A NEW METHOD OF MUSICAL NOTATION
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Mills at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st June 1880.
ARTHUR MILLS, of the Temple Club, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "A NEW METHOD OF MUSICAL NOTATION."
A new method or system of musical notation suitable for any keyed instrument,
such as the piano, organ, or harmonium, &c. The essential part of this Invention
consists in having the stave so constructed & printed by usual method on paper
as to be almost a prolonged facsimile of the keyboard of the instrument, the black
notes being, as on the keyboard, the guide to the finding of any note. The similarity
thus obtained between the keyboard & the music will be furthered if the position
of the lines of the stave be perpendicular instead of horizontal as on the old
system, & if they be read from top to bottom instead of from left to right as
heretofore. The horizontal arrangement can be, however, retained if desirable, as,
The main
for instance, when the words of a song be written with the music.
advantages which I claim for the Invention are,—
1st. That the chief difficulty experienced in reading all the present music,
namely, the necessity of having to remember the flats or sharps of the key, is
entirely abolished.
2nd. That the language, so to speak, of the music has not to be translated into
another expression, but is transferred direct to the instrument.
3d. That the relative distances of the notes from each other are the same on
music & instrument, thus enabling the player to strike any note with far more
ease & certainty than can be done under the old system.
4th. That the saving of labour to beginners is immense, as anyone with the most
elementary knowledge of the instrument itself alone can with very little practice
read the music mpidly & easily, while the usual irksome study of scales in all their
varieties is rendered totally unnecessary. The usual notes & signs of time, &c., &c.,
can be used on the new stave as on the old, except when the perpendicular position
is used, in which case the signs, &c., could be written at the side. Whenever the
sharp or flat of any white note is required it is placed on the black note representing
such sharp or flat.

page_text: as they would appear if indefinitely produced or prolonged. The notes are marked
by the letters at the top. The note "C" to the left of the treble clef represents the
middle "C" or line of demarcation between the treble & bass. Ledger lines can be
used, if required, above or below either stave. It will be immediately perceived
that whenever the flat or sharp of any white note is required it can be placed on
the black note or line representing such flat or sharp. The notes "BC," & "EF,"
having no division between them can be distinguished by their position next &
touching the black note to right or left. Owing to the correspondance of the music
to the keyboard of the instrument no nomenclature whatever, as usually understood,
is required, the note to be struck being found by mechanical comparison; for
instance, in the first of the few chords shown on the Drawing, Plate I., the octave
B flat in bass consists of the first black note on the left (of the group of three first
on the left), & then the same note of the second group of three black notes.
The vertical arrangement is here adopted, & the music is read from above to
blow. Those chords or notes which are opposite to each other are, of course, to be
struck simultaneously. All the Drawings are executed on a larger scale than
necessary for the sake of clarness, but when printed properly the stave need take
up no more space vertically than the old system in proportion to the amount of
music written.