This small book of music is entitled Recueil de Chœurs en Chiffres, French for Collections of Chorales in Figures. It is hand-written, dated to 1850, and contains a number of well-known melodies from operas of Rossini and Mozart as well as common tunes like God Save the King. What makes this object truly fascinating, however, is its system of musical notation, which uses a series of numbers, dots, and lines. This is quite a contrast from today’s standard notation which uses five lines and notes which are placed and grouped to show pitch, duration, and form. We hope to find out more about Recueil de Chœurs en Chiffres and this interesting way of writing music.
Recueil de Chœurs en Chiffres