Instead, a highly sophisticated system of graphical representation has evolved, allowing musicians to read incredibly complex works with relative ease. This makes musical notation far more difficult than any normal language, precluding the use of words or pictographs. Unlike speech, where noises are effectively monophonic, producing one sound at a time, music is frequently polyphonic, meaning that any number of sounds can occur at once. Depending on the language, such words and pictographs can be ‘scanned’ in various ways, such as left-to-right, right-to-left or top-to bottom.
In Asian languages, however, pictographs of material items are commonly used, requiring the actual sounds to be memorised and passed on over the generations. Conveying the spoken word is difficult enough: the Western world employs letters, loosely related to sounds, which are then assembled to create words. A form of notation solves this problem, allowing musicians to produce a consistent performance for each piece of music. Melodic works created this way are sometimes sublime but are more frequently ridiculous. Mankind’s earliest attempts at music inevitably required improvisation, which was no doubt assisted by suitable intoxicants.
