(Ger. Blindennotenschrift; Punktmusikschrift).
Louis Braille (1809–52), blind from the age of three, became a pupil at the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris in 1819. From 1828 to the time of his death he held a professorship there. He was also organist of a Paris church. In 1829 he devised a tactile system of expressing both music notation and literary text by means of dots embossed into thick, stiff paper, to be deciphered by touch.
The originator of the idea of embossed dots was a French officer, Charles Barbier, who between 1819 and 1825 had invented an ingenious embossed-dot system whereby speech-sounds could be recorded. He also invented a frame and embossing awl which enabled blind people to write in that system; but although his method undoubtedly introduced (in rudimentary form) certain new and scientific principles destined to be the basis of what is now known as ‘braille’, his embossed characters were elaborate and difficult to decipher and understand. Each sign was derived from a pattern of twelve dots arranged in two vertical columns of six, and the outline was too extended to range itself under the fingertip. Louis Braille overcame this disadvantage by reducing the cell to two columns of three dots. By applying the method to musical notation as well he became the first to render it possible for blind people to write music for themselves. The dots may conveniently be numbered in two columns, counting downwards: 1–2–3 on the left, 4–5–6 on the right.
Braille did not live to see the general acceptance of the principles of his system; indeed his method was not officially adopted at the Paris Institution until about the time of his death, after which its adoption in Europe and America followed rapidly. Meanwhile John Alston (1777–1846) issued a Musical Catechism with Tunes for the Blind (Glasgow, 1838), followed by a Selection of Scottish Songs (Glasgow, 1844).
In 1868 the British and Foreign Blind Association, London (now Royal National Institute for the Blind), was founded by Dr T.R. Armitage (1824–91), himself blind, who, with his blind colleagues on the council, set to work to investigate the various methods of embossing reading material for blind people, ultimately deciding to adopt the Braille system. In 1871 a short ‘key’ to Braille music notation was published by the British and Foreign Blind Association, said to be the first published explanation in any language.
At the outset it is important to mention that whereas printed music is graphical (pictorial), braille music notation is linear, with both the note and its value represented by a series of dots. The Braille method is founded on ten basic signs derived from the four upper dots of the complete cluster of six, as shown at the top of Table 1. Seven of these are assigned the pitch names C–B with the value of quavers. The addition of dot no.6 to any of these renders it a crotchet in value, the addition of dot no.3 a minim, and the addition of both dots a semibreve. The corresponding rests are also shown in Table 1. While only four time values of notes and rests are represented, each sign also stands for a note, or rest, of 1/16th its original duration (ex.1). A moment’s reflection will suffice to convince any musician that the possibility of ambiguity is generally remote. However, where such ambiguity arises there are ways of distinguishing long and short note values.
Pitch is indicated by seven ‘octave signs’, which represent the particular octave in which a note appears. All notes from c' to b', for instance, are said to belong to the fourth octave, and so on. These pitch or ‘octave’ signs are shown in Table 2. Thus a crotchet c would be represented as the third octave sign followed by the pattern of dots for crotchet C. Pitch signs precede the notes; however, in general, in order to reduce the signs to a minimum, it is unnecessary to restate the pitch for melodic steps of a 2nd or 3rd; for 4ths and 5ths only when the melodic leaps are into adjacent octaves; while skips of 6ths and wider leaps always necessitate fresh pitch signs.
Accidentals are formed by adding dot no.6 to the ordinary alphabetical characters for A, B and C (see Table 3). Key signatures are shown by quoting simply the number of flats or sharps. C major and A minor are implied by the absence of any statement as to key.
Intervals (for the notating of chords) are written as shown in Table 4. For compound intervals, the combination of two minims G and d' would be described in the form ‘second-octave G minim with fourth-octave 5th’, and the combination of three crotchets c, g and e' in the form ‘third-octave C crotchet with 5th and 3rd’.
Besides the signs described, there are many others available to convey information contained in a printed score.
During the last few years, much work – on an international basis – has been carried out to ensure a uniformity of signs. However, while these are regarded as international, a wide range of formats is used for the layout of scores, so for the user to derive maximum benefit it is necessary to be conversant with as many as possible.
Because of the special demands of music from the 20th century, it has been necessary to devise appropriate signs to represent it. Where braille is not thought to be the best vehicle to convey aspects of some contemporary notations, it is possible to use either raised diagrams, or a combination of conventional braille with additional information in either a diagrammatic or spoken form.
The way in which braille music is transcribed from printed music notation has evolved considerably since the earliest days. At the outset each dot was embossed by hand; later, to facilitate duplication, power-driven machines were used, enabling the dots required for each cell to be depressed at once, the master copies of the music then being stored on zinc plates. In another method of duplication, an original master could be created using a domestic brailling machine, the dots for each cell being formed by one depression of keys. The dots could then be transferred by a heat process onto a plastic sheet.
During more recent years, computer technology has greatly assisted with production as the dots can be replicated on the screen by using a program that redefines the letters F, D, S, J, K and L for dots 1 to 6 respectively. It will be readily recognized that this system offers much more flexibility for editing a score and storing completed items. Current developments centre upon investigation of an automated process of converting print music notation directly into its braille equivalent. For many years this has been recognized as a possiblity; however, it is still at an early stage. To date, the use of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) files offers a partial solution, by which basic elements of a musical score can be reproduced from the input of musical sound from a music keyboard or synthesizer (see Computers and music, §II). Another avenue of exploration is to take an already existing print music publishing program and to create a front-end package to undertake the translation, a process more complex than may at first be realized. For high quality production to be effected in an automated manner a program will need to take into account that the rules of braille music may be interpreted depending on a number of factors, and that the two systems are very different in their presentation. As a considerable amount of work is being undertaken to define standards with computer codes, this may well prove beneficial in the long term by solving some of the existing difficulties for an unlimited supply of automated high quality production of braille music.
As the heart of music is sound, combining sound alongside a tactile representation may again offer some future opportunities for making music accessible in a new and original way.
E. Watson, ed.: Elementary Lessons and Exercises in the Revised 1922 ‘Braille’ Music-Notation: a Students’ Manual (London, 1926, rev. 1994 as A Guide to Braille Notation)
S. Logan: Music for Sight Singing (London, 1947)
Characters in Staff Notation with Braille Guide (London, 1958)
A. Burrows: Music Through Braille (Edmonton, AB, 1987)
R. Bowden: Beginning Braille Music (Canberra, 1989)
B. Krolick: New International Manual of Braille Music Notation (Amsterdam, 1996)
A. Ockelford: Music Matters (London, 1996)
R. Firman: ‘Braille Music Notation (1): an Overview’, Beyond MIDI: the Handbook of Musical Codes, ed. E. Selfridge-Field (Cambridge, MA, 1997), 321–32
B. Krolick: How to Read Braille Music: an Introduction (San Diego, 2/1998)
EDWARD WATSON/H.V. SPANNER/ROGER FIRMAN