The Parsons code is a simple notation used to identify a song through melodic motion—the motion of the pitch up and down. The code was developed by Denys Parsons for his 1975 book, The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes. Representing a melody in this manner makes it easy to index or search for particular songs.
The code
The first note of a song is denoted with a *, although the * is sometimes omitted. All notes following the first note are denoted with one of three letters:
- U for "up," if the note is higher than the previous note
- D for "down," if the note is lower than the previous note
- R for "repeat," if the note is identical to the previous note
For example, the beginning of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star can be encoded with *RURURDDRDRDRD.
References
- The Parsons Code for Melodic Contours at Musipedia
- Parsons, Denys (1975). Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes, The. S. Brown. ISBN 090474700X.
External link
- Musipedia - "The Open Music Encyclopedia" uses Parsons code for encoding songs in their database