Grove Music Online

Notation
Ian D. Bent, David W. Hughes, Robert C. Provine, Richard Rastall,
Anne Kilmer, David Hiley, Janka Szendrei, Thomas B. Payne, Margaret Bent
 and Geoffrey Chew

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20114
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
updated and revised, 1 July 2014

A visual analogue of musical sound, either as a record of sound

heard or imagined, or as a set of visual instructions for performers.

This article includes a discussion of notation in society (§II),

subdivided into its primary types, which are considered with
reference to various notational systems. Other specialized aspects of
notation are considered in separate entries: Braille notation;
Cheironomy; Ekphonetic notation; Pitch nomenclature; Shape-note
hymnody; Solmization; Tablature; and Tonic Sol-fa. For non-Western
notational systems see, in particular, China, People’s Republic of, §II,
China, People’s Republic of, §IV; Indonesia; and Japan, §III, 4. Other
related entries on technical subjects include Conducting;
Improvisation; Mode; Psychology of music; Scale; and Tuning.

Whereas Western notation is considered as such in §III, a discussion

of musical documents as sources – their physical make-up and
production, their format, the layout and presentation of the music,
the ordering of their contents – will be found in Sources, MS;
Sources of instrumental ensemble music to 1630; Sources of
keyboard music to 1660; and Sources of lute music; in these entries
reference is made to notations, and the descriptions of individual
sources contain statements on notational types. See also Accidental;
Clef; Continuo; Note values; Ornaments; Proportional notation; Rest;
Score; Staff; and definitions of individual notational terms.

I. General
, assisted by Ian D. Bent and Anne Kilmer

, revised by David W. Hughes ,Robert C. Provine and Richard Rastall

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 1. Introduction.
The concept of notation may be regarded as including formalized
systems of signalling between musicians, and systems of memorizing
and teaching music with spoken syllables, words or phrases; the
latter are sometimes called ‘oral notations’. The origins of written
notations can often be seen to lie in them; further, they are the
natural musical communication systems of non-literate societies and
non-literate classes of society. The continent of Africa south of the
Sahara, for example, except for the white communities, uses no
written notations, but many of its indigenous peoples communicate
about music through speech in the form of syllables, word patterns,
the numbers of xylophone keys, the names of strings and other
technical vocabulary. Even in 11th-century Europe instrumentalists
had no notation, and church musicians communicated mainly
through syllables and hand signs rather than through the reading of
a score in rehearsal or performance.

Written notation is a phenomenon of literate social classes. In all

societies it has developed only after the formation of a script for
language, and it has generally used elements of that script. Some
cultures are particularly notation-prone in this sense: China, Korea,
Japan and Europe have each accumulated a large number of
notational systems to serve different purposes. Others, until the late
19th century, have developed very few, notably the countries of the
Middle East (except Turkey), South and South-east Asia.

The use of notation and the form it takes are the result of the social
and cultural context in which it has been developed. It is socially
significant that, while in Western Europe it was vocal music that first
acquired a written notation, in Greece, Mesopotamia and Pharaonic
Egypt it seems to have been instrumental music. In the latter two
cultures, and in later East Asian instrumental notations, the script of
language was used as part of the notation; in the former, as in the
chant notations of Byzantium and Eastern Europe, of Tibet,
Mongolia and Japan, non-linguistic symbols were used and script
was required only for sung texts. Furthermore some notations are
designed to give all necessary information, others give only a small
part of what would be needed by the non-adept. In the latter, the
remaining information is withheld either because it is already learnt
and therefore unnecessary, or because there is a desire to keep it
secret.

Broadly speaking, there are two motivations behind the use of

notation: the need for a memory aid and the need to communicate.
As a memory aid, it enables the performer to encompass a far
greater repertory than he or she could otherwise retain and realize.
It may assist the performer’s memory in music that is already
basically known but not necessarily remembered perfectly; it may
provide a framework for improvisation; or it may enable the reading
of music at sight (this last concept is a predominantly Western one).
A written notation provides the means to sketch and draft musical
ideas during the composing process. As a means of communication,

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 it preserves music over a long period; it facilitates performance by
those not in contact with the composer; it equips the conductor with
a set of spatial symbols by which to obtain certain responses during
performance; it presents music as a ‘text’ for study and analysis, and
offers the student the means of bringing it to life in his or her mind
when no performance is possible; and it serves the theorist as a
medium by which to demonstrate musical or acoustical laws.

2. Chronology.
In trying to see all notations in a single chronological sweep it must
be borne in mind that these developments can be seen only in their
surviving remnants. A notation preserved as a musical source of a
given date may be unrepresentative; a theoretical description of a
notation may be ambiguous or inaccurate; a literary allusion to
notational practice may take poetic licence or even be fictional.
Interpretation of what survives is the first of the difficulties. Filling
in the gaps between the survivals is the second, particularly when
this involves not merely decades or centuries but millennia.

The earliest recognized form of writing by any civilization was the

system used by the Mesopotamian civilizations of the Sumerians,
Babylonians, Assyrians and others in the Middle East. Its
pictographic origins date from at least the middle of the 4th
millennium BCE and its developed syllabic-logographic cuneiform
system survived into the Hellenistic period and down to the 1st
century CE. The hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians, a
mixture of ideographs (pictures representing not merely the objects
depicted but also ideas associated with those objects) and phonetic
symbols, survived to about 400 CE. It is in connection with these
hieroglyphs, carved on the walls of temples and tombs, that the first
visual representations of musical sounds may have survived (see
Cheironomy): certain of the carvings from the Pharaonic period
contain scenes of music-making that show what appears to be a
system of arm, hand and finger signs by which instructors signalled
details of melody and rhythm to performers (Hickmann, RBM, x,
1956, p.1 and MGG1). Moreover, some of the hieroglyphic signs
themselves, from the Middle Kingdom (c2686–2181 BCE) and New
Kingdom (1567–1085 BCE), have been interpreted as specific written
musical instructions. Cheironomy may also have existed among the
Jews by the 2nd millennium BCE, and it is probable that some of the
signs in the system of biblical accents developed by the Masoretic
scholars of Tiberias during the 9th century CE and the early 10th
were originally based on the cheironomic hand signs used to assist
the singer in his chanting (see Cheironomy, §4; Ekphonetic notation,
§2; Jewish music, §III, 2, (ii)).

From ancient Mesopotamia, there is clear evidence of a system of

phonetic notation, that is, descriptive musical instructions that may
be viewed as skeletal notations for string instruments. This system is
preserved in about 80 Akkadian cuneiform tablets and fragments

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 dating from between 1800 and 500 BCE, during which period the
system was used consistently. This ‘notation’ is based on a technical
Akkadian (and to a lesser extent Sumerian) music terminology that
gives individual names to nine musical strings or ‘notes’ and to 14
basic terms describing intervals of the 4th and 5th that were used in
tuning string instruments (according to seven heptatonic diatonic
scales) and terms for 3rds and 6ths that appear to have been used to
fine tune (or temper in some way) the seven notes generated for
each scale. The combination of string names and interval terms is
used to describe the tuning procedure and the generation of the
seven scales, and forms a skeletal phonetic notation or a kind of
phonetic instrumental tablature. This system was used in both
northern and southern Mesopotamia and has also been found at the
ancient site of Ugarit (Ras Shamra, Syria). Tablets from the latter
site dating from about 1400 BCE include hymn texts written in the
Hurrian language followed by the standard Akkadian musical
instructions for intervals and scale. Unusually, these tablets have
number signs after the interval names; this ‘notational’ system is
open to various interpretations, but it seems likely to have been
intended for the instrumentalist accompanying the singing.

The earliest known alphabetical system of notation (i.e. a system in

which each sign represents a single sound, each sound being
designated by one sign) is that of Ugarit, which is preserved on clay
tablets using unique cuneiform signs to represent 30 letters; it
appears to have evolved from cuneiform syllabaries of the mid-2nd
millennium BCE in Syria-Palestine. The later North-Semitic alphabet
of 22 letters, which developed towards the end of the 2nd
millennium BCE, was the origin of, among others, the Hebrew and
Greek alphabets, both of which emerged in the early centuries of the
1st millennium BCE. The first musical notation known to harness the
alphabet, with its built-in ordering, to the representation of pitch
was the older of the two Greek systems, the so-called ‘instrumental’
notation, which used a mixture of Greek letters and other symbols to
represent a continuous diatonic series of notes over three octaves.
Each letter or sign appears also rotated on to its side and also in
mirror image to represent the diatonic note raised by a quarter-tone
and semitone respectively. This notation must have come into
existence some time before 500 BCE, whereas the ‘vocal’ notation,
using the Ionic alphabet, cannot be much earlier than the 5th
century BCE (see Greece, §I, 7 and Alypius).

An essentially ideographic system of writing existed in China

probably by early in the 2nd millennium BCE, with each ‘character’
of the script representing a single monosyllabic word. The earliest
reference to the use of monosyllables to represent musical pitches
dates from the 4th century BCE; and the first detailed discussion,
dating from the 2nd century BCE, shows the five monosyllables (and
hence written characters) gong, shang, jue, zhi and yu denoting the
notes of the Chinese pentatonic scale. These monosyllables are in
effect solmization syllables in that they designate the five points on
the pentatonic scale, movable to any fixed pitch. On the other hand,
in the 3rd century BCE the earliest surviving account was given of

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 the fixed-pitch system of the 12 lü, each pitch of which had its own
name: the starting-pitch was called huangzhong (‘yellow bell’), the
5th above it linzhong (‘forest bell’), the 5th above that (i.e. the 2nd)
taicou (‘great frame’) etc. Each pitch was thus represented in script
by a pair of characters (see China, §II ).

Reference has already been made to the addition of accents to

Hebrew biblical texts. The use of such accents for the cantillation of
texts is called Ekphonetic notation. A developed system of nine
accents, indicated by the placing and grouping of dots, existed for
Hebrew texts in the 6th century CE. This system was developed to a
high degree of sophistication in the ensuing centuries. Other
traditions that use ekphonetic notations include the liturgical
monophonic repertories of the Syrian, Armenian and Byzantine
Churches.

The earliest clear examples of instrumental tablature date from the

6th and 8th centuries CE. The first is an elaborate set of technical
instructions for the Chinese zither, the qin, directing how to play the
piece entitled Youlan. The system, known as wenzi pu, remained in
existence until the 10th century. A tablature notation for the
Japanese lute, the biwa, dates from 768 and derives from the
Chinese court tradition.

The earliest surviving neumatic notations for Western plainchant

date from the 9th century: notably the stroke (accent) neumes of St
Gallen in Switzerland, in which finely drawn lines, curves and hooks
represent the rise and fall of the melodic line graphically; and the
point neumes of Palaeo-Frankish, Messine (or Lorraine) and
Aquitanian sources. From this century also dates the earliest
survival of Byzantine ekphonetic notation. It may have been not long
after this that neumatic notation first came into use in Tibet for the
singing of Buddhist chant, possibly by influence from the ekphonetic
system of the Syrian Church transmitted by the Nestorians (see
Syrian church music, §6; Tibetan music, §II, 4; Buddhist music, §2).

In the 9th century dasian notation, which in its rotation of notational

signs has a peculiar similarity to Greek ‘instrumental’ notation, was
used to notate the earliest surviving Western polyphony: the so-
called ‘parallel’ and ‘free’ organum of Musica enchiriadis. There
were also the first traces of an alphabetical notation for Arabic
theory – not used in musical practice – though its earliest survivals
date only from the 13th century.

The Chinese gongche notation seems to have originated in the

Central Asian kingdom of Kuqa before the 6th century CE, but only
reappears in extant sources from the Song dynasty (960–1279).
While at first it was, perhaps, a form of tablature for the double reed
pipe bili, in later centuries it was used as a more general solfeggio
type of notation for both vocal and instrumental music. The 10th
century saw the change to the new jianzipu tablature for the Chinese
qin: a highly compact notation in which information about right-hand

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 plucking and left-hand positioning, duration and embellishment is
packed into a single complex symbol (see §II, 6, 8 below; see also
China, People’s Republic of and Qin).

From the 10th century to the 12th survive the earliest partbooks for
Japanese court wind and string instruments. These are primarily
tablatures, but koto zither notation is also one of the earliest number
notations (see below, §5; see also Japan, §III, 3).

Notation I. General 2. Chronology. II. Notational systems 7. Graphic

signs.: Fig.11

The 11th century saw in western Europe the innovations associated

with Guido of Arezzo: the staff, the Guidonian hand (a type of
cheironomy) and solmization syllables; in eastern Europe the earliest
neumes in Byzantine and Slavonic manuscripts; and in the Middle
East the use of ekphonetic notations in Georgian and Armenian
manuscripts. The 12th century saw the beginnings of sumifu
neumatic notation in the Japanese secular epic, in which teardrop-
shaped lines placed to the left of written text signify stereotyped
melodic patterns; and the 13th century the beginning of goin-hakase
for Buddhist chant, in which the angle at which a short line is placed
indicates the pitch of the note to be sung, and gomafu notation
(related to sumifu) for Japanese noh drama (see §II, 7 and fig.13
below; see also Japan, §III, 2).

South Asian solmization syllables date back to at least the 4th and
5th centuries CE. In the Nāṭyaśāstra seven pitches are represented
by the syllables sa ri ga ma pa dha ni, which are said to be shorthand
for the Sanskrit ṣaḍjaṛṣabha gāndhāra madhyama pañcama dhaivata
and niṣāda. Widdess (1996, p.393), however, asserts that the short
forms are oral in origin and not abbreviations. Although these
pitches are named in the Nāṭyaśāstra the earliest known South Asian
notation dates from the 7th–8th century CE and is found on a rock
inscription at Kudumiyamalai in Tamil Nadu (fig.1 ). Syllables used
as mnemonics for drum-patterns are also described in the
Nāṭyaśāstra, and particularly in the 13th-century Saṅgīta-ratnākara.

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 Fig.1. A small portion of the Kudumiyamalai Inscription (7th–8th
century)

Meanwhile, Western notation was undergoing fundamental changes,

with the formation of square notation in the 12th century, the
development of the rhythmic modes and the evolution of the
mensural system with its highly complex rhythmic possibilities.
Contemporary with the peak of this development, in the mid-15th
century, was the formation, in Korea, of the only alphabet among all
the East Asian civilizations. Following soon on that was the
importation and adaptation of Chinese notations for Korean use: the
yulchapo, which took over the abbreviated names of the Chinese lü
but pronounced them in Korean; the kŏmun’go tablature for the six-
string zither, which adopted the compact Chinese jianzi pu but
incorporated Korean letters into it (see §II, 8 and fig.16 below); the
kongch’ŏk po, which adapted the Chinese gongche notation for ritual
melodies; and the ‘five-note abbreviated notation’ oŭmyakpo which
corresponds to the ancient Chinese solmization system but uses a
central degree of the scale kung (the lowest of the five Chinese
degrees) and ranges outward from that using numbers and prefixes:
sangil (‘above one’) for the note immediately above it, hasam (‘below
three’) for the third note below it, and so on. With these went the
invention of a Korean mensural notation, chŏngganbo: a grid system,
in which each space corresponds to one time unit and into which a
pitch symbol from one of the pitch notations could be placed as
required (see also Korea, §II).

