Pastor Ken
The Sound of Music, a musical film from 1965, experienced worldwide popularity during its time. One of its songs, “Do-re-mi,” familiarized people with the fundamental scale of Western music. In China and other regions, an alternative notation system uses numbers to denote musical notes. The number 1234567 corresponds to do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti, and this simplified notation is commonly referred to as Arabic numeral notation.
According to online information, simplified musical notation was originally proposed by Souhaitty, a French priest in the 17th century. At that time, church congregants sang hymns together. It was too difficult for some people to read music. So he tried to teach them using a system of numbers. However, professional musicians didn’t approve of the new method. Later, Rousseau in the 18th century and Cheve and others in the 19th century continued to promote it. This simpler method was finally recognized by mainstream institutions. It was later spread to Japan. In the early 20th century, Li Shutong, a Chinese scholar studying in Japan, brought it to China, and it received widespread recognition.
The reason why this method became popular in China was perhaps due to the fact that the Chinese have had the concept of numbers since childhood. For example, each day of the week is named after a number, Monday is Day 1, Tuesday Day 2, etc. Once individuals grasp the concept that 1 serves as a tonic, understanding that 3 represents a two-step interval becomes simple. The pentatonic scale used in Chinese Han music follows the pattern of 12356. Employing numbers for score notation offers greater convenience compared to the conventional method of using written notation. Regarding the development of musical notation in Chinese words, particularly in the case of Gongchi Pu, over thousands of years (including the system of twelve keys), it is beyond the scope of this short article. So forgive me for the omission.
Another reason why simplified musical notation is popular among the Chinese is that ancient Chinese music doesn’t carry harmony as in chords. Usually, one person sings or performs solo with one melodic line. Adding another instrument simply requires the musician to play the same line, or occasionally as an echo. Notation can be relatively simple. Moreover, the key of the music isn’t important. Even if played with different keys, everyone will consider it as the same piece of music. Regular Western music staff notation is a different concept. One note in staff music represents a fixed pitch. A player must follow the written score to play the right notes. One can even specify the exact frequency of that pitch (A=440 Hertz)
What is the relationship between music and language? In Chinese dialects, such as Mandarin or Cantonese, each character has a fixed tone. For example, Mr. Wong in Cantonese reads wong-sin-sang (155 or do-sol-sol). Although different people speak in different keys, they still have the same three tones. If you change the tone to 135 (do-mi-sol), it’ll sound like totally different words (i.e., a yellow string). For non-Chinese, the most difficult thing about learning Chinese is the intonation of each word. There is no other way to learn besides memorizing them.
Modern simplified musical notation has been developed with additional symbols, including note value and range. It can almost replace a line of music in the regular notation. However, it isn’t easy to create an ensemble score with many parts using this method. At any rate, simplified musical notation offers numerous fantastic applications. For example, some Chinese hymnals add a simplified musical notation index. As long as you remember the melody of the first line of the hymn, you can quickly find the page number according to the “numbers” in the notation.
For me, the most convenient thing is that when I hear some folk songs during travel or new melodies, I can immediately write them down using simplified notation. Then I can go home and search for the music.
