Depending on the range of the instrument for which D’ni music was composed, a symbol like our Western clef was used to indicate the appropriate collection of pitches. D’ni makes frequent use of three clefs. The “zith” or low clef, used for low instruments and voices, covers the two octaves below middle c. High instruments and voices use the high or “ehl” clef. Instruments and voices that fall in between the two extremes use a “linking” (“baikh”) clef that overlaps them, covering an octave below and an octave above middle c.
While compositions tend to stick to the range of the instrument for which they are composed, notes above or below the standard ambitus are sometimes called for. If these notes fall within the fourth above the top or below the bottom pitch class, a floating square notehead can be used. If notes beyond this are required, a higher or lower clef can be inserted mid-staff with the original clef marking the end of the passage.
Chords whose notes are taken from different pitch classes are formed just as in Western music, with notes vertically stacked. In later D’ni music, however, narrow chords are common, and when the notes come from within the same pitch class, they cannot be stacked. Rather, special marks within the notehead indicate which pitches are to be sounded simultaneously. The diagram below explains these marks.
Unlike Western music, D’ni music does not align vertically; each individual part is written out in full as a continuous line. Thus, chords will never appear between instruments or voices. They will only appear when they occur within the part of an instrument that can produce multiple pitches.
Since noteheads are written adjacent to one another, a sequence of chords often introduces extraneous notes:
In this example, it appears that an extra f should sound above the bb-d interval (in red). Such extraneous notes are marked with a dot, resembling the D’ni numeral 0, to indicate they should not be sounded:
Next: Rhythmic Families and Meters
