[Perform-Talk] Braille Music Advice Pulled from the Archives

[Ella Yu]

Hey everyone,
Because I love to poke around archives and whatnot, I have found quite a
few volumes of the Musical Mainstream, the music magazine published by the
NLS (National Library Service) on HathiTrust
<https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000520522>. These volumes contain a
number of articles where Bettye Krolick, who we know was one of the world's
foremost braille music experts, answers readers questions on braille music
reading and learning. I have extracted the articles and attached it here
for easy reading and access. Yes, many of these articles have musical
examples attached, which I unfortunately can't access or obtain, and yes,
some of the information is not as relevant today, as these articles were
published between 1977 and 1983, but I think you'll still find some really
good and interesting information in here.
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The Musical Mainstream

Braille Music Reading Questions
By Bettye Krolick

1977

January/February

The music reading question for this issue has two parts and speaks to two common concerns of braille music readers.
Q. When a piece of music has been brailled, I am forced to accept that one edition, though sometimes the music is brailled in an old style that I cannot read. What can I do about this?
A. Although the Library of Congress collection of braille music is only fourteen years old, it contains more than twenty-four thousand items. Still, there are many titles not available at all, so priority must be given to new titles rather than new editions. New editions are gradually being added to the collection.
Something can be done, however, about your statement that "the music is brailled in an old style that I cannot read."
That is the purpose of this column: to help you with reading problems and to show you that you can read music brailled in different styles or methods. A large part of the music braille code has remained unchanged since Louis Braille presented it in 1829 and revised it a few years later.
Braille music shown in an 1846 publication contains the same notes, note values, accidentals, time signature, double bar, and octave signs that we use today. The published results of the first International Congress of Cologne, held in 1888, includes "grouping" and "doubling" as well as intervals, pedal signs, string signs, position signs, in-accords, the various types of repeat signs and segnos, mordents, expression marks, etc. This means that if you read Bar-over-Bar music well you can also read music written in a variety of other styles or methods. After some sleuthing unravels the mystery of how the music is written, your basic knowledge of the braille music code will tell you what is written, since the majority of the code is the same in any format.
In the full-page example following this column, I have written the same music in three different formats. They represent the Paragraph, Bar-over-Bar, and Bar-by-Bar types of styles. There will be variations within each style as transcribed by different presses in different decades, but these variations will not be as drastic as the differences between styles or formats. Actual comparison of the same music in the three styles should be more helpful than discourse. I suggest that you stop reading at this point, examine the example care- fully, and then return for whatever explanations you need.
The normal thirty-eight-cell braille line has been shortened to twenty cells per line for the example in the large-type edition.
Paragraph Style. The entire eight bars of the right hand (M.D.) part is followed by the same eight bars of the left hand (M.G.) part. Intervals of the right hand read downward in this example as in much paragraph style music. Intervals read up in the left hand part and also in the right hand part of some paragraph style music, especially that transcribed in England. The number at the beginning is a serial section number.
The next right hand paragraph will be labeled “2."
Bar-by-Bar Style. Intervals read up in both parts. Each measure is complete and is separated by the bar line (dots 1-2-3) from the next measure. As shown in the first measure, the left hand part is given first followed by the right hand part, with a space between the two. This pattern continues for each measure although the hand signs are not repeated unless a change of pattern occurs. The repeat sign following the first bar line means that the left hand part of measure two is the same as the left hand part of measure one. The fourth octave D after the space is the first note of the right hand part for measure two. When a repeat applies to both hands, it is shown only once. The sign⠀⠀⠀⠀ means "count back four measures and play the first three of them" with both hands. The marginal measure numbers refer to the first complete measure on each line. Numbering systems vary, and this is an interesting variation I have found in several types of music.
Octave Signs. There are many variations in the use of octave signs even in music being transcribed today. None of these variations affects the basic rules, however. Here are the rules published in Musical Notation for the Blind, (British and
Foreign Blind Assoc., London, 1888): “The first note in a piece of music, or a main part of it, must always be preceded by its octave mark. For the succeeding notes the following rules apply: If the next note forms an ascending or descending second or third, it does not receive an octave mark, even if it is not in the same octave as the marked note. If it forms an ascending or descending fourth or fifth, it only receives an octave mark, if it is not in the same octave as the first marked note. A note which is placed at an interval of a sixth or more from the marked note always receives an octave mark."
Modern transcriptions include octave signs after every abbreviation, at the beginning of every line or measure, in every part of an in-accord, etc. These are all helpful reminders, but a note that does not have an octave sign will always be a second or a third from the last note of its part, or it will be a fourth or a fifth that does not enter a new octave.
Variations on these and other formats can be challenging, exasperating, and intriguing. The realization that the basic symbols remain the same should help you unravel many mysteries. When a mystery remains locked, however, send the example to Mrs. Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C. 20542. I love to find answers and will continue this reading column as long as you are willing to send questions and comments.

May/June

The question for this issue comes from a reader who asks me to explain how to read braille music segnos. Segnos or signs are found in instrumental, keyboard, and vocal music, and in popular as well as classical selections.
A segno may be a part of the print music, or it may be purely a braille device. In either case it marks a section of music that will be repeated. Usually another section of music appears between the end of the segno passage and the place where the "D.S." or "dal segno" occurs.
A few basic braille signs are used with some variations. All but one of these involves the same sign as the interval of a third, so these signs must be preceded by a space in order to be read as segno or dal segno indications. I have listed the signs with their definitions in the order in which they would be found in the music.
When preceded and followed by a space, a segno or sign.
The section of music following this sign and ending with the sign: will be repeated later in the piece.
When preceded and followed by a space, a braille segno.
The second half of the sign is the letter A to indicate the first braille segno. If later segnos occur, they will be followed by the letters B, C, etc. The section of music following this sign and ending with the sign will be repeated later in the piece.
This marks the end of a passage that will be repeated later either as a braille segno or as a da capo. This sign has this meaning only if it is followed by a space, a music hyphen, or a double bar.
When preceded by a space, dal segno or D.S. Return to the segno sign in the music.
When preceded and followed by a space, dal segno or D.S. to segno A and play seven measures. This is a braille device that does not appear in the print. Subsequent dal segnos will be lettered B, C, etc. The final number will always indicate how many measures are in the section to be repeated.
When preceded by a space, dal segno and play to the sign
This variation of the D.S. simply shows the number of measures (seven) in the segno passage.
The first two signs on that list are sometimes accompanied by a star embossed in the margin. This is helpful because the first time through the music no action is taken until you reach a D.S. or dal segno. (This may be written out or it may be indicated in one of the four ways shown on the above list.) At the D.S. indication, you must find the original segno sign and play to the end of the segno passage. This may be the Fine or the end of the piece. If not, the music continues after the D.S. indication.
There are two more signs of a similar nature that must also be preceded by a space.
A print coda sign. In the second time through the music, go from this directly to the coda.
The beginning of the coda.
All of the above are road signs that may seem to indicate a maze the first time around. Actually, they map the route to easy memorizing while indicating the form and the shape of the music. The rondo form of instrumental music or repeated vocal refrains, for instance, become easy to recognize and to memorize with the use of braille segnos.
I do appreciate having specific questions to answer in this column. I invite easy as well as complex questions. I will answer you directly and then use general questions for future columns. Write to Mrs. Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington D.C. 20542.

July/August

This column is open to any questions from the beginning to the most advanced level. The questions for this issue range from popular music to classical ornamentation.
From a reader in Yakima, Washington: In the voice and guitar part of the piece I Write the Songs (issued as an insert in the New Braille Musician), the words "Tacet Introduction" are written twice near the beginning. Why are they written twice, and what do they mean?
Tacet means silent and is used in music when a voice or instrument has nothing to sing or play. This popular piece you mention is written in a three-line parallel consisting of word line, guitar line, and music line. There are no words during the introduction, so the word line says "Tacet Introduction." Tacet also appears in the guitar chord line to indicate silence. The music line is the third line of the parallel, and it contains four bars of rest. The next parallel begins with measure five and has two word-lines because there are two verses. You will probably never confuse word and music lines in vocal music. Rarely if ever does music make sense in literary braille or vice versa.
Why is the melody for I Write the Songs written out in music, while the chord symbols are written in letters?
Many more chord symbols are being used in print music today than in the past, and the way of writing them in print has changed since the code of short-form scoring in braille was devised.
There is no special braille music code notation for such chords as Dm (#7) and Gm7/C, which appear in this piece.
However, they can be written in literary braille, so the print is followed exactly. The numbers, letters, parentheses, accidentals, and so forth all appear just as they do in print. Notice also that the guitar chords are aligned over the music so that the first letter of any chord is directly above the note or the rest where the chord change should occur. A measure is sometimes broken with the music hyphen and continued after a space so that the proper music sign can align with the first letter of a chord.
From a reader in Washington, D.C.: Please list all the braille music signs for ornamentation, with examples of their meaning.
Here is a list of all the braille ornaments I know. If you know of others that have been used in press braille, please send them in to complete the list. Following each definition I have given one possible example. The greatest number of signs for ornamentation appear in early editions, and scholars are far from unanimous concerning their interpretation. (In later editions, the ornaments are often notated in music instead of being indicated by sign.) To be helpful I include an example as a general guideline to performance, but execution depends upon a number of variables including rhythm. Some of the signs have the same meaning as others. A transcriber's note in a particular piece of music may specify that one or more of the unusual ornament signs has a different meaning in that transcription.
The following list is arranged according to the standard order of braille characters. Each sign is followed by its definition, a musical example, and one possible interpretation of that example.
Braille Musical Ornaments
Nachschlag. Indicates a lower grace note that follows and takes its time from the preceding note.
Turn between the two notes that follow.
Inverted turn between the two notes that follow.
Trill that begins with an inverted turn.
Extended upper mordent that begins with an inverted turn.
Extended lower mordent beginning with an inverted turn.
Trill beginning with an inverted turn and ending with a normal turn.
Extended upper mordent beginning with a turn.
Extended lower mordent beginning with a turn.
Trill beginning and ending with a turn.
Short grace note or acciaccatura.
Short grace note or acciaccatura within a chord.
Precedes the member of the chord which has the short grace note. This member may be the main note or an interval of the chord. Reading intervals upwards:
Trill.
Trill ending with a turn.
Trill ending with an inverted turn.
In print, a descending curve preceding a note. Indicates an upper grace note.
In print, a curve over dots above a note. The number of dots regulates the number of staccatos, and the sign may be inverted if the bebung is printed below the note.
Extended upper mordent beginning with a turn.
equals⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Note of anticipation.equals
In print, a mordent under a turn (rare).
Long grace note or appoggiatura.
Upper mordent.
Lower mordent.
Extended upper mordent.
Extended upper mordent ending with an inverted turn.
Extended lower mordent.
Extended lower mordent ending with a turn.
Extended lower mordent ending with an inverted turn.
Extended upper mordent ending with an inverted turn.
Extended upper mordent ending with a turn.
Extended upper mordent ending with an inverted turn.
Extended upper mordent ending with a turn.
Nachschlag. Indicates an upper grace note that follows and takes its time from the preceding note.
Passing note.
Turn shown above or below the note in print.
Inverted turn shown above or below the note in the print.
In print, an ascending curve preceding a note.
Indicates a lower grace note.
Extended upper mordent beginning with an inverted turn.
Any accidental may be used to modify these ornaments. An accidental precedes the ornament it modifies, and it applies to the upper note of the ornament unless it is preceded by dot 6. Accidentals preceded by dot 6 apply to the lowest note of the ornament figure. For example:
If fingering is given, it appears after the note which follows the ornament sign.
Some of the music written in the note-for-note method has special ornament signs and some of it uses the conventional signs. If the following signs are found in music written in the note-for-note method, they are ornaments.
Trill.
Short grace note or acciaccatura.
Turn shown above or below the note in print.
Upper mordent.
Lower mordent.
Extended upper mordent.
Extended lower mordent.
Turn between the two notes that follow.
Long grace note or appoggiatura.
Please send me your questions. Address them to Mrs. Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C. 20542.

September/October

Our column this month starts with two questions and a single answer.
Q: I will be assisting a recently blinded student who has learned to read braille. What titles are available concerning braille music notation for a beginner? (A Connecticut reader.)
Q: I am trying to learn to read braille music. Could you please devote part of your column to the basics so that a beginner can learn the notes and other musical signs? (An Ohio reader.)
A: My own request to the Library of Congress several years ago made me realize that there was no self-help beginning resource written specifically for the literary braille reader who wanted to learn music braille. After teaching a number of young people and adults to read braille music, I compiled my own materials, prepared them for a fifth grade reading level, and had them published. A thermoform braille copy of my booklet, How to Read Braille Music, book 1, may be borrowed from the Music Section, DBPH, or it may be purchased for $2.70 from the Braille Book Bank, 85 Godwin Avenue, Midland Park, New Jersey 07432. Print copies are $1.50 each when ordered from Stipes Publishing Company, 10-12 Chester Avenue, Champaign, Illinois 61820.
Another resource for a beginning reader is the Primer of Braille Music, new revised edition, by Edward W. Jenkins. Print copies for teachers and braille copies for blind individuals are available on loan from DBPH. Both may be purchased from the American Printing House for the Blind, 1839 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40206. Since these materials are available, I will not devote this column to repeating that basic information, but I will be glad to answer questions you may still have after referring to these sources. Questions on all levels are welcome. They will be answered by return mail, and questions of general interest will be used in future columns.
Q: In the example I have enclosed, what does the sign: (dots 4-5, 1-4) mean? The new definition for this sign in the 1930 supplement to Braille Music Notation states that it is a "tie or accumulating arpeggio into the following chord" which seems to indicate two uses for the same sign. That definition also states that this sign was formerly: (dots 4-6, 1-4), yet I know that the latter is still used. (A New York reader.)
A: In your example the sign was an accumulating arpeggio. Yes, there are two possible meanings, and the history of this sign is fascinating.
The sign for a tie is one of the very few braille music signs that has changed since the first international congress of Cologne, in 1883. At that time the sign (dots 1-4) was designated both as a slur and as a tie. If this sign occurred between two notes of the same pitch, it was assumed to be a tie. A problem occurred when two notes of the same pitch were actually intended to be slurred rather than tied. In this instance, a dot 4 was placed before the slur sign to distinguish it from a tie. The resulting sign (dots 4, 1-4) that meant two notes should be slurred and not tied is the same sign we know today for two notes that should be tied.
The use of the slur sign for both a slur and a tie was apparently short lived, and other variations. evolved. The sign (dots 4-5, 1-4) became the sign for a tie between two notes of the same pitch, and the sign (dots 4-6, 1-4) became the sign for an accumulating arpeggio as well as for a chord tie. Although never internationally approved, these signs became widely used. Many music transcriptions done in press braille before 1930 are still in use today, and many of these contain the above signs. Since the accumulating arpeggio does not occur frequently, the sign to watch for is (dots 4-5, 1-4). In the early transcriptions, this indicates a tie between two notes of the same pitch. In later transcriptions, it in- dicates an accumulating arpeggio.
At the International Congress on Braille Music Notation of 1929, the following signs and meanings were officially approved: (dots 4, 1-4) Tie. (dots 4-5, 1-4) Accumulating arpeggio. (dots 4-6, 1-4) Chord tie.
I have prepared some illustrations showing the uses of each of these signs. Figure 1 shows three examples using the single-note tie sign. Look at the examples before you read the explanation.
In (a) each section of the in-accord has its own tie. Fifth octave C of the first measure is tied to fifth octave C of the second measure, and fourth octave E of the first measure is tied to fourth octave E of the second measure.
In (b) the G in the first measure is followed by a tie sign. In the second measure, G does not appear as a note name. Instead it appears as a third interval below B. Therefore, the G of the first measure is tied to the G which is a member of a chord in the second measure.
In (c) the tie sign follows a chord, but since it is a single-note tie sign, it affects only the interval of a sixth (C) out of that chord. In the next chord the B and its third interval (G) are played while the fifth interval (C) is tied over from the previous chord. The result is the familiar "Amen" chord progression with one note held.
The sign for a chord tie: (dots 4-6, 1-4) is used when two or more notes of a chord are to be tied to the next chord. Figure 2 contains three parts. See if you can read all of the music before you look at the explanation.
In (a) the entire chord is tied over to the next measure.
In (b) the same chord tie sign is used, but the second chord contains one different note. Therefore, every note is tied except the octave interval (C), which moves to a flat seventh (B flat).
In (c) only two members of the chord are tied over. These are F and A-flat. Although they are represented by different intervals in the second chord, they are the same notes. The flat is good for the entire measure. It does not have to be repeated in the second chord, even though the A in the second chord is represented by a different interval sign (a sixth) from the interval sign for the A in the first chord (a fifth).
The accumulating arpeggio sign (dots 4-5, 1-4) appears after the first note to be held. Each succeeding note is also tied until the chord appears. See if you can read the examples in figure 3 before you read the explanation.
In (a) the triplet notes are accumulated and tied to the half note chord.
In (b) the four grace notes are held down as they are played, and they are tied over into the half note chord. In some modern transcriptions a chord tie is inserted just before the chord as an additional help to the reader.
Figure 1. Read intervals downward.
Figure 2. Read intervals upward.
Figure 3. Read intervals upward.
In (c) the three sixteenth notes are accumulated and tied, but the following measure contains an in-accord. In this case, the first note of the tied chord appears at the beginning of the second measure, and the other two notes of the chord appear after the in-accord sign.
Now that you understand the meanings, uses, and history of these signs, it should not be difficult to read them accurately. In early transcriptions be aware of the possible different meanings and then be guided by the contents of the musical passage.
Q: May we send our questions to you on tape? (A Connecticut reader.)
A: Yes, your questions may be sent by print or braille letter, or by tape. Braille is the best way, of course, to show me a specific example which is giving you problems. If you have questions, comments, or requests regarding music library services, please write directly to the Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20542. Braille music reading questions should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, care of the Music Section.

November/December

Do you have a friend who tran- scribes music for you in one of the following areas: theory and harmony books, popular music, folk songs, and classical guitar or sacred vocal music that involves canticle or chant-type notation?
The transcription manual deals only briefly with this subject, but you may have devised suitable procedures in cooperation with your transcriber if you are so fortunate as to have someone transcribing music for you. Good news! By the time you receive this issue, new transcribing guidelines should be available for music in these areas. That, of course, will benefit you by making it easier to get transcribers to take assignments of this type and by ensuring greater uniformity of the transcriptions. Write to me to obtain these guidelines and specify what particular help is needed and whether to send the material in print or in braille. In forthcoming issues I will explain how to read the new signs that are involved in each of these areas, and I will give priority to the guidelines most frequently requested in your letters.
Now a question from a reader.
Q: What does ___ mean?
A: That is a metronome marking. It means that the tempo of an eighth note equals 54 on the metronome.
The confusing part of this group of characters is the repeated use of the sign with dots 2-3-5-6. That sign has two meanings. It indicates parentheses surrounding this group of characters, and it also is used as the equal sign between the eighth note and the number 54. Most metronome markings appear without the parentheses in braille, although it is common to find parentheses around a metronome marking in print. Parentheses indicate that the metronome marking is not an original part of the composition.
Since the metronome was not manufactured until 1816, all the metronome markings in the works of J. S. Bach, for instance, have been added editorially and are often surrounded in print parentheses to indicate this fact.
The first element of the metronome sign itself is the note C. C is commonly used for a note of inde- terminate pitch. This is true of percussion music, of notes to be spoken, and of the metronome indications as well. The important part of the metronomic indication is the rhythmic value of the note C.
In addition to values such as eighth note, quarter note, and half note, dotted notes may be used. Example 1 means that a dotted half note equals 54 on the metronome.
Ex. 1. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This type of presentation may also be found without a number.
It simply shows two note values in order to equate them. This may indicate a change of pace in the music or a continuation of the same pace. For example, when changing from 4/4 time to cut time, the musician may find the signs shown in example 2.
Ex. 2.
Example 2 indicates that a quarter note in the old tempo equals a half note in the new tempo. Or, if the meter changes from 2/4 time to 6/8 time, you may find the signs shown in example 3.
Ex. 3. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Example 3 indicates that a quarter note equals a dotted quarter note. The pulse remains constant.
Q: In piano music, how do you know whether an expression mark applies to one hand or to both hands?
A: I can give you some guidance, but the final answer will depend on the quality of your musical judgemént. As a rule, if an expression mark appears in the right-hand part or on a free line above the music, it applies to both hands. If it occurs in the left-hand part, it most likely applies only to that part. There are exceptions to this, however, and you must always examine the musical context to see if an expression mark applies to the right hand only, or if there are other factors to consider.
Expression marks in the print copy appear above, below, or between staves. The transcriber makes a musical judgement and tries to place these indications between the notes of the right-hand part if they seem to apply to both hands. Sometimes, though, it is not possible to put an indication in the right-hand part. For instance, if the melodic line starts in the left-hand part and continues into the right-hand part, the pertinent dynamic or expression must be at the beginning of the theme in the left-hand part of the braille transcription even though it eventually applies to both parts.
Crescendos and diminuendos shown in print with diverging or converging lines are an example of expression marks that generally apply to both hands if they appear in the right-hand part of the braille transcription. These lines start out in one location on the composer's manuscript. When printed, they are adjusted slightly by the printer to accommodate other markings on the page. The transcriber must take these markings from below or between the staves in print and insert them between specific notes in braille. The result gives an indication of the composer's intention, not an exact duplication of his manuscript. The interpretation initially depends upon the markings on the braille page; but ultimately it depends upon the skill and, most of all, the musicianship of the performer.
Note: Please direct your braille music reading questions to Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C. 20542. I will answer all questions directly and also use them in this column. Your questions are invaluable to the continuance and success of this column.

