Musical notation

Types of notation

This is a list of some of the notations that have been used or proposed for composing/performing xenharmonic music.

Intended for any tuning

• Sagittal notation
• Global notation
• Tablets
• Scordatura/tablature notation (various schemes)

Intended for just intonation

See also: Just intonation.

• The Functional Just System (FJS) (for all of JI)
• Color notation (used in alt-tuner)
• The Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation (HEJI)
  • Richie's HEJI extensions
• Ben Johnston's notation
  • Johnston-Copper notation
• Rational Comma Notation (RCN) by David Ryan (for all of JI)
• Julien Jalaleddine Weiss (for Arabic, Iranian & Turkish music)

Intended for MOS scales and any temperaments containing them

See also: MOS scale, Temperament, Regular temperament.

• Diamond-mos notation
• Armodue theory for 16edo and other tunings including a superdiatonic scale (LLLsLLLLs)
• User:Xenllium/Xenllium's microtonal notation

Intended for both equal and unequal temperaments

• Circle-of-fifths notation (& neutral circle-of-fifths notation)
• Ups and downs notation (& neutral ups and downs notation (with an alternative symbol set))
• Syntonic-rastmic subchroma notation
• Fractional sharp notation
• Erv Wilson's Linear Notations
• Extended meantone notation (diesis and kleisma up/down, for meantone systems including 5, 7, 12, 19, 24, 26, 31, 36, 38, 43, 45, 50, 55, 57, 62, 67, 69, 74, 76, 81, 86, 88, 93, 98, 100, 105, 117, 129)
• Pergen notation (ups/downs plus lifts/drops)
• Arcturus hendecatonic notation
• KISS notation
• Porcupine notation
• User:Xenllium/Xenllium's microtonal notation

Intended for equal temperaments

See also: Equal-step tuning, Equal division of the octave.

Multiple temperaments

• Easley Blackwood's symbols for ETs 13-24
• Bohlen-Pierce theory for 13edt and other EDTs that deals with the nonatonic scale (LsLsLsLss) (adding "H" and "J" notes)
• Heptatonic notation
• Mason Green's New Common Practice Notation
• Modal systematization of soid-family scales

One specific temperament

• The Pentadecaphonic System⁠ ⁠^[dead link] (adding the 'H' note)
• David S. Goldsmith's notation for 16edo
• Mason Green's New Common Practice Notation (when applied to 19edo)
• Tartini/Couper for 31edo
• Maneri-Sims notation for 72edo
• Richter Herf / Maedel for 72edo
• Wyschnegradsky color notation for 72edo
• H-System for 205edo

Eclectic selection of scales, defying the above boundaries

See also: Scale

• Julian Carrillo's index notation

Microtonal scores

See the dedicated Scores page.

Microtonal fonts

• Ted Mook's font for notating Ezra Sims' 72-EDO notation et al. http://www.mindspring.com/~tmook/micro.html⁠ ⁠^[dead link]
• Tempera font by Christian Textier - does anyone use these crazy things? http://pros.orange.fr/christian.texier/mididesi/⁠ ⁠^[dead link]
• Matthew Hindson offers this font with quartertones and the like. http://www.hindson.com.au/wordpress/index.php/free-fonts-available-for-download/
• Plainsound Music Edition fonts for the Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation (HEJI) - under "JI/MICROTONAL RESOURCES". https://www.plainsound.org/

Notation program/editors for microtonal music

See the dedicated list at the page: Software #Notation software.

See also

• Subset notation
• Notation (McLaren) - Brian McLaren’s post on notation

External links

• Types of Notation (Carl Lumma)
• Amazon page for Gardner Read's survey of 20th-century microtonal notations
• Transnotating Carlos Gamma with Logic Pro's Environment
• Bryan Deister microtonal improvisations transcribed (31edo to 50edo) - A video by Stephen Weigel which shows off a wide range of notational approaches to a wide range of equal step tunings.

Todo: intro Write an introduction briefly discussing the history and present state of microtonal notation.