Why C?: The Convoluted History of Note Names
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Published 2015-08-10
In this first episode of Music Corner, I answer the question of why in music we start with the note C instead of A.
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Sources:
1. "Ut queant laxis" image from
archive.org/details/TheLiberUsualis1961
2. David Hiley's article on "Staff" and Clement Miller's article on "Heinrich Glarean" from Grove Music Online
www.oxfordmusiconline.com/
3. I looked up the specific year of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Orfeo
4. A general resource for this video was the Cambridge History of Western Music Theory.
www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/music/music…
5. My tagline is a short quote from Robert Ashley's television opera, Perfect Lives.
www.robertashley.org/