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Musical Notation in Secondary Education: Some

Aspects of Theory and Practice

Paul Terry

British Journal of Music Education / Volume 11 / Issue 02 / July 1994, pp 99 - 111

DOI: 10.1017/S0265051700000991, Published online: 18 December 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0265051700000991

How to cite this article:

Paul Terry (1994). Musical Notation in Secondary Education: Some Aspects of Theory and
Practice. British Journal of Music Education, 11, pp 99-111 doi:10.1017/S0265051700000991

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Musical Notation in Secondary
Education: Some Aspects of Theory and
Practice
Paul Terry

The teaching of musical notation is now a legal requirement of the National Curriculum
for music in England and Wales. Far from settling the debate over the desirability, or
otherwise, of teaching notation, this aspect of the legislation seems to make a review of the
problem imperative.
This article examines theories of music as a language analogous to the spoken or written
word, and then considers the practical and sociological arguments for and against the
teaching of staff notation.

The law
Under the provisions of the National Curriculum for music, pupils at Key Stage 3 are
required to ' use and understand increasingly complex signs, symbols and instructions,
including conventional and graphic notations' (AT 1, EKSS (e), PoS (xvi)), and to
' read and use different notations, including staff notation, graphic scores and chord
symbols' (AT 2, EKSS (a), PoS (ii)) (Music in the National Curriculum HMSO 1992).

1: Music as language
Towards a theory
The search for parallels between spoken and written language on the one hand and
music on the other seems to stem from a desire to justify music itself. Two centuries
ago, Herder took the Aristotelian distinction between poiesis (making) and praxis
(doing) as the starting-point for a definition of music as an energetic art, essentially
activity (energeia), and not a product (ergon), and thus applied to music the same
concepts which Humboldt had applied to verbal language. Hegel, whilst concurring
that music is indeed a process, and hence a transitory phenomenon, criticised it for
what he saw as its obtrusive nature, a view shared by Kant (Dahlhaus, 1982).
In our own century, the theory that music has no practical application beyond a
therapeutic or cathartic function has led some to consider that a symbolic meaning
might constitute its significance. Suzanne Langer, for example, tried to find a middle
ground between a theory of music as pure emotion on the one hand, or abstract
formalism on the other. She denned music as an ' unconsummated symbol' (Langer,
1956, page 240), that is expressive, but without expressing definite content. Despite its
concentration on a slightly abstract aesthetic of high art, Langer's theories still have
much to commend them today.
Leonard B. Meyer sought to adapt certain aspects of gestalt and cognitive
psychological theories, and combine them with the structural-analytic theories of
Heinrich Schenker, to produce an explanation of the emotional appeal of music, by

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Musical Notation in Secondary Education Paul Terry

