Neume, in musical notation, a sign for one or a group of successive musical pitches, predecessor of modern musical notes. Neumes placed on the staff showed exact pitch, allowing a singer to read an unfamiliar melody. Even within western Europe, differing systems of neumes were used in different geographical regions.
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What is a neume in music notation?
A neume (sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The word entered the English language in the Middle English forms “newme”, “nevme”, “neme” in the fifteenth century, from the Middle French “neume,” in turn from either medieval Latin “pneuma” or “neuma,” the former …
What is the meaning of neume?
Definition of neume. : any of various symbols used in the notation of Gregorian chant.
What is a neume syllable?
Neume definition no͝om, nyo͝om Meanings A sign used in the notation of plainsong during the Middle Ages, surviving today in transcriptions of Gregorian chants. noun 0 0 Any of various notational signs used in medieval church music, originally put above words to be sung so as to show approximate pitch, melody line, etc. noun 0 0
What is a neume group of two or more notes?
Dec 19, 2021 · Neume, in musical notation, a sign for one or a group of successive musical pitches, predecessor of modern musical notes. Neumes placed on the staff showed exact pitch, allowing a singer to read an unfamiliar melody. Even within western Europe, differing systems of neumes were used in different geographical regions.
What does a cheironomic neume indicate?
Cheironomic neumes indicated changes in pitch and duration within each syllable, but did not attempt to specify the pitches of individual notes, the intervals between pitches within a neume, nor the relative starting pitches of different syllables' neumes.
What is the chant notation called?
The earliest Western notation for chant appears in the 9th century. These early staffless neumes, called cheironomic or in campo aperto, appeared as freeform wavy lines above the text. Various scholars see these as deriving from cheironomic hand-gestures, from the ekphonetic notation of Byzantine chant, or from punctuation or accent marks. A single neume could represent a single pitch, or a series of pitches all sung on the same syllable. Cheironomic neumes indicated changes in pitch and duration within each syllable, but did not attempt to specify the pitches of individual notes, the intervals between pitches within a neume, nor the relative starting pitches of different syllables' neumes.
What is Gothic neume?
By the 11th century, chironomic neumes had evolved into square notation; in Germany, a variant called Gothic neumes continued to be used until the 16th century. This variant is also known as Hufnagel notation, as the used neumes resemble the nails (hufnagels) one uses to attach horseshoes.
What is the neume in chant?
By the 13th century, the neumes of Gregorian chant were usually written in square notation on a staff with four lines and three spaces and a clef marker, as in the 14th–15th century Graduale Aboense shown here. In square notation , small groups of ascending notes on a syllable are shown as stacked squares, read from bottom to top, while descending notes are written with diamonds read from left to right. In melismatic chants, in which a syllable may be sung to a large number of notes, a series of smaller such groups of neumes are written in succession, read from left to right. A special symbol called the custos, placed at the end of a system, showed which pitch came next at the start of the following system. Special neumes such as the oriscus, quilisma, and liquescent neumes, indicate particular vocal treatments for these notes. This system of square notation is standard in modern chantbooks.
What is a single note neume?
The single-note neumes indicate that only a single note corresponds to that syllable. Chants that primarily use single-note neumes are called syllabic; chants with typically one multi-note neume per syllable are called neumatic, and those with many neumes per syllable are called melismatic .
How many syllables are in a neume?
As a general rule, the notes of a single neume are never sung to more than one syllable; all three pitches of a three-note neume, for example, must all be sung on the same syllable. (This is not universally accepted; Richard Crocker has argued that in the special case of the early Aquitanian polyphony of the St. Martial school, neumes must have been "broken" between syllables to facilitate the coordination of parts.) However, a single syllable may be sung to so many notes that several neumes in succession are used to notate it. The single-note neumes indicate that only a single note corresponds to that syllable. Chants that primarily use single-note neumes are called syllabic; chants with typically one multi-note neume per syllable are called neumatic, and those with many neumes per syllable are called melismatic .
What is neumatic notation?
Neumatic notation was later used in medieval music to indicate certain patterns of rhythm called rhythmic modes, and eventually evolved into modern musical notation. Neumatic notation remains standard in modern editions of plainchant .
What are neumes in music?
The earliest neumes were inflective marks which indicated the general shape but not necessarily the exact notes or rhythms to be sung. Later developments included the use of heightened neumes which showed the relative pitches between neumes, and the creation of a four-line musical staff that identified particular pitches. Neumes do not generally indicate rhythm, but additional symbols were sometimes juxtaposed with neumes to indicate changes in articulation, duration, or tempo. Neumatic notation was later used in medieval music to indicate certain patterns of rhythm called rhythmic modes, and eventually evolved into modern musical notation. Neumatic notation remains standard in modern editions of plainchant.
