top of the staff for a full two octaves.

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 10/16, 11/4, 13/36

Similar Notations: Four-line Notations, Ambros System

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves, Continuous Staves

Ambros System by August Ambros

The staff has three solid lines alternating with three dashed lines. The lowest solid line represents C.  Traditional rhythmic notation is used. The standard staff has six lines spanning one octave, three solid and three dashed, half of the two octave staff shown above.

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 10/3, 11/4, 13/3

Similar notations: 6-6 Trigram by Richard Parncutt

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves,  Continuous Staves

Douzave System by John Leon Acheson

The standard six-line staff is constructed from the bottom with two normal staff lines, followed by a bold line, followed by two more normal staff lines, followed by a dashed line on top.   The bold line represents C.  The dashed line represents F#. This standard one octave staff has been repeated twice in the image above to show a span of two octaves.

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 10/1, 11/4, 13/1

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves, Continous Staves

Notagraph by Constance Virtue

The standard staff has seven lines, three solid lines followed by a dashed middle line and then three more solid lines.  If the dashed line were a ledger line, the staff would be the same as in Notation Godjevatz.  The top and bottom lines of the standard staff represent C.  The dashed line represents F#.   Traditional rhythmic notation is used. In the image above two standard staves have been stacked to show a span of two octaves.

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 10/33, 11/4, 13/98

Other Similar Notations: Notation Godjevatz

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves, Continuous Staves

Note for Note by Walter H. Thelwall

A basic seven-line staff has a bold middle line representing C and top and bottom lines that both represent F#/Gb. Two ledger lines appear below this staff, followed by a dashed line also representing C. From the dashed C line to the F#/Gb line at the top of the staff is a span of about an octave and a half. On the piano staff the line pattern is symmetrically repeated below the dashed line: another two ledger lines followed by another seven line staff just like the one above. Traditional noteheads are used.

Earliest documentation: 1897

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 13/96

Proportional Chromatic Musical Notation by Henri Carcelle

 

Carcelle's notation has been designed to be read vertically from top to bottom like Klavar notation. Pitches ascend horizontally from left to right like on a piano keyboard. The standard staff shown at left spans about an octave and a half. It has a symmetrical set of nine lines combining solid, dotted, and dashed lines. The last three repeat the first three in the following pattern: solid, dotted, solid, solid, dashed, solid, solid, dotted, solid. Traditional noteheads and time values are used.

Earliest documentation: 1977

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 13/16

Similar notations: 6-6 Klavar by Cornelis Pot

 

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