Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]
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Notes portées(Fr.). See Portato. See also Bow, §II, 3(iii). Note values.The various systems of letters, neumes, and other symbols used for the notation of Western monophonic and polyphonic music before about 1150 did not indicate exact note values or exact pitch. Such systems served merely to remind the performer of the melodic outline of musical phrases that had already been memorized. With the increasing development and sophistication of polyphony in the late 12th century the need arose for a system of notation in which the relative values of the different symbols were more precisely defined. After the formative period of ‘square’ notation (c1175–c1225) the two single-note neumes of the later neumatic system, the virga and punctum, became the longa (long) and brevis (breve) of early mensural music. Although the new forms retained the outward appearance of the neumes from which they derived, they acquired for the first time an exact metrical relationship to each other. The transcription of the music of this period in accordance with the theory of Rhythmic modes results in a basic relationship of three breves to each long (see Notation, §III, 2). By the end of the 13th century the use of the maxima (large) and the semibrevis (semibreve) was admitted, although the latter value was found only in pairs or sets of three, four, and so on, and not yet as an independent unit. The introduction of the minima (minim) was a feature of early 14th-century music, with the semiminima (crotchet) following later in the century. The fusa (quaver) and semifusa (semiquaver) date from the 15th century. The notation of the period from the 13th century to the 16th is known as ‘mensural’ (i.e. measured) notation, so as to distinguish it from that of plainchant (see Notation, §III, 3). During this period the interrelationship of the various note values was codified in the treatises of Franco of Cologne (c1260) and other theorists. For much of this time a note would have been equal in value to either two or three of the next smaller value, depending on the mensuration of the composition. Such a system was in marked contrast to modern ‘orthochronic’ notation, in which a fixed duple relationship always obtains between any note value and its next larger or smaller value. Although the evolution of clearly defined note values developed primarily within staff notation, the conventional note forms were retained to indicate note values in some of those tablatures in which the pitches themselves were indicated exclusively by letters or numbers. However, the overwhelming majority of tablatures used an extension of this system, whereby note values were indicated by the use of dots or vertical strokes with flags (i.e. standard note shapes but without heads). In all lute tablatures, and in some keyboard tablatures, the value of only the shortest of the notes to be played simultaneously could be notated precisely. The notational system used for Western medieval music did not include the dotted note as such, although the prevailing ternary metre results in modern transcriptions in compound and triple times. When, later, a note could be divided into either three or two, according to the mensuration in force, a two-beat note could be increased in value by one half by the addition of a dot (punctum additionis or punctum augmentationis), found in sources of the 15th century onwards. The use of the tie, permitting the addition of the values of two or more successive notes, was important in licensing a range of hitherto unavailable temporal values, although in its earliest uses (in early 16th-century keyboard scores) it did form values that were otherwise available. The notation of the last 700 years has been characterized by a general trend towards the adoption of smaller note values as the basic unit of movement. As a result much early music has been printed in modern editions with the note values reduced to conform to the wide (though by no means universal) acceptance of the crotchet as the standard pulse. The extent of this reduction varies between one-sixteenth for early medieval music to a half for music written in the 16th century. This practice, however, was challenged in the last quarter of the 20th century and many editions now use the original note values. Before Beethoven’s time a given note value usually indicated only its nominal duration, with little or no attempt being made by the use of rests to distinguish between those parts to be apportioned to sound and silence respectively. In practice the duration of a musical note is frequently less than its written value, although the extent to which this is so depends on the degree of articulation involved. Many 20th-century composers have found conventional notation insufficiently precise to indicate the exact durations desired, and this has resulted in widespread experimentation in the visual representation of musical duration. Perhaps the most useful result of this experimentation has been the duration line, which makes both note heads and rests unnecessary. However, despite its use in some particularly efficient notations, such as Equitone (see Notation, §III, 4(iii), fig.56), it has not gained general acceptance. Attempts to introduce irregular divisions of the semibreve (one-fifth, one-seventh, etc.) using special note head shapes such as the lozenge and the triangle have also failed to become widely used. The modern international nomenclature of the various note values is usually based on one or more of three systems. The names for the larger values often derive directly from medieval Latin, while those for the smaller values are frequently based on the physical appearance of the note forms (black, white, hook, etc.). In standard German and American usage the note values are expressed as an arithmetical fraction of a semibreve, the referential unit of much early temporal theory. This system, the only completely consistent and logical one, has also been used in France. The original Latin names, together with their main European and American equivalents, are given in Table 1; alternative names for the values of a semibreve or less are also listed in individual articles.
See also Notation, §III and Rhythm. JOHN MOREHEN/RICHARD RASTALL Yüklə 10,2 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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