Note Values

Author(s): John Macivor Perkins

Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1965), pp. 47-57
Published by: Perspectives of New Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/832503
Accessed: 18-06-2017 19:17 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/832503?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Perspectives of New Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Perspectives of New Music

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
FORUM: NOTATION

NOTE VALUES

JOHN MAC IVOR PERKINS

THE EX PLORATION of unconventional rhythmic

attendant problems of notation and realization, has b
cern for many living composers. Stemming perhaps f
standing of the experience and perception of time,1 s
constitute an emancipation of intricate or "irrational"
ships through multiple simultaneous "artificial division,"
"rhythmic modulation," incommensurable tempo chan
notation. Emphasis is placed on the expansion of
flexibility, often at the expense of traditional cohes
organizing forces, and the musical results are thus rou
the musical results of those earlier developments in the a
tions called by Schoenberg "the emancipation of disso
we have now reached a temporary harmonic plateau (d
and persuasive voices of dissatisfaction)2 in the acceptanc
equal temperament, whether serially organized or not
the emancipation of rhythmic dissonance is far from com
posers would deny that the rhythmic, even more surely
aspect of our musical language is currently in a state o
In this light, the fact that recent scores employ a conf
notation systems is not surprising. The most prominent
two categories, reflecting a two-pronged assault o
symmetry, endless bipartite divisions, "tickiness,"4 metr
at-a-time tempo limitation and poverty of duration a
ships which served Mozart so well, but which seem now s
irrelevantly restrictive. In analog notation, the horiz
tween the noteheads (or other event symbols) is strict
the intended time-difference of attack (or other even

1 Robert Erickson, "Time-Relations," Journal of Music Theory, Winter

2 For a recent example see Ben Johnston, "Scalar Order as a Com
PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC, Spring 1964, pp. 56-76. The ideas about
and in Erickson, op. cit., are closely relevant to the present discussion.
3A convenient survey is included in Kurt Stone, "Problems and M
PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC, Spring 1963, pp. 9-31.
4 Erickson, op. cit.

. 47 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC

change, timbre change, or release). Hence the name

tion" for these systems, a name which will not be use
possibility of confusion: conventional notation present
tions more explicitly than does analog notation, and to
the practical disadvantages of all analog systems.5 The
notation with numerical, verbal, or other symbol
some disadvantages of its own, however, the most obv
cluttering of the page with a profusion of signs w
This compares poorly with the beautiful simplicity
notations-a visual and conceptual simplicity wh
lead to more efficient performance. The less obviou
ventional notation are more important,6 and shoul
lyzed in some detail by those students and young
themselves confronted with a choice.
An easily accomplished but not entirely trivial first step in such an
analysis would be an inventory of available conventional note values.
In theory, an infinite number of duration values, corresponding to the
infinite number of rational fractions of the unit duration in a given tempo,
can of course be expressed in conventional notation, when it is supple-
mented by proportion symbols such as those employed by the Darmstadt
composers. In practice, a relatively small finite number (about fifty per
duration octave-e.g. between a quarter note and an eighth note) is in
fact available, owing to the difficulties of reading a large number of flags
and executing proportional modifications involving large numbers. Of
these, many are exceedingly rare. The limitations of the accompanying
table (pp. 50-51) have been chosen to approximate the practical limita-
tions at normal tempi: additive values in sixty-fourths are included, as are
proportional modifications involving numbers up to and including fifteen.
In addition, a few of the more important values resulting from the follow-
ing notational procedures have been listed: (1) the addition of artificial
divisions (a triplet eighth tied to a septuplet eighth, resulting in a duration
equal to thirteen twenty-firsts of a quarter note; such values are fairly
common in practice, but are rarely used as beats or "counters" in rhyth-
mic modulations); (2) the simultaneous or otherwise coordinated employ-
ment of compound and simple meters (the double-dotted dotted note used
as a "counter" by Carter in the Second Quartet, mm. 138-39); (3) the use
of artificial divisions of a higher order than fifteen (the most common of
which is probably 17:16); (4) the nesting of artificial divisions beyond

5 Discussed in Stone, op. cit.

6 Since at present no notation will enable a "complex" rhythmic pattern to be read quickly
and easily, even if, as Charles Wuorinen believes, the difficulties of such patterns are largely
cultural in origin rather than inherent; see his "Notes on the Performance of Contemporary
Music," PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC, Fall-Winter 1964.