During the 15th and 16th centuries the first Western instrumental
tablatures developed (though they may possibly have begun in the
13th century), the earliest being for keyboard instruments and the
lute family. The 16th century saw the gradual breakdown of the
proportional mensural system of values into a fixed-value system in
which each note value contained two of the next value down. At the
same time, unmeasured square notation was still used for
plainchant, and for monophonic secular music in Germany, as was
neumatic notation – the ‘Reformed’ notation – in Byzantine and
Russian sources.

It was probably in the 16th century (though possibly earlier) that

Balinese solmization syllables for gamelan compositions in the pelog
system came to be written down in Balinese script as a notation.

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 Only at the end of the 19th century did the nut andha (‘ladder
notation’) of Central Java used in the Yogyakarta kraton manuscripts
come into use: a grid system, with dots not unlike the Western staff
(though vertical rather than horizontal. Another system, nut ranté
(‘chain notation’) using six horizontal lines, with dots above or below
the lines representing pitches and connected with ‘chains’, came
into use only a few years before that; at the same time a number
notation for pitches, nut angka, also known as kepatihan, was
introduced.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw in Western notation a formalization

of the orchestral score, an increasing use of non-Italian verbal
indications as auxiliary signs to staff notation, and a more detailed
specification of all parameters of sound in an attempt to prescribe
every detail of performance. This has brought with it proposals for
the reform of notation, in particular two: Klavarskribo and Equitone.
Compositional indeterminacy imposed new demands upon staff
notation that at first were answered by ‘space–time notation’ and
later by specially designed systems. Both representational and
technical notations have also been devised for electronic music.

Many East Asian notations came under the influence of staff notation
during the 19th century, and new ones arose using Arabic numbers
(mostly based on the Galin-Paris-Chevé method see below, §II, 5) and
recently developed solmization-syllable systems. Just as the writing
of microtonal music by Western composers in the 20th century
placed strain upon the rigid pitch representation of staff notation
and caused the introduction of quarter-tone and sixth-tone
accidentals and signs for microtonal inflection, so too the need to
transcribe non-Western music has strained the capacity of staff
notation. Two new methods have been developed: that of the
Melograph, an invention by Charles Seeger that traces a pitch–time
graph immediately above a volume–time graph; and a device by Karl
Dahlback that produces two similar graphs by means of a cathode-
ray tube.

Taking a historical perspective, between about 500 BCE and the 10th
century CE most of the world’s principal alphabetical and
ideographic notations (many of the latter probably arising out of
solmization-syllable systems) were established. Some of the
ideographic notations were instrumental tablatures (see §II, 5
below), all of them from East Asia; Western tablatures developed
later. Towards the end of this period was another in which accents
were used as notational signs: this is concentrated particularly in the
period from the 5th century to the 11th CE, although the origins of
some systems may be earlier. Most of the world’s neumatic systems
seem to have developed in the surprisingly narrow period between
the 9th century and the 12th: neumes in Western Europe, in
Byzantium and Eastern Europe, in Japan and probably also in Tibet.
Number notations are far later developments: apart from the use of
numbers in Chinese qin tablature of the 10th century and Japanese

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 koto tablature by the 12th, they arose in Korea in the 15th century,
in Western tablatures in the 16th and thereafter with increasing
popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries.

For general bibliography see end of §II.

II. Notational systems

Ian D. Bent

, revised by David W. Hughes ,Robert C. Provine and Richard Rastall

1. Materials: general.
A musical notation requires, in essence, two things: an assemblage
of ‘signs’ and a convention as to how those signs relate to one
another. A written musical notation requires further a spatial
arrangement of the signs on the writing surface that makes a
‘system’ of the assemblage; it is this system that forms an analogue
with the system of musical sound, thus enabling the signs to ‘signify’
individual elements of it.

Only rarely has music fashioned its own sign systems. It has
generally been content to take over systems in use for other
purposes (such as the representation of arithmetical values, of
speech inflection or of the sounds of natural language). In so doing it
has often discarded part of the system and modified the shapes of
the signs to suit its purpose. Such signs, the ‘materials’ of notation,
can be broadly classified into two categories: the phonic and the
graphic. Phonic signs include letters, syllable-signs and word-signs
(signs that convey both the meaning of the word and its sound in
speech – known as ‘logo-syllabic signs’). Certain systems of numerals
also come into this category: systems that assign names to at least
the lower range of numbers. Graphic signs include geometric
shapes, lines, dots, curves, grids and the like.

Phonic signs are by their nature already representational of sounds

outside music. They can be ‘spoken’ as well as written, which
increases their communicative power. But they have an all-important
additional quality: either they have meaning (like word signs and
numbers) or they belong to some system of ordering (like letters and
in some cases syllables). These are the properties that were implied
above in speaking of the adoption for other purposes of systems
already in use.

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 2. Letters of the alphabet.
For the requirements of an alphabetical notation, it is not in fact the
phonic – or perhaps ‘phonemic’, since each letter at least in principle
signifies a single sound of language – quality of a letter that is
important but rather its position within a conventional order: an
alphabet. The ordering of letters in an alphabet offers a ready-made
base for notation, as it can be directly related to the intrinsic
acoustical order of musical sound. It thus becomes an analogue of
musical order: an item in the musical order is specified by reference
to its place on the analogous system.

As stated above (§I, 2), the earliest-known alphabetic writing dates

to the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE. The first known to have an
established order of letters is the Hebrew alphabet, traceable back
at least to the 6th century BCE. This order corresponds to the
acrostics in the Bible (Lamentations, Proverbs, Psalms). Until the
17th century alphabetic writing existed in only a small area of the
world: the Middle East, the Mediterranean countries, Eastern and
Western Europe, South Asia and Korea. The earliest alphabets –
Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic and North Semitic – all developed
between 1000 and 500 BCE. From these developed the Greek, Latin,
Cyrillic and early Indian alphabets. As to order of letters, the Greek
alphabet is close to the Hebrew, the Latin close to the Greek.

One of the advantages of an alphabet for music notation is that it

consists of single rather than compound signs – signs that are
distinctive and at the same time compact. Another is that it contains
a convenient number of signs (alphabets range from about 20 to 50
letters, most having between 20 and 30) to represent a chromatic
double octave or a diatonic triple octave; fewer can be selected to
represent a single octave in a repeating scheme or the frets on a
stopped-string instrument. Moreover, the letters of alphabets are
generally assigned names (the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet
being called daleth, the Greek delta, the Latin and modern Western
European de and so forth), so that the notation can be spoken as
well as written.

The alphabet was used for pitch notation in ancient Greece, and then
around the 10th century in western Europe before being formalized
in shape and absorbed into staff notation as clefs (C, F, G) and
accidentals (‘b’, ‘h’). The alphabetic system is implicit still in staff
notation, since in most European countries the placing of notes on
the staff is translated into spoken letter-names (except in France,
where they are translated into fixed solmization syllables; see Pitch
nomenclature). The Western system is a repeating one, since the
letters refer only to pitch classes, not to specific pitches; therefore
the 19th-century German philosopher and scientist Hermann von
Helmholtz developed a scheme of dashes to indicate pitch register
(the dashes deriving from Greek notation but the letters coming

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 from the Latin alphabet): A〟, B〟, C𝇍–B𝇍, C–B, c–b, c′ (middle C)–b′, c″–
b″, c‴–b‴ etc. The alphabet has also been used to denote keys, finger
positions or frets in many Western tablature systems.

There are many examples of verbal abbreviation in Western

notations: the letter p, for example, is used as an instruction to play
softly (piano) and, in a rather elaborate formalized fashion (as an
alternative to ‘Ped.’), below the staves, to indicate application of the
sustaining pedal of the piano. ‘Significative letters’ were used in
conjunction with some early Western neumatic notations to indicate
duration (c to stand for cito or celeriter, ‘quickly’, i.e. ‘short’ value)
and direction of movement (l to stand for levare, s for sursum, both
meaning ‘upward’).

In all these non-alphabetic uses of letters, the notation can be

described as ‘secondary’: that is, the letters signify words that in
turn signify musical elements, rather than signifying musical
elements directly. However, such is the force of tradition that
formalized letters often cease to be recognizable: by this means a
pedal mark has become a graphic sign that refers directly to the
pianist’s foot movement. The same is true even for alphabetic uses of
letters: the treble and bass clefs are now scarcely recognizable as
formalized letters ‘G’ and ‘F’, and have become instead graphic signs
for the two fixed pitches g′ and f with a range of special technical
connotations associated.

3. Syllables.
As with letters, syllable notations fall into two categories: those that
operate by reference to an established order of syllables, and thus
relate directly to a musical order (‘primary’ notations), and those
that use syllabic abbreviations of words, and operate by reference to
meaning or name (‘secondary’ notations). Cutting across this
categorization is the orthographic one: that some of these syllable
systems are expressible as single symbols (ideograms or
‘characters’) while others have to be spelt out in letters.

A classic case of the first (‘primary’) category is the set of Japanese

syllables i, ro, ha, ni, ho, he, to. These are the initial seven syllables
of an established order of some 48 Japanese characters closely
analogous to the order of an alphabet – that is, it is a conventional
order rather than an intrinsic one. In Western music terminology in
Japan, these first seven function exactly like the Western letters A, B,
C, D, E, F, G, with repetition for each octave in the same way. Thus a
C major scale is represented as ha–ni–ho–he–to–i–ro–ha, each having
a single character to represent it in written form. (A more extensive
set from this series was used in 17th-century shamisen tablature to
represent successive finger positions from the open bass string to
the highest position on the treble string.) A simpler example is the
set of syllables for the Balinese five-note slendro scale, a set that
rotates through five vowel sounds: ding–dong–dèng–dung–dang. It is

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 almost an alphabetical system using only vowels, save for the fact
that Balinese literary script uses characters rather than letters and
therefore has no alphabet. The characters for these five notes are
shown in fig.2 (see also Indonesia, §II, 1(ii)(b) , Table 1).

3.

Similar to this is the set of Chinese syllables for the pentatonic scale:
gong–shang–jue–zhi–yu (see fig.3a , with the parallel set of Korean
syllables using the same Chinese characters, fig.3b ).

4.

The Chinese gongche notation is a more complex system of the same

type. It consists of ten characters, or ideograms, each representing a
syllable that stands for a note on a largely diatonic scale extending
over a 9th. Fig.4 shows these syllables and their characters, with he
arbitrarily set to the pitch c. Octave positions are sometimes shown
by the addition of an affix or small mark. A chromatic scale could be
produced from this by the use of the prefixes gao- (‘high’) to raise a
note, or xia- (‘low’) to lower it, by a semitone; but after the 11th
century gao- ceased to be used. Korean musicians in the 15th
century adopted the ten basic characters, applying their own
pronunciation: hap, sa, il, sang, ku, ch’ŏk, kong, pŏm, yuk and o. The
Korean notation is called kongch’ŏkpo and it does not use affixes or
marks, allowing sa to denote d or d♭, and similarly with il, kong and
pŏm. It is noteworthy that four of the characters in gongche notation
are numerals (si is four, yi is one, liu is six and wu is five); thus the
notation is partly numerical.

The South Asian system of syllabic solmization is usually written

down in Devanagiri script in North India, or Tamil or Telugu script in
the South (fig.5 ). Although notation is generally considered to be of

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 little importance in what are predominantly oral traditions, it is
widely used as an aid to memory or as a learning tool. This is
particularly true of Karnatak music, which relies to a much greater
extent on a body of compositions than does Hindustani music. The
syllables themselves may describe the duration of a pitch through
the use of a short or long vowel: usually a short vowel stands for a
pitch of one mātrā (‘beat’) or less and a long vowel for two beats or
more. Symbols modifying the pitches vary from system to system but
common devices include a short vertical line above the syllable
denoting a sharpened pitch, or a short horizontal line below the
syllable showing a flattened pitch. The syllables are arranged on a
framework which shows the rhythmic cycle (tāla), one line of
notation being equal to one cycle of the tāla (see fig.6 ).

6.

Rather different, but not unlike the Indian solmization syllables, are
the Western medieval ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. They are indeed syllables
in written form, being the initial syllables of the first six lines of a
seven-line hymn to St John, the text of which is attested from about
800 and would have been well known in the 11th century when
Guido of Arezzo created a solmization system from them. The
syllables were by chance distinctive, and operated by reference to a
textual order. But their referential character was much strengthened
by the fact that the first six lines of the hymn’s melody began
successively on the degrees of the scale c–a, and they thus operated
by reference also to an established external musical order – though
whether the melody existed before the solmization system, or
whether it was designed as a supporting aid, is not known. The
derivation is shown in ex.1 . Out of this succession of notes was
created the ‘natural hexachord’, which was flanked by a ‘soft
hexachord’ of the same succession transposed a 5th lower and a
‘hard hexachord’ transposed a 5th higher, the three forming
together the underlying musical system known as musica recta. This
total system was transposable to other relative pitch levels, and
isolated hexachords of ‘alien’ pitch levels could be introduced, each
hexachord having the identical set of syllables (see Solmization, §I,
1; Hexachord; Musica ficta; and Guido of Arezzo).

Javanese titilaras kepatihan (‘cipher notation’) whose seven

syllables, ji, ro, lu, pat, ma, nem and pi, are abbreviations for the
numbers 1 to 7: siji, loro, telu, papat, lima, nĕm and pitu.

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 In addition to their referential power and their capacity (as
abbreviations) to refer to the meanings of words, syllables have a
further quality: onomatopoeia. The degree of openness or closedness
of the vowel sound, the presence or absence of initial and terminal
consonants, and the character of any such consonants (dental, labial,
nasal etc.) is frequently used to reflect tone-colour, attack or
rhythmic value. A simple case is ‘scat singing’ in jazz, where doo is
used for a stressed and sustained note, bee for a short unstressed
note and bop for a staccato note, stressed but often off the beat.
Thus the pattern bop bop bee-doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bee can be sung
to the rhythmic pattern shown in ex.2 by a scat singer almost as if it
were a rhythmic solmization; it can also be used as a verbal
communication of the rhythmic pattern and is thus halfway to being
a notation of a rudimentary and imprecise kind.

Onomatopoeic syllables are used by Ewe drummers in Ghana. Two

strokes of the butts of the hands in succession at the centre of the
drumhead are represented by the syllables ga-da, the softer sounds
of the hands brushing across the centre of the drum by ka-tsa, and
the use of splayed fingers to produce a combination of round drum
tone and sharpness of attack by ga-tsya. But the relationship
between drum sounds and syllables goes beyond representation: it is
an identity – the drums are themselves thought of as producing the
syllables, and when syllables are spoken to the drums they are
spoken at the same pitches as the drums. Oral drum notations are
widespread in South Asia and are described at length elsewhere in
the dictionary (see India, §III, 6(iii)(a)–(b) ; Mṛdaṅgam; and Tablā).