analysing the way in which music arouses expectations, sustains, and finally resolves
them through the use of tonal progressions and long-range formal structures, together
with rhythm and prosody in the shorter term (Meyer, 1956). Since the concepts of
tension and resolution implied in Meyer's analyses are proper to the tonal music of the
Western European tradition, his theory cannot be reconciled with the advent of atonal
Western music in this century, or indeed with the greater part of music as it exists
outside that tradition. Atonal music creates its own structures and syntax across all
parameters (witness the inherent contradiction between dance rhythms and their
related forms on the one hand, and the serial language on the other in Schoenberg's
Piano Suite, Op. 25), whilst many non-Western musics have evolved totally different
approaches to questions of form, pitch and rhythm (for example, layered, or phased,
patterns, and open forms).
Deryck Cooke contested Langer's assertion that music is not a language, because it
has no vocabulary (Langer, 1953, page 31). He argued that although music is not a
language like verbal language, it is still a means of metaphysical communication. He
attempted to define a vocabulary of musical shapes (Cooke, 1959), but acknowledged
that as soon as he tried to express their equivalents in words, they became too precise
and subjective (Cooke, 1982, page 216). Like Meyer, he limited his analysis to tonal
music: he felt that tonality provided a basis for a common, or vernacular, language,
whereas atonality, to which he was distinctly antipathetic, seemed to constitute a series
of private musical languages which were exclusive to their originators (Cooke, 1982,
page 195). He also suggested that atonal music was still in a state of early development
in the late 1950's, and therefore it would not be susceptible to linguistic analysis for
some time (Cooke, 1982, page 214).
John A. Sloboda makes an interesting case for seeing music as analogous with
written and spoken language. The relevant aspects of his theory can be summarised as
follows:
(a) The essential similarities between language and music are that:
(1) both are particular to humans;
(2) both contain the potential for infinite combinations of possibilities;
(3) both can be learned through listening to models;
(4) their natural medium is through vocal and auditory sound processes;
(5) both involve the use of notational systems;
(6) the necessary skills must be received and absorbed before they can be used;
(7) there is some universality of form across different cultures;
(8) they can be examined in terms of their phenomenology, syntax and semantics.
(b) There is a parallel between the work of Chomsky on language and that of Schenker
on music, particularly in their approach to language and music in terms of
structure. Chomsky's theory of an underlying linguistic structure, over which
various obligatory and optional 'transformations', or interchanges, take place is
seen as a counterpart to Schenker's perception of a small number of underlying
harmonic structures ('ursatz'), which provide a fundamental outline for the great
majority of tonal compositions.
(Sloboda, 1985)

Alternative theories
Two immediate objections to Sloboda's arguments present themselves at this point:
1. Although there are similarities between music and language, these are
overshadowed by significant limitations with regard to the latter. Some of these

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Musical Notation in Secondary Education Paul Terry

are set out by Oliver Sacks in his consideration of Sign Language (A.S.L.), which
he regards as a genuine language, by virtue of its susceptibility to analysis, and
its organic development (ie not merely as a transliteration of an existing spoken
language, such as Signed English) (Sacks, 1989).
More specifically, he perceives it as multi-dimensional, in that it makes use of
the spatial dimensions around the body of the signer, and of the dimension of
time. Speech, in contrast, has only one dimension (time), while writing uses only
two. Furthermore, the formal and structural properties of Sign allow it to express
both abstract concepts and propositions, and also moods and images (although it
cannot portray them). ' Sign retains a direct power of portrayal that has no
analogues in, cannot be translated into, the language of speech; on the other
hand, it can ascend to any height of metaphor or trope.' (Sacks, 1989, page 123).
2. Schenker's theory of the ursatz related principally to music composed within the
European tradition from the baroque period to the death of Brahms, whom he
regarded as the last great composer. Although the application of Schenker's
reductive analytic technique has been extended to non-tonal music (see Baker,
1983) the limitations of the theory of an underlying structure based firmly on the
harmonic series makes it irrelevant to large areas of the music of this century.
The approach of Carl Dahlhaus is, in a sense, analogous to that of Sacks, by
stressing the multi-dimensional nature of music as a phenomenon of sound in time and
space. He argues that the notation of music fulfils a different function from the writing
down of language. Written speech represents speech itself to a greater extent than
notated music represent music. The written characters which make up a literary work
transmit the meaning, at the very least in its basic features: with music on the other
hand, silent reading (the attempt to translate signs into sounds and hear them
inwardly), is flawed because musical meaning (in contrast to linguistic meaning) is
only to a very limited extent detachable from the phenomenon of sound, so to become
real, a composition must be interpreted into sound. However, Dahlhaus also asserts
that music cannot be fully understood from hearing a performance, since certain
elaborate relationships will only become apparent from a reading of the music. He
questions the assumption that only that which is audible has any right to musical
existence, concluding that the difference between written speech and notated music is
one of degree and not of principle (Dahlhaus, 1982, page 12).