* 48 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 FORUM: NOTATION

five (a triplet half note within a septuplet, resulting in

teen twenty-firsts of a quarter note).
At this point, a word about the details of the partic
vention employed in this list (and elsewhere) is u
necessary, not only because the practice of composers ha
inconsistent in this regard, but also because the cita
outside a musical or metrical context-as for exam
equations used in writing rhythmic modulations-imp
in the evaluation of notation conventions. In particular,
desirable that, in a given tempo, one and only one du
resented by each note-value symbol, the symbol bein
its proportional or other modifiers. This criterion d
apply in practical music notation,' and of course its c
for the variety of symbols available for the expression
essential to the flexibility of conventional notation.
the comparative unexplicitness of the Darmstadt pro
does minimize the number of such equivalent symbols, w
advantageous; and while it is undeniable that this u
occasionally lead to confusion in practice9 (and should
be supplemented in the manner of Carter), there is
should lead in any situation to an actual ambiguity
more than one duration may properly be read for a
these reasons, the Darmstadt notation is best suited t
poses, and is understood in the following way:

n x
duration (rx:Y' - duration (n)
where (n) is any
the duration of
to three fifths o
tempo. For com
symbol, in whi
of two smaller than x.10 Thus:

7The notation used by Easley Blackwood in Music for Flute and Harpsichord is efficient
and unambiguous without conforming to this rule: the number which appears after the colon
in each case refers to the number of beats occupied by the bracketed notes. The meaning of a
particular symbol thus depends on its metrical context. The same is true of Hindemith's nota-
tion of artificial divisions in compound meter (see below, n. 10).
8 Stone, op. cit.
9 See Elliott Carter, "Letter to the Editor,"Journal of Music Theory, Winter 1963, pp. 270-73.
10 This abbreviation rule corresponds exactly with the method described in Hindemith's
Elementary Training For Musicians, p. 116, for simple duple meters. Carter has always employed,
and has recently urged the general adoption of, a different method (described in Principles of
Music Theory by Longy-Miquelle; see Carter, op. cit.) according to which r-7 = 7:8. The rule
behind this would seem to be thaty is assumed to equal the power of two which is arithmetically

* 49 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 duration,
duration logarithmic
- D Equivalent
8 .DO symbols - x

00 1/1 2.000 1.000 1200.0 60 3-7

20/21 1.905 .9296 1115.5 63

17 16/17 1.882 .9125 1095.0 4:5 8:15

01 15/16 1.875 .9069 1088.3 64 "

15:1415 5:7 6:
02 r 14/15r
14:13 1.867
r .90
03 r 13/14 1.857 .8930 1071.7 7-' 7:6- r7.

04 13 12 12/13 1.846
12:11
.8846 1061.4
9:11 3-
65 13--
05 1211
06 110 1
07 5"9
08 9' 8/9 1.778 .8301 996.1 3-F 3 1
09 7/8 1.750 .8074 968.8 6:7 4:7 4:5
20/23 1.739 .7984 958.1 69
15:13
10 1513 15
13/15 1.733 3 952.2
.7935 r515 5 -7
, 3r-
7:6 6/7 1.714 .7776 933.1 70 7 7:9
1311
12 3 11/13 r~3
1.692 .7590 910.8 13
13 11
14 5/6 1.667
9/11 1.636.7370
.7105 884.4 72 9"
852.6 1112 10
11- 3- 3
15 ~ 13/16 1.625 .7004 840.5 12:13 13
- 5:6-5
1615/195 4/5 1.600 .67
1.579 .6589 790.7 76
7:11 7-- ~7
17 11/14 1.571 .6521 782.5

18 107 7/9 1.556 .6374 764.9 9 9 3 6:7- T 3

19 10/13 1.539 .6215 745.8 78 13 "
3 16/21 1.524 .6076 729.2

20 1 3/4 1.500 .5850 702.0 80 23 3- 43

21 11/1515:11
1.46710:11--, 3-r--
.5525 663.0 r 35 15
15'
22 8/11
11 1.455 .5405 11
, 111 648.7 lO--r
3 1 T s
23 r 13/18 1.444 .5305 636.6 12:13 r9
24 ( 7:5
5/7 /7 1.429
1.429 .5146 .5146 617.5 84
617.5 84
Table 1

* 50 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 duration,
duration logarithmic

8 D , . Equivalent
D 1c - D 1 symbols

5:7 1514- 5-,

25 7/10 1.400 .4854 582.5 15 5

26 13 9/13 1.385 .4695 563

27 " 11/16 1.375 .4594 551.3
28 11"15 15/22 1.364 .4474 537.0 88 11:10 11 r 11
29 3 2/3 1.333 .4150 498.0 90 9 r-3
j 21/32 1.313 .3923 470.8
15/23 1.304 .3833 460.0 92
10:13 15:13 5- - 5---
30 r 13/20 1.300 .3785 454.2 "
31 79 9/14 1.286 .3626 435.1 7:6- 7- -7
S r-r
32 11:7 7/11 1.273 .3479 417.5 r11. 1
33 5/8 1.250 .3219 386.3 96 6:5 4:5 13:12
34 13 8/13 1.231 .2996 359.5 13:12 r
35 r 5:3
9:1" 211,9 r-- 1 19
11/18 1.222
5
.2895
,
347.4 9F 12:11
10:9, -5
9
36 5:3 3/5 1.200 .2630 315.6 100 5 10:9

