subject: A Brief taste in the History of Music [print this page] Music has been around for a long timeMusic has been around for a long time. In fact, through sources and literary works, the ancient Hebrews had their style of music, but they did not have any notes to represent pitches. The earliest known notation came from the pre-Christian Greeks. They had used the letters of their alphabet to represent pitches. Little of that notation remains, making it difficult to know how their music sounded. But later in the 8th century A.D., marks the beginning of our present notation. Nuemeswere used in chants in church services during that time. They were signs placed above the words of the chant, indicating pitch level and direction, and also providing a vague sense of movement of the melody. In the 10th century development of using a line to represent a pitch, and then using 2 to 4 lines and eventually the 5 lined staff in the 13th century. By then the neumes had evolved into present-day familiar notes. These "notes" were all black until about the 15th century when white notes appeared, forming a system which was used in the 1600s. The clef signs were developed to assign the pitch names of the lines and spaces of the staff. The earliest clefs represented the letter names needed such as the C, F, and G clefs. Over time these clefs, notes, and signs changed and evolved more into the current century musical notation. Today many contemporary composers attempt to express new ideas with using usual and familiar notation in unusual and unfamiliar ways.
