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Exploring Alternative Music Notation Systems

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Untitled
by Heinrich Richter, 1847

Chromatic scale from C to C. C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

See more scales, intervals, and melodies with the AudioVisualizer.

A number of notation inventors have used this familiar 5-line staff, including Lukas Brandt, Grace Frix, Edward Huntington, Heinrich “Autodidactus” Richter, Hans Sacher, Karl Schumann, Heinrich Vincent, Hermann-Josef Wilbert, and Kazimierz Wolf. Similar to traditional notation, ledger lines appear below and above each staff. All but one made the first ledger line C as in traditional notation. (In Grace Frix’s system the first ledger line is D.) Some systems have a one octave standard staff, others have a two octave standard staff like the one shown above.

Most of these notations have early invention dates, so it may be that the availability of standard music manuscript paper, and the difficulty of producing novel manuscript paper, were factors in their design.

Earliest documentation: 1847 (Richter), 1859 (Schumann), 1862 (Vincent), 1905 (Sacher), 1920 (Huntington), 1992 (Frix). Brandt, Wilbert, and Wolf have unknown dates, but are documented in Albert Brennink’s Chromatic Notation (1983).

Source: Directory of Music Notation Proposals, section/page: 10/6,14,17,25,26,28,32,34,36, 11/3, 13/12,33,42,74,82,87,97,103,104

Manuscript Paper: Discontinuous Staves, Continuous Staves

→ Next Two Notation Systems →

Chromatic scale from C to C in Untitled by Grace Frix C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

Untitled by Grace Frix

Chromatic scale from C to C in C Symmetrical Semitone Notation by Ronald Sadlier C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Ab B C

C-Symmetrical Semitone Notation by Ronald Sadlier

Notation System Groups

  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 5 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 4 or 3 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step Apart, 6 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Whole Step and Major 3rd Apart, 4 per Octave
  • Lines a Minor 3rd Apart, 3 or 4 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 3 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 2 Lines per Octave
  • Lines a Major 3rd Apart, 2 per Octave, Compact Staff
  • Lines a Tritone Apart, 2 per Octave, or 1 Line per Octave
  • 7-5 Line Pattern, 3, 5, or 6 Lines per Octave
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