Re: Idle curiousity about ancient Lily-lore

[Wols Lists]

On 10/03/13 02:40, Jim Long wrote:
> Just curious, how did the absolute notation system come about?
> 
> My main observations are that it is piano-centric, with 
> { c d e f g a b c' } being an intuitive sequence, while { a b c d
> e f g a' } is less logical.   Mmm, well, maybe that's not
> piano-centric, that's just music theory, C is the only (major)
> scale without sharps or flats. 

Well, I don't know when they first started naming the notes, but don't
forget that most of today's instruments have only been around for 200
years tops. And that includes the piano!

My history is not accurate in detail, but I suspect Beethoven was one of
the first people to write for the very earliest pianofortes. Indeed, he
may have only written for the fortepiano because the piano may not have
been around at the time!

Incidentally, I gather many of Beethoven's scores have the piano marked
"ff" playing against an orchestra marked "p" - that was to prevent the
orchestra drowning the piano. On a modern instrument that combo would
have the piano drowning the orchestra!

 So maybe that question is its own
> answer, one would hope that a C scale could be represented
> elegantly, without a ' or , appearing or dis-appearing somewhere
> in the middle of the octave.
> 
> From the Schroedinger's Cat school of thought, what are some of
> the input notation proposals that were considered and rejected?
> 
> Why is "a" A 220, and not A 440?

It isn't :-)

Read up on "concert pitch" - the wikipedia article is interesting, not
only in the fact that concert pitch has a single-digit ISO standard to
its credit!

And oh, I think you mean lilypond's "a". I think there, it's the fact
that "c" is middle C. (Or have I got that wrong? I always use relative
notation so I can never remember the absolute ,s and 's)
> 
> Not being critical, just wondering my leopards have spots and
> elephants have trunks, instead of vice versa.
> 
> Archive links to ancient discussions are acceptable.
> 
Like pretty much everything, historical accident I guess :-)

Cheers,
Wol