37 1113 13/22 1.182 .2410 289.2 11- =11

38 6:7 7/12 1.167 .2224 266.9 9:7- 3- 3 -3-1
39 13:15 15/26 1.154 .2064 247.7 104 13:10-, 13:12 r13-

40 7- 4/7 1.143 .1927 231.2 7:.6 8-7

41 9/16 1.125 .1699 S2:3
203.9r 8:9 23 6- 8:9r
42 9:10 5/9 1.111 .1520 182.4 108 6:5 - 9
43 111 11/20 1.100 .1375 165.0 15:11 5 r 5
44 11 12 6/11 1.091 .1255 150.6 11 11:9 11
45 12:13 13/24 1.083 .1155 138.6 9:13 3
46 13 14 7/13 1.077 .1069 128.3 13-- r-13
47 14 15 15/28 1.071 .0995 119.4 112 7:5 7 7
48 5~ 8/15 1.067 .0932 111.7 15-- 3r 5 15
' 17/32 1.063 .0875 105.0
15/29 1.034 .0489 58.7 116
00 1/2 1.000 .0000 0.0 120

Table 1 (Cont.)

"51.

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC

r 3 --= 3:2

-5-- = 5:4
r-7-- = 7:410

r9- = 9:8
-11-- = 11:8
- 13-1 = 13:810
r- 15--i = 15:810

- 17--= 17:16
etc.

(Even-numbered values of x are superfluous in out-of-context citation

of note values, and dangerously ambiguous even in context if they valu
is not also given.)"1
The accompanying table, then, presents the symmetrical scale-like
array of duration values available to the user of conventional notation
The axis of symmetry in this particular duration-octave falls between note
values number 24 and 25, and would be represented by an irrational
duration equal to \F times the duration of the eighth note. Thus, fo
example, r" and - are symmetrically placed around this value (an
within the "octave" r to r), forming an exact analogy to Pythagorean
F and G (in the scale of C) which are symmetrically placed around equal
tempered F (and within the octave C to c).
The durations listed in the table may also, of course, be presented
graphically, and for a number of reasons a logarithmic scale is best suited
to such a presentation. (The value of each duration in "cents"-the
logarithmic unit most familiar to musicians-has been listed.) In Ex. 1
a slide rule is illustrated, the scales of which have been plotted in this
manner, with note values presented on the two slides and metronom
calibrations (and durations in seconds) on the fixed faces. The setting o

closest to x, whether it is larger or smaller. In the case of 3,6,12, etc., which are equally placed
between powers of two, the "older" rule is of course applied. The "logic" of this method is ju
as sound as that of the "older" rule, and the resulting visual image is probably more musica
and easier to read. Unfortunately, the illustrations for this article were prepared before th
publication of Carter's "Letter." As for the abbreviation of artificial divisions in triple and
compound meters, the Carter-Miquelle approach, though it tends to a proliferation of dot
appears distinctly superior to the method described by Hindemith, both for the reasons giv
in his letter and because it avoids the introduction of ambiguity in out-of-context citations.
11 A truly excellent percussionist, who is experienced in the performance of the most intricat
contemporary music, recently failed repeatedly to read the following figure as a series of nine
equal notes:

3 6

* 52 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 FORUM: NOTATION

the slides illustrates the common tempo ratio 3:4, a

following
elaborate tempo
form shift:
of the J =
same 108; illustrates
device -- ==3--; J = 72
the u
subtle rhythmic modulation involving this ratio occur
Concerto, m. 105: J = 105 (J.= 70); --7= -->;
culations relating note values, tempi and durations (
sections or compositions), especially if the data and
are approximations, may often be accomplished mo
devices than by mental arithmetic. The discovery o
lents, or near equivalents, in two given tempi is par
The term "irrational" is sometimes used to design
values. This is unfortunate and misleading, beca
(including bracketed) durations are rational fraction
ical sense of the word) of the unit duration, which is a
(A better name for the more intricate fractional
divisions," but it, too, is unfortunate.)12 Truly irra
tionships are of course conceivable and practical, ev
but in conventional notation they can be expressed
crude, extraneous devices as the fermata, or the vague
rubato". Truly irrational tempo relationships are most
tered in constant slow accelerations, where, if metron
given, close rational approximations to the intende
ships are generally notated.a3
In analog notation, however, note values will in ge
tional, truly incommensurable. The attempt, in prac
ventional, rational, proportional, commensurable n
spacial notation systems inevitably leads to gross inacc
ance. If unmodified analog notation is held to be use
assumed that the tolerance for performance error in m
chiefly irrational duration and tempo relationship
rationally proportioned music. This assumption is

