US832406A - Music notation. - Google Patents

Description

No. 832,406. PATENTED 0012,1906. W. E. NAUNTON.

MUSIC NOTATION. APPLICATION FI'LED JULY 21. 1905.

Noni wz zadde d UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM EMMANUEL NAUNTON, OF FITZROY, NEAR MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE NAUNTON MUSIC PROPRIETARY LIMITED, OF MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 2, 1906.

Application filed July 21, 1905. Serial No. 270,664.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM EMMANUEL NAUNTON, a citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia,'and a resident of Fitzroy, near Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Oommonwealth of Australia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Music Notation, of which the following is a description, reference bein had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to musical notation; and the object thereof is to facilitate the interpretation of notes, time, rhythm, accent, and light and shade.

Hitherto considerable difliculty has been ex erienced by musicians, and more particularly by persons learning music, in reading notes, time, rhythm, accent, light and shade, &c., from systems which are at present known and in use.

Various means have been attempted from time to time for the purpose of bringing the art of music within the reach of the masses, without meeting with much success, owing partly to the want of simplicity, on the one hand, and the absence of thoroughness and completeness, on the other.

This invention, being a complete musical system, has been devised in order to render the reading of notes, time, rhythm, light and shade, and accent so simple that any one can thoroughly acquire the art of music in much less time and with much less mental effort.

In order that my invention may be more readily understood, I will describe it in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 represents a piece of music-to wit, part of the Blue Danube Waltzprinted in my improved method and clearly showing the time, notes, rhythm, light and shade, and accent, while Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show modifications of the invention and the application of it to the present staff notation.

In carrying this invention into practice I rule permanently two horizontal lines corresponding with the two black keys C-sharp and D-sharp in the center of pianofortekeyboard, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Where notes are to be played above or below these .two lines, short lines, heavy, light, and dotted, are introduced, thus marking their position and indicating their duration of sound.

Between these short lines the positions of the white keys are indicated.

It will be seen by reference to the illustration on Sheet 1 that my invention presents, as

it were, a picture to the eye of sound and silence, the sound by the lines and the notes printed on them and the silence by the absence of lines or blank spaces. By this means dots, tied notes, and characters indicating silencesuch as rests, &c.are dispensed with. Accent or special stress is also pictorially presented to the eye by heav lines, as shown at the commencement of eac bar in the example given in Fig. 1. The heavy lines upon which the accented notes are placed indicate that they are to be struck with more force or louder than the others. Softness is indicated by lightly-ruled lines, and very soft is indicated by dotted lines, as seen in Fig. 1. I make the length of lines upon which the notes are printed to indicate the length or duration of their sound, as in the illustration of Fig. 1, where the dotted minim in the commencement of the second bar is sustained by the pedal for two bars and onethird of a bar. By this means the duration of the notes is indicated pictorially and requires no calculation, it being obvious in the example given, for instance, that the duration of the other notes above and below the dotted minim is only one-third the length of the bar.

According to the modification of the invention illustrated in Fig. 2 the music is rinted in the ordinary way upon ordinary ined paper, but the keys on the piano are further indicated by two short or three short vertical thick lines k 1' &c., according to the note which is represented, the three lines representing, as before, the three black keys and the two lines representing the two black keys. For instance, in the example shown in Fig. 2 the first note in the upper line is the white key between the two blacks, while the next note is the first or lowest of the three black keys on the piano. The two horizontal heavy permanent lines 7c indicate the center of the piano.

In Fig. 3 the numerals 2 and 3 are used in place of the two and three short lines of Fig. 2 to facilitate the writing of chords, where in the case of four notes on one stem the position of each is clearly shown, the numeral 2 before the note representing the two black keys, while the numeral 3 represents the three black keys. These numbers may be printed either before or after a note, as required, itlIdLVlll be employed. instead of the lines in cases where the notes require to be printed close together and there is, therefore, not much space available for the lines.

In the modification illustrated in Fig. 4 the notation is written in a straight line, the keys on the piano being indicated'by groups of two or three black lines, as shown, the lines being either diagonalor vertical, as may be preferred, and which is intended for writing a melody only in songs.

This invention dispenses with the diflicul ties encountering the musician-in respect to keys, clefs, sharps, and flats, although as a matter of expediency indications of these may be printedupon the music.

hat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, is

1. A staff for musicalnotation comprising two continuous lines for indicating the two centerblack keys of the piano, and further provided above and below such two continuous lines with groups of lines and with musical characters placed on or between the lines of said groups, the said groups of lines of varying length, proportional to the' duration of sound of each note represented by the musical characterplaced thereon or between, the said staff being further provided with blank spaces between the groups oflines for indicating silence, substantially as described.

2. A stall for musical notation comprising two continuous lines for indicating the two center black-keys of the piano andrfurther provid'edabove and below the said two continuouslines with groups of lines and with musical charactersiplaced on or between the lines of said groups, the said groups of linesof varying'length to indicate the duration'of sound of each noterepresented by the mu-- sical character thereon orbetweemland also ofvarying thicknesses to represent the accent

Images