1978

January/February

It has been just over a year since I began writing this column. I took on the task with the specific stipulation that it would be continued only as long as you responded to the column and gave me an indication of your interest. As I begin the 1978 series, I wish to express my appreciation to all who wrote or sent tapes. Your generous response has made it challenging and fun to write about braille music.
A reader has requested that I discuss doubling, and has sent me an example to explain. The example is lengthy; consequently it has not been included in the cassete edition. If you wish a braille copy of this illustration, the Library will send it to you upon request. The two-page illustration in the print edition has a shortened braille line of eighteen cells.
Doubling is the braille device that allows a sign to remain in effect without constantly being repeated. In literary braille, doubling is used for italics; in music braille, it is used for many different signs, although it has no parallel in print music. It is found only in the braille transcription of that music.
A sign is doubled when it is written in succession. This indicates that there will be at least four repetitions of that particular feature of the music. A doubled sign remains in effect until the single form of the sign occurs to mark the final use of the sign in that series. Occasionally a sign is redoubled. If a sign is doubled, it remains in effect (whether or not it was doubled before) and if a sign is not doubled, it should be used only once (whether or not that is the end of a doubling).
Doubling that precedes an in-accord sign has no effect on the music following an in-accord sign.
Doubling always carries over to the same section of the following measure.
A doubled interval sign may be preceded by an accidental (sharp, flat, etc.). That accidental applies only to the first occurrence of the interval. An accidental may not be doubled, so the sign for an accidental does not affect the remaining intervals that are implied during a doubled passage. An exception is the octave interval sign.
The doubling example on page 55 provides several illustrations of these general rules. The example is an excerpt from a piano arrangement of The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofé. The music is in 4/4 time, and the key signature has two sharps. Examine the right-hand part of m.15 (measure 15), the first measure in the example.
The right-hand part of m.15 has a doubled agogic accent (dots 4-5-6, 2-3-6) before the second note, and doubled intervals of a fourth and a seventh following the same note. Look ahead to find the next sign for an agogic accent in the right-hand part.
The sign appears once near the end of m.17. A music sign retains its normal relationship to a note both when it is doubled and when it returns to mark the end of a series. Since an accent sign precedes the note it modifies, you now know that every right-hand chord from the second eighth note of m.15 through the final note of m.17 is to be played with the long stress that an agogic accent indicates.
Now locate the next interval signs of a fourth and a seventh in the right-hand part.
M.19 contains those interval signs in the right-hand part. Therefore every chord from the second eighth of m.17 through the first half-note chord of m.19 consists of a fourth and a seventh interval.
When the doubling of an interval changes, every member of the chord is usually accounted for. If the doubling of the fourth was to end and the doubling of the seventh was to continue, the interval of a seventh would have been redoubled in m.19. Since both these interval signs occur only once in the right-hand part of that measure, however, the doubling does not continue for either interval. A sixth interval sign appears in that same chord, though, and it is doubled.
That indicates the beginning of a series of sixths. The first sixth is to be sharped, but the sharp sign will not affect subsequent sixths. The notes in the first chord of m.19 are fifth octave F and C, fourth octave A sharp, and fourth octave G. The notes in the second chord of that measure are fifth octave E and fourth octave G. The F and C of the first chord will be sharped because of the key signature. Now look for doubling in the left-hand part of m.15.
The left-hand part of m.15 has no doubling before the in-accord sign.
After the in-accord sign, the accent and the interval of a sixth are doubled. Now locate the next accent sign in the left-hand part.
The very next accent sign in the left-hand part occurs near the beginning of m.16, but since this accent is before the in-accord sign, it has no effect on the series of accents that occur in the section of the measure written after the in-accord sign. (Doubling carries over to the same section of the following measure.) Now look for the next accent sign that follows an in-accord.
In the left-hand part of m.17 the accent sign that ends the series of accented chords is near the end of the measure. I am sure you noticed many arpeggio signs (dots 3-4-5, 1-3). The arpeggio sign is one that may not be doubled, and the example shows how repetitive the music would be without the doubling device. Keeping track of what is doubled does not seem so difficult when you imagine what the music would look like with all the accent and interval signs written out. Now locate the end of the series of sixths in the left-hand part.
In the left-hand part of this example, every chord that is written after the in-accord sign should contain the interval of a sixth. The signs for a sixth that occur before an in-accord do not affect this series of sixths. Although the reader did not send me the left hand part of m.19, I know that the series ends with the final chord of m.18.
In the right-hand part of m.18 the slur sign is doubled. The single sign occurs at the very end of m.19 and indicates that the first note of m.20 will be the last note of that slur.
The left-hand part of m.18 also has a doubled slur sign in this remarkable example of the use of the braille doubling device in music.
Note: Requests for the braille illustration as well as your questions and comments, which are vital to the continuation of this column, should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20542.

May/June

One of the concerns mentioned by readers in their letters to this column has been the desire to know about new developments or changes in the music code. This month's column is devoted to a new format for popular and folk music that has not yet been officially adopted but is being field-tested for possible addition to the music code.
This format is used in Popular Music Lead Sheet, no. 1, recently sent to all Musical Mainstream subscribers. I anticipate questions about it such as, Why are the chord symbols aligned with the words when in other publications the chord symbols are aligned with the melody? Why are there so many different systems for writing popular music? Who decides which system to use?
Here is some background information about popular music formats and some details concerning the process that led to this latest format.
The format problem of popular music centers around the presentation of the chord symbols provided for guitar, autoharp, or any other instrument capable of playing chords to accompany the singer. In print, the chord symbols consist of letters, numbers, accidentals, and a few other signs such as the plus and minus signs. These combinations form symbols such as D7 to represent a D seventh chord and Fm6 to represent an F minor sixth chord. The chord symbols are aligned with both the words and the music. Often a keyboard part is included, so that chord symbols, words, melody, and accompaniment are all aligned vertically, count by count, on the same page.
Some of the difficulty concerning the transcription of this music stems from the fact that it is inordinately awkward and highly impractical to vertically align braille words with braille music.
In braille, the words are correlated with the melody by other means, and the keyboard accompaniment is transcribed separately in bar-over-bar format. The chord symbols can be aligned with the accompaniment, the words, or the melody, but not all three as in print.
In the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation, 1956, Mr. Spanner calls these chord symbols short-form scoring, and he gives two solutions for their transcription. One solution has special braille symbols for the chord symbols (Table 24) and instructions for writing these symbols in the music line (paragraphs 289-298). Each symbol is given a time value to show how long it remains in effect, and it is placed in the music line at the end of the measure in which it occurs. It is separated from the melody by the short-form scoring prefix, dots 6, 3-6. The other solution (mentioned briefly in paragraph 282) is called the facsimile method, and in it the chord symbols are written with literary braille letters and numbers. In the facsimile method the symbols are written on a separate line and vertically aligned with the notes in the melody.
The first of these short-form scoring systems was used when popular music inserts were first included with the New Braille Musician (the forerunner to this magazine). Readers called and wrote to say they had no listing of the special symbols and did not understand the system.
Trancription was also difficult since the list of special symbols in Table 24 does not include many of the chord symbols found in the print music of today. Because of these reactions, a change was made to the facsimile solution shown in the Manual. Literary symbols were used, and these were aligned with the melody on a separate line of the parallel. Many transcription problems arose, however, that were not covered in paragraph 282 of the Manual, and in 1972 these questions were referred to the AAWB-AEVH Braille Authority's Advisory Committee on Braille Music Notation working under the chairmanship of John di Francesco. This advisory committee felt that both Canada and England had also apparently found the Manual inadequate and had devised their own systems.
The Canadian melody-chord system has its own set of special symbols for short-form scoring. Like Spanner's short-form symbols, these are written with appropriate rhythmic value in the music line.
The Canadian symbols are generally more concise than Spanner's, and they occupy fewer cells. The disadvantages of both systems are that there are new special symbols to learn and that unless expanded to include new signs, the systems have no provision for many of the symbols found in recently published popular music.
The English system used by RNIB is the most concise of all. A single cell names the chord and also indicates whether it is major, minor, augmented, or diminished. The major disadvantage of this system (besides the fact that it adds more new symbols to be learned) is the placement of the symbols. The symbols are aligned with the piano accompaniment, not with either the words or the melody. A guitar player will find the words and melody on one page and the chord symbols on an entirely different page in the piano part! The symbols are written on a separate line of the parallel over the appropriate measure, but they do not indicate rhythmic value or show where chord changes occur within a measure. Again, there are many print chord symbols not provided for in the RNIB code.
During the change from the old Braille Authority to the new Braille Authority of North America (BANA), Florida State University launched a Visual Disabilities Braille Project and invited the former advisory committee to become the music research team for their project. All but one of the advisory committee were able to accept, enabling the study and research on music braille to continue uninterrupted. In the course of the project, the committee members became convinced that modern chord symbols can be written and read most effectively in literary braille. Thus they recommended the use of literary braille letters and numbers, a few music symbols such as flats and sharps, and the standard Nemeth signs for the plus and minus signs of the print. Their proposed system brings every chord symbol within the grasp of the braille reader although the symbols have the bulky characteristic of literary braille rather than the concise characteristic of music braille.
Once the research team reached agreement on the use of literary symbols, they approached the question of the most effective placement of these symbols.
Among other experiments, several songs were brailled aligning the chord symbols with the words rather than with the melody. (This is a necessity for lead sheets that give only the words and chord symbols.) The more they studied this format, the stronger their conviction that this was the best solution.
The literary chord symbols are associated with the literary braille of the words, producing an immediate alignment of those two elements.
The words and chords can be understood by persons who do not read braille music notation and those who do. The melody line is still provided, and it is no longer broken up to provide space for the chord symbols.
As this article is written (February 1978) guidelines for transcription have been prepared and distributed for field-testing. Since Popular Music Lead Sheets, no. 1, was mailed to all Mainstream subscribers, you have the opportunity to examine this format, to participate in the field-testing, and to offer your comments pro or con by writing to me. As a member of the research team studying this problem since 1972, I will share your comments with my co-workers. Your questions and comments are vital to the continuation of this column and should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, Music Section, Division for the Blind and Physic Hicapped, Library of Congress, Wshington, D.C. 20542.

July/August

Q: I am studying some Bach two-part inventions. I have figured out that the music starts with the right hand, but I cannot tell when the left hand comes in and which notes the left hand should play.
A: I had the pleasure of answering this query in person while on a business trip to Arizona. The reader, whom I shall call Debby, was quite competent in reading notes and most other signs in the music code.
Formats, however, were confusing to her.
Debby had borrowed two pieces from the Library of Congress central braille music collection. Neither was written in the familiar bar-over-bar format, and although Debby did not realize it, they were written in two different formats, both uitilizing paragraphs instead of parallels.
Most readers in the United States are already used to piano music written on two lines, with the right-hand part above the left-hand part.
The combination of these two lines is called a parallel, and if the beginning of each measure is aligned vertically in both parts, the format is bar-over-bar. Since in bar-over-bar format there is one line for each part, trios in this format are written in a three-line parallel, and quartets are written in a four-line parallel.
A great deal of music has been transcribed in paragraphs instead of parallels. Like a literary paragraph, a music paragraph starts on an indented line and continues with lines that begin at the margin. The next indented line indicates the beginning of a new paragraph. Some- times a paragraph contains one part, just as each line of a parallel gives one part. The next paragraph contains the next part. Other times a paragraph contains every part for a group of measures.
In the first piece, Debby found a left-hand sign followed by some notes, a right-hand sign followed by some notes, and then, since there were no more hand signs, she was not sure how to proceed. The second piece, the Bach two-part invention, started with a right-hand sign and showed no left-hand sign at all.
Not realizing this was in a different format, Debby felt she was somehow missing the indication that would tell her which notes to play with the left hand. Examples 1 and 2 illustrate the two formats she was trying to read.
Example 1 is piano music in bar-by-bar format. The first paragraph contains music for both hands. In bar-by-bar format all the parts of one measure are written starting with the lowest part and ending with the highest, with a space between each part. A bar line (dots 1-2-3) signals the end of one complete measure and the beginning of the next. Once the order is established, the hand or part signs are not repeated unless there is a change in the number of parts. Not only are the parts written from the lowest to the highest, but the intervals and chords are also written from the lowest note upward in all parts including the right-hand part.
Looking again at example 1 you will notice that the left hand begins with an eighth rest. This sign plus the beginning of a phrasing slur and the three eighth notes with their fingering are familiar signs to music readers. After the space, the dynamic indication "p" appears in the right-hand part just as it would appear in the right-hand part of bar-over-bar music. This is followed by two quarter notes with fingering.
Ex. 1. Bar-by-Bar Format
The bar-line sign that follows is always preceded and followed by a space. (Otherwise it would read as a third octave if it preceded a note, or as a third finger if it followed a note.) The fourth octave C after the bar line should be played by the second finger of the left hand according to the pattern established in the first measure. After the next space, the fifth octave E is the first note that the right hand plays in the second measure. This dotted quarter note is held by the fourth finger while the left hand plays three eighth notes. The paragraph contains eight complete bars of music.
The next paragraph begins with the number 2 to indicate that it is the second section of the piece. No hand sign follows this number, so the pattern remains constant and the first beat of the second section should be played by the left hand.
Example 2 is representative of a common format that is often identified in descriptive material, but seldom on the title page of a piece.
Authors refer to it variously as phrase-by-phrase, section-by-section, old style, and continental style. In this format each paragraph contains a single part for a group of measures, and that part is identified at the beginning of each paragraph. After all parts have been written in individual paragraphs, the next indented line begins with a number to indicate that a new section of the piece is starting. The set of paragraphs that make up this new section will also carry a hand or part sign for identification. Some pieces are divided into very long sections, some are divided into shorter musical phrases, and some are divided so that each section contains the measure from one print staff.
Ex. 2. "Phrase-by-Phrase" Format
Looking at example 2 you will see the right-hand part is written first.
This short paragraph is the right-hand part of the first eight measures. The next paragraph begins with the left-hand sign and is followed by the music the left hand should play during the first eight measures. The third paragraph starts the second section of the piece, and the right-hand sign is a reminder that this paragraph of music is for the right hand. There are a number of small variations in this format, but they should not bother the reader if he understands the basic purpose of the paragraphs.
In contrast to the bar-by-bar format shown in example 1, the intervals and chords in example 2 read downward in the right-hand part and upward in the left-hand part.
Occasionally a paragraph for the right hand will contain notes to be played by the left hand (or vice versa). The appropriate hand sign always precedes these notes, but unfortunately some music is written with the direction of intervals determined by the hand sign at the beginning of the paragraph, and in other music the immediate hand sign is the determining factor.
Some experimentation will be necessary to decide which system was applied, but the pattern should remain constant throughout a given composition.
If you have read the two examples carefully, you have discovered that the music is the same. I hope you have discovered, as Debby has, that the music signs are very familiar and that you can read music in these two formats as well as in bar-over-bar. Do not hesitate to send for music in a format that is strange to you. Examine the first few paragraphs, and the overall plan should become clear. The ability to read different formats enables you to read literally thousands of transcriptions that are not in bar-over-bar format in the Library of Congress collection.
Questions about braille music reading and suggested topics for discussion should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, Music Section, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C. 20542.

September/October

In-accords
"Please write about in-accords, especially part-measure in-accords with section marks" is a frequent request. I am delighted to write about in-accords because, even though they seem to get in the way at first, they actually provide a unique system of combining all the parts of a measure of music into a single entity.
These signs are used for in-accords:
Whole-measure in-accord
Part-measure in-accord
Section sign
A whole-measure in-accord sign indicates that there will be enough beats before the sign to make an entire measure, there will be a whole measure of beats after the sign, and that the measure is not complete without all the notes before and after the sign. Here is an example in three-four time.
The example above reads: fifth octave, C eighth, D eighth, E quarter, G quarter, in-accord with fourth octave, A quarter, G quarter, G quarter. There are three beats before the in-accord sign and three beats after it. Only three beats are needed to complete a measure, but all seven of those notes are essential to the single measure of music.
A part-measure in-accord serves the same function for part of a measure.
There should always be the same number of beats before and after the part-measure in-accord sign. The part of the measure that contains the in-accord is separated from the rest of the measure by the section sign (which even looks like a partition or wall). Here is another example in three-four time.
In the measure above, the two eighth notes before the sign equal the quarter note after it, and all three of these notes should be played during this portion (first beat) of the measure. After the "wall," or section sign, are two quarter-note chords: the remaining two beats of the measure.
Although I did not tell you to read these intervals downward, you would probably do it automatically, and that would be correct. Intervals are generally written the same direction as the in-accords; i.e., if the highest notes of the in-accord are written first, the highest notes of the chords are written first, and vice versa.
Did you recognize that both of the above examples contain identical music? Transcriptions are written either way, but in both cases the in-accord links an equal number of beats and all of the music is necessary to the one measure.
Uses of in-accords
In music for keyboard or stringed instruments, all of the in-accord parts are played simultaneously unless a word such as ossia or the small-note sign (dots 6, 2-5) indicate that notes are optional. In-accords are also used for other purposes. In music for wind instruments and in some percussion music, the in-accord presents separate parts to be played by more than one performer. In solo vocal music the notes following an in-accord sign may show a variation of the melody to match the syllables in the second verse of second language of the text, or they may show optional notes for the person capable of singing very high or low notes. In choral music the in-accord is more apt to present notes to be sung simultaneously by different members of the group.
When an in-accord sign appears at the end of a braille line, it is obvious that the measure will continue, so the music hyphen is not necessary. Each part of an in-accord should be read independently; accidentals, doublings, and repeats that occur before an in-accord sign do not affect the music after that in-accord sign. Doublings may be carried over to another measure, where they affect only the same part of the measure (before or after the in-accord) affected in the original measure. If the only sign preceding or following an in-accord is a repeat sign, the music in the corresponding part of the preceding measure should be repeated. There may be more than one in-accord in a measure, as you will see in the next example.
Example with in-accords
I have composed the following music for classical guitar to illustrate some of these points.
Read intervals down.
The following section is a description of each measure in the example.
If you had no trouble reading the music, skip to the final section to learn about old style in-accords.
Measure 1. Two whole-measure in-accords link three parts of the measure that each contain three beats of music. The first part has a quarter note and a half note; the second part has a quarter rest followed by two quarter-note chords; the third part has a dotted half note.
Measure 2. Again there are three parts to the measure. The first part has a quarter note and a half note; the second part is the same as the second part of measure 1, the third part is the same as the third part of measure 1.
Measure 3. Four eighth notes are followed by a section sign that indicates the measure will continue on the next line. There is no in-accord before the section sign, but a part-measure in-accord after the section sign links the two eighth notes (A, C) with the quarter-note F; all three of these notes will be played on the third beat with the proper rhythm. Then a whole-measure in-accord shows that all three beats before it (including all the notes in that part-measure in-accord) are linked to three more beats.
All these notes can be played on the classical guitar (or the piano) in the same measure.
Measure 4. The interval of a third is doubled, so every eighth note is played with a third interval below it. The doubling carries over to the next measure, but it does not affect the third octave E, a dotted half that is played in-accord with the eighth-note chords.
Measure 5. Fourth octave G, a dotted half is played with a third interval below, and the doubling continues. This chord is played in-accord with the eighth-note melody that follows the in-accord sign.
Measure 6. The doubling ends in this measure, and the chord is played in-accord with the eighth-note melody repeated from measure five.
Measure 7. The same as measure one.
Early transcriptions
In-accords have been a part of braille music throughout its history. Whole- measure in-accords were first introduced by Louis Braille and were officially approved at the Congress of Cologne in 1888. Early transcriptions may provide two surprises to the reader, but neither upsets the basic concepts.
You may find music in which the part-measure in-accord sign has a whole measure of beats before and after it with no section sign. The important thing to realize is that there are still an equal number of beats before and after the sign, and that all are included in the measure. If a section sign does appear, it will serve to separate the in-accord part of the measure from the remaining beats just as it does in modern transcriptions.
The other surprise is to find an in-accord measure with no octave signs.
In this case, you refer back to the corresponding part of the previous measure to determine the appropriate octave.
Example:
By playing only the first part of each measure in the example you will discover that each measure begins in the fifth octave; by playing only the second section of each measure, you will discover that the notes after the in-accord sign of each measure begin in the fourth octave.
In-accord signs not only link all parts of a measure into one entity, they also serve to unravel complex music into contrapuntal voices or parts that can be studied separately and thereby understood more clearly. As you develop your skill in reading in-accords, you will find you have unlocked one of the keys to reading all types of interesting braille music.
Questions and comments for this column should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, Music Section, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20542.