4. Syllables and vowel acoustics.

Whereas the syllabic systems discussed above (§II, 3) represent
specific pitch classes, scale degrees or performance techniques,
other syllable systems, less formalized but highly regular, tend to use
vowels and consonants in accordance with their acoustic phonetic
features to reflect iconically relative pitch, duration, resonance,
loudness and so on. The relations between such syllables and
musical features are thus far from arbitrary.

Vowels, in particular, are often used in accordance with what

phoneticians call their intrinsic pitch, intensity and duration (see
Hughes, 1989). For example, the vowels i, e, a, o, u in their
approximate Spanish or Japanese pronunciations are often perceived
as constituting a descending pitch sequence (reflecting their ‘second
formant’ pitches). Many cultures exploit this intrinsic pitch ordering
of vowels in teaching instrumental music. Thus the fixed melodic
repertory of the Japanese nōkan flute is taught by singing
mnemonics such as ohyarai houhouhi, in which successive vowel
pairs reveal melodic direction with over 90% accuracy: the
sequences ohya, rai, uho and uhi all represent melodic ascents, with
uhi signifying the largest leap because its two vowels are at opposite

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 ends of the pitch spectrum; iho and hou represent melodic descents
(see Japan, §VI). In several such systems in Japan (where scholars
call them shōga) and Korea (yukpo or kum), exceptions to this
relationship between vowels and melodic direction often result from
the competing acoustics of intrinsic duration and intensity, whereby
a is favoured for comparatively long, loud or metrically important
notes, while i and u are used for weak or short notes, with e and o in
between.

Consonants also play a role. In the sequence teren for Japanese

shamisen lute, t indicates a normal, resonant down-pluck; r signifies
a gentler sound (never the initial note of a phrase), either an up-
pluck or a left-hand pizzicato; and n shows that the second sound is
longer than the first. In many drum mnemonics throughout the
world, a final k – a stopped sound – represents a damped stroke,
while a final nasal or vowel shows that the sound is left to resonate
and decay naturally.

Such systems could be called ‘acoustic-iconic systems’. Their oral

origins are reflected in the lack of any indigenous explanations for
their patterning; their iconic symbolic power (teachers emphasize
their importance) lies precisely in their acoustic naturalness. Today,
however, such systems are often written down. In many Japanese
and Korean written notation systems (which tend to be different for
each instrument), each line of tablature or pitch notation is
accompanied by a line of acoustic-iconic syllables (see below fig.
16b). The fact that this may happen even when this line adds no
information to the tablature, as in shamisen bunka-fu notation,
confirms the traditional importance of such syllables in transmission.

5. Words.
Words have assumed a place in Western staff notation only during
the last 350 years or so. They have done so with the rise of the score
and of the desire of composers to specify the instrumental forces for
their music; and this has happened simultaneously with the desire
also to specify tempo, mood, character and detailed matters of tone
production and attack (see Tempo and expression marks). Thus, for
tempo, words such as largo and allegro were introduced, and a set of
modifiers was applied to them to express shades of meaning: molto,
assai, non troppo, -etto and so on. Such words, together with others
expressing mood and character – such as andante, scherzo and
scherzando, dolente – generally appear at the beginnings of sections
or whole movements (even serving as titles). It is no coincidence that
their introduction occurred in that part of the Baroque period during
which the doctrine of the Affections (Affektenlehre) was the
predominant aesthetic, and that a great expansion of the range of
terms, and of the languages from which they were drawn, took place
during the Romantic era. Other words, such as rallentando, ritenuto

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 and stringendo for tempo, and pizzicato, leggiero and flautando for
attack and tone production, control temporary changes and localized
features, and thus appear in the course of the musical notation.

The most striking aspect of the Western use of words is its

consistently auxiliary nature. Words are almost never on the staff,
but above or below it, or in the margin. They were not integral to the
system when Western staff notation was being formulated during the
late Middle Ages, when even the part-names tenor and contratenor
were not always supplied and when a name was almost never given
to the top voice. They have since become indispensable to staff
notation, but have retained their auxiliary position, so that a music
copyist will enter the note symbols representing pitch and rhythm
before finding the most convenient places in which to add the verbal
elements of the notation so that they can easily be read. This
situation is not merely the result of historical circumstance. There is
the more pragmatic ground that Western words are written
alphabetically and thus have two disadvantages for notational use:
they occupy a lot of space, and (more important) they take time to
read and understand.

These disadvantages are not present in most East Asian writing

systems, where characters represent syllables or words. The
classical Chinese language is in essence made up of monosyllabic
words that do not change or acquire prefixes or suffixes under
different grammatical conditions as they do in most Western
languages; the most that they do is become incorporated into
compounds of monosyllables (e.g. nü-ren means ‘female’ + ‘person’,
thus ‘woman’). So when, in the Chinese fixed-pitch system of the 12
lü, the names of individual pitches are written down, each pitch is
represented by a pair of ideograms. Moreover, when the note names
huangzhong (‘yellow bell’, pitch c), linzhong (‘forest bell’, g),
yingzhong (‘answering bell’, b) and jiazhong (‘pressed bell’, d♯) are
written down, the second ideogram is always the same. In fact, when
the names of all the chromatic pitches are written down their first
ideograms are distinctive (i.e. they do not require the second
ideogram to distinguish them from others): ‘yellow bell’ (c), ‘greatest
tube’ (c♯), ‘great frame’ (d), ‘pressed bell’ (d♯), ‘old purified’ (e),
‘mean tube’ (e♯ or f), ‘luxuriant vegetation’ (f♯), ‘forest bell’ (g),
‘equalizing rule’ (g♯), ‘southern tube’ (a), ‘not determined’ (a♯) and
‘answering bell’ (b). Thus in notation the names are abbreviated to
their first words, as shown in fig.7 ; see also China, §II, 4, Table

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 8.

Words are often used as ‘labels’ or memory aids for standard

melodic formulae. The so-called neumatic notation of Japanese karifu
relies on words beneath the graphic symbols to indicate a large
amount of the melodic inflection. The same is true of Tibetan
Buddhist notation, whose neumes have written above them verbal
instructions as to vocal production, directional movement and
ornamentation. In oral traditions, groups of words and whole
phrases are used as mnemonics for standard patterns. Ex.3 shows an
African instance: the sentence ‘b’o tan ma tun ro’ko Baba ma j’iyan
tan’ (‘else I must go back for more, Father, don’t finish the yam’) is
broken up into syllables in the piece of music for a pair of hourglass
drums and a small kettledrum, from the Yoruba in Nigeria.

6. Numbers.
Numbers would perhaps seem to be the most readily adaptable of all
materials for notational purposes. They provide a reference system
that can control any or all parameters of musical sound, as the
pioneers of integral serialism demonstrated. In particular, pitch can
be controlled by assigning numbers to the notes of a scale, to the
keys of a keyboard, to the finger positions or frets of a string
instrument, or to the holes or valves of a wind instrument (or the
fingers of its players), and pitches can be represented in this way
individually or relative to each other by the measurement of interval
in a melody or chord. Duration lends itself most naturally to
numerical representation because the hierarchy of beats in musical
metre involves subdivision of a large time unit or multiplication and
addition of small units and is thus intrinsically arithmetical. Any
other parameter, such as loudness, attack or tone-colour, can in
theory be measured as a scale of values and then be represented by
those values as numbers (e.g. 1 for extremely soft, 5 for moderate
and 10 for extremely loud, with the intervening numbers for
gradations between these), but such systems have tended to be
restricted to the coding of music for computers.

In practice, the measurement of pitch by numbers (other than for

scientific purposes) has been very rare, and is a predominantly
modern phenomenon. Perhaps the most important was the Galin-
Paris-Chevé method from the mid-19th century. The numbers 1–7
represented pitches, with a dot below for lower octave and above for
upper. The numbers were purely visual: they were spoken as ut, re
and so on. This system was adopted in modified form in China, Japan
and other countries. The abbreviated number system of the Javanese
kepatihan notation has already been discussed as a syllabic notation
(§3 above). Notational systems for the Japanese koto use the
numbers 1–13 in Japanese characters (though the characters for 11–
13 are not true numbers). But these are secondary systems in the

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 sense that the numbers refer to the 13 strings on the instrument
rather than directly to the pitches that they produce: the pitches will
depend upon the scale to which the instrument has been tuned. Fig.
8 shows the 13 characters and their Arabic numeral equivalents,
together with the notes that they represent in the most common
tuning (hirajōshi); because of the pentatonic scale in use the number
of any note is five away from that of its octave. A similar system
exists for the 25-string Chinese se, using the Chinese numbers 1–25.
An even more extended number notation for pitch (not fixed-pitch) is
the pitch representation of the Ford-Columbia computer input
language for music. There, the numbers 1–49 designate leger lines
and staff lines and their intervening spaces: thus 1 is the tenth leger
line below the staff, 2 the space above that, and so on. The entire set
of numbers is dependent on the clef governing the staff. One type of
modern Japanese shamisen notation uses three kinds of numeral:
Arabic numerals form a direct pitch notation using 1–7 for an
ascending scale in the central octave and the same numbers with a
dot to the left and the right respectively to represent the notes of the
lower and higher octaves: Roman numerals I–III to the right of these
numbers show the three strings of the instrument; and Japanese
characters for the numbers 1–3 indicate which finger is to be used.

9.

Probably the earliest, and at the same time the most complex,
number notation is the jianzi pu for the Chinese Qin. Like the
notation for the Japanese Koto, its numbers refer directly to the
means of production and only indirectly to the sound produced. The
strings of the qin can be stopped at studs which serve as frets, or at
points between them. Numbers are used to indicate all three of
these: 1–7 for strings, 1–13 for the studs (hui, in ascending order),
and 1–10 as a guide to the distance between two studs (fen). The
three (often only two, because there is not always a fen number) are
gathered together into a complex note symbol, with the string
number in the lower half and the other two in the upper half,
together with other symbols to indicate the stopping finger, the
plucking finger and certain technical details. Fig.9a shows the
Chinese numerals, and Fig.9b shows a single note symbol made up
of five elements, of which three are numbers and the remaining two
special symbols.

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 10.

Western notations use Arabic numerals in keyboard tablatures and

Italian lute tablature of the Renaissance. They are also used in staff
notation to indicate metre and to show unusual rhythmic groupings.
Thus time signatures have a denominator that represents a level of
note value (on a scale from semibreve = 1 to minim = 2, crotchet =
4, quaver = 8, semiquaver = 16 etc.: these numbers are used in
American and German parlance to describe the levels of value, with
semiquaver being ‘16th-note’ and ‘Sechzehntel’) and a numerator
that indicates the number of units of that level in a bar. A triplet in a
duple metrical context is indicated by a number 3 within a slur mark,
and in Chopin’s music, for example, this is extended to groupings of
11, 21 and so on.

7. Graphic signs.
The act of writing a succession of notational syllables is graphic
because it traces a path across the writing surface. That path is the
analogue of the passage of music through time. The direction of the
path tends to follow the prevailing direction of writing for the
language of the country concerned. The Chinese, Korean and (to
some extent) Japanese languages have been written from top to
bottom, in columns beginning at the right-hand side of the page:
consequently most Chinese and Korean notations have been written
in columns in the same way, and so have Japanese instrumental
notations. On the other hand, Japanese neumes (karifu, meyasu) are
written horizontally from right to left. Tibetan, Javanese, Balinese,
Greek and Latin are all written horizontally from left to right.
Consequently Tibetan neumes and Javanese and Balinese
ideographic notations all read in that direction, as do Western
neumes, alphabetical and staff notations, and tablatures.

This path across the writing surface may be more precisely defined
by the spacing out of notational symbols so that each space
represents a beat of the prevailing metre. Thus in Chinese gongche
notation the ideograms representing pitches are equidistant down
their columns; and when there is a gap in the column of ideograms

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 the previous pitch is assumed to continue to sound for a second beat.
Alternatively, beats may be marked by a graphic symbol. One such is
a dot – as in Japanese gagaku notation, which uses small dots for the
basic beat and large dots for every fourth or eighth beat – defining
two levels of metre (such dots often indicate the sound of
percussion). Another such symbol is a line drawn at right angles to
the path – as in Korean ‘mensural’ chŏnggan notation (which
encloses its symbols in a grid with thin and thick horizontal lines to
show their places within two levels of metre), in modern Japanese
Ikuta-school koto notation (which uses short and long horizontal
lines to show the same), or in the bar-lines of Western staff notation.
Such graphic marks have the economic advantage that the spaces
allocated for beats need not be equal in size: metrical units
containing several symbols can be given more space than units with
few or none.

So far, the path discussed has been one-dimensional. But it is also

possible to define a broad path across the writing surface and to
treat the width of the path as a second dimension. This dimension
can be made the analogue of some other parameter of music: in
particular, of a technical aspect of an instrument – the string or
course of a zither or lute, for example, or the keys of a metallophone
– or of pitch (as in diastematic neumatic notations) or volume (as in
some electronic scores).

A system of notation recently discovered in Mongolia and used in

Nomyu Khan monasteries in the 18th and 19th centuries is thought
to describe melodic pitches arranged according to the tuning of the
half-tube zither (yatga). This notation takes the form of lines tracing
the broad tonal contours of the melody rather than a series of
discrete notes and should probably be regarded as signifying the ten
strings of the yatga running horizontally across the surface of the
page. Much more research is needed into this system, however,
before definite conclusions can be drawn about what precisely it
represents.

A simple way of using the second dimension for pitch in vocal music
without need for new signs is to ‘height’ the syllables of text
themselves, as in dasian notation; however, this does not work for
music with any degree of melisma.

Western staff notation is another form of the same procedure. The

dots, however, are made void or full and supplied with stems and
flags or beams to represent grouped durations in such a way that the
horizontal dimension between two bar-lines can be treated flexibly.
In other words, the exact proportional use of space to time is
obviated by the application of duration symbols to the dots. Such
duration symbols are themselves graphic signs; moreover, their
beaming into groups conveys other information such as
accentuation, phrasing, differences of dynamic level and the
application of syllables.

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 Such graphic signs as these last belong to a reference system – in
this case a system representing duration and comprising only five
elements: a stem, a flag, a dot and two kinds of note head; if the void
head can be regarded as an ‘absent’ head then they constitute four
signs, each of which operates in a binary way (see fig.10 ) as present
(+) or absent (−) in appropriate positions. Similar graphic reference
systems are the signs of Japanese goin-hakase notation and its later
modifications, karifu and meyasu, and also the ‘teardrop’ notation,
gomafu, and its later development bokufu. In the first three of these,
a notched-stick shape is rotated through eight positions that
correspond to eight pitches of a pentatonic scale, thus spanning a
10th (fig.11 ). They are linked together to form a graphic trace
extending leftwards from the text syllable. The trace is not however
an exact representation of pitch since the notation relies on the
names of standard melodic formulae written beneath. In gomafu and
bokufu marks are put to the left or right of syllables to indicate such
standard formulae.

12.

