Sagittal notation

Sagittal notation is a musical notation system capable of notating almost any conceivable tuning. It was developed by Dave Keenan and George Secor with significant contributions from numerous others.

Flavors of Sagittal notation

Sagittal notation comes in two mutually compatible flavors.

Evo

The Evo flavor (short for "evolutionary", previously called "mixed") uses only single-shaft Sagittal symbols, e.g.    , alone or in combination with conventional sharps and flats and their doubles. Only the large variant of the double sharp  (U+E47D) is considered to be stylistically-compatible with Sagittal symbols. Evo is much easier to learn, but it results in a greater number of symbols on the sheet, which can give it a more cluttered appearance, particularly with chords, and it may be confusing when two symbols alter the same note in opposite directions.

A sub-flavor of Evo is Evo-SZ (Evo with Stein-Zimmermann). This is where any sagittals that are notating exactly half the alteration of a sharp or flat (most often  ) are replaced by the Stein-Zimmermann semisharp  and narrow reversed flat , and the corresponding combinations (most often  and ) are replaced by  and . The narrow variants of the fractional flats  (U+E284) and  (U+E285) are preferred because they preserve the Sagittal principle that the visual size of a symbol should indicate the relative size of its alteration and they reduce left-right confusion.

Revo

The Revo flavor (short for "revolutionary", previously called "pure") only requires one accidental per note. Revo therefore takes up less space on the sheet and presents a cleaner appearance, and it clearly indicates the direction of the overall alteration. It discards the conventional sharps and flats and their doubles and replaces them with these multi-shaft arrow-like symbols:    . Adding a sharp or flat to a Sagittal is achieved by adding two more shafts, e.g.  becomes  and  becomes . When the Sagittal part alters in the opposite direction to the sharp or flat part, the rules are not so simple, e.g.  becomes  and  becomes ; one must simply learn these apotome complements.

Resources

• Official site
• Sagittal Forum
• The original Xenharmonikon article (updated)
• Gift of the Gods: a Mythical introduction to Sagittal notation
• spreadsheet-based calculator for Sagittal JI notation
• Sagittal-SMuFL-Map, a table of every Sagittal symbol
• Pain free guide to Sagittal by William Lynch
• File:24 Edo.pdf – Sagittal notation guide for 24edo by William Lynch (download: 24_Edo.pdf)
• Introductory examples by Hans Straub
• Sagittal chord chart by Andrew Meronek

Notation software support

Sibelius

Sagibelius 2.0 - plugins for using Sagittal notation in Sibelius 4 and up. By Jacob Barton. Hosted on this wiki. Donationware.

Sagibelius_2.0.zip

Lilypond

Plugin for Sagittal notation in Lilypond by Graham Breed

MuseScore

Sagittal accidentals are available in MuseScore via the Bravura font which implements the SMuFL standard. They can be accessed by opening the Master Palette and finding them in the Symbols section at the end.

Scala

Sagittal notation is available in Scala.

Dorico

Because Dorico is built by Steinberg Media, the same company that maintains the SMuFL standard, it supports Sagittal.

Scores in Sagittal notation

• The Sagittal Songbook
  • One for All
  • Land Urchin
  • Clouds
  • Prayer of Thanks

• Sunday Pipes in 22tET by Mats Öljare
• Tibia in 22tET by Paul Erlich (Listen). Sagittal score in F||\ or in G (contains errors in measures 9, 19 and 20)
• On the Enharmonic Tetrachord (from Suite, Op. 62), in 22tET, by Ivor Darreg. Originally printed in the Spring 1975 issue of Xenharmonikon in quarter-tone notation. Transcribed to Sagittal by Juhani Nuorvala.(Listen)

Gallery

Spartan single-shaft



nai

7/5 kleisma up



nao

7/5 kleisma down



pai

5 comma up



pao

5 comma down



tai

7 comma up



tao

7 comma down



phai

25 small diesis up



phao

25 small diesis down



patai

35 medium diesis up



patao

35 medium diesis down



pakai

11 medium diesis up



pakao

11 medium diesis down



jatai

11 large diesis up



jatao

11 large diesis down



jakai

35 large diesis up



jakao

35 large diesis down

Spartan multi-shaft

Multi-shaft sagittals are only used in the Revo flavor of Sagittal.



sharp phao

sharp 25S down



flat phai

flat 25S up



sharp tao

sharp 7C down



flat tai

flat 7C up



sharp pao

sharp 5C down



flat pai

flat 5C up



sharp nao

sharp 7/5k down



flat nai

flat 7/5k up



sagi­sharp

sharp



sagi­flat

flat



sharp nai

sharp 7/5k up



flat nao

flat 7/5k down



sharp pai

sharp 5C up



flat pao

flat 5C down



sharp tai

sharp 7C up



flat tao

flat 7C down



sharp phai

sharp 25S up



flat phao

flat 25S down



sharp patai

sharp 35M up



flat patao

flat 35M down



sharp pakai

sharp 11M up



flat pakao

flat 11M down



sharp jatai

sharp 11L up



flat jatao

flat 11L down



sharp jakai

sharp 35L up



flat jakao

flat 35L down



double sharp phao

double sharp 25S down



double flat phai

double flat 25S up



double sharp tao

double sharp 7C down



double flat tai

double flat 7C up



double sharp pao

double sharp 5C down



double flat pai

double flat 5C up



double sharp nao

double sharp 7/5k down



double flat nai

double flat 7/5k up



sagi­double sharp

double sharp



sagi­double flat

double flat

Athenian extension single-shaft



ranai

11/7 kleisma up



ranao

11/7 kleisma down



sanai

17 comma up



sanao

17 comma down



kai

55 comma up



kao

55 comma down



jai

11/7 comma up



jao

11/7 comma down



janai

11/5 small diesis up



janao

11/5 small diesis down

Athenian extension multi-shaft

Multi-shaft sagittals are only used in the Revo flavor of Sagittal.



sharp janao

sharp 11/5S down



flat janai

flat 11/5S up



sharp jao

sharp 11/7C down



flat jai

flat 11/7C up



sharp kao

sharp 55C down



flat kai

flat 55C up



sharp sanao

sharp 17C down



flat sanai

flat 17C up



sharp ranao

sharp 11/7k down



flat ranai

flat 11/7k up



sharp ranai

sharp 11/7k up



flat ranao

flat 11/7k down



sharp sanai

sharp 17C up



flat sanao

flat 17C down



sharp kai

sharp 55C up



flat kao

flat 55C down



sharp jai

sharp 11/7C up



flat jao

flat 11/7C down



sharp janai

sharp 11/5S up



flat janao

flat 11/5S down



double sharp janao

double sharp 11/5S down



double flat janai

double flat 11/5S up



double sharp jao

double sharp 11/7C down



double flat jai

double flat 11/7C up



double sharp kao

double sharp 55C down



double flat kai

double flat 55C up



double sharp sanao

double sharp 17C down



double flat sanai

double flat 17C up



double sharp ranao

double sharp 11/7k down



double flat ranai

double flat 11/7k up