The Uses of Space in Music Notation
JOHN A. SLOBODA · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2004
This chapter describes how space is used in music notation. Music notation (score) is very different from language notation (text) and so some prefatory comparative remarks may help to place this notation in a wider context. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between score and text is that a score must be able to specify different events as occurring simultaneously whereas text portrays a single sequence of events. The problem of how to link up parallel streams of information has thus been fundamental to the development of score. No analogous problem exists for text. A second difference concerns use. Score readers are mainly concerned with producing a musical performance. Text readers are more concerned with understanding and remembering what they read. This difference makes issues of layout of foremost importance in a score. The music reader cannot afford to lose his place or experience ambiguity even for a second if he is to maintain the flow of performance.