November/December

Early Braille Music Codes
An Arizona reader asks, "How many methods are there for writing braille music, and who invented this code?"
In the collection of braille music at National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Washington, D.C., I have found music written in twenty different methods or formats. Let me quickly add that some of these formats differ in name only, several are very closely related, and all emanate from one code invented by none other than Louis Braille. Music was so important to the lives of the young people at the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris where Louis Braille was a student and then a teacher that he worked on a system for music at the same time he was developing one for the alphabet. Braille became an accomplished organist and pianist and, in addition to academic classes, he taught music at this school.
In 1829, during the first year he was an apprentice teacher, Louis Braille published his system for writing words and music with dots.
In this publication the system for music was quite different from what we now know; it included some dashes mixed in with the dots. The idea of dots and dashes had originated with Charles Barbier, an artillery captain, who used it for writing during night maneuvers with the army. Braille refined Barbier's idea into a standard-sized cell that was composed of six dots, and he gradually eliminated the dashes as he perfected the system. By 1835 the music code had been revamped and was remarkably similar to modern braille notation.
In Les Aveugles Musiciens by J. Guadet (published in 1846) the musical example at the end of this article appears with a description of the braille system.
Notice that the key and time signature, octave signs, notes, rhyth- mic values, rests, accidentals, and bar lines were exactly the same then as they are now. It was Louis Braille who decided that octave signs are necessary for a skip of a sixth or larger, that they are not necessary for a skip of a third or less, and that fourths and fifths should be marked only when a note moves into a new octave. He also decided on the interval signs, the full-measure in-accord, repeats of various kinds, and a truly amazing percentage of the other signs that make up our modern music code.
Other music systems were being proposed in the first half of the nineteenth century. The earliest idea was to emboss a raised staff with the print symbols. When it became apparent that raised lines for staff, stem, slur, etc., were indistinguishable, experiments centered on systems using raised letters because books for the blind were being embossed in raised letters at that time.
A system proposed by Rousseau (no first name given) was limited to less than thirty notes. The first seven letters of the alphabet represented the first octave of the C scale, h through n represented the next octave, o through u was the third octave, and v started the fourth. Rhythmic values were approximated by the spacing of letters, numbers were used to indicate rests, and an apostrophe following a letter indicated a chord rather than a single note.
In a system devised by Johann Guadet the raised letters a, e, i, o, u, v, and x represented the seven note names, and these were combined with the numbers one through seven to indicate the octaves. Diacritical marks were placed over each letter to indicate rhythmic value, the print characters for sharp and flat indicated these signs, and parentheses surrounded chord notes.
Another system used a raised oneline staff and raised letters with print stems and flags attached. Still another had distinctive shapes along with the raised letters. The shapes (which are similar to Moon type) indicated the rhythmic value.
Blind people found raised dots easier to recognize than raised letters, but the major advantage was that dots could be easily and accurately written by the blind themselves. This same reason caused Louis Braille to eliminate the dashes from his first system for music. For his system Barbier had developed a sliding rule that moved between two guiding boards. The rule was equipped with windows through which a person with a stylus could press dots into heavy paper below. This sliding rule was easily converted to a slate with sixdot cells.
Accounts of the official acceptance of Braille's system in France do not agree. Apparently the music code was not published in its final form during his lifetime and its acceptance was a gradual process. I have found no substantiation for any official acceptance date, although individual authors give 1844, 1847, 1850, and 1852.
The music code of braille notation was introduced into England in 1871 and Germany in 1879. Minor discrepancies appeared among the French, English, and German versions, so a commission of representatives from France, England, Denmark, and Germany was established to reach an agreement on all details. The report of this commission was accepted by the four countries at a meeting in Cologne in 1888; thus we had the "Cologne key" and a precedent for future international cooperation.
Getting back to the number of formats mentioned at the beginning of this column, the agreement reached in Cologne specified that music should be written only in paragraphs. The paragraphs should be as short as possible and should be numbered consecutively. In music for keyboard, a paragraph for the right hand is followed by a paragraph for the left hand part of the same passage, and only the right hand paragraphs are numbered.
Chords and intervals for the right hand read down; for the left hand they read up. Vocal music starts with the entire voice part; this section is followed by all of the words.
The accompaniment is last, and may be divided into paragraphs.
At the end of this column is a bibliography of historical material. The Hayes Research Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Mass., has these books in print.
In the next few issues I shall describe more of the twenty formats in the NLS collection. Meanwhile, I will answer personally any questions you send. Because of several requests from blind composers, a future article will discuss how to get braille music transcribed into print. I am collecting ideas on this topic and welcome contributions from readers; the information you send will be shared with all. Write to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

1979

January/February

Music in Paragraphs
In the November-December 1978 issue of Musical Mainstream a question about formats for braille music led to a series of columns on the twenty or more different names used to describe music in the NLS collection in Washington, D.C. The first of this series touched briefly on the history of the music code invented by Louis Braille, mentioned other systems that were not successful, and ended with a description of the format approved by the Congress of Cologne, the first international commission on braille music notation.
In the format authorized at Cologne in 1888, braille music signs were arranged in paragraphs rather than in the parallel lines of modern U.S. transcriptions. Some countries still prefer to transcribe music in paragraphs rather than parallels, although the formats have become like countless variations to a musical theme. In this column I will consider the theme "music in paragraphs" and describe some of the variations in form and name that have evolved from the original usage. Future columns will describe two other themes (practices) with their variations. Since many braille pieces carry no format identification on the title page, a description is often more valuable than a name.
This column covers braille music that begins on an indented line and continues on several lines that start at the margin. These lines form a paragraph that contains music, literary text (in vocal music), or both. The term "paragraph format" is usually associated with the idea of having each part (flute, oboe, right hand, left hand, soprano, alto, etc.) written in a separate paragraph. Distinctly different formats, however, are also written in paragraphs, as you will note in the variations. The names for these formats have been taken from braille music, transcription manuals, and catalogs.
Paragraphs for each part
The first set of variations contains formats in which each paragraph has a single instrumental, vocal, or keyboard part. Only one paragraph may be needed to complete each part, but in most cases a composition will be divided into sets of paragraphs. Each paragraph in a set contains the same group of measures for one part. In these formats you will generally find that intervals read down in the right hand part of keyboard music, in women's voice parts, and in music for treble instruments. Intervals of other parts read up.
Section-by-section: The term indicates that the composition is divided into sections that may be musical segments, or may be simply a number of measures that will make similar-sized braille paragraphs. Some pieces have lengthy sections and some have much shorter divisions. Beginning with the second section, first paragraphs of sections are generally numbered, and the numbering is usually consecutive to the end of the composition.
Phrase-by-phrase: As the name implies, a definite effort is made to follow the musical structure; each set of paragraphs should begin and end according to phrasing. Sets of paragraphs may be numbered as in either section-by-section or stave-by-stave music. In addition, measure numbers may appear in parentheses at the beginning of each set of paragraphs. A dot 3 following a measure number indicates an incomplete measure.
Stave-by-stave: The composition is divided according to the staves on each print page. The sets of paragraphs are usually numbered like the print: each number one is the top staff of a print page, number two is the next staff, etc. Another form of numbering found at the beginning of paragraphs or pages consists of a lower-cell numeral followed by one or more upper-cell numerals. The lower number indicates the page and the upper number indicates the staff. Do not confuse this practice with similar numbering within a paragraph. The latter is a form of repeat in which the lower-cell number is a section number and the upper-cell position contains measure numbers to be repeated from that section.
Open Score: This term on a choral composition means that the music for each voice part is written in a separate paragraph rather than in a "short score" or "vertical score" - formats that will be described in a future column. Generally the text for all parts is combined in one paragraph or set of paragraphs. The text may precede or follow the music.
Old Style: This term, frequently used in catalogs of braille music, refers to music written in paragraphs with the pre-1929 signs and practices of braille transcription. In this music the sign (dots 4-5, 1-4) indicates a tie rather than an accumulating arpeggio. Octave signs, used according to the original rules, are not repeated after an in-accord sign or at the beginning of a new line unless specified by those rules. The following little verse from Introduction to Braille Music Transcription by Mary DeGarmo (used with permission) succinctly explains the basic rules for octave signs: parts are written individually and consecutively. They are identified only in the first measure of a paragraph unless a change occurs. A bar line (dots 1-2-3) is the identifying characteristic of this type of format, because it separates measures that contain two or more parts.
The composition is also divided into sections to keep paragraphs from being too long, and these sections are generally numbered according to one of the systems already described.
Bar-by-bar: Individual parts are written from the lowest part to the highest, intervals of every part read upward. NEVER mark a second or third; ALWAYS mark a sixth or more; Fourth or fifth, ONLY IF it should leave the octave. Other minor differences occur, including the fact that dot 3 is not used to separate a literary abbreviation from a music symbol, but the majority of signs have the same meaning in both Old Style and modern transcriptions.
Paragraphs for all parts
The second set of variations consists of formats in which each paragraph contains music for all parts or instruments. For each measure, up, and a space comes between parts and before and after bar lines.
Recently I obtained a German manual of braille music notation in which the Czecholslovakian bar-by-bar format for keyboard music is described. In the Czech variation the right hand part appears first with intervals reading down! This part is followed by the left hand and pedal parts with intervals reading up. Instead of a space between parts (dots 6, 3) is used as a hyphen or connector. If you encounter bar-by-bar music with the right hand part first and connecting dots between parts, remember that intervals read down in the right hand part.
New Style: This term is found on music transcribed in London around 1918. It describes a bar-by-bar format that used the signs and rules of pre-1929 transcriptions discussed above under Old Style. The substitution method of notating pitches is sometimes found in this music, indicated by a three-cell prefix consisting of a sharp sign (dots 1-4-6) preceded by an octave sign and followed by what appears to be a fingering sign. I can explain substitution in a future column if there are requests for that information.
Other variations on the theme "music in paragraphs" - including vertical score, sight method, and note-for-note - will appear in the next column. In the meantime, I will continue to answer individual questions by mail, and I welcome your reactions, comments, and suggestions for future issues. Write to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

March/April

Unusual Paragraph Formats
This column is the third in a series on braille music formats. The purpose of the series is to assist readers in identifying and reading music in many formats. Although music is no longer transcribed in some of these formats, all types of transcriptions continue to be available to braille readers. With knowledge of how the parts are arranged and the direction to read intervals, reading becomes much easier since, with few exceptions, individual music signs are the same within all formats. For convenience, I have grouped braille formats into three categories that I compare to themes: music in paragraphs, music in parallels, and music identified by marginal signs. Individual formats are variations to these themes.
When I first open a piece and find music in a series of indented paragraphs, I expect one of the common variations on music in paragraphs described in the January-February column. But occasionally I find a more unusual variation, such as one of the following.
Vertical Score
This format is used most frequently for hymns and chorales. The music generally has four-note chords throughout.
In choral music, the four parts are combined and written as chords that usually begin with the bass note followed by interval signs to represent the higher voices.
An interval reads down only if it is preceded by dot 4. This score arrangement is more useful to a choral conductor than to an individual singer.
In keyboard music, pedal, left hand, and right hand parts are written in chords that usually begin with the bass note and read up. In the first measure, pedal and hand signs may indicate which notes belong in the respective parts. A dot 4 within a chord indicates that the intervals following should be played by the right hand.
In both choral and keyboard music, unisons are indicated by dots 1-2-3. Every part is accounted for with an interval or unison sign, except where a unison continues for more than four notes. In that case, the letter u is found, indicating that the unison continues until interval signs reappear. In some pieces in-accords indicate moving voices; in others, dot 6 indicates one moving voice and dots 5-6 indicate two moving voices. Voices move to the intervals following these signs.
Sight Method
This vocal music format was devised as a means of putting text and melody as close together as possible; its purpose was to facilitate sight singing. Apparently the approach did not prove practical for, to my knowledge, the method has not been used since the early part of the century.
A single syllable, word, or very short group of words alternates with one or more notes throughout each paragraph. A space indicates a change from literary to music braille and vice versa. The difficulty I have in reading this music is that octave signs do not precede notes unless required by a skip in the melody. Therefore, dots 1-2-4 can be read as the word for or the note E. As a solution to this problem, hyphens sometimes precede each uncapitalized word. Hyphens also link words if more than one comes between music signs. Music in this format is intriguing and challenging, rather than easy to sight read. The music is quite readable though, when the system is understood.
The next column will address interesting variations on the theme of music written in parallels. Questions and comments for this column may be sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

May/June

Music in Parallels
This column, the fourth in a series on braille music formats, describes music transcribed in parallels. A parallel is a set of lines for one or more measures of a composition.
Each line usually has one instrumental, vocal, or keyboard part.
There may be only two lines to the parallel (right and left hand keyboard parts) or there may be as many as twenty or more lines (orchestral score). Hand or part signs identify each line, and the first line is usually preceded by a measure number in the margin. There may or may not be a free line between parallels. Music in parallels may be  written in several different ways.
Bar-over-bar
This format is used by all certified transcribers in the United States and Canada today. The term bar-over-bar refers to the fact that within a parallel the beginning of measures for each part is aligned vertically. Because of the format's familiarity, I will not describe in detail the variations found in bar-over-bar music, though there are many.
One variation of keyboard music, however, is important and exasperating. Chords in left hand parts read up, but right hand parts may read either up or down! How do you know whether to read chords up or down?
The date and country of transcription may give a clue to which practice was followed. In general, music transcribed in the United States from 1929 to 1954 has chords written up in both right and left hand parts. In music transcribed in this format in other countries and in compositions transcribed in the United States before 1929 and after 1954, chords in right hand parts generally read down. An additional clue to reading is provided by in-accords; in most compositions, the in-accords are written in the same direction as the chords.
If the first in-accord of a measure contains the highest notes, the chords generally begin with the highest note and read down.
Having made these generalizations, I must hastily add that I have found exceptions to all of them. One sonata in the NLS collection not only has chords written in different directions for different movements, it also has in-accords that sometimes follow the chord direction and sometimes do not, within a single movement. In most cases, however, the statements above are valid and should be helpful.
Line-over-line
In this variation of bar-over-bar keyboard music, measures are not aligned vertically and more run-over lines are found. This format is especially useful in organ music, for instance, where the right hand part contains a florid passage while the left hand and pedal parts have only a few notes per measure. When the term line-over-line is used for vocal music, the description for line-by-line applies.
Line-by-line
A vocal solo or an individual choral part is generally transcribed in this format. The first line of each parallel starts at the margin and contains text. If the text runs over to the next line, the run-over begins in cell five to differentiate it from music lines, which always begin in cell three.
In most cases, a line of text alternates with a line of music, but there may be two lines of text if the song is written in two languages or if there are two verses to the same melody.
Open score
This term is applied in slightly different ways to keyboard music, theory examples, and vocal scores.
In complex keyboard music, a single part may be divided between two lines of a parallel, each identified with the same hand sign. Performers must memorize both parts and then execute them with one hand, just as they do with inaccords. Sometimes the extra line contains a contrapuntal voice that moves between hands and can be written more clearly when not combined with either one. In this case the performer distributes the notes to the appropriate hands and performs them with the other notes written for each hand.
An open score for theory or harmony examples contains no interval signs; each note of a chord is written on a separate braille line and chords are aligned vertically.
When spaces are necessary in some parts to keep the alignment, the end of a measure occurs either when there is a space in every part within the parallel or when the bar-line sign (dots 1-2-3) appears.
In the United States the terms open score and bar-over-bar are used interchangeably for the musical portion of a choral score written in parallels. Each voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) is written on a separate line with the measures vertically aligned. In choral music transcribed abroad, open score is more likely to indicate music transcribed in paragraphs (see January/February column).
Short score
Found mainly in English choral transcriptions, this format is used for four voice parts written in a two-line parallel. If the vocal parts are soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, the top line of the parallel contains the soprano notes with the alto part written as intervals (or in-accords) below; the bottom line contains the bass notes with the tenor part as intervals (or in-accords) above. Arrangements for other voice combinations are written similarly. Within each parallel, measures are aligned vertically as in bar-over-bar music.
The text is written in one or more paragraphs; it is not part of the parallel as in line-by-line music.
Note-for-note
This method can be found in music written either in paragraphs or in parallels. Examples I have seen were transcribed in parallels by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, England; catalogs published by the Republic of South Africa's School for the Blind list many note-for-note transcriptions written in parallels. Although referred to as a format, the term note-for-note applies specifically to the way in which chords are notated within parallels or paragraphs. The first note of a chord is written normally with its name and rhythmic value. Members of the chord written subsequently are written as subnotes rather than intervals. Subnotes are note-names in the lower-cell position. For example, G (dots 1-2-5) as a subnote is dots 2-3-6, the same configuration in a different position. Chords read down in right-hand keyboard parts and up in left-hand parts. Accidentals and octave signs are used according to the rules of other formats. Doubling within a chord is not permitted except for octaves.
Note-for-note music appears at first reading to contain many staccato signs, trills, turns, etc., and this double meaning of lower-cell signs causes some reading problems. An explanation of the note-for-note format with examples and with details about two methods for distinguishing between subnotes and other lower-cell characters may be found in Spanner's Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956. This manual is available in braille on loan from NLS.
In the next column I will discuss formats distinguished by marginal signs and will summarize this series with a format identification chart.
Questions about any aspect of reading braille music will be answered individually. They may be typed, brailled, or recorded and sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

July/August

Identification of Formats
Format identification provides an invaluable key to reading braille music. This column, the last in a series on formats, discusses music that is distinguished by marginal signs. It concludes with an identification chart referring to descriptions in each column of the series.
Music distinguished by marginal signs
The third of my groupings receives its name from identifying signs (measure numbers, rehearsal letters, or hand signs that begin each section or part) in the margin. The first line of each new section of music or new part begins at the margin; the lines that follow begin in cell three.
Section-by-section
This name is given by H.V. Spanner to keyboard music with hand or organ pedal signs in the margin; he also refers to it as Continental Style. The format is also used for vocal and instrumental music. Some European presses use the term section-by-section for music written in paragraphs, so it is necessary to be aware of the description as well as the name.
The music is divided according to musical phrases, staves on the print page, or similar plan. Beginning with the second section, a centered heading on a free line usually identifies new sections. This heading gives the serial number of the section (upper-cell number), inclusive measure numbers of the section (lower-cell number), print page numbers and sometimes staff numbers. In keyboard music, intervals read down in the right hand, up in left hand or pedal parts.
In vocal music the literary prefix (dots 5-6, 2-3) is the marginal sign for text, and the music prefix (dots 6,3) indicates the melody. In some vocal music labelled section-by-section, a single line of words is followed by a single line of music, each line beginning at the margin.
In this case the sections are not labelled on a free line. Other vocal music has longer sections with the characteristic run-over lines beginning in cell three.
Single lines (alternate terms: solo style or section-by-section)
This format is used for an instrumental solo or one instrumental part from an ensemble. Distinguishing marginal signs are measure numbers, rehearsal numbers, or rehearsal letters followed by segments two to five lines in length. If rehearsal letters are being used, the first line of the piece begins in cell three instead of cell one; subsequent segments begin with a rehearsal letter in cell one. Intervals read up for lower-range instruments such as cello and down for treble instruments such as viola.
Format identification chart
The following chart is for use with braille music that has no format specified on the title page. Music is classified as keyboard, instrumental (solo or score), or vocal (solo or score). Within each classification is music in paragraphs, parallels, or distinguished by marginal signs; further identifying characteristics are provided as necessary. These descriptions lead to a format name and a reference to the article that contains a brief description of the format. The series began with historical information in the November-December 1978 issue. Specific formats were described in 1979 issues and are referred to as follows in the chart: vol. 3, #1 (January-February); vol. 3, #2 (March-April); vol. 3, #3. (May-June); vol. 3, #4 (this issue).
1. Keyboard music
A. Music in paragraphs
1. Different hand signs at the beginning of the first two paragraphs; hand or pedal signs at the beginning of subsequent paragraphs: section-by-section, vol. 3, #1
2. Both hand signs usually in first paragraph; very few, if any, hand signs in subsequent paragraphs; barline sign (dots 1-2-3) common in transcription: bar-by-bar, vol. 3, #1
3. Few hand signs; four-note chords notated with interval, in-accord, moving-note signs: vertical score, vol. 3, #2
4. Many lower-cell characters and few, if any, interval signs: note-for-note, vol. 3, #3
B. Music in parallels
1. Measures vertically aligned: bar-over-bar, vol. 3, #3
2. Measures not vertically aligned: line-over-line, vol. 3, #3
3. Many lower-cell characters and few, if any, interval signs: note-for-note, vol. 3, #3
C. Music distinguished by hand and pedal signs in margin, each followed by several lines of music: section-by-section, vol. 3, #4
II. Instrumental music; solo or single part
A. Music in paragraphs: section-by-section, vol. 3, #1
B. Music distinguished by numbers or letters in margin with run-over lines beginning in cell three: single line, vol. 3, #4
III. Instrumental music; two or more parts (score)
A. Music in paragraphs
1. Part signs at the beginning of paragraphs: section-by-section, vol. 3, #1
2. Part signs only in the first paragraph; the bar-line sign (dots 1-2-3) common in the transcription: bar-by-bar, vol. 3, #1
B. Music in parallels
1. Measures vertically aligned: bar-over-bar, vol. 3, #3
2. Measures not vertically aligned: line-over-line, vol. 3, #3
C. Music distinguished by part signs in margin: section-by-section, vol. 3, #4
IV. Vocal music; solo or single part
A. Music in paragraphs
1. Text and music in separate paragraphs: section-by-section, vol. 3, #1
2. Text and music alternate within each paragraph: sight method, vol. 3, #2
B. Music in parallels; one or two text lines alternate with a line of music that begins in cell three: line-by-line, vol. 3, #3
C. Music distinguished by music and literary prefixes in margin: section-by-section, vol. 3, #4
V. Vocal music; two or more parts (score)
A. Music in paragraphs
1. Separate paragraphs for each voice part: section-by-section, vol. 3, #1
2. Four-note chords notated with interval, in-accord, or moving-note signs: vertical score, vol. 3, #2
3. Many lower-cell characters and few, if any, interval signs: note-for-note method, vol. 3, #3
B. Music in parallels
1. Separate lines for each voice part: bar-over-bar, vol. 3, #3
2. Two-line parallel with intervals and in-accord signs: short score, vol. 3, #3
C. Music distinguished by marginal signs: section-by-section, vol. 3, #4
The next column will feature information about the transcription of braille music into print. Suggestions, questions, and comments for these features may be sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