13.

A comparable system is that of so-called dasian notation from the

9th century. The materials for this constitute a spatial matrix with
pitch as the vertical axis and time as the horizontal, and the Greek
prosōdia daseia in two transformations: first modified into four
distinct forms to designate the four pitches of the tetrachord; and
then with each form reversed, inverted, and reversed and inverted to

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 represent the higher pair of tetrachords, with the first two also
shown facing downwards giving 18 signs in all (fig.12 ; see also
Organum, §2).

14.

A rather special case of a notation that is graphic and operates on

binary principles is Braille notation for the blind. The basic material
is a display of six dots arranged in a matrix two (across) by three
(down). These dots are raised from the surface of the paper by
embossing, so that they can be felt. Each dot is either present
(embossed) or absent. The pattern of the upper four dots designates
pitch and the pattern of the lowest two designates duration. There
are special patterns for octave register, accidentals and other
notational devices.

Other graphic signs do not belong to such a system. They represent

movement and shape in music, and thus display elements in relation
to each other. They cannot specify individual musical elements, as
can referential notations. Notations that rely on graphic relationship
have only relative pitch significance, even when they have taken
over an existing sign system, such as the accentual signs of the 5th-
century Syriac writers (nine principal signs denoting main and
subsidiary pauses, interrogative accents and so on, and made up of
dots in different placings and groupings), or those of the 9th-century
Tibetan scribes, or the classical Greek prosodic accent signs from
which Byzantine ekphonetic notation evolved, or the signs of the
Roman grammarians from which Western neumes are sometimes
alleged to have developed (see Ekphonetic notation). That is
because, without the imposition of a grid system, distance is difficult
for the eye to judge, for both reader and writer. The line of text to
which a melody was to be sung could be used as a pitch
demarcation, with dots above and beneath syllables signifying
higher and lower pitches, as in some Vedic chant books.

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 Neumes are stylized contour shapes. Their rises and falls and level
lines represent rises and falls and level passages in a melodic line.
Neumes thus differ from ekphonetic notations (though the dividing-
line is sometimes difficult to draw) in that they are not concerned
with inflection of voice between high, medium and low, but with
groups of sung pitches rising and falling over a quite narrow range:
a neume may represent a pattern of intervals whether it lies high or
low in the voice’s compass. Each neume is thus self-contained; the
pitch relationships between a neume and its neighbours are not
necessarily graphically shown, though in the ‘heighted’ neumes that
appear in Western European sources from about the 10th century
some attempt is made to show this.

The neumes of Tibetan Buddhist notation are made up of curves and

undulations of varying amplitudes that represent directional
movement of the voice, together with crosses or circles representing
the sound of drums or cymbals (see Tibetan music, §II, 4).

8. Hybrid systems.
Many notations are hybrid in that they use more than one type of
material. Japanese karifu, for example, has already been discussed
above (§§5 and 7): the notation is generally called ‘neumatic’, but is
equally a verbal notation in that Japanese characters under the
graphic neume shapes give essential information about melodic
turns of phrase (see fig.13 ). Tibetan Buddhist chant notation has
also been discussed in these two contexts, since verbal instructions
as to vocal production and other aspects of performance appear
above the line of neumes. The jianzipu notation for the Chinese qin
has also been shown to contain special symbols as well as numbers.
In the following discussion, three notations will serve to illustrate
the interaction of materials.

15.

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 Occasionally two materials interact in a tautologous way – that is,
they call for the same musical result but by different visual means.
But most interactions are in some way complementary.

A notation that combines tautologous and complementary uses of

different materials is the notation for the kŏmun’go or Korean zither.
The notation is known as hapchabo and dates from the 15th century.
It is an adaptation of Chinese jianzipu, but whereas the Chinese
notation uses numbers for the designation of both string and
stopping-point, the Korean notation assigns names to its six strings
(see fig.14a ) and uses the string name in conjunction with a number
for the stopping-point. Added to the left of this name and number is
a graphic symbol indicating the left-hand stopping finger, and where
necessary symbols for direction of stroke, ornaments and so on. The
central part of the notation is thus a complementary hybrid of word,
number and graphic signs. This compound symbol is placed in the
middle of three columns. In the right-hand column appears the
central scale degree kung from the Korean oŭmyakpo ‘five-note
abbreviated notation’, and in the left-hand column appear a group of
Korean letters that signify one of the Korean solmization syllables
from series such as tŏng, tung, tang, tong and ting, or rŏ, ru, ra, ro
and ri (see fig.14 b). All these notational elements, with double
tautology as to pitch, point to B♭ stopped with the left thumb and
plucked with an outward stroke (fig.14 c).

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 16.

The most fully hybrid of all notations is the staff notation of the West.
It uses all the types of material discussed above. Fig.15 , the
beginning of the Prelude from Liszt’s first book of Etudes
d’exécution transcendante, contains examples of letter notation in
(1) the clefs, which are formalized letters G and F; (2) the
accidentals, which are formalizations of ‘b’ (♭) and ‘h’ (♯, ♮); and (3)
the dynamic marking f, which is an abbreviated verbal notation. It
also contains syllabic notations, both of them abbreviations for
words: (1) the pedal application Ped., so formalized as almost to be a
pure graphic symbol; and (2) the technical instruction rinforz., for
rinforzando. It also contains two examples of full verbal notation: (1)
the general designation ‘Presto’ for the tempo and character of the
Prelude as a whole; and (2) the localized technical instruction
energico. It has several examples of numerical notation: (1) the
tempo specification, which supplements the tempo aspect of the
verbal instruction ‘Presto’; (2) the indication of octave transposition;
(3) the fingering in bar 2, which is a technical notation; and (4) the
indication ‘19’ for rhythmic grouping. But its main constituents are
graphic notations: (1) the staves, bar-lines and brace; (2) the note
symbols and rests; (3) the time signature ‘𝄴’, which derives from the
medieval half-circle designating duple division of breve and
semibreve (and thus is not in origin a verbal abbreviation of
‘common time’, though it has acquired this status in more recent
times); (4) the phrase mark, which is partly a graphic duplication of
pitch and partly an indication of phrase articulation that duplicates
the beaming of note symbols; (5) the pause sign; (6) the pedal
release sign; (7) the staccatissimo signs; and finally two suggestively
graphic signs, (8) the spread-chord indication in bar 1, and (9) the
decrescendo and crescendo signs.

17. Western staff notation (Liszt, Prelude from ‘Etudes d’exécution

transcendante’, i; Budapest: Editio Musica, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1970)

Copyright by Editio Musica Budapest

From this it can be seen that staff notation is a complex multiple

hybrid system with very low redundancy, partly technical and
tablature-like, partly representational.

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 Bibliography
H. Riemann: Studien zur Geschichte der Notenschrift (Leipzig, 1878/
R)

H. Riemann: Geschichte der Musiktheorie im IX.–XIX. Jahrhundert

(Leipzig, 1898, 2/1921/R; Eng. trans., 1967/R)

C.F.A. Williams: The Story of Notation (London and New York, 1903/
R)

J. Wolf: Handbuch der Notationskunde (Leipzig, 1913–19/R)

J. Wolf: Musikalische Schrifttafeln (Leipzig, 1922–3, 2/1927)

W. Apel: The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900–1600 (Cambridge,

MA, 1942, rev. 5/ 1961; Ger. trans., rev., 1970)

C. Sachs: The Rise of Music in the Ancient World (London, 1944)

A. Machabey: La notation musicale (Paris, 1952, 3/1971)

R.C. Pian: Sonq Dynasty Musical Sources and their Interpretation

(Cambridge, MA, 1967)

W. Tappolet: Notenschrift und Musizieren: das Problem ihrer

Beziehung vom Frühmittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1967)

L.U. Abraham: Einführung in die Notenschrift (Cologne, 1969)

W. Kaufmann: Musical Notations of the Orient (Bloomington, IN,

1972)

M. Hood: The Ethnomusicologist (Kent, OH, 1982)

A. Marett: ‘Tōgaku: Where Have the Tang Melodies Gone?’, EM, 29

(1985), 409–31

D. Hughes: ‘The Historical Uses of Nonsense: Vowel-Pitch Solfège

from Scotland to Japan’, Ethnomusicology and the Historical
Dimension, ed. M.L. Philipp (Ludwigsburg, 1989)

T. Ellingson: ‘Notation’, Ethnomusicology: an Introduction, ed. H.

Myers (London, 1992), 153–64

R. Widdess: ‘The Oral in Writing: Early Indian Notations’, EMc, 24

(1996), 391–405

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 III. History of Western notation.

1. Plainchant.
David Hiley and Janka Szendrei

(i) Introduction.
The earliest forms of plainchant notation, probably dating from the
9th century onwards, relied on signs generally known as ‘neumes’.
Such neumatic notation is clearly of great historical importance, for
it stands at the beginning of the development that led to the
notational forms in use today. Yet the time, place and circumstances
in which neumes were first used are all disputed. Ever since
medieval plainchant was revived in the 19th century the rhythmic
interpretation of the melodies has been controversial, and the
debate continues still. To a lesser extent the precise significance of
certain signs (e.g. the oriscus, quilisma and liquescent neumes) and
the possible use of chromatic notes in a basically diatonic system are
also the subject of argument. All these areas of uncertainty stem
from the fact that the notation represents only a few aspects of what
was sung. So not only must modern scholars and performers
interpret the signs committed to parchment by medieval scribes,
they also have to elucidate the conditions that determined what
should be represented in musical notation (and also what need not
be notated).

The foundations for the systematic investigation of chant notations

were laid principally by the monks of Solesmes, as part of the
restoration of medieval chant for modern liturgical use. The
facsimiles published in the Solesmes series Paléographie musicale
(particularly 1st ser., ii–iii, 1891–2) and in Bannister’s Monumenti
vaticani (1913/R) are still of immense value. The volumes of
Paléographie musicale are usually accompanied by notational
studies, beside which the works of Wagner (1905, 2/1912) and Suñol
(1925) are the most comprehensive. Subsequent detailed studies of
many regional types of chant notation are cited below. Stäblein
(1975) and Corbin (1977) are modern surveys of the whole area, and
Hourlier (1960) is a useful set of facsimiles with commentary.

Although the different styles of chant notation show agreement on

the basic principles, they vary considerably from area to area and
period to period; this variety reflects the circumstances
(ecclesiastical-political, geographical, liturgical, educational) in
which notation was used, and can, therefore, illuminate the history
of ecclesiastical music in striking ways.

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 The following survey describes the principal characteristics of
neumatic notation, before addressing the problem of its origins. The
main regional styles of neumes are distinguished, in four historical
phases: the period before the introduction of the staff; the staff
notations of the 11th and 12th centuries; the less numerous forms of
the 13th century onwards; and the notation of printed chant books.
For each of the first three epochs a separate table of neume signs
has been constructed (Table 1 , 2 and 3 ).

Table 1: Neumes of the 10th and 11th centuries

Table 2: Neumes of the 11th and 12th centuries

Table 3: Neumes of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries

(ii) Principal characteristics.

In general Latin usage the word neuma meant ‘gesture, sign,
movement of the hand’; in a musical sense it denoted a melodic
element, often an untexted melisma. From the end of the 10th
century, however, the term was also used for the graphic signs used
to represent melodies, typically designating a sign or group of signs
attached to one particular syllable of text (see Atkinson, 1995; see
also Wagner, 1905, 2/1912, p.15).

From this period onwards also survive tables that name the signs
(‘nomina notarum’ or ‘nomina neumarum’), with some variance of
nomenclature depending on local traditions (see Huglo, 1954;
Bautier-Regnier, 1964; Odenkirchen, 1993; Bernhard, 1997). Modern
usage generally follows the practice of the tabula brevis found in a
number of German sources. Several of the names appear to be of
Greek origin or at least to affect a Greek derivation. The commonest
are as follows (see Table 1 , 2 , and 3 for their melodic significance:
step upwards, downwards etc.): virga (Lat.: ‘rod’, ‘staff’); punctum
(Lat.: ‘point’, ‘dot’); tractulus (from Lat. trahere: ‘to draw out’); pes
(Lat.: ‘foot’) – also known as podatus (probably pseudo-Gk.); clivis
(from Gk. klinō: ‘I bend’, via Lat. clivus: ‘slope’) – also known as the
flexa (Lat.: ‘curve’); torculus (Lat.: ‘screw of a wine-press’);
porrectus (Lat.: ‘stretched out’); scandicus (from Lat. scandere: ‘to
ascend’); climacus (from Gk. klimax: ‘ladder’); trigon (from Gk.
trigōnos, Lat. trigonus: ‘triangular’); oriscus (possibly from Gk.
horos: ‘limit’, or ōriskos: ‘little hill’); salicus (from Lat. salire: ‘to
leap’); quilisma (from Gk. kyliō: ‘I roll’, kylisma: ‘a rolling’).

The signs are usually classified as simple, compound, special

(sometimes called ‘ornamental’) and liquescent. The simple neumes
(most of those in Tables 1–3) consist of up to three notes and can be
extended or combined to make compound neumes of four to six or
even more notes. Some signs, which may be modified forms of the
conventional neumes or additional letters, appear to indicate special

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 features of performing practice (articulation, ornaments, agogic
nuances etc.), but the manner of their performance is often unclear
today.

A further distinction touches upon the different styles of writing

neumes. In some areas signs representing two or more notes in a
single stroke were preferred, while in others discrete dots or short
strokes for each separate note were favoured. An example of
(predominantly) stroke notation is early German notation, especially
the sophisticated version practised at St Gallen. (Because of the
hypothesis that sees the origin of stroke neumes in the accents of
classical prosody, German and French notations and all types more
or less closely related to them are often referred to as ‘accent
neumes’; this term will be avoided here.) Aquitaine is the best
example of an area where a notation consisting primarily of points
was used. Most areas, however, mixed extended strokes and dots,
and the distinction has often been over-emphasized to buttress
arguments concerning the origins of neumes (see below, §1(iii)).

The virga and punctum each represent a single note. In stroke

notations the virga was used for notes of relatively higher pitch, the
punctum for relatively lower ones. Many other notational styles
make only restricted use of the virga. Sometimes the punctum was
drawn in elongated form, called the ‘punctum planum’ in older
literature and the ‘tractulus’ in recent writings. Some manuscripts
use both punctum and tractulus and appear to distinguish
rhythmically between the two, the former being shorter, the latter
longer. In the important early manuscripts from the Laon/Reims area
(containing Messine neumes) the punctum takes the form of a small
hook or barb, called the ‘uncinus’ in recent writings. In representing
passages of simple recitation on a single note some sources prefer
the virga, others the punctum.

