Who invented the notes and why are they called that?

Even without musical education, almost every person knows the names of notes in music. Since childhood, the familiar names seem familiar and do not cause unnecessary questions. On musical singing at school or in a musical institution, the names of the notes are beyond doubt.

But is everything so simple? Have the names of the notes changed since they were first mentioned? And who invented these "names"?

What is a note?

Studying the scores of works, not every musician or philistine will wonder who created the notes and their names. Since ancient times, people have tried to convey certain timbres of sound: voice, knock and so on.

Music from ancient times was considered the highest form of art. Plato, the famous philosopher, believed that it was music that gave the human soul its wings, imparted imagination to thought, and educated people in better ways.

Already in ancient times, people closely linked their lives with music: women, absorbed in daily duties, quietly hummed simple melodies. Calm and iridescent motives helped children to fall asleep more quickly.

Many know that any melody consists of notes. But what is a note? In Latin, nota means a mark or a sign. In music, notes are used to graphically represent the sounds of a particular key. Thanks to additional symbols, such as sharp and flat, any sound is given an additional characteristic: height, duration and sound.

German notation

Habitual Russian-speaking names of notes from Do to C, sound somewhat differently in other languages. In one of the most common letter notations, they were given other "names": C, D, E, F, G, A and H. This system comes from Germany, and in it the note C is denoted as N.

In this notation, a higher sound - sharp - is indicated by the ending -is. For example, Do sharp - cis and so on. The only exception is the C-note. To indicate its higher sound, use the symbol b. The lower sound is the -is ending. There are no exceptions for music. Becar is a lowercase letter-designating a note.

English notation

The German letter notation is common in almost all European countries. Exceptions are states where the state language is English. There, the notes are also denoted by the letters of the Latin alphabet, but from A to G. Whereas the letter A corresponds to the note Aa. Additional symbols: bekar - identical letter, sharp - sharp, flat - flat.

Location of notes on the musical staff

When studying instrumental scores, you can notice that all notes look the same - a black or white oval, located on or between the lines. Only their position and the shape of the upper part differ. And before you know who created the notes, you need to understand how to distinguish them.

First of all, it should be noted that all notes are located on the musical camp: five rulers. The account goes from the bottom up. Notes are recorded from left to right. Each line corresponds to a specific note. If there are not enough lines to record high or low sound, then the rulers can be finished manually.

The shape and color of the notes convey its duration. For example, an unshaded oval without additional lines is a whole note, lasting four full counts. If you add a wand to calm to an open oval - a half note, equal to two counts. A painted oval with a calm is a quarter note. Painted with a calm and a flag - the eighth note and so on.

But before you record notes on the musical camp, the key is violin or bass. They determine the overall tonality of the work.

The first appearance of notes

Before trying to understand how to explain to children who invented notes, it is necessary to find out when they first appeared. In the familiar form from Do to C, they were recorded only in the Middle Ages, in the eleventh century. But this does not mean that before this period there was no music.

Before the appearance of the usual form of recording notes, the sounds of different tonalities were indicated by the letters of the alphabet: Greek or Latin. But this form of recording was uncomfortable. It was difficult to sing all the letters, and it's almost impossible to write a multi-voiced score for the choir.

Soon in church choirs began to use another form of recording: hooks and curls, or nevmy. So, with their help, the general structure of chanting was transmitted: upward or lower sounding. But such a form of recording could not convey the exact shimmering of the melody. And to remember each psalm in the chorus was not possible.

The emergence of linear notation

The nevmas could not accurately reflect the characteristics of the songs, then the search for a new way of transferring the pitch and longitude of the notes began. To begin with, they began to add letters to the neurons, which indicated a tonality. But because of them the score became too cumbersome, and sometimes it was rather problematic to make out something in it.

The revolution in notation was made by the Italian Guido of Arezzio. He replaced the cumbersome letters and curls on the line, which later acquired the appearance of a modern music camp. But at first there were only two lines, then their number increased to four. Then Guido taught the choristers music notation: the neuvas were recorded on lines or between them. Thus, during the services, everyone knew in what range it was necessary to perform this or that chant.

Over time, uncomfortable nerves were replaced by square analogues, and only after many years they turned into ovals of different shapes.

Guido Aretinsky: the person who gave the music names

And yet, who invented the notes and their modern name? In 991 or 992 AD, Guido Aretinsky was born. Growing up, he became a music theorist, later one of the most important figures of the Middle Ages.

The names of the music were invented by Guido. The Italian borrowed them from the ancient hymn to St. John the Baptist. The chant was written in Latin.

It is noteworthy that the anthem consists of seven lines and each subsequent one sounds a tone higher than the previous one. The initial syllables of the first six syllables are: Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol and La. Though the names of the notes were invented by the Italian Aretinsky, but he did not change the inconvenient for Ut pronunciation to the more melodious and familiar Do. Theories about where the Do comes from are set. The most popular of them says that this is the initial syllable from the Latin word Dominus - Lord. But there is no confirmation of this information.

The seventh note, C, also received its name a little later. The syllable was formed from the first letters of the words of the seventh line: St. John - Si.

Mistaken theory

Many of those who want to find information about who invented the notes, find not exactly the right sources. In recent years, high activity in social networks has generated hundreds of thousands of groups, daily publishing interesting facts from history.

So, some publications can answer the question of who came up with the names of the notes. Although the author does not specify such records, the group administrators state that the names of the notes were derived from Latin words denoting the Lord, matter, miracle, solar system, sun, Milky Way and heaven.

This theory has become widespread, as subscribers believe that a random set of beautiful words has something to do with musical literacy. However, this information is fundamentally wrong: those who invented the notes, there was and remains Guido Aretinsky.

The history of notes, so simple and understandable, turned out to be confusing and includes many changes. Music artists of past years had to make a lot of efforts to give the notes the current familiar look and sound. And in order to understand the importance of this process, it is necessary to know who gave the names to the notes, and what is behind the simple syllables.