Bringing theory up to date

My criticisms of Meyer, Cooke and Sloboda have centred on their pre-occupation with
Western European art music, composed within the traditional tonal system. If the
development of music in our own century has outstripped that of language, then
perhaps this accounts for the consistent failure of so many thinkers to provide a viable
comparison between the two. There have been many striking changes in the language
of Western European music throughout its history, and the rate of change and
diversification has increased dramatically during the present century. These changes
in content affect all parameters of music (primarily pitch organisation, rhythm,
dynamics and articulation), and create a new syntax: this in turn creates new
approaches to structure, or morphology. In comparison, language employs three basic
parameters, phonetics, syntax and semantics, and developmental change seems to
occur almost imperceptibly: changes in vocabulary, for example, are easily contained
within existing grammatical structures.
An attempt to apply linguistic concepts directly to music was attempted in the late

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1960's. An increased interest in world musics, especially Indian classical music, and
the concepts of composers such as John Cage and LaMonte Young had led many
musicians to question both the nature of music, and its social function. A theory was
needed to try to bind together the pluralistic nature of music at that time, and
structuralism seemed to provide one. This offered a synthesis of semiotics, linguistics,
cultural and political theory, aesthetics, and anthropology, and was intended to
achieve a unifying concept of linguistics derived ultimately from the work of Saussure
and Jakobson. By seeing all phenomena as explicable within the same set of structures,
it was argued that all phenomena therefore had the same degree of significance. Within
the sphere of the arts, any distinction between high art and popular art would therefore
disappear, and high art would lose any previously held special status: the role of art
would be taken by language, which the structuralists saw as the key to changing our
perceptions of the world. Linguistic texts, such as works of fiction, would enable us
to see ourselves in terms of ideological structures of self-recognition, self-image, and
notions of identity and reality. They argued that, as language structures the world
(through concepts, categories, perceptions, common-sense notions, values and beliefs),
we could in effect change the world itself by changing the way in which we approached
language. However, the theory failed because it hinged on the precept that reality is
a linguistic construct: in fact, many concepts or categories are not language-
dependent, or internal to language.
Pierre Boulez has identified an important distinction between approaches to the
analysis of music, as compared with language. Whilst musical analysis tends
traditionally to be of the academic 'note-by-note' variety (an approach which Boulez
suggests should be replaced by a more dialectic approach to basic structures, and the
relationship between form and content), literary analysis works on a different level:
'you do not analyse a novel by using words as markers, nor do you decipher its
construction by elementary grammatical analysis. You know that sentences are
constructed according to certain models and do not need to verify this in the case of
every sentence you read, provided that you know what logical construction is. The
interest of the novel lies in the linking of events and phenomena.' (On Musical
Analysis in Boulez 1986, page 117). Perhaps the true relationship between language
and music will only become apparent if we begin consistently to apply the principles
of the methodology of literary analysis to music.

Neurological perceptions of language and music

It is generally accepted that functions of music and language take place separately
within the two hemispheres of the human brain. Anthony Storr, for example, states
that the processing of language is predominantly a function of the left hemisphere,
while that of music is a function of the right. He suggests that emotional responses to
music may be centred in the right hemisphere, whilst performing skills and critical
analysis (for example, perceptions of form and structure) belong to the left hemisphere.
As a listener to music becomes more sophisticated, and thus more critical, perhaps
musical perceptions (in the formal sense) pass from the right to the left hemisphere
(Storr, 1992, pp. 35-38).
This may be a reflection of the different ways in which the two sides of the brain
process information: the left half seems to specialise in serial processing, ie dealing
with individual pieces of data in sequence. An example might be the process of writing
down an idea: in order to do this, the concept is broken down into sentences, phrases,
words, and finally individual letters: these letters are then written down one after

