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3+2 "Hauer-Steffens" Notation?

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Stephen Pope

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Dec 1, 2023, 7:58:23 AM12/1/23
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Hello All,

I'm new here, and am interested  in software that supports 3+2-line "Hauer-Steffens" Notation (not sure if this is the formal name).


I learned about it in the '70s in Vienna, where it was popular because it's linear in pitch and uses no accidentals, so 12-tone operations are visibly clear.  You have lines where you'd have black keys on the keyboard.

Is this known by another name?  I've been looking for software that supports it and finding nothing.

Any replies appreciated...

Stephen Pope, Ojai CA, USA

Douglas Keislar

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Dec 1, 2023, 1:10:50 PM12/1/23
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Hi Stephen, and welcome to this forum!

I don't know of software that explicitly sets music in this notation system, though it's likely that it could be done with Lilypond.
https://musicnotation.org/wiki/software/lilypond/

On a historical note, the use of lines corresponding to the keyboard's black keys is an old concept. According to Gardner Read's Source Book of Proposed Music Notation Reforms, Hauer introduced his notation system in 1926 in Zwölftontechik; die Lehre von der Tropen (Vienna: Universal Edition A.G.), likely having been influenced by Ferruccio Busoni's notation system of 1902 (Versuch einer organischen Kalviernotenschrift. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel), which used the same kind of staff. Read lists Steffens' notation (using the same staff concept) as being introduced in 1961 ("Entwurf einer abstrakte-temperierten Notenschrift." Neue Zietschrift für Musick 122(9), pp. 351-355). The most popularized historical system using this kind of staff, but in a vertical orientation, is Klavarskribo, introduced by Cornelis Pot in 1931 and most prominently used in the Netherlands. Of course, these days piano-roll notation is widely used in music software.

Doug



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John F

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Dec 2, 2023, 2:11:44 PM12/2/23
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Hi Stephen and welcome to the forum. What are you wanting the "3+2" software to do - i.e. do you want an editor in which you can write music, or something that will take music from other formats, like MusicXML or .midi and transcribe them into that form?

There's someone on one of the facebook groups about Klavar who is writing an updated Klavarskribo editor, by the way.  Philip Bergwerf https://www.facebook.com/groups/694462513960097/user/100002581185453  I'm not sure if he's released it yet.

There is an older, unsupported software out there called Klavar Script https://www.klavar.com/en/

Both of those only print vertically, I think: time goes down the page and pitch to the right.

If you're wanting something you can download musicXML files from the internet (which describe music in traditional notation in coded XML form) you might like WYSIWYP (What You See Is What You Play) by Stuart Byrom. It's an interesting staff that combines good points of the diatonic staff, the naturals A-G (more economical on vertical space; similar enough to the traditional staff for easier transition to TN, etc.) with chromatic features (the sharps and flats can be shown as half-height black rectangles in the upper half or lower half respectively of where the white notes sit, so intervals are clearer. The app runs in the browser and has a good range of user preferences you can set, and the website is informative. I've found it really easy to read from. https://www.wysiwyp.org/

Cheers,
John F

stuar...@gmail.com

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Dec 3, 2023, 10:13:55 AM12/3/23
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The link in John's comment is to a website that is an example of how this new notation (and others) could be "click bait" to attract beginners surfing the internet for an easier way to read music.  Here is a link to this MNP website's Wiki that has a more straightforward and condensed summary of WYSIWYP:

Thanks for the mention, John.
Stuart

gguitarwilly

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Dec 16, 2023, 10:32:36 AM12/16/23
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Hi Stephen,

If you're interested in a notation " because it's linear in pitch and uses no accidentals, so 12-tone operations are visibly clear."
there are better options, in my opinion.
I have been a longtime user of Clairnote notation https://musicnotation.org/system/clairnote-dn-by-paul-morris
I found the notation to work well on piano, uniform keyboard (janko layout) piano, button accordion and guitar.
Here's a few examples in the attachments.
Paul Morris seems to have discontinued this version of his notation in favour of a new iteration.
However I prefer the version shown in the examples.

best, Willem

Op vrijdag 1 december 2023 om 13:58:23 UTC+1 schreef stephent...@gmail.com:
180-Fiddle-Tunes-in-Clairnote.pdf
12 kleine Praludien no 1.pdf
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