Staff Notation
五線譜 / 11th century– / Style / Notation Systems
From Guido's lines to the five-line staff: pitch fixed to coordinates. Time running left to right, height mapped up and down — the longest-lived format in information design, in continuous use for a millennium.
The five-line coordinate system / Time running left to right / Clefs and key signatures / Bars dividing time
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Comparing primary sources and canonical works · Extracting principles that transfer to other media
- Type
- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Composition
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Material
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process
- Caution
- Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.
- Further study
- Guido of Arezzo / mensural notation / the craft of music engraving