Jeongganbo Notation
See also; somewhat functional and incomplete implementation
Jeongganbo Notation is East Asia's first music notation system that records pitch and rhythm. First devised by King Sejong the Great (1397-1418) in Joseon Dynasty Korea, it has been the notation of choice in the Korean tradition of music since then to this day, especially in conservatory settings.
Pitch
Jeongganbo notates pitch using the traditional Chinese twelve-tone scale. Their correspondences differ from each other depending on the tuning used (Hz 311 = 黃 in Hyang'ak 'folk' scale, = 夾 in Dang 'Chinese' scale). While technically using a variant of Pythagorian tuning, the twelve tones of the Chinese twelve-tone scale roughly corresponds to the Western chromatic scale. Here is the scale and their approximate Western equivalents.
| Notation | 黃 | 大 | 太 | 夾 | 姑 | 仲 | 蕤 | 林 | 夷 | 南 | 無 | 應 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Korean Reading | Hwang | Dae | Tae | Hyeop | Go | Jung | Yu | Im | Yi | Nam | Mu | Eung |
| Pitch Name | 黃鐘 | 大呂 | 太簇 | 夾鐘 | 姑洗 | 仲呂 | 蕤賓 | 林鐘 | 夷則 | 南呂 | 無射 | 應鐘 |
| Korean Reading | Hwangjong | Daeryeo | Taeju | Hyeopjong | Goseon | Jungryeo | Yubin | Imjong | Yichik | Namryeo | Muryeo | Eungjong |
| Approximate Western Pitch | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D |
To lower a pitch by an octave, a 亻symbol is added to the left of the pitch symbol. To raise a pitch by an octave, a 氵symbol is added to the left of the pitch symbol.
Other Notations
One big difficulty in a complete implementation of Jeongganbo would be implementing various non-pitch notations. Different instruments in Korea use different sets of symbols for a differing set of concepts. As I haven't exactly studied the system in depth, I don't exactly have a list handy laying around for those, but I do remember stuff like how for percussion, circle would stand for round sounds, while vertical lines or dots would stand for sharp sounds. There are also shorthands for various grace notes. You may need to contact someone at the South Korean National Gugak Center to find a better equipped specialist who can help you guys with this one, but I'd imagine once you guys get over the language barrier they would be eager to help.
Organization of Notes, and examples.
Jeongganbo Notation does not have a time signature: rather, notes are placed in a beat (a 정간/Jeonggan), beats placed in a measure (강/Gang), and measures placed in phrases (각/Gak) Beats can be subdivided into 2, 3, 4, or 6 parts.
Rather than try to explain it verbally, here is an example of Jeongganbo Notation in action, and the equivalent in Western notation.
Note that like most other conversions from horizontal writing to vertical writing, any notes "above the staff" would be to the right of the columns, while any notes "below the staff" in western notation would be to the left of the columns. Lyrics would be rendered to the left of a column. Non-East Asian characters would need to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise for this system. If we were to hypothetically extrapolate Chords (not a native concept to the Korean tradition of music), you could probably do something like 黃長、黃短、黃增、黃减, 黃短加氵太, 黃短根林 for C(Maj), Cm, CAug, Cdim, Cm9, Cm/G respectively.
As said earlier, I am not exactly a Korean Traditional Music specialist so I don't have all the details this system would need to cover. However, I still think this is something you guys could look into, because this is a really cool and sophisticated system that's very much overlooked in the West. Despite not being a system designed for the Western tradition of music, I think making concessions for a system like this would be very useful for people researching alternative forms of musical notation.