Final answer:
In music notation, the horizontal axis represents duration and the vertical axis represents pitch. Duration indicates the note length, while pitch is the perceived frequency of a sound, dictating how high or low a note sounds.
Step-by-step explanation:
In music notation, the horizontal dimension corresponds to duration, while the vertical dimension corresponds to pitch. The duration indicates how long a note should be held, represented by different note values such as whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc.
On the other hand, the pitch refers to how high or low a note sounds, which is dictated by the placement of the note on the staff and the specific note symbol used, like A-sharp, C, or E-flat. Perfect or absolute pitch is a rare ability where individuals can recognize musical notes just by hearing them. Pitch is essentially the perception of the frequency of a sound wave, and typical humans can differentiate between sounds if their frequencies differ by as little as 0.3%, for example, between 500.0 and 501.5 Hz.