The advent of printing was an enormous advancement that lead to progress in many different disciplines. Music, of course, was no exception. Printing in the field of music had far-reaching effects that were both exceedingly positive and some that could be considered more negative. Although, the positive effects far outweigh the negative in terms of lasting musical commodification and preservation of classics, as well as setting the proper gears in motion to drive music production in a more modern direction.
From the humble beginnings of the printing press, originally made by Johannes Gutenburg circa 1450, came a pioneer to the musical field who came up with the first method of creating printed music. Ottaviano Petrucci first stole the limelight printing music in Venice around 1501 when he printed his Odhecaton, the first collection of polyphonic music printed with moveable type. Petrucci used a process called triple impression printing. Triple impression printing called for running a single piece of music through the machine a total of three times: once for the staff lines, once for the notes, and another for the text. This laborious process created very elegant looking printed music, allowed for distribution to more consumers from a wider range of economic backgrounds, and helped to encourage the growth of musical literacy, in addition to composers gaining a wider sphere of influence. However, this particular printing method was still quite costly and time consuming and the music that was made was still considered a luxury item even though more people had access to it. Unbeknownst to Petrucci, there was another technique for printing music that was in the works.
In France during the 1520s, Pierre Attaingnant began using a separate technique to print music called single impression printing. Instead of requiring the same piece of music to be sent through the machine three times, all the elements of one section could be printed at once. The staff lines were segmented so that the staff lines for a small section, the notes for the section, as well as any text, would all be lined up and printed at the same time. The biggest drawback to this type of printing was that because the staff lines were all done in segments, the pieces did not always line up completely accurately, making it appear far less elegant than the music that Petrucci produced with the triple impression technique. However, even though the single impression printing was less aesthetically pleasing, it was much more time and cost efficient. This made it significantly more attainable for more common people than the products that Petrucci was producing in Venice. Ultimately, this was the method that stood the test of time and won out over the tidier looking but more costly triple impression printing method.
Prior to printed music, all music was either still in the oral tradition or handwritten. Handwritten music, while acting sometimes as a descriptive memory aid and sometimes as an actual prescriptive composition, was much more difficult to circulate, reproduce and demanded a lot of focus from the performers on the improvisation aspects as well as aural skills. Aural skills and improvisation were both very important to early music performers especially because they needed to create unwritten harmonies and to perform complex polyphonic music sometimes with very little to guide them aside from their musical training. As time went on, aural skills and improvisation both retained important roles, but they also arguably diminished as music was made more available and mass produced in a way that trained musicians were not the only ones who had access to it. This meant that music also needed to be more accessible skill wise to those were not musicians. People with little or no musical literacy needed to be able to conquer some of the music being produced to keep the market viable. This being said, there was just as much focus if not more, on printing popular secular music like chanson in France and frottola in Italy as there was on printing more advanced, sacred polyphonic music. That along with an increased need in sacred music to make everything clear and easily understood, led to a marked decrease in the use of improvisation especially. While this could be seen as a negative consequence, it was also a necessary sacrifice of sorts.
Music printing was a crucial advancement for the entire field of music and the impending music “industry” so to speak. Without printing making its way to music, it would have taken much longer for the general masses to begin developing their own sense of musical literacy as well as more people being able to get a hold of the music and composers being able to expand their individual spheres of influence. Granted, skills like improvisation and aural sharpness declined due to more and more things being notated and being able to be mass produced, but overall, printing was an indelible asset to music as a discipline and as an art to both professional and amateur practitioners alike.
