| Sheet music, sometimes called "score," is the | | | | days, and the monks performing it developed |
| hand-written or printed form of musical notation, | | | | specific symbols, neumes, in order to record it on |
| or the system that represents aurally perceived | | | | paper. |
| music via the use of written symbols. The history | | | | It is to another style of religious song of this |
| of musical notation, and therefore of sheet music, | | | | period, the plainchant, that we owe our modern |
| is a long one. There are those who hold that the | | | | form of sheet music. The original system of |
| earliest sheet music known is a fragment of a | | | | writing plainchant did not utilize a staff. Although |
| cuneiform tablet from Nippur, an ancient | | | | capable of expressing considerable musical |
| Babylonian city, and dates from approximately | | | | complexity, such a system could not convey |
| 2000 BCE. While this music was written on a clay | | | | exact pitch or time. Sheet music from this genre |
| tablet rather than paper, it still constitutes sheet | | | | served mainly as a reminder to a performer |
| music because the term "sheet" merely | | | | already familiar with the tune rather than a means |
| differentiates music on paper from audio | | | | by which a novice might learn a new song. To |
| presentation. So although the tablet's notations are | | | | deal with the problem of exact pitch, a staff was |
| fragmentary and somewhat simple, it is probably | | | | introduced, originally consisting of a single horizontal |
| safe to say that they represent the earliest | | | | line but eventually comprised of four parallel |
| recorded melodies in the world. | | | | horizontal lines, which became the standard. The |
| Anyone familiar with ancient Greek civilization will | | | | vertical position of a mark on the staff indicated |
| not be surprised to learn that the sheet music of | | | | the pitch at which it was to be sung or played. |
| those people was relatively complex. Ancient | | | | Anyone who looks at music from this period will |
| Greek musical notation was capable of | | | | easily recognize the roots of modern sheet music. |
| representing pitch, note duration and, to a limited | | | | From the late Dark Ages until the 15th century, |
| extent, harmony. It consisted of symbols placed | | | | western sheet music was written by hand and |
| above text syllables and was in use from at least | | | | generally preserved in large, bound volumes of |
| the 6th century BCE until approximately the 4th | | | | manuscripts. The best known examples of such |
| century CE, a date that coincides with the fall of | | | | manuscripts are those of the previously |
| the Roman Empire. | | | | mentioned plainchant, which is a form of |
| Sheet music, like Europe as a whole, suffered a | | | | monophonic chant. The advent of the printing |
| major blow when Rome fell. The art of writing | | | | press in the middle of the 15th century, of |
| music all but vanished during the times that | | | | course, irrevocably changed how sheet music was |
| followed, which are commonly referred to as the | | | | created. However, it took several hundred years |
| Dark Ages. However, by the middle of the 9th | | | | for printed sheet music to become the norm, and |
| century, musical notation began to revive thanks | | | | much music continued to exist solely in |
| to the Roman Catholic Church. The Gregorian | | | | hand-written manuscripts until well into the 18th |
| chant was a ubiquitous form of worship in those | | | | century. |