noun: (music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written
Ramsay
The Plate shows the Twelve Major and Minor Scales, with the three chords of their harmony - subdominant, tonic, and dominant; the tonic chord being always the center one. The straight lines of the three squares inside the stave embrace the chords of the major scales, which are read toward the right; e.g., F, C, G - these are the roots of the three chords F A C, C E G, G B D. The tonic chord of the scale of C becomes the subdominant chord of the scale of G, etc., all round. The curved lines of the ellipse embrace the three chords of the successive scales; e.g., D, A, E - these are the roots of the three chords D F A, A C E, E G B. The tonic chord of the scale of A becomes the subdominant of the scale of E, etc., all round. The sixth scale of the Majors may be written B with 5 sharps, and then is followed by F with 6 sharps, and this by C with 7 sharps, and so on all in sharps; and in this case the twelfth key would be E with 11 sharps; but, to simplify the signature, at B we can change the writing into C, this would be followed by G with 6 flats, and then the signature dropping one flat at every new key becomes a simpler expression; and at the twelfth key, instead of E with 11 sharps we have F with only one flat. Similarly, the Minors make a change from sharps to flats; and at the twelfth key, instead of C with 11 sharps we have D with one flat. The young student, for whose help these pictorial illustrations are chiefly prepared, must observe, however, that this is only a matter of musical orthography, and does not practically affect the music itself. When he comes to the study of the mathematical scales, he will be brought in sight of the exact very small difference between this B and C?, or this F# and G?; but meanwhile there is no difference for him. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 108]
When Plate XIII. is divided up the middle of the column, as in Plate XIV., so as that one side may be slipped up a fifth, representing a new key one-fifth higher, its subdominant made to face the old tonic, the two new notes are then pictorially shown, the second being altered one comma and the seventh four commas. The key at this new and higher pitch is by Nature's unfailing care kept precisely in the same form as the first; and wherever the major scale is pitched, higher or lower, the form remains unaltered, all the intervals arranging themselves in the same order. The ear, and the voice obedient to it, carry Nature's measuring-rule in them, and the writing must use such marks as may truly represent this; hence the use of sharps, flats, and naturals; these, however, be it observed, are only marks in the writing; all is natural at any pitch in the scale itself. All this is equally true of the minor mode at various pitches. These two plates are only another and more pictorial way of showing what the stave and the signature are usually made to express. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 114]
These two plates show the chromatic chord resolving into the twelve major and twelve minor tonic chords of the twenty-four scales. There seems to be twenty-five, but that arises from making G? and F# in the major two scales, whereas they are really only one; and the same in the minor series, E? and D# are really one scale. C in the major and A in the minor, which occur in the middle of the series, when both sharps and flats are employed in the signatures, are placed below and outside of the circular stave to give them prominence as the types of the scale; and the first chromatic chord is seen with them in its major and minor form, and its typical manner of resolving - the major form rising to the root, and falling to the top and middle; the minor form falling to the top, and rising to the root and middle. The signatures of the keys are given under the stave. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 116]
The scales in this plate advance by semitones, not in their normal way by fifths; but their normal progress by fifths is shown by the spiral-ellipse line winding round under the stave and touching the ellipses containing the scales by semitonic advance; the scales being read to the right for the majors inside, and to the right for the minors outside. In each of the modes the scales are written in ?s and #s, as is usual in signatures; and since the scales [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 116]
This plate, in the outer stave, has the 32 notes which arise with mathematical development of twelve scales in advancing fifths. The notes are marked with sharps, flats, and commas. The flats and commas of lowering are placed on the left of the notes, in the order in which they arise, reading them from the note downward; the sharps and commas of rising on the right, also reading from the note upward. The whole of these 32 notes are brought within the compass of an octave. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 119]
The inner stave contains the chromatic scale of twelve notes as played on keyed instruments. The flat and sharp phase of the intermediate notes are both given to indicate their relation to each other; the sharpened note being always the higher one, although seemingly on the stave the lower one. The two notes are the apotome minor apart overlapping each other by so much; ?D is the apotome lower than C#; ?E the apotome lower than D#; F# the apotome higher than ?G; G# the apotome higher than ?A; and A# the apotome higher than ?B. The figures for the chromatic scale are only given for the notes and their sharps; but in the mathematical series of notes the numbers are all given. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 120]
See Also