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another. In contrast, the right side of the brain seems to perceive many pieces of data
simultaneously, and synthesise them into a unified entity (parallel, or synthetic,
processing). An example might be the recognition of a familiar person from a distance:
the images of the various aspects of the face (hair, eyes, mouth, jaw, etc), transmitted
by the eye to the brain, are processed into a whole image in one operation (Russell,
1979, page 52).
A more detailed description is offered by Peter Nathan, who suggests that although
verbal material goes mainly to the left temporal lobe, and music to the right, the ability
to read and write music depends on the left temporal lobe. He asserts that when damage
to the cortex removes a person's ability to read letters, words and numerals, the ability
to read music may be unimpaired (Nathan, 1969). A further complication is raised by
Borchgrevink, who suggests that rhythm, with its relationship to the prosody of
speech, may also be a function of the left, rather than the right, hemisphere (ie
linguistic, and not musical) (Borchgrevink, 1982).

Interim summary
If written or spoken language is essentially a medium for communication, then music
has severe limitations in this respect. To quote Anthony Storr, 'music can certainly
be regarded as a form of communication; but what it communicates is not
obvious... nor is music propositional: it does not put forward theories about the world
or convey information in the same way as does language.' (Storr, 1992). Or Pierre
Boulez: 'The specific strength of the composer lies in the "non-significance" of music,
its lack of "meaning", and we ourselves must not lose sight of the fact that it is the
phenomenon of sound that is of primary importance...' (Putting the phantoms to
flight, in Boulez, 1986, page 63).
If we accept that the goal of critical theory is to bring about a form of life free from
unnecessary domination in all its forms, then it follows that the notion of truth is
inherent in that goal: every act of communication can be seen as an anticipation of the
notion of truth. Chomsky's concern with the phonetic, syntactic and semantic features
of language (competence) led him to turn away from a consideration of the actual use
to which language is put in concrete situations, on the basis that performance is not
susceptible to the same type of theoretical reconstruction as competence (Chomsky,
1965, pp 3 & 4).
By moving away from theories of linguistic competence, and reconstructing the
normative basis of speech as a system of universal and necessary validity claims, we
can see communicative competence as the identification and reconstruction of the
universal conditions of possible understanding. This does not of course mean that
every actual instance of speech is oriented towards reaching understanding. Although
strategic forms of communication (such as lying, misleading, deceiving and
manipulating) involve the suspension of certain validity claims, especially truthfulness,
they are nevertheless an aspect of the same theory.
The cognitive use of language allows us to analyse the structures and conditions of
(hypothetical) truth claims, to examine, reject, revise or accept them: rational
discourse of this nature cannot take place through the language of music.

2: Notation
Having suggested that music does not share the most important characteristics of
verbal or written language, I shall now examine some practical considerations in the
use of notation itself.

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Definitions
Notation is essentially a product of Western European music. The growing length and
complexity of music composed within that tradition has necessitated the development
of a means for the recording and transmission of such music, before the advent of
electronic media at the beginning of this century. At about the same time, however,
doubts began to be expressed as to the contradiction between a rigid system of symbols
and the freedom of the sound-world which they attempt to fix on paper. In his New
Aesthetic of Music, Busoni wrote that' notation... is primarily an ingenious expedient
for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it later... every notation is,
in itself, the transcription of an abstract idea. The instant the pen seizes it, the idea
loses its original form.'
(Busoni, 1911)
Half a century later, Pierre Boulez described notation as a coded grid, and identified
four stages in the journey from composition to performance:
A: the composer originates a structure which he ciphers
B: he ciphers it in a coded grid
C: the interpreter deciphers this coded grid
D: according to his decoding he reconstitutes the structure that has been
transmitted to him.
It is clear that ciphering in code followed by deciphering constitutes the whole
problem of notation, with all its potential uses; and I am convinced that this
ciphering plays a role in actual composition, the course of which it may effect.
(Time, Notation & Coding in Boulez, 1986, page 87).
In our own century, new systems of notation have been developed: I do not propose
to examine these in detail, as their application reveals strengths and weaknesses similar
to those of traditional European notation. Xenakis suggests that the primary elements
of music (pitch, duration, dynamics, attack, etc) can be indicated by the use of
numbers (algebraic notation), or by graphic means (geometric), as well as by
conventional means. He continues: 'These three types of notation are nothing more
than three codes... Each code has its advantages and disadvantages... we must not lose
sight of the fact that these three codes are only visual symbols of an auditory reality,
itself considered as a symbol.'
(Xenakis 1971, page 212)
Hugo Cole contrasts the positive and negative aspects of musical literacy as follows:
1. Notation preserves music, leading to over-population;
2. it confers an authoritarian role on the composer, at the expense of the performer:
the communication between composer and performer is one-way, isolating the
composer in the process;
3. it can create music which appeals more to the eye than to the ear;
4. it regularises and orders that which was previously vague and uncertain (but at
the same time reduces music to that which can be notated);
5. it provides a methodical description of sound-events (or alternatively replaces a
meaningful continuity with a meaningless particularity).
(Cole, 1974)
Sloboda advances a similar theory to 1. by suggesting that notation can enable us to
recall an infinite number of lengthy, complex compositions, without the 'risk' of their
being mutated through handing down by oral tradition.
As Cole points out, we cannot turn our backs on musical literacy, but we must

