The following is the air "God Save the Queen!" or, as we call it, "America," written in this method. The lower line, of course, is the alto:
_____ ____ 1 1 2 | 7 . 1 2 | 3 3 4 | 3 . 2 1 | 2 1 7 | [5.] [5.] [6.] | [5.] . [6.] [7.] | 1 1 1 | 1 [7.] 1 | [6.] [5.] [5.] |
___ ___ 1 . 0 | 5 5 5 | 5 . 4 3 | 4 4 4 | 4 . 3 2 | 5 . 0 | 3 3 3 | 3 . 2 1 |[7.] [7.] [7.] | 2 . 1 [7.] |
______ ______ ___ ___ 3 4 3 2 1 | 3 . 4 5 | 6 4 3 2 | 1 . . || 1 [6.] [5.] [4.] [3.] | 1 . 1 1 | 1 1 [7.] | 5 . . ||
It will be noticed that the dot in the second measure which prolongs the note _si_ (7) is not placed against it, as we are accustomed to see it. It is carried forward into the second beat, where it belongs. There it is grouped with the note _do_ (1), and occupies one half of that unit of time; for all the signs grouped under a line or under the same number of lines are equal in time to each other, the same as all isolated signs are. In the sixth measure the dot is isolated; therefore it fills the whole beat, while the following beat is represented by a rest (0). In two of the measures there are groups of two notes. Each of the notes in these groups of course equals in time half of an isolated note, for each occupies half the time of one beat.
The French say _déchiffrer la musique_--to puzzle it out, to decipher it, as one would say of hieroglyphs on an Egyptian sarcophagus. The term is well chosen. The causes of the obscurity of musical notation are numerous, but the most prolific is undoubtedly expressing time by the form of the symbols of sound. In slow movements, and where only few modulations occur, this does not seem to be a serious objection; but in the rapid movements of compound time it becomes insupportable--at least after one has learned that there is a better way. An example in 6/8 time--six eighth-notes to the measure--will illustrate this:
Here each triplet fills the time of one-third of a beat; that is, three-sixteenths equal one-eighth, according to the sublime precision of the old notation! But then no such thing as a twenty-fourth note is in use: three twenty-fourths would just do it! This is a part of a vocal exercise. The learner would have to divide each beat into three parts each, unless very familiar with such exercises; and one of these divisions would fall on a rest, another in a prolongation, another in the middle of an eighth note. In the new method see how the crooked places are straightened: