US141013A - Improvement in music-notations - Google Patents

Description

l. P. POWELL.

Music-Notations.

No, 141,013, Patentedluly 22,1873.

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IMPROVEMENT IN MUSIC-NOTATIONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No 141,013, dated July 22, 1873 application filed August 12, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH P. POWELL, of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a certain Improvement in Musical Notation, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention is fully represented on the accompanying card or illustration, to which reference is hereby made.

The invention consists in varying the size and form of the notes, which are called in the different keys and clefs do, mi, sol, and octave do, and said notes also form the common chord 1, 3, 5, 8; and the invention is to be applied to the system of notation commonly calledvthe Round-Note System.

No changes have been made in writing the notes, with the exception of those representing and called in both clefs and in every key do, mi, sol, and octave do.

Do is represented by the character on line a on the card aforesaid; mi, by the character on line b, (Ib.;) sol, by the character on line 0, (I b. do and octave do are identical.

These notes become a guide to the singer in transposing the syllablesof the scale, as will be seen at H I J K L M N O on the card. Knowing the position of do, mi, and sol, and octave do by means of the characters above indicated, the remaining or intervening syllables, re, fa, la, si, can be easily sung by associating their position with that of the known syllables do, mi, sol, and octave do, tide O on card.

These fixed characters or index-notes perform the same office for a person unaccustomed to reading music that the sharps, flats, and clefs do for the experienced singer; and the use of these fixed characters does not mar the symmetry or the appearance of the music, so that the instrumentalist or experienced vocalist is in no respect disturbed thereby.

To show wherein this invention is an improvement upon the ordinary or round-note system of musical notation, it is only necessary for me to say that, in the ordinary notation, the beginner cannot find the key-note till the key-signatures have been accurately and thoroughly committed to memory, while by my improved notation he can find the keynote without seeing or even having the keysignatures.

, In the ordinary notation the singer cannot change ofi" singing from key to'key without months and often years of practice; and in the improved notation a change of key-does not disturb the singer.

In the ordinary notation the beginner cannot change singing from one clef to another without great difficulty, because of change of location for the key-note, while in the improved notation the key-note indicates itself at once, leaving no difficulty to the singer in the change of clefs. And the importance of the improved notation in respect to key-notes and changes from clef to clef will be more appreciated when it is considered that each syllable of the staff can occupy seven different positions, and each varying the key, and that these positions will again be altered when the clef is changed.

In the ordinary notation the mental labor required in computing the distances from note to note by the lines and spaces of the staff while singing is so enormous that comparatively few have the courage to continue the study of music long enough to reach any respectable degree of perfection.

The improved notation havingthree (3) local .notes in the scale, the mental labor required in reading music will be incomparably diminished.

Music written by the improved notation is intelligible to the merest beginner, the instrumentalist can play it with the same ease as ordinary music, and the vocalist can learn it without the aid of instrument.

Musicians are accustomed to notes in the small type, as at a on the card aforesaid; so they are with the note at b,- but the note at c is a new type.

The principle of locating these notes or characters of peculiar shape in the scale to designate thc syllable constituting the common chord and keynotes is an improvement in the art of representing music, and

What I claim as my invention is- In a system of musical notation, the char-\;

acters shown at a b c of the drawing, formed as shown, to designate the first, third, and fifth of the scale, substantially as described.

JOSEPH P. POWELL J Witnesses:

Ronr. S. POMEROY, THoMAs E. SNELBAKER.

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