ABSTRACT
Jazz raises a problem of new notation, in which a group of notes is expressed by one sign. The entire evolution of musical notation from the indefinite agglutinative neumes to individual notes of definite duration, that took eight centuries from Guido d’Arrezo to Beethoven, is jeopardized by this plebeian nouveau-riche. The “breaks,” improvised on a solo instrument, the conversion of long notes into short, the smoothing of angular syncopation into some kind of triplets-all this is rapidly becoming an esoteric lore, known only to the ministers of the cult, but unknown and impossible of transmission to the world; “quia scribi non possunt,” to repeat Isidore of Seville, of the seventh century, who denied the possibility of preserving the melodies of the Gregorian Chant except by tradition.