The significance of most of the simple and compound neumes is

more or less clear, but many of the special neumes are difficult to
interpret; manuscripts vary to the extent in which they use these
signs. The oriscus seldom appears alone over a syllable, but rather
as part of a group of signs, or combined in special signs: virga
strata(virga+oriscus; also known as gutturalis or franculus); pes
stratus (pes+oriscus), pes quassus (oriscus+virga), salicus
(punctum+oriscus+virga), pressus maior and minor
(virga+oriscus+punctum and oriscus+punctum respectively, the
final punctum being a lower note). Although in many contexts the
oriscus seems to signify the repetition of the previous note, it has
also been suggested that the neume may represent a non-diatonic
note, or some agogic or articulatory peculiarity. The quilisma sign
usually appears between two notes a major or minor 3rd apart, but it
has also been interpreted as indicating a peculiarity of delivery, for
example, a chromatic glissando, a turn or a rhythmic nuance. While
the last note of the trigon is relatively lower, the relationship of the

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 first two is unclear; they may represent the same pitch, a semitone
ascent or a non-diatonic interval. Some sources use strophici, which
may signify a special type of articulation.

The signs known as ‘liquescent’ neumes are linked to liquid and

sonant consonants and diphthongs in the text at a syllable change;
they appear to involve a form of half vocalization of the note in
question, passing from one syllable to the next. Two notes in
ascending order, where the second is liquescent, are indicated by
the epiphonus, and two notes in descending order with liquescence
by the cephalicus.

Although many chant notations are recognizable at a glance, at least

in a general way, their systematic investigation depends on the
isolation of each sign in a particular notation and of all constituent
elements within every neume, and the painstaking comparison of
one source with another in the way these elements are used. Basic
structural features include the direction of the script (axis) in
ascending and descending strokes or groups of notes (diagonal,
vertical etc.; see Tables 1 , 2 and 3 ), and the way in which individual
notes are combined in strokes or groups of signs. These are to be
distinguished from calligraphic features such as the manner in
which curved strokes or note-heads are drawn, or the degree of
thickness of elements within a sign. The structural and the
calligraphic features of a script vary according to time and place
independently of each other.

Corbin (1977) introduced the concept of ‘contact neumes’, meaning

a neume foreign to the area and predominant type of notation of a
particular source: the neume may have been adopted by the notator
of a manuscript as a result of contact with the foreign type. Corbin
also used the term for a notation whose signs were derived from two
or more earlier types; such a notation is here called ‘mixed’ or
‘hybrid’.

(iii) Origins and earliest examples.

Precisely when and where neumes were first used in the medieval
West is not known. Isidore of Seville, writing in the middle of the 7th
century, stated in his Etymologiae that melodies could not be written
down (GerbertS, i, 20), and no concrete evidence exists from
anywhere in the West for the use of notation before the Carolingian
era. Necessity being the mother of invention, the reigns of the
Frankish kings Pippin the Short (751–68) and Charlemagne (768–
814) are thought to be the most likely period when a pressing need
for plainchant notation could first have arisen. At this time the
Franks made strenuous efforts to remodel their liturgical practices
along Roman lines and, during the reign of Charlemagne, initiated a
wide-ranging programme of educational reform, which might have
included music writing. A positive view in this regard is taken, for
example, by Levy (1987 etc.) who interprets passages in several 8th-

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 century documents as referring to notation. For example, the
decrees of the Council of Clovesho in England (747) refer to
‘[cantilenae] iuxta exemplar quod videlicet scriptum de Romana
habemus ecclesia’ (‘[chants] according to the written exemplar, that
which we have from the Roman Church’; A.W. Haddan and W.
Stubbs: Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great
Britain and Ireland, Oxford, 1869–71, iii, 137); however it is not clear
whether the written exemplar contained only chant texts or notation
for them as well (see Hiley, 1993, p.297 for a negative view).
Furthermore, Charlemagne’s Admonitio generalis (789) decrees ‘Et
ut scolae legentium puerorum fiant psalmos notas cantus compotum
grammaticum per singula monasteria vel episcopia et libros
catholicos bene emendate’ (‘… that schools cultivate reading by the
boys: psalms, notes [notas], chant [cantus], the computus, grammar,
in each monastery or bishop’s school, and accurate versions of
catholic books …’; MGH, Capitularia regum francorum, i, 1881, p.
60); although the two words ‘notas cantus’ might be taken together
to mean ‘[notational] signs of the chants’, they more probably refer
to two quite separate activities: ‘writing, singing’ (see Haas, 1996, p.
152). None of the extant writings of the various scholars and
advisors associated with Charlemagne’s court mentions music
notation and the earliest definite references to neumes are by
Aurelian of Réôme (c850; CSM, xxi, 1975, chap.19). By the end of
the 9th century Hucbald already knew of several different styles of
notation (GerbertS, i, 117); his statement is confirmed by surviving
examples.

The dating of the earliest examples is fraught with uncertainty and

relies in large measure on palaeographical estimates of the date
when the accompanying literary text was written. Three dozen or
more specimens from the 9th century have been proposed; Table 4 is
a list of many of them, a few of which are no doubt dated
optimistically early. Most examples are single items in books that
were never intended to contain more: several are notations of the
Exultet chant in a sacramentary, or of the Genealogy of Matthew or
Luke in an evangeliary. Often it is difficult in such cases to decide
whether the neumes were added at a later date.

The earliest surviving complete chant books with notation – the

graduals F-CHRm 47, LA 239 and CH-SGs 359 – date from the
end of the 9th century or the beginning of the 10th; F-LA 266 is a
fragment of a cantatorium slightly older than LA 239. VAL 407 may
have been copied at the same scriptorium as the gradual CHRm 47.
(The sacramentary-gradual AN 91, possibly from Angers and
notated with Breton neumes – see PalMus, 1st ser., i, 1889, pl.XXII
and p.148 – has also occasionally been dated to the 9th century, but
is more probably of the 10th.) Ten palimpsest leaves of what appears
to have been a notated 9th-century gradual survive in D-Mbs Clm
14735. The existence of several 9th-century books containing the
texts of Mass chants – unnotated graduals in other words – from
important centres such as Corbie, Nivelles and Senlis (ed. R.-J.
Hesbert: Antiphonale missarum sextuplex, Brussels, 1935) suggests

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 that before the late 9th century such books were not normally
provided with notation. On the other hand, two notated fragments
dating from the late 9th century have survived from what appear to
have been Office antiphoners, one with Breton neumes and one with
German. These predate the earliest surviving complete notated
antiphoners by a century. The possibility that Charlemagne
promoted a notated archetype of the chant repertory, as argued by
Levy, thus seems somewhat unlikely on chronological grounds.
Although several centres were clearly versed in the practice of music
notation well before the end of the 9th century (e.g. Regensburg in
the first half of the century, Laon in the second, and St Amand),
there is little sign of a concerted effort to establish complete notated
repertories for Mass or Office during the ‘first Carolingian
renaissance’.

While Palaeo-Frankish, French and German, Breton, Laon and

Spanish neumes are represented on Table 4, there are no surviving
examples of 9th-century notation from Aquitaine, Italy or England.

No single explanation of the origins of neumatic notation has gained

wholehearted acceptance. The prosodic accents of Alexandrine
grammarians (see Laum, 1920 and 1928) have frequently been cited
as the ‘ancestors’ of the neumes (Coussemaker, 1852; Pothier, 1880;
Mocquereau in PalMus, 1st ser., i, 1889; Suñol, 1925; Cardine,
1968). According to this theory the acute accent gave rise to the
virga, the grave accent to the punctum and the circumflex to the
clivis or flexa. Yet, with the exception of Palaeo-Frankish neumes,
the grave accent is hardly recognizable in most notations. Only one
medieval treatise explains neumes in terms of accents, the
anonymous Quid est cantus? (?11th century; I-Rvat Pal.lat.235; see
Wagner, 1905, 2/1912, p.355), which contains such phrases as ‘De
accentibus toni oritur nota quae dicitur neuma … Ex accentibus vero
toni demonstratur in acuto et gravi et circumflexo’. Atkinson (1995)
has convincingly argued that the author of the treatise had Palaeo-
Frankish notation in mind. Nevertheless, while the prosodic accents
were certainly known in Carolingian times, they can have suggested
hardly more than some rudimentary elements of a system for music
notation.

The notation of the earliest graduals mentioned above, from Brittany,

Laon and St Gallen, is far from rudimentary; indeed, it is of a
sophistication and complexity matched by few later chant books.
According to one theory these complex signs are a representation of
the gestures (Gk. neuma: ‘gesture’) made by the cantor while
directing a performance, in other words, they derive from the
practice of Cheironomy (Huglo, RdM, 1963). The difficulties of this
theory have been exposed by Hucke (1979). Cheironomy as
practised in other (mostly non-Western) music cultures involves hand
signs that denote exact pitches, something plainchant neumes
manifestly have no intention of doing. To reconstruct a lost
cheironomic practice from surviving notational signs and then to

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 hypothesize that the signs derive from the cheironomy is inherently
unsatisfactory, though the possibility should not be dismissed out of
hand.

Floros (1970) proposed a wholesale adoption of Byzantine notational

practice by Rome in the second half of the 7th century, claiming far-
reaching correspondences between Palaeo-Byzantine notation of the
Chartres type and Latin neumatic notation, including liquescent and
special neumes and significative letters. But Floros’s reconstruction
of the early stages of Byzantine notation has been challenged (Haas,
1975), and the theory seems implausible on chronological grounds.
Not until the 11th century was it customary to notate every syllable
of Byzantine melodies; from the 9th century to the 11th notation was
used only for particular points in the melody. And the Byzantine
system developed in a quite different direction, as an interval
notation, specifying intervals by signs as in a code, not representing
them spatially on the page. (For further discussion of Byzantine
notation see Byzantine chant, §3; on the development of the
connection between vertical space on the page and a sense of higher
and lower pitch in music see Duchez, 1979, and Sullivan, 1994.)
However, the possibility that the concept of chant notation and some
of its basic elements had a place in the interchanges between
Carolingian and Byzantine church musicians of the late 8th century
and the early 9th should not be dismissed completely. (The system of
eight modes is ascribable to these contacts.) The names of some
neumes – of which, however, no records exist before the 12th
century – appear to be Greek or pseudo-Greek.

As Treitler (1982, 1984, 1992) has repeatedly stressed, neumes must

not be viewed as imperfect forerunners of staff notation. Had it been
desired to represent exact pitches, the means to do so would have
been found. (Exactly this was indeed accomplished by Hucbald, with
a letter notation adapted from Boethius, and the authors of the
Enchiriadis group of treatises, with dasian signs.) Neumes remind
their reader of the essential features of a melody that has already
been learnt. The singer retains in his or her memory the store of
typical melodic gestures implied by the genre and mode of the piece.
The neumes guide the adaptation of those turns of phrase to the
liturgical text in question. (See Hucke, 1988, and, for rare evidence
of the system ‘under construction’, Rankin, 1984.)

The point at which this written reinforcement of the singer’s memory

became necessary, and where the first steps were taken in the
development of notation is uncertain. Levy (1987) has favoured a
relatively early date and has argued for two distinct stages in the
creation of a written ‘Carolingian archetype’, two archetypes in fact.
A first attempt would have been made in Palaeo-Frankish neumes, a
system that appears to have achieved only modest dissemination; the
second would have been made with French-German notation.

Others have argued for a later date, at least for the notation of whole
chant books (van der Werf, 1983; Hiley, 1993, p.371). The wide
variety of notational styles and the small but persistent differences

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 between versions of melodies in different areas suggest the
independent writing down of the repertory from memory at different
times and places, after the various notational styles were already
established. The fact that the whole process had to be repeated after
the introduction of staff notation, again with different results in
different areas, also suggests that the dissemination of an archetype
was neither expected nor practicable.

Several scholars, including Stäblein (1975, diagram on p.27), have

hypothesized genealogical relationships among the different neume
families. The more ancient neumatic notation is believed to be, the
greater the room for speculation about the organic development of
the different styles. Jammers, for example, associated the point
notation of Aquitanian sources with Gallican chant, and regarded
stroke neumes as typically Roman. Handschin (1950, pp.81ff)
distinguished between pre-Carolingian practice and a
‘“gregorianische” Neumensippe’. The sources known at present do
not, however, seem to offer conclusive evidence to support such
hypotheses.

Many questions, therefore, remain concerning the origins and early

development of the neumatic notations. Under what circumstances
could several different but equally mature types have developed by
the end of the 9th century and yet more by the 11th? Is what they
have in common the result of development from a common ancestor
or did they evolve independently from a rather informally
transmitted ‘idea’ of a written aide-mémoire for the singing-master?
Is the appearance of fully notated graduals (with Mass chants) no
sooner than the end of the 9th century deceptive (are earlier ones
lost?), and why are the earliest fully notated antiphoners (with Office
chants) no older than the end of the 10th century?

Table 4: 9th-century examples of neumes

(iv) Early notations, 9th–11th centuries.

(a) French and German notation including St Gallen and

England.
Despite differences in the direction of the script (from vertical in
France and England to strongly inclined in south Germany) many
basic similarities link the stroke notations used throughout France
north of the Loire (except for Brittany and the archdiocese of Reims)
and Germany.

French neumes were used within the area contained roughly by the
four provinces of Lyons: the archbishoprics of Lyons, Rouen, Tours
and Sens (Corbin, 1957). Numerous important manuscripts from
such centres as St Denis, St Vaast, Dijon, Nevers, Cluny and Lyons

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 use this notation. In the late 11th century the notation was also
taken to south Italy and Sicily in the wake of the Norman conquest
of those regions. The neumes typically ascend vertically and descend
diagonally (the angle varies from place to place). However, this
vertical direction is by no means a hard-and-fast rule in French
notation, and in some sources (e.g. F-SOM 252 from St Omer: facs.
in PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.184; and Pa 1169 from Autun: facs. in
ibid., pl.183) the difference from German practice seems very slight.
Other general differences from German practice are the angled form
of both pes and clivis, and, from the 11th century, a tendency to add
a hook or head to the upper left of the virga and pes and a foot to
end of the clivis; occasional exceptions to these basic characteristics
may, however, be found. The quilisma usually has three hooks; a few
manuscripts, notably F-MOf H.159 from Dijon (on this source, see
also §1(iv)(a)), use a descending quilisma as well. The trigon is rarely
encountered. (For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.181–93;
Bannister, 1913, pls.10–20, 39–40, 43–9; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/
1935, pp.230–44; Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.23–6, 28; Stäblein,
1975, pls.3–5; Corbin, 1977, pls.1–5, 21–6, 28–9, 40–41.)

The same general type was used in England (fig. 19 ; see Rankin,
1987), especially in Winchester, and was imported thence to
Scandinavia. The direction of the English neumes is even more
markedly vertical than most French sources, for example, in the
climacus where the initial virga is slightly rounded at the top and the
succeeding puncta descend vertically. The rounded clivis is also
more characteristic of English than French sources. (For facs. see
PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.178–80; Bannister, 1913, pls.41b–42;
Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.283–97; Stäblein, 1975, pls.6–9;
Corbin, 1977, pls.30–31.)

