A rastrum (pl. rastra) or raster is a five-pointed writing implement used in music manuscripts to draw parallel staff lines when drawn horizontally across a blank piece of sheet music. The word "raster" is derived from the Latin for "rake". Rastra were used to draw lines on paper that had not been pre-ruled, and were widely used in Europe until printed staff paper became cheap and common in the nineteenth century. Some rastra are able to draw more than one staff at a time. Rastrology, the study of the use of the rastrum, is a branch of music manuscript studies that uses information about the rastrum to help find the date and provenance of musical materials.
Modern variants
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In recent years, rastra made of five ballpoint pens have been marketed to students and composers.
It was common in primary and secondary schools to use rastra that use chalk on a chalk board for music education. They may be called staff liners. An alternative is to use a chalk board with staff lines etched in or taped on.
Some rastra hold markers for use on whiteboards.
Another variant is the so-called "Stravigor", a wheeled instrument that Stravinsky attempted to patent around 1911.[1][2] He used them extensively in his compositional sketchbooks.
References
edit- ^ Stephen Walsh (2003). Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882–1934. University of California Press. p. 609. ISBN 978-0-520-22749-1.
- ^ Walsh, S. (2008). "[REVIEW] Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat: A Facsimile of the Sketches. Ed. By Maureen A. Carr. * Igor Stravinsky, les Noces: Study Score, Scenes choregraphiques russes avec chant et musique composees par Igor Stravinsky. Ed. By Margarita Mazo and Millan Sachania". Music and Letters. 89 (3): 444–448. doi:10.1093/ml/gcm101.
Further reading
edit- Randel, ed. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (1986; 9th printing, 1999), p. 681.
- Carl Gollmick (1833). Kritische Terminologie für Musiker und Musikfreunde. G. A. Lauten. p. 58.
rastrum linienzieher-zu-noten.