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Musical Notation in Secondary Education Paul Terry

accept that its main function is to enable the music of the past to be re-created, rather
than to facilitate the creation of a music for our own time, or for the future.

For and against staff notation

(a) Practical considerations
While composer/performers like Busoni and Boulez consider notation to be a necessary
but creatively fruitful evil, Aelwyn Pugh suggests some practical disadvantages in
being musically illiterate, a condition which Pugh appears to define as an inability to
convert musical sounds into signs and vice versa:
1. it limits the individual's capability for independent exploration of music;
2. the experience of music is confined to works encountered in live or recorded
performances;
3. the impression made by a piece of music is formed by other people's
interpretations;
4. it restricts the creative process, especially with regard to the length of a
composition, its form and its texture;
5. it places limits on an historical perspective, and severely curtails the ability to
critically assess contemporary music;
6. it restricts the emotional response to absolute music.
(Pugh, 1980, pp. 29 to 34)
To consider these arguments individually:
1. Since the greater part of music throughout the world is not notated, and since
most people encounter music in some form on a daily basis, the perceived
'limitation' seems irrelevant: the only limitations would be with regard to
printed or manuscript copies of music belonging to the Western European
tradition.
2. Although it is true that many important works are neglected (the victims of
earlier critical misjudgements, or political events outside the composer's control),
we may reasonably assume that works which are not performed or recorded will
probably not be published either (or if they were, are probably long out of print):
to obtain access through literacy would involve a search for early editions or even
manuscript sources, taking us outside music education and into the realms of
musicology.
3. Interpretation presupposes the existence of a symbolic notation to be interpreted.
The question of interpretation has little relevance outside the Western European
tradition, for example where music is transmitted by memory and performance
from one generation to the next. The same criticism which Pugh levels at
interpretation could equally well be applied to printed editions (and cheap
reprints of the same) from the days before the advent of the urtext.
4. This seems to be the central misunderstanding, as far as music education is
concerned: musical creativity is concerned with the exploration of sound. Once
our pupils have discovered their abilities to experiment with, and manipulate,
sound, they will begin to create compositions of increasingly complex structures
and textures: then, the idea of 'fixing' sounds through some sort of notation
might be introduced, (see Pointon, 1980, pp 35 to 38)
Paragraphs 5 & 6 seem too remote from questions of notational facility as to require
any comment.

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(b) Cognitive problems

If linguistic fluency is best achieved through the frequent use of that language, then
we may reasonably assume that pupils who receive tuition on musical instruments
which form part of the European tradition will learn staff notation more quickly than
their contemporaries, because they are called upon to use this notation outside the
classroom. The remainder of a mixed ability class will exhibit a wide range of learning
speeds. Those with learning difficulties will find it almost impossible to acquire any
degree of fluency in the use of staff notation if they already have difficulties with the
English alphabetic language. In a multicultural society such as ours, many pupils may
come from a family background in which English is not their first language. They are
expected to acquire fluency in staff notation, in addition to a second alphabetic
language (English). If such a child also has learning difficulties with regard to any
language, then the pressures thus created may well prove unacceptable. In addition,
children from a family background where music is part of an oral tradition (be it folk,
jazz, bhangra or reggae) will find the idea of notating music to be both alien and
irrelevant to them.
This is not to suggest that the learning of music through an oral tradition is in any
way quicker or easier than by reading a notated copy: if anything, it might be a longer
process, but the additional time could result in the music being more thoroughly
absorbed.
Another aspect of the cognitive problem relates to the question of motivating pupils
to learn staff notation. Spoken or written language can be said to have three functional
components (see Smith, 1972):
(i) communication, enabling us to carry out simple transactions, for example,
buying food;
(ii) integration, giving us a sense of ' belonging' to a society, and being accepted,
and
(iii) expression, fulfilling our deeper psychological needs, for example through
keeping a diary, writing personal letters, discussing problems, or writing
poetry.
These three components could be viewed as progressive stages, the first involving
basic skills, and the second and third an ever-increasing acquisition of knowledge and
sensitivity. By motivating pupils, we can encourage them to progress through these
three stages, although not all will succeed in making the transition to the second or
third. Music, in contrast, can be seen as arriving immediately at the third stage,
expression, and the lack of practical relevance in music notation must carry a
significant motivational implication.

(c) Sociological concerns

The sociological concern with questions of musical literacy can perhaps be dated from
the late 1960's, a time when our awareness of musical cultures beyond the borders of
Europe began to increase dramatically. The realisation that the hegemony of European
music could no longer be assured led writers such as Trevor Wishart to consider, and
subsequently to question, the relevance of musical literacy. His comments in this area
fall under four headings:
(a) literacy in general had long been seen as synonymous with the idea of
civilisation, which in itself made certain cultural assumptions; these were no
longer viable;

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(b) academic institutions such as universities tended to concentrate on musical

compositions which could be readily explained or described verbally;
(c) the inability of analytic notation to indicate microtonal inflections placed an
unacceptable limitation on composers;
(d) recording technology now allowed composers to by-pass notational limitations
altogether.
(Wishart, 1977)
The third point was subsequently developed by Vulliamy and Shepherd, who
argued that analytic notation 'filtered out' sounds which were 'inadmissible' (ie
ideologically unacceptable) to the traditions of functional tonal music. Although
notation allows Western European music some inflections outside that notation, it still
has a strong constraining influence on the sound of' classical' music, whereas in an
aurally-based musical tradition, such limitations do not exist. (Vulliamy & Shepherd,
1984 (a) pages 64 & 65).
The same writers developed an extension of these ideas soon afterwards, adding
that:
(a) the teaching of notation often adversely affects the development of musicality in
students;
(b) musical literacy is a pre-requisite of moving into tertiary music education in this
country, but this does not correspond to the status of musicians in the ' real'
world (Africa or the Caribbean, for example), or indeed in the youth subcultures
for whom education is designed;
(c) notation is the visual servant of an aural phenomenon. Both Western and other
cultures have improvisational aspects which cannot be notated, although this
skill has now been largely lost in European ' classical' music. The fact that it is
more difficult to ' capture' non-European musics in notation does not affect their
qualities as musics.
(Vulliamy & Shepherd, 1984 (b) pages 255 to 257)
Certain of Vulliamy's ideas were challenged by Keith Swanwick in 1984, but in
terms of notation, his reservations were concerned with the concept that the 'freedom'
of improvised music, and the concomitant rigidity of notated music, had been
overstated. (Swanwick 1984, pages 49 to 56).
Swanwick had already posited notational fluency as one of the learning objectives
which seemed important to musicians, and it therefore had a place in the curriculum
(Swanwick 1979 page 67), and also identified it as one of the elements of mastering the
environment' (Piaget's pleasure in virtuosity or power) (cited in Swanwick, 1988 page
55). Charles Plummeridge suggests that musical literacy is a necessary skill for pupils
who are being educated for a society in which ' a large proportion of music is notated'
(Plummeridge 1990), but the statistical basis for this statement is not clear: his
consequent analysis of the musical needs of pupils from a variety of cultural
backgrounds in British schools is therefore rather parochial in tone.
John Paynter takes a rather more pragmatic view of the whole issue: he stresses that
' it would be unfortunate were we to give the impression that notated music is in some
ways more important than (or 'better than') music within a purely aural culture.
Music concepts are essentially concepts of sound organisation', but suggests that in the
right circumstances (the necessary teaching time, and pupils who are motivated to take
an interest in the use and possibilities of notation), the idea can be successfully
introduced. However, he also adds the proviso that there would be little point in
teaching notation if opportunities to use it were not also provided: it should not be

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regarded as part of a ready-made syllabus, where progress in learning can be easily

assessed. (Paynter, 1982).

Observations of current practice

Observations in a number of secondary schools in the West Midlands over the last year
tend to suggest that most schools introduce staff notation in Year 7: the great majority
of pupils seem unfamiliar with the concept, suggesting that constraints of time make
it unlikely that the topic has been introduced at primary level. Opportunities to
develop the practical application of staff notation in Years 7 to 9 are, however, rare, and
the topic sometimes seems to exist in isolation. Group or individual compositions are
usually notated by the use of descriptive aides-memoire, or by the use of note-names,
to preserve a particular musical configuration from one lesson to the next: the use of
staff notation would be unnecessarily time-consuming and de-motivating. In other
instances, students improvised using a given technical device, such as ostinato
patterns, and after a specified amount of preparation, recorded their ideas directly onto
tape. In contrast, however, when the question of the notation of compositions was
discussed with a group of Year 10 GCSE music students, whose level of musical
literacy skills varied considerably, there was general agreement that the task of
notating compositions (the transfer of sounds into symbols) did not inhibit their
creative imaginations.
I have earlier touched upon the question of the cognitive problems inherent in
teaching notation, but these cannot account for the general failure of pupils to acquire
this skill. Janet Mills suggests that the methodology employed by teachers may be at
fault: she identifies the use of confusing terminology as especially problematic. Music
teachers understand concepts such as 'high' and 'low', or 'up' and 'down' in a
particular way when relating to pitch, but pupils will find these terms confusing in
what for them is a new context: she cites a cellist moving their hand down the
instrument in order to make the sound go 'up', or a pianist moving their hand along
a level keyboard and producing sounds which are supposedly 'higher' or 'lower' than
one another (Mills, 1991). Interesting though these speculations may be, they seem to
me to side-step the main issue, that is, not how we teach staff notation, but why.

GCSE and beyond

The introduction of a GCSE course in music preceded that of the National
Curriculum for music by a number of years: however, as there is a considerable degree
of commonality between the stated aims of Key Stage 3 and those of GCSE, the move
from one to the other can be seen as a logical progression. One of the implied aims of
GCSE music courses must surely be to enable students to continue their active
involvement in the integrated activities of listening, composing and performing
previously experienced at Key Stage 3, and I have already suggested that this can best
be achieved without the added complication of an inflexible and complex method of
symbolic representation such as staff notation. It is therefore disappointing to find that
all GCSE examination boards in Great Britain (except Scotland) include the
encouragement of the reading of music among their aims, and the perception of 'the
relationship between sound and symbol using staff notation and other systems if
appropriate' as a requirement of the listening component.
As a specific example of the effects of this policy, I have examined the AEB
(formerly MEG) Syllabus B Listening Paper for 1991, and conclude that about one-