12 Why is 3/5 more artificial than 3/4? The use of the word "artific
that only binary (and perhaps ternary) divisions are natural; this m
conventional notation (and hence the quasi-justification of the term
logical, or musical truth has only occasionally been asserted and ne
op. cit.).
13 There is a very simple example in Carter's Variations for Orchestra (Variation 6), where
the following metronome settings appear on successive measures (under the general instruction
"Accel. molto"): J = 80, 96, 115, 139, 166, 201, J. = J = 80 etc.; the ratios between adjacent
numbers approximate f3-. An equal-tempered tempo scale is notated, as a means of suggesting
a steady tempo glissando. Points representing such a series of tempi would of course be equally
spaced on the logarithmic metronome scales of Exx. 1 and 2. More complex and subtler
applications of the same approach to tempo relationships-an approach which is complemen-
tary and antithetical to "metric modulation"-are not uncommon in Carter's recent music;
see, for example, the Second Quartet, p. 55.

. 53 *

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
0 7

?' cy o 3'

t y s < .,
0...
On~r \I4C,~= 3 sA ~S
9~0 LI
91 oz ,,

*,. * o,
))8; r) tat o

3~~o g3 s

<

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 I
O I I I0I
110 I
1 I0I 2

sec./32 .
M.M. 3 69 84 92 1 18
L610'uTM96T 14 12
11 1312 11:10 r9i 1513 13:11 119 r5-1 97 . rl, 7:5 13:9
r ri 3r r r r r l r r 3 9

1 r "1 , r"1 , .51, ,

S 15-e 8 r.3 1--i r0 C, r 3, rl
r16:15 r137r r r2 8-7 r77 r-3 8:l3 7nI 31r5 9 r5 8:11 r3 r7 4: rI,-il ri3- 8R9 r

14113:12 11:10 95 1 5913 13 7: 1 309 r51 9:7 . r1 S .75 r3: 5 7

r3r p: ipj, 7:5 -1. r 15r " I5:117 53 6

746 3: 5 7:1 13:10 15 1 911 5: 57 J r15 7 9 9:11 1:13 3 713 10112:13 16: 1:5 1

sec.o io W goI I I

min:sec48so 6 4 I *00 3:5

t+ ape IpS 7T 6 5
Ex. 2

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC

many cases. Several compromise notations have of c

and applied in an effort to derive the benefits of both
tional systems, and, although none of these notations
a significant number of composers, there is no doubt
offer unprecedented flexibility and versatility.
The capacity to express irrational duration relatio
simply is not in itself the chief virtue of analog notat
note value can be approximated by one of the conv
in the above table, with an error that is almost cer
cally, and very probably below the threshold of pe
tempi. On the other hand, conventional notation do
substantial limitations on the variety of feasible patte
these limitations may be wholly circumvented by
notation.

One simple example should illustrate what is meant. The following

pitch-duration pattern poses no notational problems:

3 5

Ex. 3

A semitone transposition of this presentation of a twelve-tone series re-

sults in a permutation or scrambling of its pitches:

Ex. 4

If the duration values of the original pattern were to be scrambled in the

same way (so that each pitch in the transposition would be associated with
the same duration as in the original pattern), the resulting series of dura-
tions would be exceedingly difficult to present in conventional notation:14

14 This is not suggested as an interesting variation technique, for compositional application!

The device of transposition is mentioned solely to provide an impersonal basis for permutation
of a series of durations, something which itself is interesting not as a musical resource but as a
theoretical possibility or tool. Objections to a duration basis for rhythmic serialization are
strongly voiced in Milton Babbitt, "Twelve Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic
Medium," PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC, Fall 1962, pp. 49-79. Essentially, such a basis will fail
because of the absence in the realm of duration of any phenomenon analogous to octave
equivalence in the realm of pitch, and the absence of durational equal-temperament. Con-
ventional rhythm notation, with its binary divisions, suggests an octave equivalence of dura-
tion which simply does not correspond to a perceptual reality comparable to the pitch octave
(which, strangely, is not at all reflected in staff notation).

? 56

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 FORUM: NOTATION

r-15:11 - 5 3-= 5--n 6:7-- 5---

II II

3 5 L3

Analog
as easily
The pa
subtle.
posers i
ing and
tional n
not acu
educati
pattern
tional n
conduci
of Strav
on the
easy att
which r
many a
as analo
linear (i
tion ba
of integ
notation
or redu
Shapey,

15 Johnsto

. 57 0

This content downloaded from 90.214.205.250 on Sun, 18 Jun 2017 19:17:59 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms