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; and two pages of illustrations by Grassl in “Illustrations of Music Notation Systems” compiled by Thomas S. Reed, 1997 (unpublished because of copyright concerns).  The latter source clearly shows the 7-5 notehead coloring, whereas the system was depicted with conventional notehead coloring in “Chromatic Notation, The Results and Conclusions of the International Enquiry by the Chroma Foundation” (1983).

Earliest Documentation: 1983

Similar Notations: Four-line Notations, Ambros System

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves, Continuous Staves