Sheet music

Sheet music is musical notation written down on paper; it is the musical analog of a book.

History

Before the 15th century, music was written by hand and preserved in large bound volumes.

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The first machine-printed music appeared around 1473, approximately 20 years after Gutenberg introduced the printing press. In 1501, Ottaviano Petrucci published Harmonice musices odhecaton, which contained 96 pieces of printed music. Pertucci's printing method produced clean, readable music, but it was a long, difficult process that required three separate passes through the printing press. Single impression printing first appeared in London around 1520. Pierre Attaingnant brought the technique into wide use in 1528.

Related Topics:
1473 - Gutenberg - Printing press - 1501 - Ottaviano Petrucci - London - 1520 - Pierre Attaingnant - 1528

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In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted a monopoly on printing music to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. This expired in 1596, when the monopoly was given to Thomas Morley instead.

Related Topics:
1575 - Queen Elizabeth - Thomas Tallis - William Byrd - 1596 - Thomas Morley

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In the 19th century the music industry was dominated by sheet music publishers. In the United States, the group of publishers and composers dominating the industry was known as "Tin Pan Alley". In the early 20th century the phonograph and recorded music grew greatly in importance. This, joined by the growth in popularity of radio from the 1920s on, lessened the importance of the sheet music publishers. The record industry eventually replaced the sheet music publishers as the music industry's largest force.

Related Topics:
19th century - Music industry - United States - Tin Pan Alley - 20th century - Phonograph - Radio - 1920s - Record industry

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In the late 20th and into the 21st century, significant interest developed in representing sheet music in a computer-readable format (see Music Notation Software). Several systems have been developed to do this, including Finale, Sibelius, GNU LilyPond, and GUIDO.

Related Topics:
20th - 21st century - Computer - Music Notation Software - Finale - Sibelius - GNU LilyPond - GUIDO

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The Mutopia project is an effort to create a library of public domain sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.

Related Topics:
Mutopia project - Public domain - Project Gutenberg

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