US828020A - Musical notation. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED AUG. 7, 1906. A. G. DAVIS.

MUSICAL NOTATION. APPLICATION FILED IEB.16.1904.

mm a Janis,

Inventor l I 'I- Httomegs 1n: Nnmus PETERS C0,, WASHINGTON, n. c.

ANNA (J. DAVIS, OF SIOUXCITY, IOWA.

MUSICAL NOTATION.

Specification of Letters'Patent.

- Patented Aug. 7, 1906.

Application filed February 15, 1904. Serial No. 193,752.

To all'whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANNA C. DAVIS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sioux City,-in the county of VVoodbury and State of .Iowa,-have invented a New Staff and a Method-of Manipulating the Same for the Expression of Music, of which the following isa specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to music, and has forits object to provide certain new and usefulimprovements in musical notationwhereby the reading of music in general is facilitated and'in particular to facilitate'the transposition from-one key to another with little or no mental efiort and practically unconsciously.

In carrying out the invention I propose to retain the syllable or do, re, mi method of reading, and in this connection employ an improved staff having a fixed tonic or do syllable indicating element, whereby every note may be conveniently read-in accordance with its position with respect to the tonicindicating element.

To provide for the changing of keys, I propose to shift the position of adjacent staff portions indirect relation with the raising or lowering of the pitch of the new key, as'will be hereinafter more fully described, shown in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a view of the improved staff employed in connection with the present system of musical notation. Fig. 2 is a view of the improved staff including notes thereon and showing portions of the st-afi shifted to indicate change of keys.

In setting forth my invention I will first explain my improved stafi and then the method of using the same.

The improved staff employed in connection with my method of musical notation consists of five parallel lines designated in the drawings by the reference characters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, of which the lowermost and uppermost lines are distinguished from the intermediate lines preferably by being printed as heavy black lines with the intermediate lines narrower or lighter. The two. uppermost lines are arranged in closer relation than the first four lines, the latter being spaced at regular intervals, as in the ordinary staff, and the usual character of notes being placed upon all of the lines and the first three spaces only, the narrow space at the top of the staff not being used. With this form of staff each heavy black line'indicates the tonic or octave) or do syllable, and the intermediate spaces and lines indicate the succeeding syllables in the usual order with the eX- ception of the uppermost and smaller space, within which notes never appear. In reading music written upon this staff any tone may be taken as the; tonicyand wherever a note appears upon either of the black lines it will be understood that this note indicatesthe tonic or the syllable doof the scale and all other notes may beyreadily read in accordance with theirv positions upon the difi'ere'nt lines and spaces. Whena change of-key occurs, it is not necessary to'indica'te the same by signatures or other suitable characters; but the staff is shifted either up or down, according as the new key is higher or lower than the previous key, the black or tonic line of the new stafi beingshifted to form a continuation of thatline of the previous staff which indicates the tone that is now tobe used as the tonic, or the black line is-shifted to a position opposite one of the-spaces of the previous staff, according to the location of the new tonic. This feature is directly in line with what actually occurs in'changing from= one key to another, as the 'changejis always .to-a higher orlowerpitch accordingly as the new tonic is higher or lower than the original tonic. a

Referring now to Fig. '2, therehas been illustrated an initial staff designated in {general A, and for sake of convenience itwillc-be supposed that the tonic tone indicated-by "the black line of this staff is pitched upon D- natural, or, in other-words, the key of D m ajor. When a change in 'key occurssay, for'finstance, to the key of B-minor-the staff is then shifted downwardly, as indicated at ,to bring th uppermost black line thereofFi-n alinement with thei-upperlfull space ofltlie staff A, which indicates that the syllable ;do or tonic of the new key has the pitchof la of the former staff and'key. In reading'tlie music upon thestaif B the, pitch of the'fir'st note in said staff is obtained by referring to the line or space of the previous staff, which is in alinement with'the note, and then; sing or play the note with the pitch indicated by said line or space, but calling the note by the syllable indicated by its, position in' the new staff. For instance, thefirst note 6 of the new staff is in the first space thereof, and therefore represents the syllable re, and it lines.