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third of all available marks relate to questions where the ability to read staff notation
would be a pre-requisite for even attempting the question. If students take Options A
or B (in which the listening component accounts for 30 % of the total mark), we may
assume that about 10% of the total mark for the examination as a whole will depend
upon the student's ability to read staff notation. Similar reservations can be advanced
regarding the unprepared performance element, where the same syllabus offers six
ideas for improvisation, of which four use staff notation, and a fifth, chord symbols.
The chasm which previously separated GCSE and A-level listening requirements
will narrow slightly with the introduction of the new Inter-Board Aural Perception
tests in 1994. However, much use will still be made in Part 1 of skeleton scores, and
questions will continue to focus on the recognition and notation of tonal and chord
progressions, and cadences.
The BTEC Diploma in Performing Arts, because of its stress on an integrated
approach, tends to cast composition in a subsidiary role. Two of the optional modules
(Music Performance Technique and Composing And Arrangement) require the
student to understand ' the relationship between various music notation conventions,
and develop their use in performance' and to 'record their musical ideas using
different notation systems' respectively. Two other modules, an Introduction to Music
Technology, and Recording Techniques, would allow students opportunities to
develop and record original creative work without recourse to staff notation. Not all
Colleges of Further Education are however resourced in terms of technology or staff
to offer all the options theoretically available under the BTEC syllabus, and it remains
to be seen if the replacement of the current BTEC course by a broadly similar GNVQ
performing arts course in 1994/5 will alleviate the situation. In the meantime, a
student who wishes to pursue an interest in composition, rather than performance,
outside the A-level system, can consider the International Baccalaureate. Even here,
however, Part 3, a compulsory module, is concerned with 'basic music literacy...
including traditional (staff) notation.'
How do these qualifications compare in the eyes of universities? A survey by
Catherine Dale draws attention to a significant difference in attitude between
university- and CNAA (Council for National Academic Awards)- validated courses.
The latter seem to adopt a pragmatic approach, and only one insisted on merit passes
in certain modules. Of the institutions which offered university-validated courses
(eighteen), only nine accepted BTEC as a suitable alternative to A-level (plus one
which would only accept it if offered by a mature student), and all nine insisted that
module 725D (Language of Music) had been passed. This foundation unit involves a
study of notation, the development of aural and critical faculties, the study of form and
texture, and knowledge of a wide range of styles (Dale, 1990).
It seems that the education system as a whole, up to and including higher education,
sets such great store by staff notation that it is prepared to place a significant obstacle
in the path of any student who wishes to pursue their interest in composition in an
atmosphere of creative freedom.

Conclusions
I have already suggested above that we cannot ignore notation (pace Hugo Cole):
however, any system of notation is merely a device to fix sound into some visual form.
Such a procedure is only appropriate with regard to the preservation of the musical
traditions of certain cultures, and has to some extent been overtaken by the use of
electronics and technology to preserve sound directly (ie without the intervention of

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Musical Notation in Secondary Education Paul Terry

visual symbols). In educational terms, the existence of certain sets of circumstances

(such as those outlined by John Paynter) might enable staff notation to be introduced
into the curriculum: however, such circumstances seem to be rare. Furthermore, we
must not lose sight of the interdependence between message and medium: as long as
professional composers continue to use staff notation, we must train each new
generation of performers to interpret these symbols: the process is self-perpetuating.
The learning of staff notation will only be of value to specialist performers who
intend to spend the greater part of their professional lives performing or studying an
existing musical literature. If the National Curriculum is genuinely intended to
encourage all pupils at Key Stages 1 to 4 to engage with sound, then there is no
practical reason why they need to be burdened with an anachronistic notational
system: technology allows students to compose directly onto a retrievable system.
Many universities and institutions of further education may insist on the ' traditional
value' of musical literacy, but traditions belong to the past: our students are creating
sound-structures for the present and future.

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