Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation for durations of absence of sound such as rests. Types and methods of notation have varied between cultures and throughout history, much information about ancient music notation is fragmentary. In the same time period, such as in the 2010s, different styles of music and different cultures use different music notation methods; the symbols used include ancient symbols and modern symbols made upon any media such as symbols cut into stone, made in clay tablets, made using a pen on papyrus or parchment or manuscript paper. Although many ancient cultures used symbols to represent melodies and rhythms, none of them were comprehensive, this has limited today's understanding of their music; the seeds of what would become modern western notation were sown in medieval Europe, starting with the Catholic Church's goal for ecclesiastical uniformity.

The church began notating plainchant melodies so that the same chants could be used throughout the church. Music notation developed further in the Baroque music eras. In the classical period and the Romantic music era, notation continued to develop as new musical instrument technologies were developed. In the contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st century, music notation has continued to develop, with the introduction of graphical notation by some modern composers and the use, since the 1980s, of computer-based score writer programs for notating music. Music notation has been adapted to many kinds of music, including classical music, popular music, traditional music; the earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet, created at Nippur, in Babylonia, in about 1400 BC. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, that it was written using a diatonic scale. A tablet from about 1250 BC shows a more developed form of notation.

Although the interpretation of the notation system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre, the tuning of, described in other tablets. Although they are fragmentary, these tablets represent the earliest notated melodies found anywhere in the world. Ancient Greek musical notation was in use from at least the 6th century BC until the 4th century AD; the notation consists of symbols placed above text syllables. An example of a complete composition is the Seikilos epitaph, variously dated between the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. Three hymns by Mesomedes of Crete exist in manuscript; the Delphic Hymns, dated to the 2nd century BC use this notation, but they are not preserved. Ancient Greek notation appears to have fallen out of use around the time of the Decline of the Western Roman Empire. Byzantine music once included music for court ceremonies, but has only survived as vocal church music within various Orthodox traditions of monodic chant written down in Byzantine round notation.

Since the 6th century Greek theoretical categories played a key role to understand and transmit Byzantine music the tradition of Damascus had a strong impact on the pre-Islamic Near East comparable to the impact coming from Persian music. The earliest evidence are papyrus fragments of Greek tropologia; these fragments just present the hymn text following key. Unlike Western notation Byzantine neumes used since the 10th century were always related to modal steps in relation to such a clef or modal key; this key or the incipit of a common melody was enough to indicate a certain melodic model given within the echos. Next to ekphonetic notation, only used in lectionaries to indicate formulas used during scriptural lessons, melodic notation developed not earlier than between the 9th and the 10th century, when a theta, oxeia or diple were written under a certain syllable of the text, whenever a longer melisma was expected; this primitive form was called “theta” or “diple notation”. Today, one can study the evolution of this notation within Greek monastic chant books like those of the sticherarion and the heirmologion, while there was another gestic notation used for the asmatikon and kontakarion of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite.

The earliest books which have survived, are “kondakars” in Slavonic translation which show an own notation system known as Kondakarian notation. Like the Greek alphabet notational signs are ordered left to right; the question of rhythm was based on cheironomia (the interpretation

Hildur Isabella Boylston is an American ballet dancer, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Boylston was born in Sun Valley and has been dancing since she was three years old, her family moved to Boulder, when she was seven years old and she started training at the Boulder Ballet. By the age of twelve she started studies at the academy of the Colorado Ballet. During that time, she won a gold medal at the 2001 Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City. In 2002, she received a full scholarship to train at the Harid Conservatory in Florida. During her time there she worked with choreographer Mark Godden and danced leading roles such as Medora in Le Corsaire, the Paquita pas de trois, Lise in La fille mal gardée and the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker. In 2004, she received the Reuger Scholarship for excellence in dance, she participated in summer programs at the School of American Ballet, the Boston Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. In 2005, Boylston joined the ABT Studio Company and became an apprentice with the main company in May 2006.

She joined the corps de ballet in March 2007, was promoted to soloist in June 2011 and principal in August 2014. Boylston won the Princess Grace Award in 2009 and was nominated for the 2010 Prix Benois de la Danse, she designed costumes for the Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2010 production of Benjamin Millepied's 3 Movements, a ballet set to Steve Reich's Three Movements for Orchestra. Boylston's repertory with the American Ballet Theatre includes: the Ballerina in The Bright Stream, Moss in Cinderella, Aurora in Coppélia, an Odalisque in Le Corsaire, a flower girl in Don Quixote, the second girl in Fancy Free, the peasant pas de deux and Moyna in Giselle, a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Princess Florine and the Fairy of Fervor in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, the Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, the lead in Theme and Variations, she had roles in Ballo della Regina, Birthday Offering, Brief Fling, Désir, Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once, In the Upper Room, From Here On Out. Boylston created leading roles in Lauri Stallings' Citizen, Alexei Ratmansky's Dumbarton, Demis Volpi's Private Light, Christopher Wheeldon's Thirteen Diversions.

Her frequent partner is Daniil Simkin. Photograph of Isabella Boylston, by Gene Schiavone Internet Movie Database Isabella Boylston American Ballet Theatre Isabella Boylston biography

Timothy Cook is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Adelaide in the Australian Football League. Tim Cook started playing football at North Clare in the North Eastern Football League he was part of five junior colts flags in a row, he played a full A Grade season at 15 years of age in 1989. Cook went to Rostrevor College for two years, he played in the South Australian Teal Cup, impressing to be selected for an Australian tour in Ireland. He was in the South Australian Under 17 cricket team as a left arm orthodox spinner and middle-order batsman. Cook made his SANFL debut for Central District at 17. In 1996 Cook played his first SANFL state game and was selected on the original Port Adelaide Football Club list; however Cook was traded alongside Aaron Keating for Scott Hodges. Cook made his debut for the Crows in round 2 of 1997 against Richmond, the game was most notable for coach Malcolm Blight claiming ruckman David Pittman as pathetic. Cook played a majority of 1997 for Centrals.

This would be the case in 1998 and Cook was delisted. Cook continued to play for Centrals until 2000 when he missed out on premiership success, he played 117 games and kicking 138 goals. At 26 he went to North Adelaide and won their best and fairest. Cook finished for North Adelaide in 2005 kicking 31 goals for the Roosters. Tim Cook's playing statistics from AFL Tables