The Emergence of Efficient Musical Texts during the Age of Reason
Main Article Content
Abstract
Modern Western musical notation is “efficient” in the sense that every element of a text corresponds to an essential element of the composition represented and to an essential element of every valid performance of that composition. Western notation became efficient only during the eighteenth century. Previously, much Western music — especially music for solo instrument and small ensemble — operated on pretextual, oral principles: it was performed in small communities dominated by celebrated performer/composers who re-created compositions with each performance; their students were taught to perform in this quasi-improvisational way. In such circumstances, a composition could be represented by many different texts. Notation became efficient when increasing numbers of recreational amateurs required music that did not have to be re-created with each performance and that could be learned by realizing texts literally. Printers and composers accommodated them. As texts became efficient, compositions became stable entities defined by texts established by their composers.
Downloads
Article Details
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (see:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors warrant that their submission is their own original work, and that they have the right to grant the rights contained in this license. Authors also warrant that their submission does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon anyone's copyright. If the submission contains material for which an author does not hold the copyright, authors warrant that they have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner to grant Indiana University the rights required by this license, and that such third-party owned material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of their submission.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.