is opposite the next to the uppermost or fourth line of the former staff, which indicates the syllable si on said staff, wherefore the note 6 should be pitched upon si of the former staff, but should be called re in accordance with its position upon the new staff. After having obtained the pitch of the first note the remaining notes are sung or played in the syllable method, according to their positions upon the staff, with the two black lines always indicating do or the tonic of the key. It will here be explained that the 'pitch or key of the initial portion of the staff should be indicated in some appropriate manner-such, for instance, as D Ma, as indicated at 7 in Fig. 2, which indicates that the pitch is that of the key of Dmajor in order that the pitch of do or the tonic of the key indicated by the black lines maybe readily obtained from a tuning-fork, piano, or other musical instrument. When a change in key occurs, it may be appropriately indicated, as at .8, in the staff portion B, wherein the expression B Mi indicates that the new key is B-minor; but it is of COUISG apparent that it is not necessary to thus indicate the key, for the reason that when the pitch of the first note of the new staff is obtained the following notes are read in the do, re, mi method, with the tonic or do syllable always occurring on the black From the foregoing explanation it will be understood that when the pitch of the first note in any staff portion is obtained the following notes may be conveniently read irrespective of the key and irrespective of any other staff porti on. In other words, each staff portion is complete in itself and entirely inde pendent of other staff portions so far as the reading of the notes contained thereon is concerned, for the reason that the tonic or do syllable always maintains a fixed position upon each and every staff portion, the only difference residing in the fact that the staff is shifted either up or down in accordance with the raising and lowerin of the tonic. Should the first tone in the new Key not be found on the previous staff, the tone should. be indicated by an appropriate accidental mark placed upon the previous staff portion such, for instance, as a flat character 9 placed upon the line or space in alinement with the first note of the new staff, which in the present in stance is the note 10, occupying the third line of the new staff, wherefore the flat char acter should of course be placed upon the fourth line of the previous staff portion. To obtain the pitch of this note, reference is had to the line of the previous staff in alinement with the degree of the shifted staff portion upon which the note occurs, which in the present instance is the fourth or next to the upper line and indicates the syllable si, which. when flatted is of course se, the pitch of the note 10; but said note should be and lower staffs, the lower black line of the upper staff serving as the upper black line of the lower staff, wherefore it is not necessary to employ additional or ledger lines between upper and lower staffs. Moreover, it is not necessary to distinguish the treble-staff from the bassstaff, in view of the fact that the tonic or do syllable always occupies the same position upon the staff, and therefore the bass and treble staffs have the notes arranged thereon with respect to the upper and lower black lines as the tonic or do syllable of the key and not with respect to the position of the shiftable tonic, as in the usual method of musical notation. Where it is not desirable to add a complete staff above or below the main staff or staffs, ledger-lines 11 may of course be employed, as indicated in Fig. 1 of the drawings.

From the foregoing description it will be understood that the present staff includes five note-bearing lines and three note-bearing spaces, thereby producing an eight-degree staff wherein the lowermost and uppermost lines form marginal degrees representing the same scale degree which is the tonic and the octave thereof, wherefore it will be under stood that the degrees of the staff correspond with those of a scale-octave and multiples thereof.

Having thus described :iny-invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A musical staff having a portion shifted to bring its degrees into alinement with other degrees of the adjacent preceding portion of the staff.

2. A musical staff made up of five lines and four spaces, the uppermost and lower most lines being distinguished from the other lines, the three lower spaces being each of the same width and the uppermost space being narrower than the other spaces, a portion of the staff being shifted to bring its degrees into alinement with other degrees of the adjacent preceding staff portion.

3. A musical staff including eight degrees only and having a portion shifted to bring its degrees into alinement with other degrees of the adjacent preceding portion of the staff.

4. A diatonicscale staff having a change of key indicated by a staff portion which is shifted vertically with respect to the adjacent preceding staff portion, with certain of the degrees of the two staff portions merged into one another.

5. A diatonic scale-staff consisting of five ZIO degreedines, three degree-spaces, and a single space differing in Width from the degreespaces, the top and bottom lines of the staff being broader than the other lines, and a portion of the staff being shifted vertically to bring its degrees into alinement with other degrees of the adjacent preceding staff portion.

6. A music-score having its staff provided with disalined staff portions, each of which portions is composed of lines having fixed relative diatonic designations, the corresponding lines of different staff portions having the same diatonic designations, whereby those lines of different staff portions which are designed to receive, respectively, the tonic notes of the keys occupy relative positions corresponding to the difference in pitch between the tonics of those scales.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ANNA O. DAVIS. Witnesses:

Mrs. J. M. DAVIS W. H. HUMMEL.

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