written music

Writing has been a means of communication for humans for thousands of years. Some written languages use pictograms, some use symbols representing the sounds of the language when spoken. Some are tactile, such as Braille, which uses patterns of little raised dots as letters. I like looking at samples of ancient writings, and of writing that is very different from our alphabet. I think each offers its own gifts, and each is like a puzzle that uses different parts of the brain to be comprehended. Some are symbols that translate into the spoken language of the writer. But some are visual languages of their own.

Then, there is that writing that translates into wordless sound - such as written music. Anyone who has been in choir or taken a piano lesson or two is familiar with the horizontal lines and the little black dots between and upon them that mark out different notes, a system recognized world wide for some centuries. The lines and spaces between the lines each mark out a half step in pitch.

There are other ways of writing music from different cultures, and ancient songbooks have their own symbols and patterns. Some use colors, others use numbers. Some are written music expressly for specific instruments. For example, with a guitar, there are small graphs and numbers that communicate which strings and which frets are used to produce a certain chord. I like looking at our traditional written music because it translates sound to a physical representation of the path melody takes. Several dimensions become evident. There is the dimension of pitch varying up and down. The pattern of the notes left to right is a kind of timeline.  The silent image of sound in itself is a pleasure to look at - art, language, and physics on a single page of music.