ABSTRACT
Western musical notation is commonly seen as a system of signs that allows one to denote a musical sound structure independently of the peculiar actions the performers have to accomplish in order to make it sound. The development of new music called for a notational refinement that would pay attention to the diversity of possible gestures involved in the production of sounds formerly deemed similar, or indistinguishable, by virtue of their identity. Western notation also allows for the prescription of complex sequences of tacit gestures, such as the coordination of the hands and the right foot analysed by Blanche Selva as part of her landmark Schola Cantorum piano treatise. The issue of tacit gestures is not restricted to one particular instrument or period – though each of them may raise specific issues in the relationship between a given corpus of notational signs and habits and a given state of playing techniques.