September/October

Print Notation of Braille Music
Musicians who read braille music also have occasion to write it.
They may be making their own transcriptions, composing music, arranging it, or doing theory examples for a class. In all but the first instance they will probably want to be able to share that music with others in print form; indeed, for class assignments they may be required to do so. The following are typical of questions addressed to this column. What is the best way to transcribe music from braille to print? Are there any devices by which a blind person can transcribe his own music into print? Are there braille transcribers who will put my braille music into print? Does the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped have a transcription service for this purpose?
The answer to the last two questions is no. There is no service available, and I know of no braille music transcriber who is willing to reverse the transcription process. The information I am sharing here about the best way to get music into print has been gathered from a variety of sources over the past several months.
Since this is not my field of expertise, I have questioned at length blind and sighted performers, composers, and arrangers. I appreciate the contributions of my readers, and if this column generates further comments and new information, I will share that in a future column.
Do-it-yourself devices
A few kits with stencils for tracing notes, staffs, clef signs, and other print symbols have been marketed in the past. To my knowledge, none are currently available for purchase and, judging from the music I have seen written with stencils, that is just as well. Two large, expensive items can be obtained for teaching staff notation to the blind or sighted; these are not stencils. American Printing House for the Blind lists the Beetz Notation-Graph, a large model of the grand staff with 129 movable characters, and Royal National Institute for the Blind has a magnetic music indicator set and a music indicator frame with sliding music symbols.
Music typewriters that are advertised commercially do a beautiful job but are extremely difficult to operate. Before investing a lot of money in a music typewriter, be sure to try it out and show the results to someone other than the salesman to see if the material is readable. Such markings as slurs and dynamic lines must still be hand drawn, and all literary material is typed in later, according to the spacing of the music.
Partially sighted persons may be able to write their own music on a large staff. Large-size staff paper is available from Music Sales Corporation, 33 W. 60th St., New York, NY 10023. Sizes range to staffs more than an inch high. If this size is not large enough for a particular individual, staffs with thick lines can be drawn length-wise on 11 x 17 paper, a standard size that will fit most duplicating machines. Multiple copies of custom-sized staff paper can then be produced inexpensively at a quick-print facility, and many of these facilities can print on both sides of the paper. If desired, these large staffs can be reduced to normal size when the work is complete.
Recordings
It is not always necessary to get music into print form. Cassette recordings in lieu of staff notation are acceptable in certain con- texts. Some teachers permit students to substitute recorded the- ory and composition assignments for written work. These recordings demonstrate individual work and the procedure has proved quite satisfactory in many cases. Some music publishers prefer to hear arrangements of compositions and welcome the submission of cassette tapes; these are most likely to be publishers of popular, folk, country, or gospel music. A recent issue of International Musician carries an ad for a competition of new songs for which all entries are to be submitted on cassette tape. Conductors or performers (classical or popular) are sometimes more impressed with a tape than a print score when looking for new material to perform. Cultivate friendships with people who have good recording equipment and electronic expertise, and do not overlook the possibility of dubbing several parts on one tape. You can become a quartet or even an entire choir, as some of your sighted friends do with their recordings.
Music to be performed by sighted musicians or to be published must be written in staff notation. Country Music magazine and Music City News carry classified ads offering to prepare professional leadsheets for songwriters from their own cassette tapes; other magazines undoubtedly carry similar ads. Although most copyists and publishers are legitimate, some are unreliable and unscrupulous. A great deal of money can be invested in recordings or leadsheets of extremely poor quality. Letters of inquiry might locate someone who can transcribe instrumental music from tape to print, but it is advisable to move cautiously when dealing with an unfamiliar source. Graduate music students are another potential source of people qualified to transcribe music from tape to print.
Dictation
Most of the blind musicians who have shared with me their experiences in getting braille music into print notation have found that the most practical solution is to dictate their music personally to a sighted person. Such dictation involves having a knowledge of staff notation, and the better the knowledge, the easier the dictation. Frederick Delius is an example of a well-known composer who dictated several of his major compositions after going blind.
He was not familiar with braille notation, so he dictated verbally while working at the piano.
Several advantages and disadvantages of dictation have been pointed out by my correspondents during the past few months.
Two major disadvantages are locating people to do the work and finding the necessary time. One advantage is that the blind person can dictate from a braille score even if it contains messy erasures, corrections, and personalized abbreviations not universally recognized. Also, by dictating verbally, the composer is available to answer questions immediately and fully and thus has better control of the result.
Numerous sighted composers also depend upon copyists to transform their messy scores into legible manuscripts for performers or publishers. Copyists charge by the page or the hour. I have had reports of $1 to $5 per page, depending upon the complexity of the music, and $3 to $10 per hour. The most frequently mentioned source of copyists is advanced music students needing part-time work; professional copyists, fellow musicians, and retired musicians are other possibilities. If you can locate good volunteer copyists, you are more fortunate than the sighted composers with whom I talked.
Staff notation
To save time and money and to assure accurate results, it is essential for the composer to dictate music in staff notation terminology rather than braille octaves. Consult an elementary book on theory or music appreciation to learn the location of notes on the grand staff and to understand clefs. Print notes are designated by clef and by line or space.
The "first" line of a clef is the lowest of the five, and the "first" space is the space between the bottom two lines. To dictate fourth octave E, quarter note, say, "treble clef, first line E, a quarter."
Generally, the notes below fourth octave are placed in the bass clef and those above fourth octave C are placed in the treble clef.
Persons writing for viola, bassoon, and cello will need to learn about other clefs.
Chords are also dictated by line and space. Fifth octave G, quarter, fourth interval, sixth interval, is dictated, "treble clef, quarter note chord, G on the space above the staff with D, fourth line, and B, third line."
Most copyists prefer to write all the notes of a measure first. They will then go back and add nuances, phrase marks, and dynamics. An exception is vocal music, where they may want words first because notes are spaced directly above syllables.
Vocabulary
Once the notes are in place on the staff, most other braille music terms are perfectly clear to the copyist. Rests, slurs, nuances, accidentals, dynamics, fingering, pedalling, and ornamentation can simply be stated; they need not be described. There are three terms in the vocabulary of braille music notation, however, that do not apply to staff notation: in-accords, doubling, and grouping.
In-accord is meaningless to a print copyist; make no direct reference to that term. Instead, give complete information for each beat as it comes. For example, "base clef, second line B, half note starts on the first beat; third line D, quarter note, is also on the first beat moving to second space C, quarter, on the second beat."
Doublings are always written out in print. It is quite practical to indicate that all of the sixteenth notes in the first three beats are staccato, but in the case of interval doublings, it is much safer to specify the name of each note.
To avoid confusion it is wise to be aware of the subtle difference between the braille grouping device and groups of notes in print notation. A print copyist thinks of grouping in terms of placing horizontal beams on the page to connect eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, and other such notes. Notes will be beamed together automatically unless the composer indicates a specific break in the notation because of phrasing or a sophisticated rhythmic nuance within a group.
The only other difference I have identified between braille and print notation is that more repeats are indicated in braille than in print. Repeats that involve a number sign are braille repeats that should be fully written out in print. You can dictate that measures 12-14 are the same as measures 4-6, but when the music is read back to you for checking, be sure that the actual notes are present and accurate in those measures. The same is true of single repeated measures; although indicated with a repeat sign in braille, they should be written out in print.
I am well aware that writing music is much more fun than preparing a perfect braille or print score for a publisher, but it can be done. Now that I have written this column, I dread the time and effort it takes to prepare a perfect copy for the publisher, but it must be done! Comments on this column or questions for future columns should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, Illinois 61820.

1981

January/February

Introduction
"Braille Music Reading Questions," a regular feature of the Musical Mainstream through 1979, was discontinued last year and replaced by a series of articles about braille music notation in countries outside the United States. The information found in these articles by Bettye Krolick is immensely pertinent to braille music readers.
With this issue, we will attempt to broaden our scope by actively soliciting comments, ideas, and questions from readers, along with providing articles about braille music practices. "Braille Music Forum" will be written by Bettye Krolick, author of the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs and volunteer music transcriber for the Library of Congress.
Editor

Braille Music Forum: Learning to Read Braille Music
by Bettye Krolick
This issue's column contains a series of questions about the study of the braille music code. Your comments, suggestions, and questions are solicited. Please write me—in type, braille, or on tape—at 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820. I will report your concerns in this forum.
How do people learn to read the braille music code?
They learn the code in public schools, through private teachers, or on their own. In the past braille music was taught for the most part by a blind teacher to students in schools for the blind. Instruction often began at the first grade level; a child was exposed to the music code and was expected to participate in music activities at least through elementary school. Today the situation is different. Music for multi- handicapped students with the schools for the blind is by necessity more therapy oriented, with less reading taking place. Most blind children, however, are now educated with sighted children in public school systems.
After conducting workshops in twenty states during the past five years, I have found that children mainstreamed into the public schools learn braille through a resource or itinerant instructor who has little or no knowledge of the braille music code. Both teacher and students are often unaware that a vast quantity of braille music exists.
Furthermore, many students are never introduced to the possibility of musical activity with their sighted peers. Today those who learn the music code outside of schools for blind persons basically teach themselves to read it, while working with a sighted teacher who does not read braille.
Is the music code "terribly" complex?
This question is asked frequently by teachers. As I travel across the United States helping itinerant teachers and students, I find the most difficult part for teachers is their ingrained feeling that the music code is complex. Students, on the other hand, do not have the problem of a preconceived attitude. Within one hour they can, with instruction, read all the pitches and rhythmic values, and enjoy simple songs. Admittedly, there are complexities to the code, but not at these beginning stages. New resources are available in braille and in print to answer questions as students progress.
What are the resources for beginners?
How to Read Braille Music, Book I, by Bettye Krolick, is the self-help introduction to braille music reading written at the fifth grade level; Primer of Braille Music, New Revised Edition, compiled by Edward Jenkins, includes many reading examples. These should suffice for the beginning stages, and with the help of a teacher can be used below the fifth grade level. As new signs are introduced in intermediate music, definitions may appear in the index of signs in the back of How to Read Braille Music, Book I. Besides definitions, this index shows the relationship of a sign to a note; that is, whether an accent affects the preceding note or the one that follows it. A more complete listing of signs is found in the Index of Signs for Braille Music Notation. Finally, the most complete resource is the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, by this author. In addition to the definitions of signs and their relationships to musical notes, it explains formats for music published in different countries and has a format identification chart to help readers locate specific information quickly. All of the above resources are available in print and in braille and may be obtained on loan from Music Section, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C. 20542.
The following titles may be purchased:
How to Read Braille Music, Book I. Print: Stipes Publishing Company, 10-12 Chester Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820. Braille: NBA Braille Book Bank, 422 Clinton Avenue South, Rochester, New York 14620.
Primer of Braille Music, New Revised Edition, 1960. Print: American Printing House for the Blind (APH), 1839 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40206.
Do you teach that the names of the notes are letters of the alphabet?
When most children were taught in schools for the blind, many teachers avoided this approach. They felt that children learning literary and music braille simultaneously would find it confusing to learn that a literary D is a C in music, a literary E is a D in music, etc. In a self-teaching situation the student is older and already has a working knowledge of literary braille. I find that most nine-year-olds are not confounded by this alphabetic juxtaposition. I show them the alphabetic representation of the C major scale:
I suggest they remember that a musical C looks like the literary D because it could represent the musical syllable “do” to start the scale. Since each note name is formed the same in braille music regardless of its octave or its rhythmic value, the repetition of those seven symbols soon makes their recognition quite automatic.
Students are taught to examine the upper part of a cell for its name and then to look at the lower part of the same cell to discover its rhythmic value. For beginners dot 3 is a half note, dot 6 is a quarter, dots 3 and 6 make a whole note, and if neither dots 3 or 6 appear, the note is an eighth. I also introduce dots 3 and 6 for sixteenth notes so the students will know about the double meaning of rhythmic value dots. As soon as students are shown a braille measure containing one whole note between two measures full of eighths and sixteenths, they understand how to tell the difference by count, even though whole note and sixteenth note signs are identical.
What are the problem areas for people learning the music code on their own?
In the brief time I meet with new readers (usually one hour), there are three areas I see as potential problems because they are drastically different than print, and the student is likely to be working with a sighted teacher who refers to print music. We discuss doubling, grouping, and the use of braille repeats.
Braille readers know the principle of doubling from the use of the italic sign: if that sign is repeated, every word is italicized until another italic sign is present to mark the end of the italicized passage. This principle is common in braille music. In contrast to a print page that may contain more than fifty staccato marks, the braille page will have only three, two at the beginning of the staccato passage and one at the end.
Grouping, a method of combining notes, has no meaning until students progress to the use of sixteenth and thirty-second notes, but they can be shown examples of how clearly beats stand out when sixteenths are grouped with only the first note of each group containing the lower dots. Here is a simple example in four-four meter with the first three beats being sixteenths and the measure ending with a quarter note:
Students should understand that braille music contains special braille repeats in addition to any repeats that may occur in prints. These braille repeat signs are well worth learning because they make the music easier to read and to memorize. The resources expand upon these brief explanations, of course.
I am interested in hearing from readers regarding this question, as no one has yet reported problems to me.
Is it worth the trouble to learn this special code of braille if I already play or sing by ear?
Being able to participate by ear is indicative that a person has enough musical talent to justify learning to read the code, and many have discovered that the code is not nearly as difficult as they thought it would be. People appreciate being able to learn music independently, and to know what dynamics and performance details are written with the notes. The thrill of playing in the school band has enriched the lives of many mainstreamed youngsters. For those who develop a lifetime interest combined with outstanding talent, braille music is absolutely essential. For the vast majority who want to sing in the church choir, enioy a home electronic organ, or play popular songs for friends, braille music is a key to expanded independence and enjoyment.
What about the student who is not a braille reader?
This very serious question is pertinent to far too many visually handicapped students. The ease of using tape recorders and the fascination with modern electronic aids has drawn attention away from the fact that without a reading ability in braille, blind persons are not literate. They cannot take notes and read them back, look up facts in a reference book, or examine the written word for spelling, punctuation, and style. Blind musicians can hear music, but they cannot write it or examine the composer's written dynamics, nuances, and editorial markings without reading braille; on the other hand, blind musicians who learn braille skills can make use of over 25,000 musical compositions in the NLS collection.

March/April

Braille Music Forum: Expression Markings in Print and Braille
"Expressions may be said to represent that part of music which cannot be indicated by notes. . . It includes all the nuances of tempo, dynamics, phrasing, accent, touch, bowing, etc., by which the mere combination and succession of pitch-time-values is transformed into a living organism." (Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950], p. 250)
The topics addressed in this article are: (1) what changes occur when indications of expression are transcribed into braille, and (2) do these changes hinder the blind performer in preparing a musicially-accurate "living organism"? To answer these questions, we will examine the treatment of musical expressions in braille, compare the placement of expression markings in braille with their placement in print music, and discuss the potential effect their placement may have on performance.
Musical expressions are indicated in three ways: by words or phrases, e.g., a tempo, legato, dolce; abbreviations e.g., cresc., rit., mf; and signs of symbols, staccato and other touch indications, bowing and phrasing, crescendo and diminuendo marks. Each of these-words and phrases, abbreviations, and signs or symbols-is treated differently in braille, with some markings being changed more than others when they are transcribed from the print.
Let us examine the three categories of markings in turn.
Words or phrases
Words and phrases are an integral part of music notation. The most familiar usage of words and phrases is mood or tempo indications such as allegro moderato given before the music begins. These words are written above the notes in both braille and print, and thus, present no unique problems for braille readers.
Literary information or directions occurring during a piece or movement are easy to spot in print, because letters do not even faintly resemble notes; in braille, literary material is easy to find, providing a signal indicates the change from music to the literary code.
Until 1956 this signal was the word sign (dots 3-4-5) which preceded anything written in the literary code. Since 1956, the word sign has been used only before abbreviations; complete words or groups of words are enclosed in literary parentheses and separated from music braille by spaces before and after the literary material. When words occur in the middle of measures, the music hyphen (dot 5) follows the last braille music character before the space, so the reader knows that the space is not a bar line. Reuss method transcriptions show both the historical word sign and the modern parentheses (in that order) after the space.
Many pre-1956 transcriptions in which readers will find no spaces before literary material are still in circulation. The signal for code changes in this music is the word sign before single words or before either the first or each word of phrases such as poco a poco stringendo. When a single word sign precedes a phrase, spaces sepa- rate the individual words of the phrase.
In print, words and phrases are written above or below the staff; in braille they are shown on a separate line above the music or are inserted into the line of music. In braille keyboard music, words found in the right hand part usually apply to both hands; words in the left hand part probably apply only to that hand. However, words in the right hand part may apply only to the right hand, so a careful examination of the musical possibilities is always necessary. Generally, though, the meaning and effect of words and phrases can be understood equally well by braille and print readers.
Abbreviations
The second category of expression markings are those written as abbreviations, e.g., p, f, mf. In braille the expression markings in this category are always preceded by the word sign (dots 3-4-5) to signal the change to the literary code. The period following an abbreviation is written as dot 3, which with an octave sign signals a return to the music code.
Until 1954, abbreviations such as mf, pp, sf, etc., were not followed by dot 3, because no period is used in print. Their omission created braille reading problems when the next sign was not an octave sign.
I have often read "psh" and then realized the literary, dynamic sign p was followed by a sharp sign. At the 1954 Paris Conference it was decided that these letters must be followed by dot 3 when the next music sign contained dots on the left-hand side of the cell. This practice facilitates reading by clearly signalling the change back to music braille.
Before comparing this category of expressions in print and braille, it is necessary to review the general characteristics of print music notation. Most braille readers under- stand that print music is written on a staff of five equidistant, parallel lines drawn horizontally across the page, but they may not be familiar with other details of print notation practices. Additional short lines (ledgerlines) are added above and below the five lines of the staff as necessary to accommodate higher and lower pitches.
The notes themselves consist of oval-shaped heads and, except for whole notes, they have stems extending either up or down from the note head. (The direction of the stem is usually immaterial.) The note heads show pitch by their location on lines or in spaces. The letter names of lines and spaces are determined by clef signs; e.g., the first (bottom) line of the staff is fourth octave E if the music is "in the treble clef"; the same line is second octave G if it is "in the bass clef." Values are indicated by the color of the note heads (whole and half notes are outlined, all other notes are filled in), stems attached to the note heads (whole notes are stemless, all others have stem), short lines called flags attached to stems of certain notes, dots immediately following the note heads, and so on.
Notes played or sung together are aligned vertically on the staff, and, within a part, stemmed notes having the same rhythmic value usually share a common stem. Thus, a chord consisting of three quarter notes appears as three vertically aligned note heads attached to a common vertical stem.
In keyboard music written on two staves, the vertical alignment extends through both staves. The upper staff has a common stem for stemmed notes of the same rhythmic value; the same is true for notes of the same rhythmic value in the lower staff. When rhythmic values are different, the note heads have individual stems but are still vertically aligned if they are to sound simultaneously at any given point within a measure. Stems, flags, etc., are used to differentiate between rhythmic values.
Expression markings written as abbreviations are rarely written on the staff proper, but, instead, are also aligned vertically and placed either above, below, or, in the case of keyboard music, between the staves.
Since a sighted person can see the two staves and surrounding space at a glance, this vertical presentation is quite practical.
The sighted musician sees a section of the music with the dynamic or other expression markings as a whole, then, using his or her musical skills, adjusts balance between the parts, decides upon the degree of dynamic to be used, brings out the important voices within the measure, and so on.
In braille transcriptions, where abbreviations are presented quite differently, the letters are interpolated at a specific place in a single line of braille which represents only one part or one voice within a part.
Expression markings are generally placed in the right-hand part of piano music and, quite often, before rather than after in-accord signs. The performer should be aware that dynamics or other expressions usually apply to both hands and to all in-accord parts. Some situations are easily understood, such as when a whole note is preceded by a cr. and followed by an in-accord part containing eighth notes. Obviously, the crescendo is executed during the eighth notes, not the whole note. In less obvious situations, the performer's musical sense must be the guide to degree, balance, and interpretation of abbreviations. For example, in print the abbreviation rit. usually appears above or below the music near the end of phrase. The letters themselves, which are written parallel to the notes, may take up as much space as two or three notes. The abbreviation is never inserted between two specific notes as is necessary in the braille transcription. Braille readers should not make the mistake of making a sudden ritar-dando at the exact point indicated in braille, but instead, should skillfully blend a ritar-dando into the musical phrase as they create a "living organism".
Signs or Symbols
The third category of musical expressions consists of signs or symbols. The braille music code contains specific signs for phrasing, accent, touch, bowing, and so on, and these generally pose no reading problems. To the contrary, the fact that these signs are interpolated between the notes rather than being aligned vertically above or below the staff is a distinct advantage to beginning braille readers who are more likely than their sighted peers to notice the musical expressions and learn them as they learn the notes. I can, however, think of two examples where an understanding of print notation may be of benefit to braille readers. One is the placement of expression marks between the two hand parts in piano music, and the other is the use of diverging and converging lines instead of words or abbreviations for crescendo and decrescendo.
In print piano music, particularly in chordal passages, accent, staccato, or other touch signs are usually written twice, once for each hand part. Occasionally, however, the sign is written only between the staves; this single sign is aligned with the vertical column of notes for both hands. The sighted reader plays the chords with the indicated expression in both hands and probably never notices the single marking. The braille reader, reading the hand parts on separate horizontal lines, finds the expression markings in only one hand. He or she is more likely to notice and puzzle about the omission than the sighted reader, but after studying the music, sees that the signs are intended for both hand parts. Again, good musical judgment is called for in interpreting expression and performance markings.
In braille, the letters c or d following a word sign do not represent c or d in print, but rather the beginning of diverging or converging lines that indicate crescendo or decrescendo, respectively. The lines resemble print V's lying on one side. For a crescendo, the V lies on its right side and the lines gradually spread apart; for a decrescendo, the V is on its left side and the lines gradually converge until they join.
The set of lines (the V) is parallel to the notes involved in some cases two or three, and in some cases many more. In fact, the V may extend almost across the print page.
In braille, the end of crescendo lines is shown with a word sign followed by a lower-cell c (dots 2-5), and the end of the decrescendo lines is shown with a word sign followed by a lower-cell d (dots 2-5-6). However, if another dynamic such as for p follows the marking, the new dynamic is shown and the end of the set of lines is omitted. Braille readers should remember that the single letter c represents a print sign that extends to either the next dynamic marking or to the termination sign (a lower-cell c); the same applies to the single letter d.
In print, a space separates a crescendo mark followed by a decrescendo sign. The lines, which rarely touch, form a general guide for the eye. Some braille transcriptions show only the beginning of the crescendo, the beginning of the decrescendo, and the end of the decrescendo (ignoring the space between). Other transcriptions meticulously show the endings of all print lines. In comparing many examples of print and braille music, I have found enough variation in practices to advise readers again to be aware of the general print notation, and then, using their own musicianship, to interpret nuances flexibly, not starting or stopping crescendos on any give note.
In summary, interesting differences exist between the placement of expression markings in print and braille music. These differences result from the process of inter- weaving all elements of music into a single braille line and changing the layout of the notation from a vertical to a horizontal presentation. In some cases these changes work to the advantage of the braille reader; in other cases they do not, but this fact need not affect the performance adversely. It is hoped that this review and comparison of expression markings in print and braille and the discussion of problems will assist readers in more accurately determining from the braille score the intent of the composer, arranger, or editor.
The forum is open to questions, comments, suggestions, and letters, some of which may be published in future issues.
Send them to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

May/June

Braille Music Forum: Braille Repeats
Braille music notation attempts to reconstruct the print music score as closely as possible.
The use of repeat signs is one exception. In print music the section to be repeated is usually enclosed by repeat signs, the beginning of the section indicated by two vertical bar lines followed by two dots one above the other, and the end by the two bar lines preceded by two dots. Other repeat signs in print music are Da Capo (D.C.), which means that the piece is to be repeated from the beginning to the end or to a place marked fine, and Dal Segno (D.S.), which means to repeat, not from the beginning but from another place marked by a Dal Segno symbol. Print music normally will not employ repeat signs for one or two measures, the repeated measures being written out in full instead. Braille transcriptions, on the other hand, include all print repeats plus signs to indicate repeats for one or two measures and even parts of measures. These repeats, which are found only in braille music, are called braille repeats and are by far the most common deviation from attention to print music reproduction. This departure from the practice of faithfully reproducing print music began early in the history of braille music and has remained consistent through other changes in print versus braille details.
At the first international conference on music braille held in Cologne in 1888, all of the repeats described in this article as well as the modifications of these repeats were enumerated. Because measure numbers were not included in the braille music of that time, the lower-cell numeral repeat was not shown; however, the braille segno repeat was, and it achieves the same purpose. After 1900 the philosophy of braille transcription moved toward greater attention to print detail. In 1929 clef signs were officially added to the international code of braille music, although clef signs do not affect the reading or performance of braille notes; and, at the Paris conference of 1954 there was a great emphasis toward providing print details for blind teachers of sighted pupils. Some facsimile transcriptions from that period even include a t in parentheses placed at every other change of the print page, the point at which the print page should be physically turned so that two pages can be viewed by the sighted performer. Since the 1960s the philosophy of facsimile transcription has moderated with some countries including more print detail than others. Most countries now rarely include clef signs, but all include print page numbers and some of the other details omitted at the Cologne Conference. Since then braille repeats have been added and used in all types of music transcriptions in spite of increased attention to print details.
Braille repeats facilitate reading and memorization, providing the musician understands the signs. For example, a measure may begin in the third octave and contain 21 cells of braille representing a passage of chords rising in a complex arpeggio. If the next measure contains dots 4-6, 2-3-5-6, the knowledgeable reader is immediately able to continue with another measure of the same notes beginning two octaves higher and continuing to rise in pitch. The memorization of that second measure will be simple indeed. A reader who does not understand the braille repeat will lose the continuity of the passage and will not find an easy answer by asking a sighted friend to describe the print music. The two measures described above will be notated similarly in that the pitches (and rhythm) will be repeated. But since pitches in print music are indicated by the position of notes on the lines and spaces of the staff, the sighted musician looks for higher pitches on higher staff lines, a principle not followed in braille music.
There are many different braille repeats, but they can be organized into three groups: the single-cell repeat character, repeats using upper- and lower-cell numerals, and braille segnos (or signs). After explaining these, I will describe the modifications applicable to all of them.
Types of repeats
Single-cell character
The braille character consisting of dots 2-3-5-6 is either a whole or a part-measure repeat sign. If it appears within a measure, it is a part-measure repeat; if it stands apart, it means to repeat the previous measure.
A part-measure repeat indicates the repetition of music that precedes it within the same measure, unless it is associated with an in-accord sign. If the repeat is the only music character before or after an in-accord sign, it means to repeat the corresponding part of the preceding measure. More commonly, the character indicates the repetition of a chord, a beat, or other portion of the measure in which it occurs. To determine the length of the repeat, count the beats before and after the repeat and compare that count with the time signature. If there are two or more repeat signs in the measure, all are the same length unless dot 3 appears between them. In that case, the repeat following dot 3 is of longer duration.
If a numeral follows a part-measure repeat, it indicates the number of times to repeat with- in the measure. These points are illustrated below.
Example 1.
Example 1 is in 3/4 meter. The first part-measure repeat sign is found after the in-accord sign, in the lower voice part, after one beat of sixteenth notes grouped together.
The second repeat sign follows immediately, so it is of equal duration, and each repeat represents one beat of four sixteenth notes to make three beats for that in-accord part. In the second measure the melody changes to D, and the repeat sign after the in-accord sign indicates that the entire in-accord part of twelve sixteenth notes is the same in the second measure as in the first. Examples 1b and 1c are in 6/8 time and show two ways of writing the same music. In 1b a four-note chord is followed by two repeat signs, so the chord is played three times. Then a dot 3 appears followed by another repeat sign, so that repeat sign has a new, longer duration. In this case the final repeat sign represents three more chords in order to finish the measure of 6/8 time. In 1c, the same four-note chord is followed by a single repeat sign and the numerical five indicates that the measure contains six identical chords. In both cases the measure contains six eighth note chords, each of which should be played staccato and accented. The repeat includes the expression markings of other details as well as the notes.
When this same single-cell repeat character stands apart, it signals the repetition of everything in the preceding measure with the exception of a tie, if one appears at the very end of the measure. The single-cell character may be preceded by modifications as shown later. If the measure is to be repeated more than once, a numeral follows the repeat sign immediately. This is usually an upper-cell numeral with a number sign, but occasionally, in older transcriptions, a lower-cell numeral without a number sign is found. Example 2 shows two ways of telling the performer to repeat the preceding measure three times.
Example 2.
Upper- and lower-cell numerals
An upper- or lower-cell number at the beginning of a paragraph or parallel of music is a section, rehearsal, stave, or measure number, but a single number or unspaced numbers within the body of a paragraph, parallel, or section of music indicates a braille repeat.
Since some numbers are in the standard, upper part of the cell, some are in the lower part of the cell, and some combinations include both upper- and lower-cell numerals, it is important to distinguish and understand the meaning of each kind.
Usually, upper-cell numerals refer to counting a number of measures, and lower-cell numerals indicate specific measure numbers. It is also important to notice whether the first of two numbers is larger or smaller. If larger, it indicates the number of bars to count back to find the beginning of the repeat, and the second number tells how many bars are to be repeated. If the first number is smaller, it is the measure number of the beginning of the repeat, and the second number is the measure number at the end of the repeat. Example 3 illustrates these points.
Example 3.
Count back and repeat the last four bars.
Repeat measure 4.
Count back four bars and repeat them (less common form).
Count back eight bars and repeat five bars beginning at that point.
Repeat measures 8 through 12.
Repeat measures 8 through 12 (unusual form).
Combinations of upper- and lower-cell numerals may be found in music written in paragraphs or sections. The first number refers to the section in which the repeated measures are located, and the numbers that follow specify which measures from that section should be repeated. If the first numeral is in upper-cell position, those that follow are in lower-cell position and vice versa. The two repeats in Example 4 have identical meanings: repeat measures 1 through 8 of the first section of the composition.
Example 4.
Numeral repeats, like single-cell repeats, include everything except the final tie at the end of the repeated section, if a tie is present in the original.
Braille segnos
As stated earlier, braille segnos accomplish the same goal as lower-cell numeral repeats: they provide for the repeat of a specific group of measures. The braille segno, dots 3-4-6, is identical for braille and print segnos, but if the sign appears in the braille copy only, it is followed immediately by a letter. The first braille segno is followed by a; subsequent segnos, if present, are labelled b, c, etc. (A print segno is never followed by a letter.) The segno appears at the beginning of the passage to be repeated. It is always preceded by a space, so it cannot be mistaken for the sign to indicate the interval of a third. The end of the passage to be repeated is marked with dots 1-6 found at the end of a measure. The reader notes the beginning and the end of a segno passage and then watches for the same segno sign preceded by a dot 5. The sign where the measures beginning with (dots 5, 3-4-6, 1) indicates the place (dots 3-4-6, 1) and ending with (dots 1-6) should be repeated. Sometimes the sign preceded by dot 5 is also followed by a number confirming the number of measures in the repeated passage. Whether or not a number is given, dots 1-6 signal the end of the repeated section.
Modifications of repeats
All of these repeats may be modified by other common music signs. If a passage is the same except that the notes are in a new octave, an octave sign appears before the repeat (single-cell character, numeral repeat, or segno). The repeat then starts in the octave indicated and proceeds accordingly. In the example mentioned with a passage of chords rising in a complex arpeggio, the repeat (dots 2-3-5-6) was preceded by dots 4-6 (fifth octave).
Since the original measure began in the third octave, the repeated measure began two octaves higher and continued at that distance. Another type of modification is dynamic marks, or words, abbreviations, and signs that indicate degrees of volume. If a passage is repeated, except that it should be played forte instead of the original piano, the new dynamic mark is found immediately before the repeat character or numerals. Modifications are much less common before segnos, but if an octave sign or new dynamic mark is present, it applies to the repeated passage. Other possible modifications for repeats include slurs and pedaling signs. In general, if any common music signs appear unspaced before any braille repeats, the new signs replace their counterparts in the original passage as the repeat is performed. Other than these replacements, everything in the original passage should be observed with the exception of a final tie. Example 5 shows numeral repeats with modifications. It is for the right hand and is in 3/4 meter.
Example 5.
In the above example, a two-note chord is played forte and is tied over to the next measure but no further since that single-cell repeat sign does not include the final tie.
Those two measures are then repeated mezzo-forte instead of forte, and the top note of the chord is in the fourth octave rather than the fifth as it was originally. The same two measures are again repeated, but this time they are played one octave lower and at the pianissimo level.
Conclusion
This review has been designed to clarify and sharpen music reading skills by increasing your awareness of repeat signs with their meanings and possible modifications. If you have further questions about repeats, or if you find some that do not fit my classifications and descriptions, I would be most interested to know about them. Please remember that your comments and questions will not appear for several months, due to the lead time required for printing the Musical Mainstream. It is my hope that I will hear from many of you so that this can truly be a forum about, for, and from braille music readers. Send material for this column to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

July/August

Braille Music Forum: Choral Music
The Forum welcomes the following contribution from Carlton Eldridge, a choral conductor and singer. For the past 35 years Mr. Eldridge has directed sighted singers in church, civic, and school choruses. As a concert and oratorio tenor--he has sung 93 Messiah performances--Eldridge is known throughout the United States. He has also taught voice, opera production, and music literature at Springfield College in Illinois.
Carlton Eldridge comments
Directing a choir can be one of the most viable and satisfying exercises in self-expression for a visually impaired musician, providing a unique platform to achieve social recognition and a means of employment. Churches, civic and service organizations, industries, private and public schools, and colleges employ choir directors. Furthermore, many imaginative musicians organize their own choral groups among friends or in the community, often with financial sponsorship. The compensation for the choir director ranges from self-satisfaction and recognition to a token stipend or gift, or even full employment.
How can the qualified blind musician break into this profession? First of all, he or she must be imaginative, well-trained musically and self-confident as a blind musician. Besides formal conducting courses, he or she may require special coaching in hand motions for directing. Secondly, there must be a burning desire to bring to others the pleasure of singing together.
Finally, the blind choral director must be able to instill confidence in sighted singers. Having at hand a braille score is the major factor in instilling this confidence.
The choral score, unlike that for band and orchestra, consists of only a few staff lines for voice and text. It can be readily reproduced and easily read in braille. The score "parallel" is spanned by the left hand, leaving the right hand free for conducting. Occasionally, the left hand may be required for direction. Because each parallel is separated by a free line, this hand can easily resume its place. The compactness of this braille choral score, in which the voices are bar-over-bar, permits the entire choral fabric to be perused and studied readily, even to the extent of sight-reading with the singers. It is as simple as that.
From my experience I offer a few suggestions: A music stand which can be adjusted to lie flat is a necessity. It is better that this stand be turned so that the "lip" is away from the director. Instrumental sections, when the chorus is not singing, may either be indicated by rests or cued with the top line of the accompaniment. If one learns the score well, it may suffice to follow only one line of music, the hand being ready to move up or down to any line which may require reference. A voice which predominates may be indicated by dots before the margin of the line or by some indication within the line. This can be done as the score is being prepared or with a stylus on the finished score, much as a pencil might be used on the printed score.
Whenever possible, I keep interpretive directions out of the music score and place them above the parallel, as it is important to keep this area uncluttered. Sometimes, as in the case of a well-known or repetitive text, such as Kyrie eleison, the text may be omitted, as it is the music which most concerns the conductor. Occasionally, in very complicated music I re-copy the music without the text, eliminating the need for constantly turning pages. This concession can be made only when the choir is familiar with the music. I find that choral music should be transcribed on one side of the page only, as the movement of the left hand should be held to a minimum. I use 8½ x 11-inch paper and three-ring loose-leaf notebook covers.
The blind choral director may have to be his or her own transcriber, as there is very little choral music available in braille and even less in the choral score format. Because this format is clearly described in the international and American manuals, certified braille transcribers may assist in this work. I have often found it expeditious, however, to be my own transcriber, because of the time element, and because of certain short-cuts which might facilitate my work, but which could not be incorporated in a universal code.
Success in any endeavor is in direct proportion to the capabilities, ingenuity, and personality of the individual. Too often, a visually handicapped person gives up after only a few rebuffs, often prejudicing through self-pity the concern of friends and supporters. One success in ten attempts is a victory. I cannot understand why there are not hundreds of blind choral directors.
Comments from Bettye
We need to hear from other blind choral conductors. What are your experiences? What do you have to share? Comments from instrumental conductors and other musicians are also welcome.
The Forum attempts to provide a place to exchange opinions and ideas. Its value depends upon your participation. Send your comments to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.
How to obtain choral music
NLS has about 1,500 titles of choral music listed in its Braille Scores Catalog: Choral (1979).
Available in braille and large print, this catalog lists music for SATB, TTBB, SSA, etc. under the headings "Sacred Choruses" and "Secular Choruses." Publisher information is also provided. Since new titles are added to the collection each month, check the listings in this publication or call to see if what you need is available or is in process of being brailled. Braille masters prepared for NLS include individual voice parts, an accompaniment part, and a vocal score.
NLS will consider adding a title to its collection upon request from readers if that title is a part of NLS' general collection development guidelines. This means that in some cases a conductor could plan major works a year in advance, allowing for transcription and preparation time.
Vocal scores brailled in the U.S. are written in bar-over-bar format and contain the individual lines of music for each voice part. If all voices sing the same words, only one line of text appears; if different words are sung at the same time, more lines appear as needed and are identified with the standard abbreviations, i.e., S for soprano, A for alto, etc. In music transcribed prior to 1975 the text appears below the music; in music transcribed since 1975 the text appears above the music, this change having been made to conform with solo vocal music, where the text is located above the music. In recent correspondence with music transcribers from Finland, I was interested to learn that they made the same change in format at about the same time as the Americans, although neither knew what the other was doing. Finland now prepares vocal scores in bar-over-bar format with text above and music lines below.
Vocal scores not written bar-over-bar usually have a paragraph of text followed by paragraphs of music for each individual voice part. This format is difficult to use for conducting purposes. Other vocal score formats are described in the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, but they are seldom found in the scores available in this country.
Correlation of text to music
No matter what format is involved, every singer using braille should understand how to tell which notes correspond to which syllables of the text. In print this is accomplished by aligning the syllable under the note; in braille it is done primarily with quotation marks in the text line and with slurs in the music line.
In braille vocal music, each syllable is understood to be sung to a single note of music unless a braille sign indicates to the contrary. The syllabic slur, dots 1-4, in the music line indicates that more than one note goes with a single syllable; this slur, which may be doubled if necessary, connects all notes to be sung on one syllable.
Quotation marks in the text line indicate that more than one syllable is sung on a single note.
They surround the syllables that are to be elided (sung together), and in some transcriptions the corresponding note is followed by a sign for two, dots 1-2, or three, dots 1-2-3, to indicate the number of syllables falling on that note.
Example:
The text "Oh, glorious king" is written in the top line and the music is in the next line. “Oh’ is sung on fifth octave C, "glo-" on eighth note A. Quotation marks surround "ri-ous" indicating that the two syllables are sung together on eighth note B which is followed by the sign, dots 1-2, to confirm that two syllables go with that note. The one syllable word "king" is sung on the last two notes which are slurred together. (The Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, print pp. 179–80; braille pp. 229–230). The braille music code helps make it practical for visually handicapped persons to participate in choral groups either as singers or conductors.

September/October

Braille Music Forum: Dialogue on 20th Century Notational Devices, Part II
When changes are made in the music code, braille music readers invariably wish they had opportunities for input. Such is your chance now. The Music Advisory Committee for the Braille
Authority of North America (BANA) has requested that this forum be used to get feedback from readers before making recommendations for the braille notation of print music symbols used in some twentieth-century music. In the past, the Music Advisory Committee has concentrated on revising and clarifying existing signs. That committee devised signs for indicating the end of a line or a slur between staves; for designating the final music comma (the comma being used in braille to indicate unusual groupings of print notes); and deciding to use the existing literary code for the letters and numbers of chord symbols found in popular music.
However, the signs being prepared for twentieth-century print notation symbols in many cases cannot be based on or related to existing music braille signs. In print—as in braille—notation symbolizes through signs and directions pitches, durations, and other phenomena and gives instructions for presenting musical sounds. For several centuries print notation remained essentially unchanged. During the first part of this century, however, changes and innovations began, rapidly increased during the 1950s, and continue today. These notational changes are concurrent with the stylistic innovations that can readily be heard in the music of such composers as Elliott Carter, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and even Charles Ives.
Serialism or 12-tone technique, itself explicit, has produced strict notational symbols. Aleatory music, which allows the performer a much greater freedom of interpretation, has produced other and freer notational signs. Some new signs are based on traditional notation; others are entirely new. Composers have sometimes even given different meanings for the same signs.
Nevertheless, by now it is possible to see general trends and thus define the use of many new and revised notational symbols. Even though these new signs and devices have rapidly grown in number, it should be noted that a major portion of the serious and popular music of today is still written entirely in traditional notation or with a mixture of signs.
Because the music of our twentieth-century composers should be available to braille music readers-along with their sighted counterparts-we must find new braille configurations to illustrate the new print notational devices. Print notation, for example, now includes X- and diamond-shaped note heads and note heads without stems. The duration of notes or groups of notes is often shown in print through horizontal lines that are straight, that rise and fall, or resemble rolls of barbed wire fencing or spider webs. We have no precedents in the code for these examples. It is possible that some kinds of print notation may best be shown through tactile illustration, but many of the notational devices regularly used by contemporary composers must be transcribed into braille music notation. For example, tone clusters* were used extensively by Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and others in the 1920s. Yet, this now common notational device—in use for over 50 years—has no counterpart in braille music notation. Let us not continue to be that far behind.
*A tone cluster is "a strongly dissonant group of tones lying close together and produced.
The initial group of print symbols that the Music Advisory Committee is considering was selected from the "Index of Notation Symbols" in Gardner Read's Music Notation, 2d edition (Crescendo Publishing Co., 1969), pp. 457–469. The committee has grouped the signs under the following headings: note shapes, duration, tone clusters, pitch approximation, meter, repetition, and nuances. Note shapes, duration, and tone clusters are discussed here; the other topics will be presented in the next Musical Mainstream issue. The signs are being submitted for trial use, your consideration, and especially for feedback; they are not official.
Note Shapes
An awareness of the need to indicate a diamond-shaped note head first came to my attention when I received an "S.O.S." from a proofreader, saying, "Why would someone write an artificial harmonic in drum music?" The transcriber, upon seeing a note that looked like an artificial harmonic, had used dot 4 in the percussion transcription. Subsequent investigation revealed that in addition to being used to notate the artificial harmonics of string music, diamond-shaped note heads are used in the notation of music for percussion, for percussive effects on string instruments, for pressing piano keys down without sounding, and also for some modern vocal effects. X-shaped notes are also used for numerous purposes.
The committee wants to assign braille symbols to indicate a note's shape since there are a number of common uses for these signs. Please also note that the composer almost always indicates the meaning of all signs in a preface.
Example 1 shows the proposed two-cell signs. These are to precede notes and may be doubled by repeating the second half of the sign. Example 1b uses three X-shaped notes. Example 1c has chords in which all notes have triangle or diamond shapes to distinguish them from other notes which are to be played and sounded in the normal way.
Example 1.
Triangle or diamond-shaped note head (except artificial harmonic in string music)
X-shaped note head
Normal note head with no stem
usually on the piano, by depressing a segment of the keyboard with the fist, forearm or a board." (Willi Apel. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2d edition, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969, p. 856).
Smaller-value note groupings such as sixteenths, thirty-seconds, and sixty-fourths are in print usually beamed together with horizontal parallel lines-two parallel lines for sixteenths, three for thirty-seconds, and four for sixty-fourths. One recent notational device beams notes together with the appropriate number of horizontal lines, but makes the lines fan-shaped rather than parallel. The fanned-out horizontal lines mean that the notes are to be performed faster or slower within the duration of that beat or portion of it. For an accelerando, the fan gets wider to the right; for a retardando, the fan closes to the right. Only the performance of notes within that group are affected, not the music as a whole. Example 2a shows the proposed signs for accelerando or retardando within a rhythmic group. These signs would precede a normal braille grouping sign, if present. The note C, used in Example 2b, represents undesignated pitches for notation written without a staff, for example, as in some percussion music.
Example 2.
(a) Prefix for accelerando within a rhythmic group
(b) Prefix for retard within a rhythmic group
Duration
In traditional music, the fixed temporal units or beats by which the timespan of a piece is measured are indicated by a time signature which shows a basic value-for example, quarter note—and how many of those values are grouped together. For example, 4 time means the quarter note is the basic value and the equivalent of three quarters are grouped in a measure.
This traditional method is based on music written with predominantly bipartite values; for example, halves, quarters, eighths, etc. As rhythmic subtleties increased during this century, the limitations of the traditional system have been uncovered. Sometimes a piece will proceed at different speeds and cannot be coordinated by a common meter; or, if a piece slows down or accelerates at a precisely controlled speed, traditional notation of the duration will not be capable of illustrating this.
Sometimes a contemporary piece will contain indications of the passage of time with a number printed over a note or rest that indicates how many seconds should elapse for the duration of that note or rest. The committee is suggesting that a word sign should precede the number in braille. The first illustration of Example 3 is fifth octave C to be held for five seconds and followed by a six second rest.
Another new print symbol for time is a short vertical line that may be combined with a number to represent seconds of duration. When this line is placed perpendicular with the staff lines, it looks something like a bar line. Dots 4 and 5 are proposed to represent the short vertical line in braille. The dots can be put into a braille music line between spaces or placed above the music line on the first line of a parallel. In Example 3a, the short segment begins fifteen seconds into the piece and continues for four more seconds.
Duration is also often shown in print with horizontal lines above or within the staff extending across the page from the notes or chords to the point where they should stop. These horizontal lines are sometimes thin for notes and thick for chords, or if they represent the continuation of a moving, repetitive passage, they may be a series of rolls or even the spiderweb maze to which I referred earlier. Each of these instances seems to be covered if dots 3-6, 3-6 are used in braille to represent the extension of duration. Duration, of course, must be combined with indications of seconds.
Example 3a is written in a two-line parallel. The top line has the indication of seconds; the bottom line has mezzo forte, crescendo, the two-cell sign for a note without a stem, and third octave D. The dashes (dots 3-6, 3–6) that follow, show that the pitch (with its crescendo) continues for four more seconds.
Example 3
If you wish to review more examples, write to the author at the address listed at the end of this article, and request a braille copy of "Twentieth Century Notation."
Tone Clusters
The committee's suggestion for tone clusters is to place a sign between a note and its interval sign showing the extremities of the cluster. Since some clusters are designated for white keys only, some for black keys only, and others for both, three signs are devised, each with accidentals for the middle character.
Example 4 shows these signs and three very short illustrations. In Example 4b, the tone cluster consists of all of the black keys from third octave A-sharp to fifth octave D-flat. In
Example 4c, the cluster involves every note from fifth octave D to fourth octave G. In the final cluster, Example 4d, both forearms are laid on the white keys extending from fifth octave E to first octave C, and this eighth note chord is repeated six more times in the four-four measure.
Example 4
Tone cluster for white keys
Tone cluster for black keys (flats or sharps)
Tone cluster for all notes
The next issue will continue with our suggestions, and the rest is up to you. Do not ignore this opportunity to be heard. We hope you will try these suggestions and relay your thoughts to the BANA committee members: George Bennette (New York Association for the Blind); Tom Ridgeway (Georgia Academy for the Blind); Sandra Walberg (NLS/BPH); Ethel Schuman (transcriber from Woodland Hills, CA); and Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

November/December

Braille Music Forum: Dialogue on 20th Century Notational Devices, Part II
The purpose of this two-article series on twentieth-century music notation is to give readers the opportunity to know in advance about ideas being considered by the Music Advisory Committee of the Braille Authority of North America (BANA), and to voice opinions and suggestions to the committee before it makes firm recommendations to BANA.
Creating braille notation for some twentieth-century music is challenging and important, as the meaning of the word "music" has changed to include sounds formerly considered nonmusical. Concomitantly, the concept of written notation has changed. Some contemporary composers use traditional notational symbols to express new sounds. Other composers, eager to break away from tradition in notation as well as in composition, invent new symbols for new sounds. All composers would seem to agree, however, that accurate and musical performances of their works are desirable; hence, performers, along with musicologists and other composers, need to know what the composer means.
A few examples of the variety of print notation will illustrate the dilemma of any committee considering braille notation for modern composition. The score to Per Bastiana Tai-Yang Cheng, a piece for full orchestra by Luigi Nono (Ricordi, 1967), is notated on graph paper.
Every instrumental part consists of horizontal or vertical straight lines with dynamics below these lines and occasional arrows above or below. In Credentials, by Roman HaubenstockRamati (Universal Edition, 1963), for voice and eight players, the letters of the vocal text are printed in different thicknesses and heights. A single word may have some letters two inches high and other letters ¼-inch tall as part of the composer's indication of how the syllables are to be sung, spoken, shouted, or chanted. Other notational devices, none of which resemble standard musical notation, indicate laughing, weeping, clicking the tongue, hissing, and audible inhaling or exhaling. The score for Music Walk for Heinz Klaus Metzger by John Cage (Henmar Press, 1960) consists of ten parts and two graphs. The music is to be played by one or more pianists who also play radio and produce auxiliary noises. During performance the ten parts are performed in any order, and each part is a page containing a few random dots, the dots being the only notation. The two graphs are small transparent sheets containing straight lines. They are to be placed over the dots, if desired, and can be used right side up or upside down. Fortunately, all of these scores contain extensive notes about the performance techniques to be used. But Four Visions, No. 2 by Robert Moran (Universal Edition, 1964), for flute, harp, and string quartet contains very little explanation. This score, notated for six instruments, consists of a single abstract picture for each of its four movements. Scores like this resemble nonrepresentational or even pop art instead of what we have come to think of as a score.
The first task of the advisory committee is to determine which print notational devices are used enough to justify being adapted to the braille medium. The initial group of print symbols being considered comes from Music Notation, 2nd edition, by Gardner Read (Crescendo Publishing Co., 1969). They are published notational devices considered important in 1969 that are still in use twelve years later. In the first article of this dialogue, suggestions were made for the notation of note shapes, duration, and tone clusters. Additional suggestions follow.
Meter and Time
A piece of music is measured by temporal units called beats. Their pattern is called meter and has traditionally been indicated by a time signature: two numbers, one written above the other.
In 2/4 meter, for example, the basic value is a quarter note and every second quarter note receives an accent. The 2 is written above the 4 on a staff.
In some recently composed music, the top half of the signature has two or more numbers connected with plus signs. It is proposed that the braille plus sign (dots 3-4-6) be inserted between the numbers, unspaced, as in print, and that the signature end with the lower numeral as in an ordinary meter signature. The signature in Example 1 is 2 plus 2 plus 3 over 8.
Example 1.
Some contemporary music is written with a time signature, or the time may be specified in seconds. Often a piece will alternate between time signatures and indications of real time. In braille, it is proposed that the phrase "time notation" be placed in parentheses and inserted where the change from metered pulse takes place. A return to meter would be indicated with a conventional time signature.
Approximate Pitch
In some twentieth-century music the staff contains stem signs, dots, wavy lines, diagonal lines, or other markings giving an approximate indication of pitch. Although the composer does not wish to specify notes, these symbols provide guidance for the general pitch range, and the rising, falling, and/or undulations of the melodic or harmonic structure. In this case, braille notes can be written provided they are preceded and followed by a sign to inform the reader that the pitch is only approximate. It is proposed that such a passage be preceded by dots 6, 2, 1 and followed by dots 4, 5, 3 in order to set the passage apart from surrounding notes. In Example 2, the first and last notes appear in print. Those in between are approximations represented in print by stem signs with no note heads. This passage is in time notation.
Example 2. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Repetition
Another feature of contemporary music is aperiodic repetition indicated in print by wavy lines, dots, or other devices that show the duration of the repetition rather than a specific number of repeated notes. It is proposed that aperiodic repetition of short rhythmic figures or single notes: be indicated in braille with a two-cell sign that is a combination of the grace note and repeat signs (dots 2–6, 2–3–5-6), along with an indication of duration. In Example 3, the four-note figure is followed by the two-cell repetition sign; the next signs, dots 3–6, 3–6, show that the repetition (a wavy line in print) extends beyond the next two seconds (short vertical lines in print). Dots 4-5 representing seconds and dots 3–6, 3-6, representing extended lines were discussed in Part I of this dialogue on twentieth-century notational practices. The print for the second part of Example 3 shows three notes tied with dotted rather than solid-line ties. Above the notes and ties is a series of horizontal dots. The composer wants the performer to repeat the pitch an indeterminate number of times during the period of time occupied by an eighth note followed by a half and another eighth. In this case the braille shows the pitch, third octave E, followed by the two-cell repetition sign; the time values are found after an in-accord sign. (The note C with no octave sign is a standard braille method of indicating rhythm without indicating pitch.)
Example 3.
Fermatas
The final two signs being considered by the committee at this time are generally classified as fermatas. * The print symbol for a long fermata consists of a dot with half of a circle above it.
The braille sign is dots 1-2-6, 1–2–3. Gardner Read identifies two additional fermatas. A medium pause is indicated by a dot with half a square around it rather than half a circle, and a short pause uses a tent shape above the dot. Example 4 shows the proposed signs for these fermatas.
Medium pause. Print resembles squared fermatamatas.
Example 4.
Short pause. Print resembles tent-shaped fermata.
The next step in considering the value of the signs shown in these two articles is to get reactions from transcribers and readers. Experiment with these signs and contact any member of the Music Advisory Committee with your reactions: George Bennette (New York Association for the Blind); Tom Ridgeway (Georgia Academy for the Blind); Sandra Walberg (NLS); Ethel Schuman (transcriber from Woodland Hills, CA); and Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Rd., Champaign, IL 61820.
*In American and German usage "fermata" means "pause." Although "fermata" is an Italian word, that language uses corona (crown) to indicate a pause, a crown describing the traditional symbol for a pause: a dot with a curved line above it. See the Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition (Cambridge, 1969), p. 310.

1982

January/February

Braille Music Forum: Additions to the Music Code
The official braille music code for the United States is the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1955 (American Edition); Part I: Western Music, compiled by H. V. Spanner with additional rules for American and Canadian practice being published in the 1975 American Addendum. In the spring of 1981, other new rules were approved by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) and will be issued shortly in the 1981 American Addendum, published by the American Printing House for the Blind.
New braille music rules are developed in part to cover new print music notation signs and practices, as well as changing philosophies in braille music notation. New rules are also devised from the necessity to cover areas of print music notation, long standardized but not yet adequately covered by the braille music code. The new BANA rules were spawned for all these reasons.
Popular and Folk Music
Most of the rules are concerned with chord symbol notation, chord symbols in this instance referring to the musical shorthand for chords widely used in jazz, popular, rock, and folk music. This musical shorthand utilizes letters, numbers, and other signs to convey simple to highly complex chordal information in a brief space. Typical examples of chords expressed in this manner are G, Dmaj7, B7-9, Dm, C7sus, and so on.
In the 1956 manual, where chord symbol notation was called short-form scoring, Section XXIV contained rules for notating relatively simple chord symbols in braille. The advantage of the 1956 system was its provision for showing time value with the chord symbol; the major disadvantage was that musicians needing chord symbol information found it difficult to decipher the braille music. Therefore, the special braille symbols were not used. An additional disadvantage with the 1956 system was that it did not provide braille signs and rules adequate for today's music. This music utilizes numerous letter and number combinations often modified by a multiplicity of print signs, such as pluses and minuses, abbreviations such as dim. and sus., slashes, small circles, and so on. The print methods and signs are far from standardized, seeming to be limited primarily by the imaginations of the music publishers!
Braille music readers familiar with Popular Music Lead Sheets and recent U.S. transcriptions containing chord symbols have already been introduced to the provisions of the 1981 BANA rules, since the new method has been used on a trial basis for the last three years. Briefly, the system is that letters, slashes, parentheses, and numbers are written in literary braille, sharps and flats as music signs, and pluses and minuses as Nemeth signs. Melody, text, and chord symbols are written on a three-line parallel, with the text on the first line, the chords on the second, and the melody on the third. The chords are aligned with the text in such a way as to indicate whether they are to be played after, during, or with particular syllables. Transcriber's notes explain the alignment system and any special signs. Musicians who know literary but not music braille can easily read the text and chord symbols, thereby making it possible for more readers to use available materials.
Additions to Section XXIII cover chord diagrams as are found in folk and popular music publications and in folk instrument method books. New rules are given for barrés and damp or mute signs in this con- text because these signs were not previously covered by the braille music code.
Harmonic Analysis
A new subsection to Section XXVII is for harmonic analysis. Again, literary braille is used for literary material. Roman numerals are brailled as usual, except that they are preceded by single rather than double capital signs. Arabic numerals following roman numerals are brailled in the lower-cell position.
Roman and arabic numerals and other signs comprising the harmonic analysis form the bottom line of the parallel with numbers aligned beneath corresponding bass notes.
Figured Bass
Another addition to Section XXVII is a new subsection B providing an alternate format for figured bass. In the new format, vertical columns of print numbers are brailled as vertical columns of braille signs. The vertical format is used particularly in music theory texts; the standard horizontal format is still to be used where figured bass is an integral part of musical compositions. Harmony, 3rd edition, by Walter Piston (BRM 24384, Music Section, NLS/BPH) utilizes the vertical format for figured bass.
Chant Notation
While chant notation rules were included in earlier braille music manuals, the 1956 manual omitted this subject, since, according to the preface, a supplement on Gregorian chant was to follow. Unfortunately, this supplement never materialized, although braille music readers continue to have a need for chant notation in braille. For this reason, the 1981 rules provide a braille sign for reciting notes in music, special brackets to surround the related text (often lengthy), and a braille pointing symbol for text alone. The new rules and two examples showing the use of these signs have been added to Section XXII.
Classical Guitar Rules for three important features of classical guitar music, not covered in the 1956 manual and its 1975 American Addendum, are included in the 1981 changes. These are right-hand fingering, shifts or glides and glissandos, and rasgueado signs. The internationally accepted symbols for right-hand fingering, the print letters p, i, m, a, and c, are brailled without letter signs in the literary code and aligned on a line beneath the notes or signs they modify. Rules for right-hand fingering and the new signs for shifts and glides and for rasgueado are explained and illustrated in an addition to Section XXIII.
The discussion of barrés, particularly the print signs, has been expanded to more completely cover examples found in print music.
In addition, barrés written as vertical brackets in print are now assigned to dot 4, the sign formerly listed as an optional barré. Barrés are also discussed in Section XXIII.
Other Additions
With the official adoption of signs for 256th notes and rests already in use in Italy, Russia, Germany, and other countries, the United States reaches a point of greater international agreement. These new signs are added to Section I.
Provisions for unusual key signatures and for time signatures containing note values are moves towards covering twentieth- century notation. Another change, also necessitated by twentieth-century music, is a rule for a chord tie between the last note of an accumulating arpeggio and the resulting chord. These changes occur in Sections V, VI, and IX, respectively.
These are the highlights of the 1981 BANA changes. The publication and availability of the 1981 American Addendum to the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 will be announced in this magazine.
Reader comments and articles for possible inclusion in the Braille Music Forum should be sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

July/August

Braille Music Forum: The Tie
Tie signs in braille music may seem straightforward, but there are some things old and some things new that you should know to become better readers. Usually there are but two signs: (1) dots 4, 1-4, indicating the tie of a single note, and (2) dots 4-6, 1-4, indicating that two or more notes of a chord are tied to the next chord. Reading problems occurring in connection with these two signs are generally associated with changing in-accord parts or, in keyboard music, with changing hand parts. Other reading problems, however, occur with earlier versions of tie signs and with new signs found in music codes recently published in other countries. This article identifies potential reading problems, explains historical tie signs, introduces new versions of signs, and discusses the need for international study and cooperation to prevent further proliferation of braille tie signs.
Historical Background
Louis Braille first published his embossed code for music, Procédé pour Ecrire les Paroles, la Musique et la Plain-Chant au Moyen de Points (Paris: Institutions Royale des Jeunes Aveugles), in 1829. Braille's first code, which used dashes as well as dots, later was revised extensively by him. The revision, A Key to the Braille Alphabet and Musical Notation (London: British and Foreign Blind Association), which is the basis for our present braille music code, apparently was not published in complete form until 1871, although portions, including the single cell sign dots 1-4 for both tie and slur, appeared in earlier publications such as Gaudet's Les Aveugles Musiciens (Paris: Fain Thunot, 1846) and Robyn's Thorough Description of the Braille System for the Reading and Writing of Music (St. Louis: August Wiebusch & Son, 1867). At the first international meeting on embossed music, the Cologne Congress of 1888, Braille's music code, including the sign for slurs and ties, was accepted officially by the representatives, who included individuals from England, France, and Den- mark. Pitches were the distinguishing factor: the sign between two notes or chords having the same pitch or pitches represented a tie; if the pitches were different, the sign then indicated a slur.
Before the next international meeting, the Paris Conference of 1929, a need for distinguishing between the signs was recognized by some braille music readers. In 1925 the publication Key to Braille Music Notation by L. W. Rodenberg (Louisville: American Printing House for the Blind) listed the following: slurs were noted with dots 1-4; ties of a single note or interval were noted with dots 4-5, 1-4, and the notes of a chord played one after the other and often notated by a slur used dots 4-6, 1-4. In other words, the sign we now use for an arpeggio meant a tie, and the sign we use for chord tie also meant arpeggio as well as chord tie.
At the 1929 Paris Conference, the current signs (dots 4, 1-4 for tie; dots 4-6, 1-4 for chord tie; dots 4-5, 1-4 for arpeggio) were internationally accepted by the group and have, during the succeeding years, been incorporated into versions of the braille music code used throughout the world. However, the influence of Rodenberg was so strong in the United States, that some music transcribed in this country during the 1930s and even into the 1940s contains dots 4-5, 1-4 used as single-note ties and dots 4-6, 1-4 for arpeggios. Readers puzzled by tie signs that seem to disagree with the musical sense of the phrase should check the transcription to determine if it is pre-1950, and if so, proceed using good musical sense.
By understanding the historic versions of tie signs, readers can make use of earlier transcriptions.
Reading Examples
Since this article is published in large print and on cassette, as well as in braille, the length of the examples is limited and the notation is contrived, but the types of situations that may puzzle music readers are shown. To test your reading skill, look at or listen to the following five examples, containing potential tie problems, before reading the explanations. In these keyboard examples, right-hand parts read down and left-hand parts read up.
Example 1: Potential Tie Problems
Example 1a illustrates a common situation where the tied note appears twice in the different forms, first as a note name and later as an interval sign. In the first measure, fifth octave C is tied. In the next measure the first chord contains another fifth octave C, this time written as the interval of a third below E. The interval sign is followed by the tie sign, so the C continues to be held, and in the next chord the C is the interval of a second below D.
Example 1b illustrates a tie that begins on an interval sign and ends after an in-accord sign in the next measure. The tied note is fifth octave C, a third below E. Since the tie sign has dots 4, 1-4, it is a single note and only the C is held. In the next measure, the fifth octave C, which is the first note of the second in-accord part, should be held rather than re-stated even though no tie sign appears at that point.
Example 1c illustrates the fact that a tie can begin in one hand part and continue in the other. The tied note in the first chord is fourth octave C, a fifth below G. The chord is held for two beats. The second chord in that measure contains fifth octave E-C-G, so the fourth octave C probably will not be held by the right hand. The left hand part, reading up, has third octave C-E for two beats. The second half-note chord consists of third octave G and a fourth above which is the tied, fourth octave C. Although there is no indication of a tie in the left-hand part, that pitch should be held over rather than re-stated.
Example 1d illustrates chord ties which indicate that two or more notes are tied. In this case the reader must examine the pitches in the chord to determine whether all or some of the notes are held. Reading down, the notes of the first chord are E-C-G, and the notes of the second chord are F-C-G. Therefore, on the second beat the E moves to F while C and G are held. The notes of the third chord are F-C-A, so F and C are held and the G moves to A. For the final chord (F-D-A) the F and A are held and C moves to D.
In example le, an examination of the chords reveals no common pitches, and the half note rest following the third "chord tie" affirms that the print symbols did not indicate ties at all. The symbols, which in print are identical to chord ties, mean "let the chords continue to ring or sound." This meaning for the chord-tie sign was not a part of any manual on braille music notation until the publication of the 1975 American Addendum to the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 (Louisville: American Printing House for the Blind, 1961).
American Decisions
In preparation for the 1975 American Addendum, the Braille Authority of North America's Advisory Committee on Braille Music Notation addressed two problems in regard to ties:
(1) In print, the same signs that are used for ties and chord ties are also used to indicate that a note or chord should continue to sound. The committee decided that in braille, as in print, the reader should determine the meaning from the musical content; therefore, no new sign was devised for this purpose.
(2) Is there a need for reminder ties in some instances?
The 1975 American Addendum states in Paragraph 60b that "In bar-over-bar or open score format, all ties are restated at the beginning of a new parallel and of a new page, as well as after a major interruption, such as a long parenthetical expression, light double bar, volta, etc. . . . In single line instrumental music, restatement is recommended at the beginning of a new section or segment. These reminder ties precede all other signs, except marginal measure numbers, hand signs, clefs, and time or key signatures.”
New Tie Signs
Recently published manuals from Denmark and Russia show ten variations of the two basic signs. In the Ben Brailleski Nodeskrift, I, Grundregleir (Copenhagen: State Library for the Blind, 1976), O. Kjer Nielsen introduces dots 1-4, 1 for tie and dots 1-4, 1-3 for chord ties to be used when the print tie sign is broken. In print, chords, which are noted vertically on the staff, can have a tie sign extending throughout a measure, an inch or more at times. A few publishers will break the arc of the tie, showing only its beginning and its ending. In braille, the reverse signs indicate that print feature. These and all of the other new signs are shown in Example 2.
The Danish manual also shows tie signs with prefixes forming three-cell signs as listed below. The prefix dots 4-5-6 indicate that the tie will move to another in-accord voice. The prefix dot 5 indicates that in keyboard music the tie will move to the part for the other hand (staff). These signs would be used in situations such as those illustrated in Examples 1b (changing in-accord) and 1c (changing hand part) above. In the 1978 Russian manual Notnaya Sistema Braillya (Moscow: Central Republic Library for the Blind, 1978), these same three-cell signs are listed; four-cell signs are then shown, formed by the addition of another prefix. The additional prefix, dots 4-6, indicates the ending of the special tie. If these three- and four-cell signs were used in Example 1c, the three-cell sign, dots 5, 4, 1-4, would replace the two-cell tie sign in the right-hand part, and in the left-hand part, the four-cell sign, dots 4-6, 5, 4, 1-4, would be inserted before the final character (fourth interval) of that measure. The use of dots 4-5-6 to indicate change of in-accord and dot 5 to indicate change of staff is consistent with other signs we use, and the Russian manual consistently shows dots 4-6 as the prefix for the ending of a sign. It should be remembered that in many European transcriptions, music is brailled in paragraphs rather than parallels. In keyboard music this causes the right and left hand parts to be physically separated on the page and may influence the need for specific signs.
Example 2: Tie Signs
Broken-line tie
Broken-line chord tie
Tie between staves
Chord tie between staves
End of tie between staves
End of chord tie between staves
Tie between in-accords
Chord tie between in-accords
End of tie between in-accords
End of chord tie between in-accords
International Considerations
After almost fifty years of international agreement on the standardization of braille signs for ties, chord ties, and arpeggios, do readers now need reminders or indications of beginnings and endings of ties that change staves or in-accords? Is more complex music presently being transcribed? Does twentieth-century music present a need for more detailed tie signs?
Should signs be adopted internationally for broken-line ties? Which is better for the incomplete tie meaning "let it sound"-to devise a special sign (dots 5-6, 1-4) or to let readers determine the meaning from context?
These questions illustrate the problems that come about when a number of countries work independently on the braille music code. The publication of new braille music notation indicates a willingness to update and expand the code and demonstrates a healthy concern for meeting current transcription needs, but it also underscores a need for international cooperation to insure a level of consistency which will make braille music readable by musicians worldwide. In this regard, the current efforts of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind to establish a subcommittee on braille music notation and to move toward an international conference are to be applauded.
Comments from readers are welcome on this and other topics. Send material to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

September/October

Braille Music Forum: Reading Intervals
This month's column is for amateur musicians, individuals of all ages who make music for their own enjoyment. Professional musicians are well-schooled in the understanding and reading of intervals; amateurs may be equally well-trained, or they may be casual readers who sometimes guess at pitches or may shy away from reading because they are not quite sure how to interpret some of the musical symbols. A better understanding of intervals. may increase reading skills enough to make reading music more enjoyable.
At the beginning stage, braille notes are easier to learn than print notes. Beginning sighted readers have to deal with unfamiliar symbols placed on a staff, which is a grid of lines and spaces; the meanings of these new symbols change as clef signs change.
Braille readers have alphabetic-type characters with which they are already familiar, and the characters remain the same regardless of changing octave or changing clef. Braille readers need to learn seven different symbols for note names; print readers have to learn more than thirty different note-name symbols for the two most common clefs (treble and bass).
Every new clef (viola, tenor, etc.) introduces at least fifteen new meanings for these same symbols.
There are some advantages to print music. One is that sighted readers get a pictoral image of the rise and fall of a melody as the notes are placed higher or lower on the staff of five lines. Rising pitches appear to be climbing the steps, rungs, or slats of a fence stretched across the page. As a melody goes down in pitch, it is written lower on the staff, again presenting a pictoral image. Braille notes, in contrast, are written horizontally on a single line. Readers must use their knowledge of melodic intervals to interpret whether a melody rises or falls.
A knowledge of intervals is also necessary in order to read chords in braille. In my opinion, Louis Braille's decision to represent the notes of chords as intervals. was a stroke of pure genius. The discovery of this very "musical" feature was the beginning of my love for the braille music code. A number of genuinely musical features in this code prompted me, a sighted, professional musician, to learn braille in order to study this musical system further.
That study led to the complication of the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs, and it continues unabated as I explore the manner in which different types of music can be represented with a six-dot code.
The purpose of this article is to explain musical intervals as they are notated in braille and to provide assistance in reading both melodic and harmonic intervals in braille music.
Definition
An interval is "the distance between the pitches of two musical tones." [Christine Ammer, Harper's Dictionnary of Music (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), p. 162.] This distance is usually a half or a whole step, the exact size being more specifically called a major, minor, perfect, diminished, etc. interval. While an under- standing of these terms enhances a reader's musicianship, it is not necessary for reading and performing braille music accurately.
The alphabetic letter names of notes have a relationship within the scale. C and D are adjacent and form the interval of a second; C and E have one note name between them, so they form a third; C up to F is a fourth; and C down to F is a fifth, etc. To name an interval correctly, count both the top and bottom note names as well as those in between. D-sharp and E-flat are the same pitch when sounded, but C up to D-sharp is a second (an augmented second) and C to E-flat is a third (a minor third). It is the alphabetic name that is the determining factor when reading braille music.
Intervals may be written melodically or harmonically, and they may be read up or down. C down to A is a third and C up to A is a sixth when the notes are played consecutively or simultaneously.
Reading Melodic Intervals
In braille, the first note of a melody is preceded by an octave sign. Subsequent notes may or may not have octave signs. If they do, the pitch has been stated completely with both note name and octave. In this case there is no reading problem. When notes are not preceded with octave signs, then it is necessary to understand the rules of transcription in order to know whether the melody rises or falls from one note to the next in braille music. The rules state that intervals of a third or less need not be marked with octave signs, intervals of a sixth or more must always be marked, and intervals of a fourth or fifth must be marked only when the second note enters a new octave. (A new octave always begins with C.) In other words, small melodic leaps will have no octave signs. The performer proceeds up or down whichever di- rection keeps the interval smaller. For example, B to G will go down, because if it went up, the interval would become a sixth and an octave sign would need to appear before the G.
Signing or playing repeated notes, seconds, and thirds is so natural that it is usually done without even thinking about keeping the interval close. Performing sixths and larger intervals is equally automatic because the octave sign leads the reader to a specific pitch. Fourths and fifths, however, provide an avenue for singing or playing the right note in the wrong octave. As soon as you realize an interval is larger than a third (assuming an octave sign is not present), think of the nearest C and avoid it. For example, A to E must go down. If it went up, it would cross the C that is a third above A. Un- marked fourths or fifths beginning on C, D, or E go up; those beginning on G, A, or B go down. Unmarked fourths from F go up; fifths from F will always be marked with an octave sign.
Reading Chords
In print notation, symbols for notes remain the same when they are parts of a melody or of a chord. In the latter case the notes are aligned vertically on the staff to show that all notes should sound simultaneously.
In braille, the top or bottom note of a chord is written in the usual way with its rhythmic value, and the other members of the chord are presented as intervals from that note. For this purpose each additional member of the chord is written in braille with an interval sign rather than a note name.
Chords may be written to read up or down. The rules given above for reading melodic intervals apply to the notes of the chord that are written in the usual way (as note names). If intervals read up, the written notes of a series of chords form a bass line, and melodic rules govern the rise and fall of that line with its chords. If the chords are written to be read down, the top notes form a melody line that is likewise governed by the melodic rules. The notes within the chords, those written with interval signs, are not affected by the melodic interval rules.
Example 1 shows the seven interval signs in order, beginning with the second and ending with an octave.
Example 1
Interval signs may be doubled for a succession of four or more and may be preceded by accidental signs for sharps, flats, or naturals.
Intervals of chords are calculated from the written note rather than from the preceding interval, i.e., the note C with a third and then a fifth, reading up, is C-E-G. The fifth is a fifth interval above C, not E. The same chord (C, third, fifth) reading down is C-A-F, and F is a fifth below C.
Intervals proceed in written order. If the same intervals are used, but are written C, fifth, third, the first note above C is G.
The second note above C is E, i.e., the E above the G. Similarly, if that chord is read down rather than up, the first note below C is F. The second note is the A below F which will sound a tenth below the written C. Octave signs are only necessary when the distance between two adjacent intervals is more than an octave as shown in example 2. An exception to this rule occurs in the writing of two intervals with the same pitch or note name (a unison or prime). Example 2 also shows a prime, a tenth, and two chords. These should be read down and are explained below.
Example 2
Example 2a shows an augmented prime: fourth octave B with fourth octave B-flat.
The sign for an octave interval tells the reader that the note name of the interval is B, and the preceding flat sign lowers that pitch a half step. Dot 5 gives the additional information that the B-flat is to be played in the fourth octave.
In example 2b, the second note is the interval of a third, D, but the octave sign makes it clear that the D should be played in the fourth octave. This makes an interval of a tenth from the written quarter note, fifth octave F.
Example 2c is a chord easily played on a violin because the bottom two notes are open strings. The top note is fifth octave G. The note a sixth below is fourth octave B. The next interval is a fourth from G which is D, and since it must be below the B, it is fourth octave D. The bottom note is third octave G.
Example 2d would most likely be played on a guitar. The notes are fifth octave E, fifth octave C, fourth octave G, fourth octave E, fourth octave C, and third octave E.
Direction of Intervals
In instrumental music, chords read down in treble instruments and up in bass instruments. When vocal music is written in intervals, women's parts generally read down and men's voice parts up, although some vocal scores are written entirely in four-note chords reading up from the bass.
In keyboard music, the left-hand and pedal parts read up, but right-hand parts may read either way. Between 1926 and 1956 right-hand as well as left-hand parts were transcribed in the United States with all intervals up. Some unusual formats also have upward intervals, but all transcriptions since 1956, as well as most European transcriptions before that time, have righthand parts with the top melody notes written out followed by their chord intervals reading down.
When in doubt about the direction of intervals, you can check them two ways.
First look for a transcriber's note of explanation, and then check the in-accords (separate parts of a measure joined with the sign, dots 1-2-6, 3-4-5). Almost without exception, in-accords are written in the same order as the direction of intervals.
That is, if the notes before an in-accord sign are higher than those following that sign, in-accords and intervals are written downward. If the notes before an in-accord sign are lower in pitch than those after the sign, intervals as well as in-accords read up.
Read More
If some of the information in this article is news to you, borrow some braille music from NLS to increase your repertoire and add to your enjoyment as an amateur musician. Catalogs are available in braille and large print, and music is loaned for two-month periods. The Dictionary of Braille Music Signs may be requested so you can locate any braille signs you do not recognize.
Questions and comments are welcome. Address them to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

November/December

Braille Music Forum: Reading Foreign Braille Music: An Introduction
Are you making full use of the braille music in the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) music collection? Do you look through the "New Music Materials" section of this magazine and select only those publications with the familiar APH, HP, and HC source designations? Some readers pay little attention to the source, some especially want to try music from other countries, and others are interested only in the familiar. It is to the latter group, the readers who use only a small portion of the NLS braille music resources, that I am addressing this article.
Understanding the Music
Some readers are immediately discouraged by signs they do not recognize instantly, unfamiliar formats, and foreign language text. None of these common deterents necessarily needs to keep anyone from using foreign braille music publications.
Most braille music readers can recognize easily 95 percent of the individual braille signs found in music produced in any country. The other five percent of the signs usually can be identified readily by looking them up in the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs (Bettye Krolick, Library of Congress, 1979). So an understanding of the signs themselves should not prevent most readers from using foreign braille music.
The Dictionary will also answer most questions about braille music formats. This reference tool explains the three general classifications of braille music formats (page 153, braille edition) and contains a format identification chart (page 156, braille edition). Following this chart, readers first identify the type of music: keyboard, instrumental (one or more parts), vocal (one or more parts), or theory or harmony. Next, they work from the characteristics or the arrangement of the braille on the page through page references leading to more detailed explanations of particular formats.
Generally, the best approach to reading unfamiliar foreign braille music is first to locate the beginning of the music. Most of the individual signs at this point will be recognizable. Those that are not could be clef signs, which refer to print clefs, information sometimes needed in teaching sighted students.
The following example shows two sets of treble and bass clef signs. All four are three-cell signs, and all begin and end with the same character; the difference is in the middle cells. The middle cell of the first set, encountered in U.S. transcriptions, contains a lower-cell G for the treble or G clef and a lower-cell F for the bass or F clef. The middle character of the second set, used in many other countries, indicates the treble clef by an interval of a second and the bass clef with the interval of a fourth. (In print, a portion of the treble clef symbol circles around the second line of the staff, and the bass clef has two dots, one above and one below the fourth line of the staff.) These are the most common clef signs; others can be identified by consulting the Dictionary.
Example
Read on from the beginning of the piece.
When you reach a new section, begin to decipher the meaning of numbers. They could be inclusive measures for the section, print page numbers, print staff numbers, section numbers, rehearsal numbers, or some of all of these. If both page and stave numbers are given, one or the other is usually in lower cell position. The types of numbers mentioned above are found in braille music divided into sections and written one hand at a time rather than in bar-over-bar format. The following clues will help you decipher their meaning.
Hyphenated numbers are inclusive measure numbers, and if either the beginning or the ending number is followed by dot three, that measure is incomplete. Consecutive numbers scattered throughout a piece are section or rehearsal numbers. Page numbers are usually repeated at the beginning of more than one section of the music, and staff numbers never go higher than four or five before starting over with one.
Foreign Language Text
Foreign language text material can pose problems. If you need only the music, i.e., piano, clarinet, violin, etc., you can easily circumvent the difficulty by looking for the beginning of the music notation, as suggested earlier. Singers have a different problem, however, because they must read literary text, which sometimes contains foreign-language braille contractions. Notable exceptions to the use of contractions are Italian, where they are not used, and some Spanish braille. Questions about foreign braille contractions can be sent to the NLS Music Section or to the author.
Comments about this column and braille reading questions can be sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

1983

January/February

Braille Music Forum: Reading Vocal Music
What is the meaning of quotation marks when they interrupt a word, for example glorious"? That question from a reader inspired this column explaining the correlation of text and music in popular and classical vocal music. This article also includes information about vocal formats, including popular music with chord symbols, and it ends with a description of one part of braille vocal music's fascinating evolution-a historical system for "sight singing."
In print music, vertical alignment and spacing is carefully and subtly arranged so that singers can tell when two syllables are sung together on one note or when one syllable is held for several notes. That same information is available in the braille which contains every detail of the print, but instead of subtle alignment and spacing indicating the correlation of text and music, specific signs appear such as the quotation marks interrupting a word. If no special signs are present, each syllable of text is sung to one note of music.
Signs Found in the Text
The most common braille signs assisting with the correlation of words and melody in vocal text are quotation marks. Quoted passages or phrases sometimes appear in song texts, and when they do, it is obvious from the context that the punctuation does not refer to the correlation of text with music. When quotation marks interrupt a word, however, or when they surround two one-syllable words, they tell the reader that more than one syllable be- longs to the same melody note. The word Glorious is sung to three notes, but the same word written as Glorious" is sung to two notes. The vowel sounds of the last two syllables are quickly combined or elided by the singer on the second of the two pitches.
A set of signs resembling modified quotation marks was introduced in the 1981 American Addendum to the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956.
These signs are used in chanting to mark the boundaries of a group of words sung on a reciting note (in braille, a whole note followed by dots 1-3). The group of words begins with dots 5, 2-3-6 and ends with dots 3-5-6, 2. An example of this use is provided in the new addendum (available from NLS in print and braille)
Dashes of varying lengths are found in the text of popular music lead sheets and other braille music containing chord symbols beneath text. Rather than correlating text with music, these signs merely extend the space between words or syllables to allow a vertical alignment of chord symbols with text. This spacing is similar in nature to the spacing of words and melody in print music.
Signs Found in the Music
When quotation marks are used for correlation in the braille text of a song, corresponding signs are usually found in the music indicating which notes receive more than one syllable of text. Dots 1-2 following a note designate two syllables and dots 1-2-3 specify three syllables. Some foreign transcriptions do not provide the music portion of these "teams of signs in text and music, but when both are present, they further clarify the correlation of words and melody.
Another important group of signs found in music lines or paragraphs are slurs. Three types of slurs occur in vocal music: syllabic slurs, slurs for one verse or language only, and phasing slurs.
The common slur signs, dots 1-4, are found in all types of braille music. In instrumental music these are one of two types of slur signs indicating phasing, but in vocal music they have a unique function for the correlation of music to text. Called syllabic slurs, they indicate the extension of vocal syllables over more than one note. When a syllabic slur (dots 1-4) occurs, the singer extends the vowel sound of a syllable and continues to sing it as long as the slurs continue. In some cases the slur may even be doubled (dots 1–4, 1–4).
The melodic results help the phrasing, of course, but the primary purpose of the syllabic slur in vocal music is to correlate text with melody.
A similar slur is dots 4-5-6, 1-4. This is also a syllabic slur, but it is used when two lines or paragraphs of text are written for a single line of music and only one of the text lines needs a syllabic slur. This sometimes occurs when a song is translated into a foreign language and both languages are brailled with the music. The translation may contain a larger or smaller number of syllables than the original. Another use occurs when two or more verses of a song are brailled to a single melody. If one verse has an extra syllable, this type of slur is written to inform the performer that a syllabic extension occurs in only one of the text lines.
The phrasing slur for vocal music begins with dots 5-6, 1-2 and ends with dots 4-5, 2-3. In instrumental music this form of slur is usually reserved for long phrases, but in vocal music, where it represents phrasing in contrast to syllabic correlation, this set of signs may surround a phrase of only two notes or many more.
In addition to the signs above, readers should be familiar with several formats for vocal music.
Paragraph Format
Readers encounter two general types of formats for vocal music. One is a series of paragraphs containing either literary or music braille, and the other is an alternation of lines containing either literary or music braille. In paragraph format there are many variations to the general plan. Paragraphs of music and text may alternate with either music followed by text or text followed by music. Songs with several verses have many paragraphs of literary braille to each paragraph of music. In choral music, paragraphs of text are followed by separate paragraphs of music for each voice. Initials such as S, A, T, or B label the vocal ranges. Readers have no difficulty determining from context which paragraphs are music and which are literary braille. Paragraphs of text contain the exact number of syllables to match the notes in the music paragraphs, and all of the signs above, such as quotation marks and slurs, apply to the correlation of text and melody. When paragraphs are lengthy, it becomes extremely important to understand these special signs.
Line-by-Line Format
The second general format consists of alternating lines of text and music. Text lines start at the margin and music lines are indented two spaces, so a reader can quickly tell whether there is more than one line of text due to extra verses, or because the text is provided in more than one language. Before 1975, this pattern of indentation was reversed in choral scores, but in recent transcriptions the format is consistent: text lines always start at the margin and music lines are indented. The alternate lines of text and music are carefully matched, correlating syllables with melody by using the quotation marks and syllabic slurs discussed above.
Chord Symbols
In print, vocal music often includes piano accompaniment written in score form with the text and melody. In braille, regardless of its format, the accompaniment is brailled separately. In addition to or in place of a formal written accompaniment, chord symbols are sometimes provided for those who wish to accompany songs by ear on the guitar, piano, or other chording instrument. When the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 was published, the use of chord symbols in print music was relatively uncommon except in some types of popular music. The practice of including these symbols has increased. Popular music now contains more symbols with increasingly complex chord structure indications. Furthermore, other types of music for schools, churches, and the general public often contain simple chord symbols. It has been interesting to watch the development of braille notation for these symbols. Because of the lack of international coordination, at least three distinctly different systems have evolved.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) adopted a "Melody-Chord" system, now abandoned. The NLS collection at one time included several books of popular music using this method. The melodies were written in paragraphs that included chord symbols (written after a prefix consisting of dots 6, 3-6). The texts were not included in the same volume with the melodies and, in many cases, an explanation was not provided for the meaning of the chord symbols. The signs were included, however, in the Dictionary of Braille Music Signs available from NLS in print or in braille.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) publishes many popular songs in braille using a semi-literal system of chord symbols. The top two-thirds of the braille cell consist of a literary letter name, such as D or G, while dots 3 and 6 designate minor, diminished, and augmented. RNIB publications include an explanation of these symbols at the front of every volume. The vocalist finds the text written in line-by-line format with the melody; the chord symbols are included with the separate piano accompaniment part.
Canada and the United States worked together through the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) to develop the format now used in the NLS-produced Popular Music Lead Sheets and other music containing chord symbols. Readers find three-line parallels of music and text. As in other vocal music, text comes first and starts at the margin. The chord symbols, found immediately below the text, are aligned with the individual syllables and are written in literary braille with the exception that music signs are used for accidentals. This permits the transcription of such complex symbols as Dmaj7(+9 −5).
The third line of each parallel contains the melody starting in cell three. The signs for correlation of text with music also apply to this and to the other formats for music with chord symbols.
The Danish manual of braille music notation (Den Brailleske Nodeskrift, Dansk Revision, O. Kjaer Nielsen, Copenhagen, 1978) shows three methods for brailling simple chord symbols: the first is similar to the method outlined in Spanner's Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956; the second puts Spanner-like symbols in a separate part rather than with the melody; and the third transcribes the symbols in literary braille, aligning the symbols over the music rather than under the text.
Because chord symbol transcription is relatively new, increasingly popular, but not internationally standardized, NLS would be interested in patron reaction to the transcription of the Popular Music Lead Sheets sent to NLS music readers who request it. Is the literary system too bulky? Did you ever read music with the old method of writing chord symbols like musical notes after the prefix, dots 6, 3-6? If so, what was your reaction to that method? Do you have suggestions for the transcription of instrumental music with chord symbols? (This is an untouched area of braille transcription.) The Braille Music Forum would be a good vehicle for the discussion of questions such as these.
In each of the formats above, the literary and music codes are separated. Occasional letters or words appear in music lines carefully noted by word signs or parentheses, but basically the two codes are separated for clarity.
Before leaving the subject of formats, the following historical note is of interest.
Sight Method
An early attempt was made to combine literary and music braille in what was known as the "sight" method. By writing a word or two followed by the appropriate notes and continuing to alternate text and music throughout a paragraph, it was felt that perhaps music could be "sight read" quickly. The system proved to be impractical because of the possible double meanings of braille cells between the two codes.
There are still a few songs in the NLS collection written in the sight method. The following example is part of a 1926 transcription of "Shipmates O' Mine" (BRM 20562 in the NLS collection). In addition to the format, notice the older form of braille contractions in the text and the historical form of the tie sign at the end.
Please send your answers to the questions above, your comments on this or other subjects, and any questions about braille music. Braille Music Forum is also open to guest authorship. Correspondence (print, braille, or tape) should be sent to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.