A small number of 11th-century manuscripts, mostly from

Normandy, use a special form of punctum like a small hook (it
resembles the uncinus of Messine notation, though it is not related
to the latter) for the lower note of the semitone steps (B, E and the A
below B♭). An equivalent form is sometimes found in Aquitanian
neumes (where it is usually regarded as a type of virga). After the
adoption of staff notation the sign still persisted, although strictly
speaking superfluous, and was used even into the 13th century.
Examples of it are found in England as well as Normandy (see
Corbin, 1977, pl.22; Hiley, 1993, p.424). The Aquitanian form spread
as far as Portugal (Corbin, 1952).

German neumatic notations have often been referred to en bloc as

‘St Gallen’ neumes (since the time when St Gallen was believed to
have received its chant directly from Rome: by implication its
notation was also considered to stand at the root of the German
tradition). But St Gallen is only one eminent member within a more
or less clearly differentiated group. The territory of German
neumatic notation includes the whole German-speaking area, and,
from the 11th century onwards, some parts of north Italy (Bobbio,

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 Moggio, the Aosta valley, Aquileia), Besançon and Remiremont,
Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and parts of Scandinavia. The direction of
this notation is diagonal both ascending and descending; the style of
script is flexible, perfected down to the tiniest details. Both punctum
and virga are used for syllabic notes and the normal form of the pes
is rounded. The notation is rich in special neumes. (For facs. see
PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.110–12, 114, 116–17; Bannister, 1913,
pls.2–9; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.298–304; Jammers,
Tafeln, 1965, pls.6, 9–12; Stäablein, 1975, pl.58; Corbin, 1977, pls.8–
9, 11–12; Möller, 1990.)

The best-documented form of this script is the notation of St Gallen

itself (fig.16 ). A number of sources have been published in facsimile
and subjected to intensive study (CH-SGs 339, 359, 390–91, E 121
and D-BAs 6). The extraordinarily rich repertory of signs includes
modified forms of the basic neumes together with additional
episemata and significative letters to represent agogic nuances and
other features. (For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.108, 113,
115; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.298–304; Jammers, Tafeln,
1965, pls.7–8; PalMus, 2nd ser., i, 2/1970; Stäblein, 1975, pls.59–60;
Corbin, 1977, pls.6–7.)

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 20. German neumes: cantatorium, c900, from St Gallen (CH-SGs 359, f.
27r)

Verlag Peter Lang AG, Berne: from PalÄographie Musicale 2nd ser., ii (1924)

Numerous similar notations can be found in sources dating from the

11th century in adjacent areas as well. Rarely, however, was more
than a part of the full arsenal of signs employed, and the meaning of
a few signs sometimes appears to have been modified (Engels,
1994).

Many regional types within the German group have not been
analysed in the same depth as St Gallen notation. One of the most
important is the Echternach type, documented from the 10th century
onwards (facs. of D-DS 1946; ed. Staub and others, 1982; Möller,
1988); its characteristic feature is the pressus minor resembling a
question mark.

(b) The Spanish peninsula.

Neumes that in many ways are similar to the main French-German
type were used in Spain before the Christian reconquest. There are,
however, a number of distinctive signs: the scandicus proceeds
upwards as a single line with loops; the pes, instead of making a
simple angle, may swing upwards with a loop; and the torculus and
porrectus also contain loops. This basic Spanish type was divided
between two geographical areas. In northern Spain a roughly
upright orientation (like that of French notation) prevailed, whereas
the neumes in sources from Toledo are inclined drastically to the
right, as it were impelling the line of music forwards. Since
practically all the melodies for which these notations were chiefly
used, those of the Mozarabic rite, have not survived in diastematic
notation, some details of Spanish notation are not fully understood.
Its age is also to some extent disputed, the possibility having been
raised that it may antedate the 9th-century Frankish examples
(Huglo, 1985). Thus estimates of the date of the León antiphoner
(facs. in Antifonario visigótico, ed. L. Brou and J. Vives, 1953–9) vary
from the 9th century to the 11th (see Mundó, 1965).

Spanish neumes were also used for some ‘Gregorian’ chant

manuscripts, written after the Roman rite was brought into Spain in
the 11th century (e.g. Antiphonale silense, ed. I. Fernández de la
Cuesta, 1985). But the chief vehicle for the import of ‘Gregorian’
chant was Aquitanian notation.

In north-east Spain, in the area roughly corresponding to modern

Catalonia, another type of notation similar to French became
established, usually known as ‘Catalan’ notation.

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 (For discussion see esp. Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.311–82;
also Bannister, 1913, pls.25–6; Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.42–3;
Stäblein, 1975, pls.86–8; Corbin, 1977, pls.37–9.)

(c) Italian notations.

Many different stroke notations were used in north Italy (e.g. those
of Asti, Vercelli, Novara, Civate, Mantua, Reggio d’Emilia and
Verona), most of which await detailed investigation (on that of
Brescia see Barezzani, 1981). They have in common the use of long
chain-neumes and vigorous pen strokes. Some scripts have signs
also found in a few French sources (angled pes, conjunct climacus),
and the direction of the script also occasionally resembles French
practice.

Special subtypes include the notation of Novalesa. Its neumes

include auxiliary forms with loops and rings, and a broad curve for
the clivis; the script ascends vertically (see Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/
1935, pp.186–97; Corbin, 1977, pp.165–71 and pl.36).

Bologna notation (fig. 23 ; see also PalMus, 1st ser., xviii, 1969;
Kurris, 1971) probably represents the oldest north Italian notation
(Hourlier, 1960, pl.30; Corbin, 1977, p.155). It is marked by vigorous
diagonal up-strokes, particularly for resupini; the script ascends
diagonally, descending nearly vertically. Its repertory of signs is
large, with numerous variant forms reflecting agogic or melodic
features. The presence of both punctum and two forms of tractulus,
horizontal and slanting (planus/gravis) for single lower notes, signs
with rings, and a peculiar form of quilisma are notable.

The most independent type of north Italian notation was that used in
the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola near Bologna; there are also
sources from Torcello and Verona. A peculiarity of this notation is
the way in which the first note of a group or melisma is connected
graphically to the corresponding vowel of the text. Notes are
represented mostly by individual virgae or puncta deployed
diastematically. In both climacus and scandicus the puncta are
arranged vertically, but the curved virga at the start of the climacus
(and related neumes) makes the direction clear. The quilisma-note is
represented by two dots. The script ascends diagonally and descends
vertically (almost going backwards). (For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser.,
ii, 1891, pls.11–14; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.197–9;
Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pl.32; Stäblein, 1975, pl.15.)

The adiastematic notations used in central Italy have hardly been

studied at all (see Baroffio, 1990, note 30). They are not uniform;
some are akin to north Italian stroke notations (e.g. I-Rvat lat.4770;
CHTd N.2: facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., xiv, 1931, pls.44–5, see also p.
251; Rc 1907: facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.7; Lc 606: facs.
in PalMus, 1st ser., xiii, 1925/R, p.94, fig.10), others already show
characteristics of 12th-century staff notations (right-angled pes,

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 prolongation of horizontal elements). Beneventan features also
appear in some scripts, for example, the right-angled clivis and
conjunct scandicus; their meaning, however, is not yet defined (e.g.
Rvat lat.10646: facs. in Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, p.209). Boe
(1999) has discovered examples of adiastematic notation from Rome
datable as early as around 1000, and also shown that French
neumes as used at Bijon were used at the imperial abbey of Farfa in
the mid-11th century.

Beneventan notation (fig.17 ) was used in the area corresponding

roughly to the duchy of Benevento and its area of influence
(including Benevento, Monte Cassino, Bari and the Dalmatian coast);
it thus covered much the same territory as Beneventan literary
script. (10th-century sources are listed in Corbin, 1977, p.143.) The
repertory of signs is extremely rich (in PalMus, 1st ser., xv, 1937/R,
Huglo listed 353 different neume forms, among them many varieties
of liquescent signs). The virga has a graphic stress on the left. There
are two types of punctum, one horizontal, the other slanting (planum
/grave). The clivis also has two forms, one pointed (when approached
from a lower note), the other right-angled (approached from the
unison or a higher note). The scandicus is conjunct. The meaning of
tractuli joined by a thin diagonal stroke is unclear (‘inflatilia’ with
two notes, ‘gradata’ with three). Compound neumes, where long
chains of notes are formed without lifting the pen from the
parchment, are also prominent. The relative diastematy of this
notation later developed towards an increasingly exact pitch-
notation (the custos was used even before the introduction of the
staff). (For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., xiv, 1931, xv, 1937/R, xx, 1983,
and xxi, 1992, which are devoted to Beneventan sources.)

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 25. Beneventan neumes: missal, 10th–11th century, from Benevento (I-
BV 33, f.22v)

(d) Palaeo-Frankish notation.

Palaeo-Frankish neumes were first discussed by Handschin (1950)
and Jammers (1952; see also, Tafeln, 1965, pls.34–6); sources are
surveyed by Hourlier and Huglo (1957). Their name is due to
Handschin, who regarded them as the forerunner of accent neumes.
The connotations of the term are, however, problematic, and with
hindsight the alternative designation ‘St Amand notation’ might be
more appropriate (see Huglo, 1990, p.239). The notation appears to
have been used in a restricted area including several important
monasteries of Picardy and Hainault – Corbie, St Bertin, Anchin,
Marchiennes – with the abbey of St Amand as its possible centre and
an important outpost at Corvey on the Weser. They are last found at
St Amand in the 12th century. The chief distinguishing feature of the
notation is that the pes and clivis are represented by a single
straight or slightly curved stroke; there is thus no virga. The torculus
tends to be a simple semicircle. There is no distinction between
oriscus and quilisma. In this notation, if anywhere, a strong
connection seems to exist to the oratorical accents of the

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 grammarians (Atkinson, 1995). Few sources are available in
facsimile, so the degree of variance in neume forms and
resemblances to other types of neumes cannot yet be assessed
accurately. Since the two- and three-note neumes are sometimes
‘split’ into puncta, this notation has been reckoned among the
‘rhythmic’ types, perhaps the earliest such, implying that the
distinction between slower and faster delivery was present in the
minds of chant scribes from the very beginning. (For a hypothetical
line of development, tracing a link between Palaeo-Frankish neumes
and the notations of Brittany, Aquitaine and Laon, see Hourlier and
Huglo, 1957, p.218.)

(e) Breton notation.

Breton notation is found chiefly in sources from north-west France,
but also in 10th- and 11th-century sources from Pavia. Huglo’s
survey (AcM, 1963) shows a progressive retreat from the south-west
(some features appear in early manuscripts from St Martial at
Limoges), the Loire valley, Chartres, Maine, and Normandy south of
the Seine. It was superseded by French notation in Angers by the
turn of the millennium, but survived in the backwater of Brittany
until the mid-12th century. Some 10th-century sources from
southern England also use Breton notation (Rankin, 1984). In view of
its obvious antiquity and simplicity, Huglo (op. cit., 82) and Stäblein
(1975, p.30) thought it might at one time have been propagated
widely throughout the Carolingian empire. As in Palaeo-Frankish
notation (from which it may derive), the same sign is used where in
other notations either an oriscus or a quilisma would be employed.
Since the two- and three-note neumes are sometimes ‘split’ into
puncta, this notation has been reckoned among the ‘rhythmic’ types
(see Ménager, 1912). One of the principal sources, F-CHRm 47
(facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., ix, 1906), may be dated as early as the late
9th century and probably comes from Rennes. (For facs. see
Bannister, 1913, pls.60–62; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.256–9;
Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.40–41).

(f) Messine (Lorraine, Laon) notation.

Messine notation (for illustration see fig.18 ) was used in north-east
France, in an area including most of the archbishopric of Reims,
bounded in the east by the Vosges, Eifel and Hunsrück. Towards the
south and west it was not sharply detached from the area of French
neumes. A special variant appeared as early as the 10th century
near Lake Como (Sesini, 1932).

The earliest complete source to survive is F-LA 239 (facs. in

PalMus, 1st ser., x, 1909), written in or near Laon about 930. Its
repertory of signs is remarkably rich; each basic sign has variant
forms (graphical variants, variants in the inner articulation of the

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 sign, also significative letters). The basic sign for single notes is a
small hook (uncinus). Characteristic signs include the clivis in the
form of an Arabic ‘7’ and the cephalicus in the form of an Arabic ‘9’.
The direction of the script is diagonal ascending, vertical
descending.

Similarly detailed studies of other manuscripts with Messine

notation are not yet available. (Jeffery, 1982, and Hourlier, 1988,
both discuss other very early examples; the main survey of sources is
Hourlier, 1951. See also Lipphardt, 1955 and 1957; Arbogast, 1959;
Cardine, 1968, Eng. trans., 1982; Corbin, 1977, pp.87–94. For facs.
see PalMus 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.154–65; Bannister, 1913, pls.55b–
59b; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, p.248–55; Stäblein, 1975, pls.
63–4.)

(g) Aquitanian notation.

This notation was used over a wide area of south-west France,
roughly corresponding to the Frankish province of Aquitania, and
consists predominantly of discrete points. A virga, in the form of a
point with a tail attached, is not found standing alone but as the final
note of the pes or scandicus. The torculus is almost the only conjunct
neume, formed of punctum plus virga joined to the final punctum.
The quilisma is distinctive: after the initial punctum an almost
vertical slash with initial hook is joined to the tail of the final virga.
The earliest substantial source is the 10th-century miscellany from
Limoges F-Pn lat.1240, whose principal scribes used Aquitanian
notation, although some Breton and northern French neumes are
also present.

Even before the end of the millennium scribes would use a dry-point
line as a vertical orientation for music notation (the usual lines
drawn for entering text would therefore be used alternately for text
and music), usually for the 3rd above the final in authentic modes
and the final in plagal modes (but F rather than E for mode 4). In
some manuscripts a deliberate distinction seems to be made
between dot and dash, possibly meaning shorter and longer notes
respectively. In other sources the scribe seems simply to alternate
the two, especially in descending climacus figures. In some sources,
particularly F-Pn lat.903 (from St Yrieix; partial facs. in PalMus, 1st
ser., xiii, 1925/R ), alternative forms of the virga are used. A
semicircular virga appears for the note on the lower step of a
semitone (E, B etc.), a further type, the so-called virga cornu
(‘horned’ virga), signifies the upper step of the semitone. Not
dissimilar in shape to the latter is the virga strata (virga+oriscus).
Even though the vertical placement of the notes is particularly exact
in most sources from the mid–11th century onwards, clefs were not
used, and custodes but rarely, so that in the case of non-standard
pieces the aid of the virga at the semitone is often useful for
determining pitch. (The principal analysis of the notation is that of
Ferretti in PalMus, xiii, 1925. For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891,

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 pls.83–103; Bannister, 1913, pls.63–4; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/
1935, pp.260–82; Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.29–30; Stäblein, 1975,
pls.31–5; Corbin, 1977, pls.19–20.)

(h) Significative letters.