What does a neume represent?
A single neume could represent a single pitch, or a series of pitches all sung on the same syllable. Cheironomic neumes indicated changes in pitch and duration within each syllable, but did not attempt to specify the pitches of individual notes, the intervals between pitches within a neume, nor the relative starting pitches ...
What is the chant notation called?
The earliest Western notation for chant appears in the ninth century. These early staffless neumes, called cheironomic or in campo aperto, appeared as freeform wavy lines above the text. Various scholars see these as deriving from cheironomic hand gestures, from the ekphonetic notation of Byzantine chant, or from punctuation or accent marks. A single neume could represent a single pitch, or a series of pitches all sung on the same syllable. Cheironomic neumes indicated changes in pitch and duration within each syllable, but did not attempt to specify the pitches of individual notes, the intervals between pitches within a neume, nor the relative starting pitches of different syllables’ neumes.
What is Gothic neume?
By the eleventh century, chironomic neumes had evolved into square notation; in Germany, a variant called Gothic neumes continued to be used until the sixteenth century. This variant is also known as Hufnagel notation, as the used neumes resemble the nails (hufnagels) one uses to attach horseshoes.
What is a neume?
Neumes. A neume (sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The word entered the English language in the Middle English forms “newme”, “nevme”, “neme” in the fifteenth century, from the Middle French “neume,” in turn from ...
Where is Messine Neumes from?
Messine neumes (from the monastery of Metz in northeast France)
When was the first musical notation invented?
There is evidence that the earliest Western musical notation, in the form of neumes in campo aperto (without staff-lines), was created at Metz around 800, as a result of Charlemagne’s desire for Frankish church musicians to retain the performance nuances used by the Roman singers.
What is the meaning of Neume notation?
Neume, in musical notation, a sign for one or a group of successive musical pitches, predecessor of modern musical notes. Neumes placed on the staff showed exact pitch, allowing a singer to read an unfamiliar melody. Even within western Europe, differing systems of neumes were used in different geographical regions.
What historical period is Neume notation?
Around the 9th century neumes began to become shorthand mnemonic aids for the proper melodic recitation of chant. A prevalent view is that neumatic notation was first developed in the Eastern Roman Empire.
What is Diastematic notation?
Diastematic (from Gk. An adjective describing notation that indicates the pitch of notes by their vertical placing on the page. The term ‘heighted’ is a modern equivalent.
What does a Neume look like?
Notes inside the neume are drawn with a square, a diamond or a bold line. A neume always starts at the beginning of a syllable. A neume is always read from left to right (like in modern notation) but from bottom to top when notes are written on the same column.
What was the big problem with early chant notation?
However, even though chant notation had progressed in many ways, one fundamental problem remained: rhythm. The neumatic notational system, even in its fully developed state, did not clearly define any kind of rhythm for the singing of notes.
How are music notations made?
In pitch bracket notation music is written with melody lines and pitch brackets. Melody lines are like staff lines except they can change pitch by writing pitch brackets on them. Pitch brackets add or subtract scale steps to the melody line.
Why did the Italians get to name most musical terms?
Many musical terms are in Italian, because the vast majority of the most important early composers, from the Renaissance to the Baroque period, were Italian. That period is when numerous musical indications were used extensively for the first time.
What is a syllable in MEI?
The syllable element is used as the primary organizational element for neume notation within a layer element. Within syllable, the syl element defined in the MEI.shared module is used for encoding the textual content, while the uneume and ineume elements are used to encode the neumes themeselves. Within these neume module elements, other standard MEI mechanisms are available to accommodate, for example, editorial or critical markup.
What is Neume encoding?
Neume encoding in MEI was initially developed as part of the Hildegard von Bingen project at the University of Tübingen. MEI was chosen as the basic representation format after a comparison of existing music encoding formats. The initial work on this module was performed by Gregor Schräder (Ein XML-Datenformat zur Repräsentation kritischer Musikedition unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Neumennotation), supervised by Prof. Stefan Morent.
What is the purpose of neume notation?
Neume Notation. Most neume notation is used to set music to an existing text. The syllable is the fundamental unit of structure, with the neumes themselves serving as a means of “sonifying” the text.
What is a neume group of more than 4 notes called?
Neume groups of more than four notes are simply called “compound” neumes. Table 1. Variant neume notation. (From Parrish, "The notation of medieval music," 6) As shown in Table 1, it is possible to have many different styles of neume shapes, derived from local practices of regional groups.
What is an ineume?
ineume. (interrupted neume) – A graphically interrupted neume; that is, a neume which is logically a single entity but is written using multiple signs. syllable. Neume notation can be thought of as "neumed text". Therefore, the syllable element provides high-level organization in this repertoire. uneume.
When to use @source attribute?