March/April

Braille Music Forum: Figured Bass and Harmonic Analysis
Figured bass and harmonic analysis serve two completely different functions. The former outlines an accompanying part while the latter indicates the harmony of a musical composition. According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music (Apel, 2nd edition, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1975, page 849), figured bass or thoroughbass (also generalbass, basso continuo, etc.) is "a method of indicating an accompanying part by the bass notes only, together with figures designating the chief intervals and chords to be played above the bass notes." These figures consist of arabic numerals (often arranged in vertical print columns), sharps, flats, naturals, diagonal strokes, horizontal dashes, and other less-frequently used symbols. Harmonic analysis, according to the same source (page 367), "is the study of the individual chords or harmonies in a piece of music, together with their use in succession to form larger units of phrases, periods, sections, or whole compositions." Harmonic analysis usually consists of roman numerals together with arabic numerals (often arranged in vertical print columns), flats, sharps, and naturals. Despite the different functions of the two systems, the similarity of print symbols-notably the vertical columns of arabic numerals-have caused them to be treated together in manuals of braille music notation.
The three primary sources for information about the braille notation of figured bass and harmonic analysis in the United States are Key to Braille Music Notation by Rodenberg (American Foundation for the Blind, American Printing House for the Blind, Louisville, Ky., 1925), Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 compiled by Spanner (American Printing House for the Blind, 1961), and 1981 American Addendum to the Spanner manual (American Printing House for the Blind, 1981).
This article presents the major details of the earlier system, then traces the changes and developments of braille notation for figured bass and harmonic analysis in the United States from 1925 to the present. Explaining the most common signs in braille notation for figured bass or harmonic analysis will help readers to identify which of the three systems they are reading. Then they will know which source to consult for further information.
Braille examples at the end of the article provide comparisons of the systems to further assist with understanding and identification.
Rodenberg Key
The system outlined in Rodenberg's Key to Braille Music Notation had its beginning at the International Congress of Cologne in 1888, as reported in Musical Notation for the Blind, Braille System (revised edition, London: British and Foreign Blind Association, 1900). It merits only six short paragraphs. This 1900 publication also notes that the Paris Institution presents figured bass in a different way. The results of the Paris 1929 international conference do not include figured bass or harmonic analysis because of a lack of agreement among countries. Therefore, the 1925 Rodenberg "key" was the standard in the United States for many years, and transcriptions still in circulation utilize this system, hereafter referred to as the "Rodenberg" system.
In print, the figures of either harmonic analysis or figured bass are arranged vertically beneath notes usually in the bass clef. In the Rodenberg braille system, the bass notes are written in music braille followed on the same line by braille signs for the figures. Most of the figures are arabic numerals written in braille as interval signs; i.e., the sign for the interval of a fourth represents a print "4," and the sign for the interval of a sixth represents a print "6." In changing from a vertical (print) to a horizontal (braille) arrangement, the signs are most often written in ascending order although, as Rodenberg points out, this makes a "six-four" chord appear as a chord with a fourth and then a sixth, so some texts reverse the order to avoid confusion. When two figures or columns of figures appear side by side under one note in print to indicate a change of harmony or voice arrangement, dots 2-6 appear in braille between the final figure of one column and the initial figure of the next.
Accidentals (sharps, flats, and naturals) always precede arabic numerals in braille, regardless of their placement in print. Accidentals followed by dot 3 in braille are isolated accidentals in print-standing alone rather than modifying another figure. Print diagonal lines have been changed to braille sharps or flats.
When there is a chord change on a note and when it is also necessary to indicate time value for the resulting harmony, value signs appear in the braille following the last of the figures for particular chords. These older form value signs consist of dots 1-3 for half notes, dot 1 for quarter notes, dots 1-2 for eighth notes, and dots 1-2-3 for sixteenth notes.
Roman numerals are listed under the heading "figured bass" in the Rodenberg text. (All sources on braille music notation discuss harmonic analysis and figured bass together.)
Roman numerals appear as letter signs (dots 5-6) followed by number signs (dots 3-4-5-6) and then the numbers. In normal position, the numbers indicate upper-case roman numerals; in lower-cell position, they indicate lower-case roman numerals. (Upper and lower case are commonly used to distinguish between major and minor chords.) Arabic numerals that are associated with roman numerals appear in braille as lower-cell numerals immediately following the roman numerals with no intervening number signs. Rodenberg makes no provision for sharps or flats with roman numerals or with associated arabic numerals but does provide for a short oblique line indicating augmentation of a roman numeral.
This augmentation appears in braille as dot 4 placed between the letter sign and the numeral sign.
The most obvious distinguishing feature of this early system is the use of interval signs to represent arabic numerals. Although material is still available in this system, braille or print texts explaining it are no longer readily accessible. People encountering reading problems with early figured bass or harmonic analysis should write to the author or to the Library of Congress where copies of the Rodenberg Key to Braille Music Notation are available.
Spanner Manual
Although the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 was not published until 1961, many of its changes in figured bass notation had already been used for a number of years. The following characteristics indicate the Spanner system.
Figured bass parts begin with a prefix, dots 5-6, 3-4-5. The general arrangement, as in
Rodenberg, consists of horizontal lines with bass notes followed by figures, but no interval signs. Instead, the print arabic numerals appear as lower-cell numerals in braille, and braille number signs indicate the beginning of columns. Special signs to indicate change of harmony on one note are no longer necessary because of the number signs. The lowest figure in print is the first to appear on the braille line, so if the lowest figure happens to be a sharp or a flat, or if an accidental is the only figure under a note, the accidental will be preceded by a number sign.
Accidentals still precede figures regardless of their print placement, and a new sign, dots 4-6, precedes an accidental to indicate that it was standing alone in print rather than modifying a number. (It serves the same function as dot 3 following an accidental in the Rodenberg system.) Diagonal strokes are no longer interpreted by the transcriber but are put into the braille as oblique lines. Dots 3-4, the literary symbol, are used when the stroke stands alone, but when the stroke appears above or through a print figure, dots 5-6 are placed before that braille figure to indicate the presence of a diagonal stroke.
Time values, when necessary, are indicated by stem signs. These two-cell signs consist of dots 4-5-6 in the first cell and old value signs in the second cell; e.g., dots 4-5-6, 1-3 indicate half note value.
Roman numerals are not mentioned in the Spanner text, indicating a continuance of the Rodenberg system (letter sign plus number sign for roman numerals), but some transcribers began using the literary method of writing roman numerals as capital letters even before the Spanner manual was published. When arabic numerals are associated with roman numerals, the Rodenberg influence shows, however: arabic numerals appear in lower-cell position immediately following roman numerals, with no intervening number signs. This practice has become the current standard.
Figured bass information is contained in Table 27 and in paragraphs 344 through 355 of Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956. This manual, in braille and in print, is available on loan from NLS or may be purchased from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH).
Vertical Format
The 1981 American Addendum to the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation 1956 officially approves an alternate system for figured bass and harmonic analysis under the heading "figured bass," since a new, major heading is not appropriate in an addendum. Subheadings have been added to clarify the fact that two systems are officially approved. "Horizontal format" is the Spanner system described above. It is recommended for compositions written in figured bass notation. "Vertical format," the alternative, is recommended especially for "theory texts, examination papers, and related material where there is the likelihood of a great many more figures being used" (1981 American Addendum, page 24.)
Very few signs are changed in the vertical format. The greatest change occurs in the physical arrangement on the braille page. The format closely follows print with numerals actually aligned in vertical columns beneath the notes of the bass part. Only one number sign appears for each column, at the top of the column closest to the note. When a change of harmony or voice arrangement occurs on one note, the columns appear side by side with hyphens between the figures. When it is necessary to show time value, extra hyphens are inserted to approximate the spacing shown in print.
Accidentals appear as in print: before figures, after figures, or isolated. No special signs are necessary to show their placement.
Upper-case roman numerals are transcribed as in literary braille except that a single, rather than a double, capital sign applies to the entire upper-case roman numeral. Letter signs indicate lower-case roman numerals as in literary braille. Arabic numerals associated with roman numerals are written horizontally in the lower-cell position with no number sign, according to established custom. Using the literary code for roman numerals enables the accurate transcription of such phrases as "V7 of III" commonly found in modern schools of analysis but rarely used in Rodenberg's time.
The 1981 American Addendum is available from NLS and APH. An additional source with many excellent braille examples of horizontal format is Piston's Harmony (3rd edition, Howe Press, 1968). This book is available on loan from NLS-BRM 18484-86. The acceptance and use of the Piston text led to official approval of the vertical format as an alternate method for figured bass and harmonic analysis.
The following examples are provided for comparison of these systems. In Example 1 the same measure of figured bass is written three ways. In Example 2 a common chord progression is written first as shown in Rodenberg and then as in modern transcriptions.
Example 1
Example 2
Conclusion
It can be observed that the changes in the braille figured bass and harmonic analysis notation system have followed the general change in philosophy about the education of visually impaired persons. The move from interval signs to numbers, from interpretation of diagonal strokes to preservation of the print, and from special roman numeral indications to use of the standard literary code have occurred because more people are entering the mainstream at a younger age. The latest stage, encouraging use of a vertical braille format, is clearly designed to assist the blind student or teacher working with sighted individuals, following the trend in other parts of the music code (notably popular music) to sacrifice space-saving for compatibility with the print medium. It also follows other codes, such as mathematics, that use vertical alignment to assist students and teachers.
With the information in this article, readers should be able to identify the system used in any transcription including figured bass or harmonic analysis and know which references to consult for further explanations and examples. Questions concerning the Rodenberg system or systems found in transcriptions from other countries may be directed to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820. Questions from readers are always welcome on any topic of interest to the "Braille Music Forum."

May/June

Braille Music Forum: 1982 International Conference
The current braille music code was developed substantially through international cooperation, beginning with the 1888 Cologne Conference attended by representatives from France, England, Germany, and Denmark and continuing through the 1954 Paris Conference. The latter, attended by delegates from nineteen countries, was jointly sponsored by UNESCO, the World Braille Council, and the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind (WCWB). The 1982 Conference, held in Moscow in October, was similarly cooperative.
The Soviet Union took the lead in setting up the meeting held under the joint sponsorship of the WCWB The conference, which was information-seeking rather than rule-making or precedent-setting, was attended by representatives from Brazil, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Soviet Union, Spain, and West Germany.
The information I have received on the results is of three kinds: personal letters from the Italian and British delegates, an English translation of the conference recommendations, and four of the papers read to the assembled delegates. Generally, the meeting seems to have been lively and positive in tone.
Recommendations
The recommendations start with the usual "whereas❞ clauses affirming the need for uniformity in the braille music code, emphasizing that priority should be given to the unification of symbols (rather than formats), and stressing the importance of the compilation of international reference books. The following points suggesting specific ongoing activity are excerpted from the complete recommendations.
"The conference recommends that:
"2. presentation of the music text on the printed page should take into account the type of composition, its purpose and national traditions.
"3. the Central Board of All Russian Association for the Blind should be asked to publish in English the Manual of Braille Music Notation developed in the Soviet Union. To facilitate the unification, the Central Board of All Russian Association for the Blind and the Prosveschenije Publishing House should be requested to publish and translate into English and French, if possible, [the] one-volume manual of braille music notation compiled by Gleb A. Smirnov, in 1983-84. Braille copies imperative.
"4. the Central Board of All Russian Association for the Blind should be asked to authorize its music experts in cooperation with American music specialists to prepare a manual of pop, jazz, and contemporary music symbols hitherto unpublished on the lines indicated by the Conference.
"5. the WCWB Committee on Cultural Affairs should be urged to convene a working party to select such signs which can be included in the international music system.
"6. the WCWB Committee on Cultural Affairs should be asked to apply to the U.S. libraries and printing houses to consider the possibility of publishing an international catalog of braille music. ... An international information centre on music for the blind should be established.
“7. the WCWB Committee on Cultural Affairs should be asked to urge the music publishers:
"(A) not to use contracted braille in music publications, and
"(B) to explain the meaning of all new signs at the beginning of each publication.
The first and final resolutions dealt with the distribution of these recommendations and an expression of gratitude to the conference hosts.
Conference Papers
The first of the four conference papers was a very stimulating essay on the notation of contemporary music. It includes some of the U.S. suggestions for modern notation gleaned from the Musical Mainstream articles of September-October and November-December 1981, in which the BANA Advisory Committee on Braille Music Notation asked for reactions to its initial ideas on contemporary music notation. In this conference paper we have Russian music specialists' reactions to the U.S. ideas which include agreement in some cases and alternate suggestions in others. Gleb Smirnov, chief editor of Literature for the Blind, Central Republic Library for the Blind, Moscow, writes that the Russians will wait for further comments from the United States before codifying their decisions. They hope to establish international agreement on new signs before publication—an unheard of development in the recent history of braille music notation.
A paper by V.I. Gorbatov is entitled "Ways to Uniform Music Notation for the Blind.”
It shows evidence of Russia's ongoing interest in the unification of the music code and cites as an example Russia's selection of the English note-for-note system for some of its guitar music. (England no longer uses the note-for-note system, however.) This paper advocates publishing an international guide to music signs common to all countries as a first step towards further unification. Mr. Gorbatov suggests the establishment of an international board to oversee such a publication and, at a later stage, to identify groups of signs for further international consideration.
"Works of Blind Composers," by Gleb A. Smirnov, includes information that might be of particular interest to musicologists or advanced students. It contains names, dates, and basic information about blind composers from Germany, Spain, Austria, Armenia, and Bulgaria as well as the Soviet Union.
Because this information might assist interested scholars in tracking down further information about blind composers, I will share copies upon request, or you may obtain them from the NLS Music Section. Russia has undertaken publication of works by blind composers, stressing that publication will encourage composition. In the last twenty years, they have issued 385 works by forty-one composers in a series titled "Works of Contemporary Blind Composers." They have sponsored four competitions within Russia to find gifted blind composers of songs and have published those judged to be the best. As far as I can determine from this paper, most of these publications are in braille. The only print publication specifically mentioned is that of a prize-winning opera Poor People by Sedelnikov. This opera is also published in braille and is recorded.
"Works of Blind Composers of the Past, a series of publications started this past year, includes music of thirteen composers from seven countries.
This conference paper issues a general invitation to those interested in helping set up an International Editorial Board to locate compositions of known and unknown blind composers, to compile curriculum vitae on them, and to acquire the music of blind composers for publication. This would be a long-term, international project.
In "The Possible Use of the Computer in the Production of Braille Music," Robert Hoare, Director of Music, Royal National Institute for the Blind, describes a computer system developed at the University of Warwick. Music notation information can be entered by a person who does not know braille and does not necessarily know how to read print music. The computer translates the print music information into braille music notation—similar to computer programs that translate literary text from grade one to grade two braille.
After additional correspondence with Mr. Hoare, I received copies of computerproduced single-line, bar-over-bar, and vocal braille music. The sophistication in the translation and the complexity of the music (organ music in a three-line parallel and a Scriabin prelude for piano) go beyond the work done at the American Printing House for the Blind in the mid-1970s. The samples include notes, dynamics, word expressions, part and whole measure in-accords, simple and bracket slurs, doubling, and repeats as well as the coordination of text over music in a vocal solo.
The research described in this conference paper was conducted on a large mainframe computer at the University of Warwick. Since the conference, a WICAT 150 Microcomputer has been installed at the Braille House in London where it will be used regularly for braille music production.
From reports on the 1982 International Conference, it is apparent that we are entering an exciting period in the development of braille music notation. Now is the time to speak up if you have comments regarding modern notation or if you wish further information about any of the conference papers. I will continue to report to you, but I will be guided by your questions and interests. Please note my new address for correspondence letters or tapes: Bettye Krolick, 724 Powderhorn, Fort Collins, CO 80526.

July/August

Braille Music Forum: The Music Comma
Although the braille music code does not employ lines and spaces of the print staff, it does follow print notation as closely as possible. Print symbols have their braille counterparts which permit notes, dynamics, articulations, etc. to be reproduced faithfully in braille. Occasional extra signs, such as the braille music comma, are necessary to clarify braille transcriptions, however. The purpose of this article is to clarify the braille signs for print commas, since they are sometimes confused with braille music commas, and to review the possible meanings and uses of braille music commas.
Print Music Commas
Print music commas are shaped like literary punctuation commas. Usually placed slightly above the staff, they most often indicate the termination of phrases, although "in some cases, the comma serves as a sign of articulation rather than phrasing" (Harvard Dictionary of Music, Apel, Second Edition, Harvard University Press, 1969, p. 668).
Two braille signs are used to represent print commas. The one most often found in the United States is dots 6, 3-4 (International Manual of Braille Music Notation, Spanner, APH, Louisville, 1961, Table 22 and Ex. 197). The other sign, dots 3-4-5, 2, is preferred by Germany (Lehrbuch der Welt Blindennotenschrift, Reuss, DZB, Leipzig, 1978, p. 295) and Russia (Notnaya Sistema Braillya, Shamina, Klevezal & Smirnov, Central Republic Library for the Blind, Moscow, 1978, pp. 65-66).
In the Danish code, dots 6, 3-4 and dots 3-4-5, 2 are both "breath signs" with no specification of the print shape (Den Brailleske Nodeskrift, Nielsen, STBB, Kopenhagen, 1978, p. 216). The second-dots 3-4-5, 2-is also found in U.S. transcriptions, usually representing the print break or half breath symbol consisting of two short vertical or slightly slanted parallel lines, but sometimes breath or break signs with other shapes, and occasionally print commas.
To summarize, dots 6, 3-4 and dots 3-4-5, 2 represent print music commas.
These dots may also represent break marks consisting of short parallel lines, "Vs," or other print shapes. While commas and the other symbols usually indicate phrasing or breathing, the comma may also be a sign of articulation. In all cases, use your musical judgment to interpret signs in the context of compositions. You may also have to ask for a reading of the print notation.
Braille Music Commas
The braille music comma is a two-cell sign, dots 1-2-6, 2. (Note that the first cell is a reverse of the print comma sign, dots 3-4-5, 2.) All music codes agree that dots 1-2-6, 2 is a braille music comma, that it does not have a print counterpart, and that it has more than one meaning. The braille music comma may refer to the grouping of notes, to a distinction between note values, or to a coincidence of beats in two or more parts. If readers know all the meanings, the appropriate one is usually clear from the context.
Note Grouping
Print eighth and smaller value notes may be written in two ways: (1) individual notes may have one or more flags attached to their stems and (2) groups of notes may be beamed together or connected by one or more fairly thick, straight lines extending between the stems of all the notes in the group. Eighths get one flag or beam, sixteenths two flags or parallel beams, thirtyseconds three flags or parallel beams, etc.
Notes are often beamed in groups of one beat (two eighths, four sixteenths) or a half beat (four thirty-seconds, eight sixty-fourths). Beams may extend across beats or even across bar lines, however. Braille transcriptions must indicate these latter groupings because they likely affect rhythmic emphasis or phrasing.
Triplets are most often beamed in threes, sextuplets in sixes, etc., with the individual groups having small printed numbers above or below beams confirming that these sets of notes are to be played as rhythmic units.
Composers often omit the numbers after general patterns have been set, or they may assume that sighted readers can tell from the beams when groups of three, five, six, or more are to be played as a rhythmic unit and omit the print numbers altogether. This print variation is also sometimes indicated in the braille transcription.
The braille sign used to indicate unusual print beams is the braille music comma.
The sign appears before and after the notes that were grouped in an unusual way in the print, alerting the reader to the fact that the composer made a special indication concerning the rhythmic pulse or perhaps a phrasing nuance. When music commas no longer appear, the print beams have returned to normal.
Triplets, sextlets, etc., are shown in two ways, United States transcribers braille triplets, sextlets, etc. as such, regardless of whether a number is given. Thus, rhythmic groups of five are preceded by the sign, dots 4-5-6, 2-6, 3; rhythmic groups of six are preceded by the same three-cell sign except that the middle character is a lower-cell six rather than a lower-cell five, and so on. In the doubled form of the sign, the lower-cell number is repeated to indicate the continuation of the rhythmic grouping.
Some countries differentiate between rhythmic groups with beams only and those written with both beams and numbers.
Those groups with numbers are brailled as described above, and those without are separated by braille music commas.
From counting and context, it is usually possible to tell whether braille music commas represent print beams crossing beats or whether they are special rhythmic groupings within beats. In both cases braille music commas indicate beginnings and ends of print beams. This is their most common use.
Distinction of Value
Originally the braille music comma (dots 1-2-6, 2) was used to distinguish between notes of larger and smaller value that had the same braille character. For example, five successive characters containing dot 3 are hard to interpret if the count shows that one is a half and the others are thirty- seconds. A braille music comma placed after the first shows that the first one is the half note and the last four are thirty-seconds. If, instead, the braille music comma is placed after the fourth character, it shows that the first four are the thirty-seconds and the fifth character is the half note.
The current code provides two special braille signs to distinguish between larger and smaller values. They seem to be an outgrowth of the braille music comma, because the sign to indicate larger value is the braille music comma preceded by dots 4-5 and the sign to indicate smaller value is the braille music comma preceded by dot 6.
Coincidence of Beats
Print music is spaced horizontally and vertically so that text and music to be performed together are aligned vertically. In cadenzas and other passages of unmeasured music, sighted readers tell which notes or chords are played or sung together by examining the vertical alignment of the score.
Since alignment is not possible in a braille score, a braille sign (not found in print) is shown at the same relative point in each hand, voice, or instrumental part. The Spanner coincidence of notes sign (dots 5-6, 2-3) is the one used most often in U.S. transcriptions to show alignment, but readers should be aware that the braille music comma can also indicate alignment.
When used for this purpose, it precedes a note, rest, or other music symbol that coincides in all parts.
To summarize, the braille music comma does not represent a print symbol, but instead provides useful information for the braille reader. In U.S. transcriptions, the sign most commonly identifies unusual beaming, especially beams that cross beats or bar lines. It may also represent beams for triplets, sextlets, etc., in place of the usual sign for sextlets or other groupings that require a number. The second use for the braille music comma is as an aid in distinguishing between larger and smaller values. The third and occasional use is to indicate the coincidence of beats between parts.
Recent Code Developments
Usually when braille music commas indicate print beams that cross beats or bar lines, the final use of the comma clearly shows the last unusual print grouping because these unusual groups are often followed by a rest or note of different value.
However, when groups of like value continue, the performer needs to know exactly where the unusual beams end. Three countries recognized this problem and, unknown to each other, devised new signs. The United States created a sign for the terminal braille music comma by adding dot 3 to the braille music comma (1975 American Addendum to the Revised International Manual of Braille Music Notation, General Table). This is consistent with U.S. practices of using dot 3 as a terminator. Russian experts created their three-cell sign for this purpose by preceding the braille music comma with dots 4-6 (Notnaya Sistema Braillya, p. 76). This is consistent with their practice of using the prefix of dots 4-6 as a terminator. The Danish specialists simply reversed the characters. In the Danish code, a final braille music comma is dots 5, 3-4-5 (Den Brailleske Nodeskrift, p. 46).
Example 1 lists and identifies the braille music signs mentioned in this article.
Example 1. Braille Music Signs
Braille music comma
Print music comma
Print comma, breath or break
Rhythmic group of 5
Rhythmic group of 6
Distinction of value, larger
Distinction of value, smaller
Coincidence of notes
Final braille music comma: U.S. code
Final braille music comma: Russian code
Final braille music comma: Danish code
I am indebted to one of our readers for the suggestion of this topic. Other suggestions, comments, and questions are welcome and will receive a personal reply.
Letters should be addressed to Bettye Krolick, 602 Ventura Road, Champaign, IL 61820.