Blackwell Reference Online

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A esthetics The abbreviation for a notational system or notational scheme, which consists of certain characters or symbols. Notation is the mark of identification distinguishing one type of art from another and determining whether two works belong to the same form of art. It also determines whether two performances are instances of the same work or whether different inscriptions are copies of the same score. Notation indicates the constitutive properties of a work and distinguishes them from its contingent properties. Establishing this distinction generally relies on boundaries drawn in the antecedent practices. Some forms of art, such as music, have traditional notation, while others, like painting, do not. For other forms of art, like dance, attempts to provide a notation have lacked total success. Since notation is a system of characters, it should be syntactically disjoint so that all marks belonging to the same character are interchangeable without syntactic effects. It should also be finitely differentiated, that is to say, by using the notation we can tell whether or not two marks belong to the same character. Moreover, a notation should also be semantically unambiguous, so that, for example, performances of different works can not conform to the same score. “In sum, the properties required of a notational system are unambiguity and syntactic and semantic disjointness ... log in or subscribe to read full text