Tablature

A tablature records actions on an instrument: which string to pluck, which fret or hole to use, in what order. It does not record pitch directly, so the same tablature gives different music on a differently tuned instrument. Staff notation does the reverse and records pitches and durations. The distinction matters for the Hurrian songs of Ugarit, whose notation names pairs of strings on a nine-stringed lyre. The terms are known from Babylonian theory tablets, but the tuning, the direction of the scale and the rhythm are not, so a transcription into staff notation adds information the tablet lacks. Gibson argues that a string-number tablature is the most a reader can defend from the evidence [@gibson2025tablaturization] [@gibson2021reexamination].