![]() Isn’t it amazing how we can pick up a page with dots and lines and decipher it into music? Historically seen, music notation developed over long periods of time. However, I created a little fairy tale with a slightly different angle. How Music Notation was Created Many years ago in a kingdom far away, there was a tree that stood on the side of the palace garden. It looked like any other tree, but from close up, some people could hear wonderful tunes and sounds that seemed to come from all around the tree and from nowhere, at the same time. Tony and his three daughters, who lived in the nearby village, were able to hear the tree’s music. They loved visiting the tree. Ruth and Harm, the older sisters, danced or clapped along while singing an accompaniment, whereas Mel, the youngest sister would hum quietly and dream of distant places and worlds. On special occasions, the king would ask them to come to him and present the special music for his guests. One day Tony went up to the tree on his own and heard the most beautiful music. It was uplifting, sweet and so special it seemed to be a gift from the tree directly to him. But when he arrived back home he couldn’t remember any of it. Try as he did, the music had disappeared. Tony feared he had lost his precious gift and that he would never be able to bring back music from the tree again. To make things worse, the king had asked them to come in a week’s time to play many hours of the tree’s music at a big feast and he had nothing to offer, Tony couldn’t remember a single tune! He was so worried, he became pale and weak and felt very ill. Mel was home alone when her father came in and saw immediately that something wasn’t right. “What happened? What’s wrong?” She asked. “We need to find a way to recapture the music the tree has been giving us”, answered Tony, “or else the king will be furious and anyway, I won’t be able to live without music”. Mel went to the tree and sat in front of it, quite concerned and with no idea what she could do. She was suddenly startled to see two feet in front of her and looking up she saw a tall magician. He held up two mysterious keys and said “These keys can help you bring music to your father”. Placing the magical keys in her hands the magician vanished. Mel took a closer look at the keys. The one in her right hand had a golden glow. In her left hand she held a key that felt like a frosty -fire mixture. When she accidently touched the tree trunk with the keys, the tree started changing shape. Five of the top branches bent over and turned into horizontal lines while five strong roots stretched out of the tree trunk down bellow. Mel felt the first key pull towards the higher branches and saw it turn into a magnificent letter G, followed by many little round black circles. The key in Mel's left hand started moving restlessly and as she bent over to the five lower lines she felt the key pull until it found its place. A strong and mighty letter F emerged, followed by more of those little round black circles. Mel had to suppress a grin, because unlike the glamorous G, the letter F was a bit of a failed attempt, with dots instead of lines. Still, they were both pretty impressive, she thought. Meanwhile, the black circles were running up and down the lines and spaces formed by the tree’s branches but they couldn’t cross over from the high G clef branches to the low F clef ones. “Oh, if only we had a bridge to help us”, they cried, waving to one another across the big gap. “Well”, said an unfamiliar voice,” I think I can help you. I’m Middle C and I have my own private line going through my middle. I can be the bridge, but please don’t just run around randomly. You are music notes and need to follow the rules. We have lines and spaces and each one has a name, and we have long notes and short notes and…” but Middle C couldn’t finish his explanation: the notes were gone, climbing up and down the new grand staff and beautiful tunes emerged from the tree. Mel listened to the music and finally understood how they could preserve the tree’s tunes: if she could draw the lines and notes for him at home, her father would recover and they would have the music ready for the king’s feast! “This is real magic”, thought Mel, as she rushed home. But her joy was too early. Tony was quite weak by the time Mel arrived, and although she quickly drew up the grand staff and wrote down all the notes, nothing happened. What was wrong? Why didn’t she hear the music from the music tree? She had the melody notes in the right order, but the magic didn’t happen! “Help, oh please someone help!” cried Mel in despair. Luckily her sisters Ruth and Harm quickly ran into the room. Hearing Mel’s explanations, they exclaimed “how silly of you to think you could do this on your own without us! We have very little time left, but we can still manage”. Ruth and Harm skillfully re-organized the notes and suddenly the music from the tree resounded in the room. Tony smiled, and sat up in bed. “I am going to be healthy very soon now”, he said. “And it is time the three of you knew your real names. Melody, Rhythm and Harmony. You sisters must always stick together; you are a great team!” “So we will be able to bring the music from the music tree to the king, and to the village, and the tree’s music will even be there hundreds of years from now!” cried the three daughters. From that day onwards people could enjoy the gifts of the music tree at any place and time, once they learned how to use the magic of note reading and writing. Warm musical greetings Nurit Reuveni
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