Even without a musical education, almost everyone knows the names of notes in music. From childhood, familiar names seem familiar and do not cause unnecessary questions. On musical chants at school or in a musical institution, the names of the notes are not in doubt.
But is it that simple? Have the names of the notes changed since they were first mentioned? And who came up with these "names"?
What is a note?
Studying the scores of works, not every musician or layman would ask who invented the notes and their names. Since ancient times, people have tried to convey certain tones of sound: voice, knock, and so on.
From ancient times, music was considered the highest form of art. Plato, a famous philosopher, believed that it was music that gives wings to the human soul, endows thinking with imagination and educates people in the best qualities.
Already in ancient times, people closely connected their lives with music: women, absorbed in daily duties, quietly sang simple melodies. Calm and iridescent motifs helped children fall asleep faster.
Many people know that any melody consists of notes. But what is a note? Translated from Latin, nota denotes a label or sign. In music, notes are used to graphically represent sounds of a certain key. Thanks to additional symbols, such as a sharp and a flat, any sound is given an additional characteristic: pitch, duration and sound.
German notation
The usual Russian-speaking names of notes from Do to C sound a little differently in other languages. In one of the most common letter notations, they were given other “names”: C, D, E, F, G, A and N. This system comes from Germany, and in it the note C is denoted as N.
In this notation system, a higher sound - sharp - is indicated by the ending -is. For example, C sharp - cis and so on. The only exception is the note C. To indicate its higher sound, use the symbol b. Lower sound is ending -is. There are no exceptions for notes. Baker is a lowercase letter for a note.
English notation
German letter notation is common in almost all European countries. Exceptions are states where the official language is English. There the notes are also denoted by the letters of the Latin alphabet, but from A to G. While the letter A corresponds to the note A. Additional characters: bekar - identical letter, sharp - sharp, flat - flat.
Location of notes on a stave
When studying instrumental scores, you can notice that all notes look the same - a black or white oval located on or between the lines. Only their position and the shape of the upper part differ. And before you know who invented the notes, you need to understand how to distinguish them.
First of all, it is worth noting that all notes are located on the stave: five lines. The score goes from bottom to top. Notes are recorded from left to right. Each line corresponds to a specific note. If there are not enough lines to record high or low sound, the rulers can be finished manually.
The shape and color of the notes convey its duration. For example, an unshaded oval without additional lines is a whole note lasting four full counts. If you add a wand - calmness to an unshaded oval - you get a half note equal to two counts. The filled oval with a calm is a quarter note. Shaded with a calm and a flag - the eighth note and so on.
But before recording notes on a stave, a treble or bass clef is affixed. They determine the general tonality of the work.
First appearance of notes
Before you try to understand how to explain to children who came up with notes, you need to find out when they first appeared. In the familiar form from Do to Si, they were recorded only in the Middle Ages, in the eleventh century. But this does not mean that before this period there was no music.
Before the usual form of recording notes, sounds of different tones were indicated by the letters of the alphabet: Greek or Latin. But this form of recording was inconvenient. It was difficult to chant all the letters, and it was almost impossible to write a polyphonic score for the choir.
Soon in church choirs began to use a different form of recording: hooks and curls, or neva. So, with their help, the general structure of the chant was transmitted: rising up or lower sound. But such a form of recording could not convey the exact play of the melody. And it was not possible for the chorists to remember every psalm.
The emergence of linear notation
Nevmes could not accurately reflect the characteristics of chants, then the search began for a new way to convey the height and longitude of notes. For starters, letters that indicated tonality began to be added to the nemes. But because of them, the score became too cumbersome, and sometimes it was quite problematic to parse it.
The revolution in notation was made by the Italian Guido of Arezio. He replaced the bulky letters and curls on the line, which subsequently took the form of a modern musical staff. But at first there were only two lines, then their number increased to four. Guido then taught the choristers musical notation: nevmas were recorded on the lines or between them. Thus, during the services, everyone knew in what range it was necessary to perform this or that chant.
Over time, the uncomfortable nemesis were replaced by square analogs, and only after many years they turned into ovals of various shapes.
Guido Aretinsky: the man who gave the notes names
And yet, who came up with the notes and their modern name? In 991 or 992 AD, Guido Aretinsky was born. Growing up, he became a music theorist, subsequently one of the most significant figures of the Middle Ages.
Guido invented the names of the notes. The Italian borrowed them from the ancient hymn to St. John the Baptist. The chant was written in Latin.
It is noteworthy that the anthem has seven lines and each subsequent one sounds a tone higher than the previous one. The initial syllables of the first six syllables are as follows: Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol and La. Although the names of the notes were invented by the Italian Arethinsky, he no longer changed Ut, inconvenient for pronunciation, to more melodic and familiar to Do’s ear. There are many theories about where Do comes from. The most popular of them says that this is the initial syllable from the Latin word Dominus - the Lord. But there is no confirmation of this information.
The seventh note - C - also got its name a little later. The syllable was formed from the first letters of the words of the seventh line: St. John - Si.
Erroneous theory
Many of those who want to find out information about who came up with notes find not quite correct sources. In recent years, high activity on social networks has spawned hundreds of thousands of groups that daily publish interesting facts from history.
So, some publications may answer the question of who came up with the names of notes. And although the author is not indicated in such entries, group administrators claim that the names of the notes come from Latin words denoting the Lord, matter, miracle, the solar system, the sun, the milky way and heaven.
This theory is widespread, as subscribers believe that a random set of beautiful words has something to do with musical literacy. However, this information is fundamentally wrong: for those who invented the notes, Guido Aretinsky was and remains.
The history of notes, so simple and straightforward, turned out to be confusing and involves many changes. Music figures of past years had to make a lot of efforts to give the notes their current familiar look and sound. And in order to understand the importance of this process, it is necessary to know who gave the notes names and what is behind simple syllables.