was
soon added above the red one, and this line was to represent c' (middle
C). Soon the colors of these lines were omitted and the _letters_ F and
C were placed at the beginning of each of them. From this arose our F
and C clefs, which preceded the G clef by some centuries."[37]

[Footnote 37: Elson--Music Dictionary, article, "Notation."]

Another writer[38] gives a somewhat different explanation, stating that
the staff system with the use of clefs came about through writing a
letter (C or F) in the margin of the manuscript and drawing a line from
this letter to the neume which was to represent the tone for which this
particular letter stood.

[Footnote 38: Goddard--The Rise of Music, p. 177.]

A third writer[39] asserts that because the alphabetical notation was
not suitable for recording melodies because of its inconvenience in
sight-singing "points were placed at definite distances above the words
and above and below one another." "In this system ... everything
depended on the accuracy with which the points were interspersed, and
the scribes, as a guide to the eye, began to scratch a straight line
across the page to indicate the position of one particular scale degree
from which all the others could be shown by the relative distances of
their points. But this was not found sufficiently definite and the
scratched line was therefore colored red and a second line was added,
colored yellow, indicating the interval of a fifth above the first."

[Footnote 39: Williams in Grove's Dictionary, article, "Notation."]

It will be noted that all three writers agree that a certain thing
happened, but as in the case of the four Gospels in the New Testament,
not all the writers agree on details and it is difficult to determine
which account is most nearly accurate in detail as well as in general
statement. Communication was much slower a thousand years ago than now
and ideas about new methods of doing things did not spread rapidly,
consequently it is entirely possible that various men or groups of men
in various places worked out a system of notation differing somewhat in
details of origin and development but alike in final result. The point
is that the development of musical knowledge (rise of part-writing,
increased interest in instrumental music, etc.), demanded a more exact
system of notation than had previously existed, just as the development
of science in the nineteenth century necessitated a more accurate
scientific