In the case of neume notation where no absolute pitch is indicated, you may use the supplied element to indicate an editorially-added pitch. This element’s @source attribute may be used to supply a reference to a source with the absolute pitch provided.
What is the earliest form of notation?
The earliest form of notation of which we have any knowledge is called the Neume notation.
What does "Gregorian" mean in music?
noun. any of various symbols representing from one to four notes, used in the musical notation of the Middle Ages but now employed solely in the notation of Gregorian chant in the liturgical books of the Roman Catholic Church.
Why is the word "sinister" Latin?
The word "sinister" is Latin for "left," because left-handed people were often thought of as suspicious, evil, or demonic.
Where does the word "infant" come from?
The word "infant" comes from the Latin word "infans" which literally means "unable to speak; speechless."
What are the elements in MEI?
In addition to neume and nc the following elements are also frequently used in the MEI Neumes Module: custos, episema, hispanTick, liquescent, ncGrp, oriscus, quilisma, signifLet, strophicus. Note that nc, episema, hispanTick, and signifLet are neume elements. Instead oriscus, liquescent, quilisma, and strophicus are elements that must be part of a nc element. The custos is an element that is encoded inside the syl element. Furthermore, there are many other elements such as Editorial and Metadata elements that are not specific to Neumes and are not listed here.
What are the most common elements used in the MEI Neumes module?
neume and nc are the most common elements used in the MEI Neumes module. In the following examples we can see how these elements are used to describe sung gestures of 1, 2, and 4 notes in square notation.
What is neume encoding?
MEI was chosen as the basic representation format after a comparison of existing music encoding formats. The initial work on this module was performed by Gregor Schräder (Ein XML-Datenformat zur Repräsentation kritischer Musikedition unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Neumennotation), supervised by Prof. Stefan Morent. Since 2012 a group of scholars has been working on the development of a new version of the MEI schema for neume notations (Ichiro Fujinaga, Jennifer Bain, Debra Lacoste, Kate Helsen, and Inga Behrendt). Afterwards, other chant scholars joined the group bringing further expertise on other kinds of early music notations (namely Elsa De Luca, Alessandra Ignesti, and Sarah A. Long).
What is a syllable in MEI?
The syllable element is used as the primary organizational element for neume notation within a layer element. Within syllable, the syl element defined in the MEI.shared module is used for encoding the textual content, while the neume and nc elements are used to encode the neumes themselves. Within these Neumes Module elements, other standard MEI mechanisms are available to accommodate, for example, editorial or critical markup.
What does "signiflet" mean?
signifLet: element indicates significative letter (s) attached to a neume or a nc (see MEI encoding of signifLet below).
What is neume notation?
Neume notation can be thought of as "neumed text". Therefore, the syllable element provides high-level organization in this repertoire.
What is the middle note of a three note raising gesture?
St Gall notation Oriscus (one-note ornamental neume). The oriscus is the middle note of a three-note raising gesture (commonly called salicus in the literature).
Overview
- A neume is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not necessarily the exact notes or rhythms to be sung. Later developments included the use of heightened neumes that showed the relative pi...
Etymology
- The word "neume" entered the English language in the Middle English forms "newme", "nevme", "neme" in the 15th century, from the Middle French "neume", in turn from either medieval Latin "pneuma" or "neuma", the former either from ancient Greek πνεῦμα pneuma or νεῦμα neuma, or else directly from Greek as a corruption or an adaptation of the former.
Early history
- Although chant was probably sung since the earliest days of the church, for centuries they were only transmitted orally. The earliest known systems involving neumes are of Aramaic origin and were used to notate inflections in the quasi-emmelic recitation of the Christian holy scriptures. As such they resemble functionally a similar system used for the notation of recitation of the Qur'an…
Western plainchant
- The earliest Western notation for chant appears in the 9th century. These early staffless neumes, called cheironomic or in campo aperto, appeared as freeform wavy lines above the text. Various scholars see these as deriving from cheironomic hand-gestures, from the ekphonetic notation of Byzantine chant, or from punctuation or accent marks. A single neume could represent a single …
Solesmes notation
- Various manuscripts and printed editions of Gregorian chant, using varying styles of square-note neumes, circulated throughout the Catholic Church for centuries. Some editions added rhythmic patterns, or meter, to the chants. In the 19th century the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Solesmes, particularly Dom Joseph Pothier and Dom André Mocquereau collected facsimiles of …
Rhythmic interpretation
- The Solesmes monks also determined, based on their research, performance practice for Gregorian chant. Because of the ambiguity of medieval musical notation, the question of rhythm in Gregorian chant is contested by scholars. Some neumes, such as the pressus, do indicate the lengthening of notes. Common modern practice, following the Solesmes interpretation, is to perf…