clear and precise symbol?

In the ordinary method, certainly not. The musical sounds or notes are
represented by elliptical curves with or without stems; by spots
or dots with plain stems, or with stems having from one to four
appendages, or with these appendages united, forming bars across the
stems. These curves and dots are placed on the five parallel lines of
a staff, as it is called, or between the lines of this staff, or on or
between added or "ledger" lines above and below the staff. Certainly,
these cannot be called precise symbols, especially when we reflect
that _any one of them placed upon any given line or space may
represent successively do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si_, or the flats or
sharps of these notes. The notes, indeed, have no names, being all
alike for the various notes; but names are given to the lines and
spaces of the staff; and, alas! the names of these lines and spaces
change continually with the change of key or pitch. For example: if
we commence a scale with C, our _do_ will be on the first added line
below the staff, and its octave, _do_, on the third space counting
from the lowest. If we commence a scale with G, our _do_ will be on
the second line from the bottom, and the octave on the first space
above the staff; and so on for all the other scales except those which
commence a semitone below or above. For example: the scales of the key
of G and of G flat would be placed exactly the same upon the staff,
though the signature of G would be one sharp upon the staff at the
beginning, and that of G flat would be six flats. The same may be said
of the keys of D and D flat, F and F sharp, etc.

Again: the scales of the keys of G flat and of F sharp are the
same--are played on precisely the same keys of the organ or piano--yet
they are placed on different lines and spaces of the staff, and the
signature of the first is six flats, and of the second six sharps.

Think of the disheartened state of the victim of this notation when
he has learned to read comfortably in one key, and then, taking up a
piece of music written in another key, finds that he has all the lines
and spaces to relearn! The wonder is that he does not lose his wits
altogether.

Compare this maze of notes and lines and spaces, for ever changing
like a will-o'-the wisp, with the following:

Low Octave. Middle Octave. High Octave.

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