The Structure of Standard Music Notation

Abstract

Western musicians and musically educated people acquire most of their repertoire through reading musical scores. Learning to read music is a long and time-consuming process. Some crucial conventions must be mastered, and implemented according to sensorimotor patterns that are specific to the instruments one plays. This chapter explores some aspects of these conventions related to time representation. It presents a syntactic characterization of a fragment of Standard Music Notation, and discusses some cognitive consequences of principles that govern the syntax. A preliminary hypothesis about obstacles to reading is put forward. A consequence of the hypothesis is that certain musical styles appear to be very much in synch with Standard Music Notation, whereas others do not find an easy representation within it.