WHO INVENTED MUSICAL NOTATION?
Dear Straight Dope: Who invented the notation that’s used on sheet music today and how has that notation changed going back in time to who first created a way to write music down? — Stewart Scott Ah, yes. The question that hordes of eight-year-olds forced to learn trumpet have asked themselves: “What the heck is this? Could they possibly have made it more complicated to read music?” I speak from experience here, Stewart. Western musical notation has been an evolving system dating back at least to Greece and Rome. The Roman writer and statesman Boethius assigned 15 letters to 2 octaves’ worth of tones around 500 AD. The fact that Boethius was later executed for treason is completely unrelated, I’m certain. Even though the developer of the letters-as-pitches system was a Roman, most nations in Europe now use the “tonic sol fa” system made famous in The Sound of Music. Tonic sol fa was introduced by a monk named Guido d’Arezzo around 1000 AD and used the sounds ”Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La Si” t