In some early sources letters are placed adjacent to the neumes,
intended to clarify their interpretation with regard to pitch, rhythm,
agogic nuance or dynamic (see Table 5 ). They are particularly
common in a small group of 10th-century sources from St Gallen,
Einsiedeln and Regensburg, and are also found in manuscripts from
Laon and Chartres. Smits van Waesberghe (1938–42) counted 4156
letters in CH-SGs 359, 12,987 in SGs 390–91 (the Hartker
Antiphoner) and 32,378 in E 121. Their use diminished in the 11th
century. Significative letters are described by Notker of St Gallen (d
912; ed. Froger, 1962; see also MGH, Scriptores, ii, 1829, p.103),
who attributed their invention to one ‘Romanus’ (a choice of name
no doubt intended to heighten their authority). According to
Ekkehard IV of St Gallen (d 1036) the ‘litterae alphabeti
significativae’ were added by Romanus to an authentic antiphoner of
St Gregory, brought to the abbey from Pope Hadrian I. Consequently
they are sometimes known as ‘Romanian’ or ‘Romanus letters’. Some
of the letters on Notker’s list are commonly used but others are rare
in chant sources. Notker’s explanations (often rather fanciful) are
usually devised as a mnemonic, where the significant letter is
emphasized in the actual choice of words in the explanation; thus ‘g’
indicates ‘ut in gutture gradatim garruletur genuine gratulatur’.
Notker’s explanations are summarized in Table 5 , col.2. No
corresponding explanation survives for the letters used in F-LA 239,
but they were elucidated in PalMus, 1st ser., x (1909; see also
Billecocq, 1978; and for sources from Chartres, see PalMus, 1st ser.,
xi, 1912). Some of the more common meanings are explained in
Table 5 , col.3. The two traditions differ as to the meaning of ‘a’ and
‘f’.

Table 5: Significative letters

(v) Pitch-specific notations, 11th–12th centuries.

(a) Alphabetic notations and dasia signs.

The need for pitch-specific signs was greater in theoretical texts,
many of which contained music examples, than in the liturgical
chant books. Treatises that dispense with music notation, such as
Prologus in tonarium by Berno of Reichenau (d 1008; GerbertS, ii,
62–91), cite pitches by means of the note names of classical Greek
theory (proslambanomenos, hypatē hypatōn etc.). Other treatises,

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 however, employ simpler systems based on sets of symbols or letters
of the alphabet. The series of signs known as ‘dasia’ (or ‘daseia’: see
Phillips, 1984, and Hebborn, 1995) was used in the important
Enchiriadis group of treatises in the 9th century. Hermannus
Contractus promoted another set of letters that specified the interval
between one note and the next. Of all these, only alphabetic letters
seem to have been used to notate whole chant books.

The alphabetization of the individual notes of the scale was thus at

first a purely theoretical procedure and was intimately connected
with the use of the monochord as a teaching instrument. Boethius
(dc524), the principal conduit for classical Greek music theory to the
Middle Ages, demonstrated several features of the Greek systēma
teleion (Greater Perfect System) by means of pitches produced on
the monochord, and in one instance the notes of the diatonic scale
through two octaves are marked off with the letters ‘a’ to ‘p’ (De
institutione musica, iv.17).

Hucbald of St Amand, writing at the end of the 9th century, had

already referred to the desirability of combining neumes with pitch-
letters (GerbertS, i, 117–18; Babb, 1978, p.37; Traub, 1989, pp.62–
5), although the actual pitch-letters he chose were not the a–p series
but a selection from the ‘Alypian’ series transmitted by Boethius (De
institutione musica, iv.3–4; see Babb, 1978, p.9). Hucbald’s
suggestion was not, however, taken up in this form in practical
sources, although those with dual notation, such as the ‘tonary’ F-MOf
H.159 (first half of the 11th century, from St Bénigne, Dijon), which
also contains French neumes, do put his idea into practice. It is not
clear whether the probable spiritus movens behind the copying of
this manuscript, Guillaume de Dijon, knew Hucbald’s work, or
whether he was influenced by the late 10th-century treatise Dialogus
de musica (see below).

Another series a–p, but this time representing modern c–c″, is also
reported by Hucbald, and is known from several texts on the
construction of organs and bells. The only known practical source
utilizing this series is the Winchester manuscript with voces
organales GB-Ccc 473 (late 10th- to mid-11th centuries), which
attaches letters to the neumes of many sequences, making them
among the earliest of all directly transcribable pieces (Holschneider,
1968 and 1978).

The dasia signs are known from three important texts of the 9th
century and the early 10th, Musica enchiriadis, Scolica enchiriadis
and Commemoratio brevis de tonis et psalmis modulandis, together
with a number of others (ed. Schmid, 1981). The dasian series starts
from a nucleus of four signs, representing the pitches of the four
finals of Gregorian chant (D, E, F and G), which are then reversed
and inverted to make further sets of four. Their intervallic disposition
is so explained that the following scale results (assigning the nucleus
to modern d–g; see ex.4 ).

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 The practical significance of this scale is unclear (see Phillips, 1984),
since repetition at the octave is not consistently possible. (For
examples of polyphony with a total range of more than an octave, the
full series of dasia signs is abandoned.) Possibly we are meant to
understand that b♭, f♯ and c♯ are available in all octaves, which
would support the suggestion that some chants (principally
offertories) ‘modulate’.

In contrast to early Western notation, the system developed to notate

Byzantine chant specified intervals between notes (see Byzantine
chant, §3). The same principle was adopted by Hermannus
Contractus (d 1054), using the following letters: ‘s’ (semitonus) for
the semitone; ‘t’ (tonus) for the tone; ‘ts’ for the minor 3rd; ‘tt’ for
the major 3rd; ‘d’ (diatessaron) for the perfect 4th; ‘D’ (diapente) for
the perfect 5th; ‘Ds’ for the minor 6th; ‘Dt’ for the major 6th; and
‘e’ (equaliter) for the unison. A dot under the letter indicated
descending motion.

The a–p series was adopted for use in F-MOf H.159 and a small
group of manuscripts from Normandy and Norman England (Corbin,
1954; Santasuosso, 1989). All these sources are associated with
Guillaume de Dijon (William of Volpiano), the Italian abbot of St
Bénigne, Dijon, who reformed most of the leading monasteries of
Normandy in the early 11th century. MOf H.159 contains the
complete corpus of Mass Proper chants in musical (not liturgical)
order notated with both neumes and alphabetic letters in the series
a–p (Guidonian A = a, Guidonian a = h, Guidonian aa = p; I = b♮, i =
b♭; for the Guidonian scale, see below, ex.6 ). The scribes of this
manuscript (see Hansen, 1974) attached special signs for
liquescence, oriscus and quilisma to the letters.

A group of five special signs in F-MOf H.159 have occasioned much

speculation (ex.5 ). They occur among the letters where a semitone
step in the scale would normally be expected. According to one
theory (see Gmelch, 1911) the signs represent quarter-tones or some
other non-diatonic tones. Froger (1978), however, argued that the
context does not necessitate the use of intervals smaller than a
semitone, and there is no evidence from contemporary writings that
such intervals were ever envisaged. The signs themselves seem not
unlike the dasia. No fully convincing explanation for their use has
yet been found.

The anonymous Dialogus de musica, written at the end of the 10th

century in north Italy (see Odo, §3), proposes an alphabetic series
not merely for pedagogical purposes but also as a way to notate a
complete antiphoner: Γ indicates the lowest note, followed by the
letters A–G then a–g for successive octaves, with ‘aa’ signifying the
highest pitch. Only one fragment of such an antiphoner, however,
has survived; the flyleaves of the Hereford noted breviary (GB-H P.
9.vii) are from an older antiphoner with alphabetic, not neumatic
notation (facs. in W.H. Frere, Bibliotheca musico-liturgica, i, London,
1901 [dated 1894]/R , pl.2). On these leaves, longer note groups in

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 melismas are separated by dots. Guido of Arezzo also adopted this
alphabetic system, extending the series to ‘ee’ (ex.5 ). (Santasuosso,
1989, is a study of alphabetic notation. For further facs. see Wagner,
1905, 2/1912, pp.222–9, 251–7; Bannister, 1913, pls.27–32; Suñol,
1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.392–404; Stäblein, 1975, pls.89–94.)

(b) The introduction of the staff.

As early as the first period of medieval music notation, theoretical
and pedagogical writings often specified the exact intervallic
structure of music examples they cite. For this purpose, horizontal
lines (varying in number) and/or letters and symbols (e.g. dasia
signs) were employed. These methods, however, remained confined
to theoretical texts, being too complicated for the notation of the
entire contents of liturgical books. A historical turning-point was
Guido of Arezzo’s reform of musical notation (proposed in Aliae
regulae [Prologus in antiphonarium], c1030; see Smits van
Waesberghe, 1951). Based on the use of a staff, his system changed
the whole relationship between writing and music in the greater part
of Europe in a remarkably short space of time, and created the
preconditions for developments of the greatest importance in
Western music.

The rapid success of the reform may be attributed, on one level, to

the simplicity and practicality of the system and to its incorporation
of elements from previous systems of notation. The staff lines
represent notes a 3rd apart, the intermediate notes being placed in
the space between. The pitch of the lines is indicated by letter-clefs,
letters of the traditional alphabet being set at the start of the
respective line. In the 11th and 12th centuries the lines were
normally scored into the parchment (dry-point lines), but those
representing the upper note of a semitone step could be
distinguished by coloured ink: red for the F-line, yellow for the c-
line. Another of Guido’s recommendations was the custos at the end
of a staff, facilitating the progression to the next by indicating its
first note. The notes themselves took the form of traditional neume
shapes. Although the ‘full’ Guidonian system employed clefs,
coloured lines and the custos together, in some cases not all these
elements were adopted.

But it was not only the intrinsic merits of the reform that lay behind
its Europe-wide success; the ecclesiastical-historical context was
also favourable. When Guido explained his new ideas to Pope John
XIX (1024–32), showing him how a previously unknown melody could
be learnt from notation alone, Guido was commissioned to notate
Roman liturgical books in staff notation – an obvious sign of papal
approbation. The new ‘Guidonian’ system, therefore, also became
‘Roman’ notation, just at the beginning of an epoch when the role of
the papacy and the relationship between Rome and the local
Churches was changing. The dissemination of staff notation took

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 place in the era of the crusades and the investiture struggle.
Guidonian notation belonged to the arsenal of the reforms of Pope
Gregory VII (1073–85); it could facilitate liturgical reform and
preserve the unity of centralized uses.

Many scriptoria that adopted staff notation set their own traditional
adiastematic neume shapes on the lines, which is probably what
Guido himself had done. At the same time some of the previous
allegiances (determined by geography or institutional connections)
in respect of notational practice were relaxed or replaced. The
scriptoria had three alternatives: to put their traditional neumes
onto the staff; to import shapes from elsewhere along with the staff;
or to create a new set of signs commensurate with the new system
(naturally drawing upon previous experience).

The dissemination of staff notation across Europe did not proceed at

a uniform rate. Examples in theoretical writings show that
knowledge of the new notational ideal spread rapidly. But this does
not necessarily mean that the transition was effected at the same
time in notated liturgical books or the teaching of chant. Staff
notation was introduced relatively early in central and northern Italy,
including Rome: the gradual of S Cecilia in Trastevere of 1071 (
CH-CObodmer 74: facs. in Lütolf, 1987; see below, fig.19 ) is the
oldest surviving complete codex with Guidonian notation. The
transition also began in central France in the 11th century, soon
followed by the Low Countries (St Trond) and Lorraine. During the
12th century, liturgical books in England, Sicily and Scandinavia (all
of which were under Norman influence) were supplied with staff
notation. In the areas of Aquitanian and Beneventan notation, which
had already displayed diastematic characteristics in the previous
notational epoch, the system was taken up either rather late (south
Italy) or in strongly modified form (south France). Such features of
‘classical’ Guidonian notation as clefs and coloured lines were not
regarded as essential. Some conservative Beneventan scriptoria
retained their own diastematic but non-Guidonian notation as late as
the 13th century (e.g. I-BV 21: facs. in Kelly, 1989, pl.12; the use of
the custos is characteristic). Traditional Aquitanian notation had
achieved full diastematy by the end of the 11th century, without
recourse to the Guidonian system (see F-Pn lat.903: facs. in PalMus,
1st ser., xiii, 1925/R ). In the area of German neumes staff notation
was ignored for a long time; for example, in the scriptoria of the
network of churches following the secular liturgical cursus
(including most of the Augustinian canons) staff notation was
adopted only towards the end of the 13th century. Many
conservative centres continued to use adiastematic neumes even
beyond the 13th century. In Hungary Guidonian notation gained
general acceptance in the last third of the 12th century, and in
Bohemia and Poland during the 13th century.

The new Gregorian monastic orders also played their part in the
process of assimilation of the reformed notation. The Camaldolese,
Carthusians, Cistercians and Premonstratensians all chose to adopt

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 the Guidonian system, which then spread throughout the monastic
networks (in variant forms peculiar to the respective orders) across
the whole of Europe. The more centralized the order, however, the
less influence individual houses seem to have exerted on the scribal
culture of their wider environment. In Germany, for example, the
splendid Guidonian notation of the Cistercian books remained
confined to the order itself. The Italian Camaldolese, on the other
hand, supplied codices with staff notation to other churches.

(c) Central and southern Italy, including Rome and

Benevento.
Among the earliest centres to adopt the Guidonian reform were
those of central Italy (from Perugia to the Lombard plain, Tuscany,
Umbria, the Papal States, the secular churches, Camaldolese,
Vallombrosians – the actual area requires more exact definition).
Sources from this area usually adopt the full Guidonian system of
coloured lines, clefs and custodes (Smits van Waesberghe, 1953, pp.
53–6), with local variation in neume shapes. Although a systematic
survey of all the material is still lacking, a number of sub-types in
this notational area may be distinguished. Classic examples are
those of the Camaldolese manuscripts in Lucca (see fig. 32 from
I-Lc 601; see also Lc 603, and 609 from S Maria di Pontetto: facs.
in PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pls.34–5, and PalMus, 1st ser., ix, 1906;
see also E-Tc 48.14: facs. in Smits van Waesberghe, 1953, tab.3; and
I-Fl 247 and 158 – Camaldolese antiphoners of the 11th–12th
centuries from Vallombrosa and Struma respectively) and those of
Pistoia (I-PSc 119 and 121: facs. in Stäblein, 1975, pls.24–5). A
feature of these scripts is the elongation of horizontal strokes; the
liquescent virga resembles the Beneventan form. Closely related to
these notations is that in the Arezzo orationale (I-ARc: facs. in
PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.26), and, among others, a Benedictine
gradual (I-Sc F.VI.15: facs. in Stäblein, 1975, pl.27). Compared with
these, the finely differentiated notation of Ravenna is recognisably
independent in style (I-Pc 47 and MOd O.I.7: facs. in PalMus, 1st
ser., ii, 1891, pl.37; Hourlier, 1960, pl.35; see also Baroffio, 1990).
The small square note-heads (virga, punctum, pes) are reminiscent
of north Italian point notations. The strong right tilt of the virga in
the climacus and of the initial ascending element in the pointed
clivis and porrectus are also characteristic. The half-cursive notation
of the Benedictine gradual from Norcia, I-Rv C.52 (facs. in PalMus,
1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.33) represents another variant of central Italian
notation; Beneventan influence is apparent in some neumes (e.g. the
different elements in the climacus), as indeed it seems to be for the
whole group of central Italian staff notations.

