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This whole argument in favor of sheet music reminds me quite a lot of the defense of Chinese/Japanese characters. Yes, there is a long glorious tradition of usi
by jhbadger 3y ago
This whole argument in favor of sheet music reminds me quite a lot of the defense of Chinese/Japanese characters. Yes, there is a long glorious tradition of using them, but assuming that they are the optimal solution and that any exploration of better methods is wrongheaded seems unsupported. Korean used to be written in Chinese characters, as was Vietnamese, Korean developed its own superior phonetic replacement for the characters (Hangul) and Vietnamese is now written in the Roman alphabet (originally for the convenience of French colonizers but independent Vietnam shows no desire to go back to characters).
- zharknado 3y agoI agree in the sense that in both cases the argument that holds water is less about what’s “better” and more about what’s practical. The status quo is how millions of people do it, so if you want to communicate with them you’ll probably be more successful learning their conventions vs. convincing others to use your own. Getting philosophical, I believe there could be a more efficient/learnable notation system, but I’m bearish on one inventor or committee inventing it in a lonely tower, because of how e.g. the French and Spanish academies try so hard to prescribe clarity for their countries’ official languages and then people just go and do the organic language evolution thing to meet their local communication needs anyway. But there are rare counterexamples like Shong Lue Yang, a spiritual leader who created an effective writing system for Hmong. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shong_Lue_Yang https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shong_Lue_Yang