At this meeting in Los Angeles a list of thirteen points was recommended by the committee and adopted by the Music Department. These points are given in the N.E.A. Volume of Proceedings for 1907, p. 875.
Since 1907 the committee (consisting of Chas. I. Rice, P.C. Hayden, W.B. Kinnear, Leo R. Lewis, and Constance Barlow-Smith) have each year selected a number of topics for discussion, and have submitted valuable reports recommending the adoption of certain reforms. Some of the points recommended have usually been rejected by the Department, but many of them have been adopted and the reports of the committee have set many teachers thinking and have made us all more careful in the use and definition of common terms. A complete list of all points adopted by the Department since 1907 has been made by Mr. Rice for School Music, and this list is here reprinted from the January, 1913, number of that magazine.
Terminology Adoptions, 1907-1910
1. Tone: Specific name for a musical sound of definite pitch. Use neither sound, a general term, nor note, a term of notation.
2. Interval: The pitch relation between two tones. Not properly applicable to a single tone or scale degree. Example: "Sing the fifth tone of the scale." Not "sing the fifth interval of the scale."
3. Key: Tones in relation to a tonic. Example: In the key of G. Not in the scale of G. Scales, major and minor are composed of a definite selection from the many tones of the key, and all scales extend through at least one octave of pitch. The chromatic scale utilizes all the tones of a key within the octave.
4. Natural: Not a suitable compound to use in naming pitches. Pitch names are either simple: B, or compound: B sharp, B double-sharp, B flat or B double-flat, and there is no pitch named "B natural." Example: Pitch B, not "B natural."
Note:—L.R.L. thinks that B natural should be the name when the notation suggests it.
5. Step, Half-step: Terms of interval measurement. Avoid tone, semi-tone or half-tone. Major second and minor second are interval names. Example: How large are the following intervals? (1) Major second, (2) minor second, (3) augmented prime. Answer: (1) a step, (2) a half-step, (3) a half-step.
6. Chromatic: A tone of the key which is not a member of its diatonic scale. (N.B.) An accidental (a notation sign) is not a chromatic sign unless it makes a staff-degree represent a chromatic tone.