Lecture 4. Part 1 – The Staff (Staff Speaks, Book 1)

Have you ever wondered how musicians can read and interpret music so effortlessly? The secret lies in the staff system, a fundamental tool in written music. The staff consists of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each representing a different pitch. This system serves as the foundation for all written music, allowing composers and performers to communicate musical ideas clearly and precisely.
 
Interestingly, the five-line and four-space system we use today took some time to gain traction. Throughout history, musicians experimented with various methods for notating music. Even with its widespread adoption, there are still alternative methods that some believe could be more effective for accurately representing music. Before we delve into alternatives, let’s fully understand why the staff system widely in use today is so effective.
 
According to Hamilton College, the five-line staff system became established as a common notational practice by the 15th century. Even back as far as the 13th century, various forms of music notation, including systems with different numbers of lines, were used.

When you listen to music, you are hearing a collection of pitches that vibrate at specific frequencies. These frequencies combine to create sounds that we can extract and identify with great accuracy. Just as we have a system of writing that allows us to read words on a page, there is also a system for notating music fairly accurately. Why is it only fairly accurate? I will explain later in Part 3, when I discuss Pitch and Frequency.
 
The notes on the staff system are designated by letters. There is a problem, though, because we only use the first seven letters of the alphabet and then the notes repeat. There was a point in time when we did use more than seven letters, so why the change?
 
It comes down to frequency. A decision was made to call all notes that resound at a frequency that is compounded the same thing. For example, the A in the middle of the treble clef staff system on the second space has a frequency of 440 cycles per second. This is what creates the sound of A. If you double that frequency, we still call it A. Half that frequency? It is also still A.
 
Let’s take a step back and look at the history.

In the early days of Western music notation, more than seven letters were used to represent musical pitches. This system can be traced back to ancient Greek music theory, which employed a more extensive set of symbols to denote different pitches. However, as music evolved, so did the need for a more streamlined and practical notation system.
 
During the medieval period, the development of Gregorian chant played a crucial role in shaping modern musical notation. Gregorian chant required a standardized method to accurately transmit melodies across different regions. This led to the creation of neumes, early musical symbols that indicated pitch direction but not exact pitches.
 
As the need for precision grew, the system was refined. By the time of Guido d’Arezzo in the 11th century, the use of a four-line staff and the introduction of solmization syllables (do, re, mi, etc.) helped to simplify and standardize musical notation. Guido’s innovations laid the groundwork for the modern system, which eventually settled on using the first seven letters of the alphabet (A to G) to represent pitches.
 
Modern solfege often uses the syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti (or si). Guido’s system originally used only six syllables: ut, re, mi, fa, so, and la. These syllables come from a poem using a Sapphic stanza, named after the Greek poet Sappho. Guido may have composed the music himself, though many scholars believe he used an existing melody. The text for the music, written in honor of John the Baptist, was most likely penned by Paul the Deacon, who lived in the eighth century.
 
The original poem and melody illustrate how the solfege syllables were derived and used to create simple, singable syllables.
Randel, D. M. (Ed.). (1996). The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (p. 758). Harvard University Press.

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