The Story Behind Music's Most Important Symbol

Even the musically illiterate can appreciate the intricate beauty of a physical piece of sheet music—though, to them, the score itself means jack shit. But even the notationally disinclined can now, thanks to the Smithsonian's design blog, know where those pretty little pictures at the beginning of those big long lines come from—otherwise known as the treble clef.

But before we dive into the origins of the actual symbol itself, it'll help to know something about the reasoning behind modern musical notation as a whole. Way back in the 9th century, there was no standardized semantic system for reading and recording music—the closest thing you might find was a notation used specifically for the Gregorian Chant. And even that only consisted of a few dashes and dots above the lyrics, indicating when to adjust pitch. It wasn't until about a century later that you started seeing horizontal lines showing a base pitch incorporated, like the ones below.