Beneventan and central Italian notations seem to be most clearly

differentiated from each other in the form of the scandicus. In
Beneventan and in reformed Guidonian ‘Italo-Beneventan’ staff

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 notations from central Italy all three elements are conjunct, ending
in a vertical virga. Central Italian notations also use the disjunct
form (inherited from adiastematic Italian systems) for the scandicus:
two puncta and a virga. But the conjunct scandicus is also present in
these sources and further research is needed to establish whether
this is the result of Beneventan influence or whether the quilismatic
scandicus is intended. Central Italian notation is further
characterized by the two forms of the clivis (pointed and right-
angled), the tendency to build long chains of notes, the right-inclined
virga at the start of the climacus and moderation in the use of
special neumes. The direction of the script is diagonal both
ascending and descending, but the angle differs within the area.

The Roman basilicas, perhaps as a result of Guido’s audience with

John XIX, adopted the staff system (red F- and yellow c-line, letter-
clefs and custos) and combined it with neumes perhaps best
described as simplified Beneventan (for the literary text, however,
Caroline not Beneventan script was employed). Compared to the
classical forms of Beneventan notation, most of the special neumes
and the variant forms of the basic signs are absent. This is the
notation used to record the Old Roman chant repertory (fig. 33 from
CH-CObodmer 74: facs. in Lütolf, 1987; see also I-Rvat lat.5319:
facs. in MMMA, ii, frontispiece; Rvat S Pietro B.79: facs. in Baroffio
and Kim, 1995). It was not, however, restricted to Rome but also
used in many churches in Lazio and Umbria (e.g. I-CT 12: facs. in
PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.33; MGG1, iv, Tafel 34, pp.835–6) and
was subsequently adopted for the earliest Franciscan chant books.

South Italian scriptoria in the area of Beneventan notation

(Benevento, Monte Cassino, Bari; some of their manuscripts are
sources of Old Beneventan chant) displayed no great enthusiasm for
the Guidonian reform. Beneventan notation apparently developed
towards perfect diastematy without any outside influence. At Monte
Cassino this process accelerated under Abbot Desiderius in the
second half of the 11th century (with the use of a staff without clefs
or coloured lines but with custos), while coloured lines appeared in
the 12th century (fig. 34 ). Benevento itself was more conservative.
At the end of the 12th century codices were still written without
clefs, but with clear diastematy. (For facs. see Wagner, 1905, 2/1912,
p.267; Kelly, 1989; PalMus, 1st ser., xv, 1937/R, and xxi, 1992;
Cavallo and others, 1994.)

(d) North Italy, including Milan.

The scriptoria of north Italy including the plain of Lombardy, with
few exceptions, had adopted the Guidonian system by the beginning
of the 12th century (see fig.20 ). In some cases neumes of the
previous local type were set on the staff without much alteration
(e.g. at Nonantola and in the Como area where Messine-type neumes
were used), but in most cases there was a modification under central

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 Italian influence. The notation called Milanese exists only on staves;
it seems to have been newly created at the time when the staff was
introduced, drawing on elements of both Italian and Messine
systems. In this period there was a general tendency in north Italian
notations towards the use of discrete puncta, joined with fine lines.

Nonantolan neumes were combined with the full Guidonian system

(Smits van Waesberghe, 1953, p.57), adopting a vertical ascending
direction in the process (for facs. see Stäblein, 1975, pl.16; PalMus,
1st ser., ii, 1891, pls.15–18; G. Iversen, ed.: Corpus troporum, iv:
Tropes de l’Agnus Dei, Stockholm, 1980, pls.XXX–XXXI). In Vercelli,
by contrast, the notation had become diastematic by the 12th
century, but can hardly be described as Guidonian, using only a
custos (for facs. see Stäblein, 1975, pl.20; Iversen, op. cit.,
pls.XXVII–XXVIII; see also I-VCd 70 and 161). Characteristic of a
large number of sources whose notation is generally closer to
central Italian practice are: two types of clivis, pointed and right-
angled; both disjunct and conjunct scandicus; right-facing virga at
the start of the climacus. (For facs. see G. Iversen, ed.: Corpus
troporum, vii: Tropes du Sanctus, Stockholm, 1990, pls.XXV–XXVI;
MGG1, viii, Tafel 48 after p.1026; Stäblein, 1956, pl.7; PalMus, 1st
ser., ii, 1891, pls.36, 37B.)

Milanese staff notation employed Guidonian coloured lines. Its

characteristics include: conjunct scandicus, right-angled clivis, pes
pointing right, no independent virga, tractuli for all single notes,
climacus appearing as a clivis combined with a punctum, a tendency
to construct long chains of notes, and an individual shape for
torculus and porrectus. Like other notations of the region, neumes
tended to be constructed out of points joined with thin lines.
(Examples include GB-Lbl 34209: facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., v, 1896;
and I-MZ c.14/77: facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.40; see also
Stäblein, 1975, pl.21; Huglo and others, 1956, Tav.VII.)

(e) Normandy, Paris and other French centres, England

and Sicily.
The beautiful chant manuscripts with square notation produced in
Paris workshops in the 13th century (and taken as models by the
designers of the type for the Solesmes-Vatican books at the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th) are often regarded
as the outcome of a development initiated in Paris itself. But this is
not the case. During the 12th century many centres in northern
France, especially Normandy, and England began to make the
punctum like a small square and used a small square head or foot on
the virga, clivis and so on. They also adopted the Guidonian staff.
Hesbert (1954) has traced this development within the manuscripts
from the Norman abbey of Jumièges, and the same could be done for
other centres. There are naturally some small differences between

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 scriptoria: in Paris, for example, manuscripts from the late 12th
century with staff notation have a pes subbipunctus with head
turned right, instead of left as in ‘classical’ square notation of the
13th century (e.g. F-Psg 93, R 249 from St Victor, also Pn lat.
17328 from St Corneille at Compiègne).

As already remarked, several 12th-century Norman and English

manuscripts (e.g. F-Pn lat.10508 from St Evroult) use the special
punctum at the semitone step. In Norman Sicily it seems that when
the generation of scribes using neumatic notation had passed away,
a form of proto-quadratic staff notation with mostly French but also
one or two Italian elements (such as an Italian pes) was introduced.
(See Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.145–7.)

No sources from these areas with staff notation are known to date
from the 11th century, and many centres continued to use
adiastematic neumes well into the 12th century. 12th-century
manuscripts with staff notation survive from Angers and Fleury;
Chelles, Paris, St Denis and St Maur-des-Fossés; the Norman
monasteries of Fécamp, Jumièges and St Evroult; St Albans,
Worcester and Downpatrick; Palermo and Catania; and Jerusalem.
(For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pls.43, 194; Bannister, 1913,
pls.94, 96; Stäblein, 1975, pls.41, 65; Bernard, 1965, pls.xvii-xxvi;
Bernard, 1974, pls.ix–x, xxxvii–xlv.)

(f) Messine (Metz, Lorraine, Laon) notation.

The Guidonian staff spread to the area of Messine notation during
the 12th century, co-existing briefly with notation in campo aperto.
Even before the introduction of the staff, attempts at a more precise
diastematy are visible. Scriptoria in this area, principally those in
monastic centres, adapted the Guidonian system along their own
lines, and little homogeneity can be observed. As in other parts of
France, no need to apply all aspects of the system was felt, resulting
in much variety in respect of coloured lines, custodes and letter-
clefs. From the 13th century, however, Lorraine neumes regularly
appear on staves of four red or black lines; some of the earliest
preserved examples are those from the seat of the archbishopric in
that area, Reims (see fig.21 from F-RSc 221; see also RSc 261:
facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.167; and F-Pn lat.833 and
18008, both from the end of the 12th century).

The vocabulary of Messine neumes was somewhat simplified for the

staff. The disjunct neume forms (used to signify agogic prolongation)
receded, similarly the virga and most of the special neumes: the
quilisma was replaced by a scandicus, the oriscus became a normal
note or was simply omitted. Some scriptoria continued to use
strophici, and of the liquescent neumes only the cephalicus and
epiphonus. The basic single note remained the hook-shaped punctum
(uncinus), whose form varied from place to place. The representation
of the scandicus and climacus continued to be variable. From the

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 12th century onwards the climacus tended to descend not vertically
but diagonally to the right, perhaps under French or German
influence. During this century the area of Messine notation gradually
narrowed under French influence – F-CA 193 (olim 188) f.151r,
from Cambrai (facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.168B), for
example, includes a French pes among Messine neumes). However,
the Messine system exercised considerable influence on almost all
notations in the German area that adopted staff notation. (I-VEcap
CLXX, a noted breviary from Namur, early 13th century, is a classic
example of Messine notation; for facs. see also Suñol, 1925, Fr.
trans., 2/1935, p.254–5; Bannister, 1913, pls.55b–59b; PalMus, 1st
ser., iii, 1892, pls.166–73; Hourlier, 1960, pl.19; Wagner, 1905, 2/
1912, p.322). A complete codex with Messine staff notation (with
some German features), the noted missal F-VN 759 of the 13th
century, has appeared in facsimile (ed. Saulnier, 1995).

(g) French-Messine mixed notation.

With the introduction of staff notation, scriptoria in central France
developed their own variety of the system (in respect of coloured
lines, clef letters and custodes; among manuscripts following
Guidonian practice strictly are those of Nevers (e.g. F-Pn n.a.lat.
1235–6; for facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.195B; Stäblein,
1956, pl.3; M. Huglo: ‘Un nouveau prosaire nivernais (Paris, B.N.
nouv.acq.lat.3126)’, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxxi, 1957, pp.3–30; G.
Iversen, ed.: Corpus troporum, iv: Tropes de l’Agnus Dei, Stockholm,
1980, pls.X–XI). The French-Messine system is an example of a
‘hybrid’ notation (Corbin, 1977, p.127). Most neumes are French,
but beside the French clivis there is a right-angled clivis, which
Corbin thought had been borrowed from Messine notation (although
Italian influence, or perhaps even a music-theoretical source, cannot
be ruled out entirely), and which is used where the first note of the
clivis is at the same pitch as, or lower than, the preceding note.
From the area east of Sens many such examples of French-Messine
mixed notations may be found in this period (Corbin, 1977, map 2;
manuscripts from Troyes, St Florentin, Auxerre, Vézelay, Dijon,
Langres; for facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.198A; Bernard,
1965, pl.VI).

(h) Cistercian notation.

The first great houses of the Cistercians (Clairvaux, Morimond and
Pontigny) were founded in the area in which the French-Messine
hybrid notations were used. Cistercian notation used the staff from
the very beginning (Marosszéki, 1952, p.31) and employed a mixture
of French and Messine neumes. Beside the French virga, pes,
scandicus, climacus, clivis and cephalicus, occur the Messine clivis
and porrectus. No special neumes are used. While there is some
regional variety among French Cistercian scriptoria in respect of the

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 appearance of the staff, those in Italy, Germany and central Europe
followed rather strict Guidonian practice. (For facs. of F-Dm 114,
the 12th-century standard Cistercian compendium see MGG1, xiv,
Tafel 73 after col.1344.)

(i) The Rhineland, Liège and the Low Countries.

The Rhineland down to the Low Countries was one of the first areas
to use staff notation, which was employed from the late 11th century
onwards (staff notation was known in St Trond in 1099; see Smits
van Waesberghe, 1969, p.27). Aachen (see fig.22 from D-AAm 13),
Liège and Cologne seem to be among the earliest centres that
adopted the system, with Utrecht, the Münster area, Mainz and even
further south along the Rhine within the area of influence. Later,
staff notation spread north-east, following, for example, the path of
the Teutonic Knights. Many neume shapes were derived from earlier
German forms, but the virga was provided with a small diamond-
shaped head (later to grow into the ‘Hufnagel’). The first element of
the pes sometimes became an upward-arching semicircle (pes à
ergot), a form found in French or Messine scripts but previously rare
in German sources. Special neumes and liquescents were also used.
The direction of the script no longer slanted as much as it had done
previously, but the script retained much of its rounded contours. Red
and yellow lines for F and c respectively are common, the F-clef is
often a simple point and the custos is absent from early manuscripts.
Some sources appear to have borrowed signs from French or
Messine notation, for example, the right-angled clivis or the
epiphonus with a closed ring. Typical examples available in facsimile
are from Ratingen or Gaesdonck (D-Mbs Clm 10075; facs. in
Hourlier, 1960, pl.5), the abbey of St Jacques, Liège (F-Pe B-A: facs.
in Bernard, 1974, pl.XVII), Maastricht (NL-DHk 76.F.3: facs. in
MGG1, viii, Tafel 72 after col.1410), Stavelot (GB-Lbl 18031–2:
facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.131), Trier (D-Ds 664: facs. in
PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.132; D-TRs 2254: facs. in ibid., pl.133),
Aachen (D-AAm 13: facs. in MGG1, v, Tafel 14 before col.321 and
Haug, 1995, pl.93–9) and Utrecht (NL-Uu 417: facs. in Haug, 1995,
pp.131–3; Uu 406: facs. in Loos, Downey and Steiner, 1997). Variant
forms in the Mainz area use a vertical virga and a pes with a left-
facing head. Such forms are also to be found in the Hildegard-Codex
(Dendermonde, Benedictine Abbey, MS 9: facs. van Poucke, 1991)
and a Koblenz missal (Wirzenborn [nr Montabaur], f.
260rKirchenarchiv: facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.137). Its
influence may have reached further south, being felt in such books
as the Zwiefalten antiphoner (D-KA 60, second scribe, f.260r), the
gradual D-Au Öttingen-Wallersteinische Bibliothek, Maihingen I.
o
2.4 .13, and an antiphoner fragment A-Ws C 1.

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 39. Rhenish staff notation: gradual, 13th century, from Aachen (D-AAm
13, f.120v)

(j) South Germany, Klosterneuburg, Bamberg.

Adiastematic notation was still dominant in south Germany during
the 12th century. However, two types of staff notation developed
under special circumstances, employed in comparatively few books.
These types are referred to as ‘south German’ staff notation and
‘Klosterneuburg’ notation, respectively.

In a number of Benedictine scriptoria traditional south German

neumes were placed on the staff, with differences in the use of clefs
and coloured lines. Perhaps the oldest preserved source is the
fragment of a monastic antiphoner from the end of the 11th century,
A-LIs 623, with coloured lines and clef-pairs D-a, F-c or a-e.
Important 12th-century sources include the Einsiedeln hymnal (CH-E
366 with red F-line, clef-pair F-c: facs. in Stäblein, 1975, pl.62),
fragments from Hirsau (e.g. D-Sl Cod.fragm.53 with coloured lines,
clefs on all lines, pes like an Arabic ‘3’) and from Prüfening near
Regensburg, affiliated to Hirsau, including the most extensive
fragment, Mbs lat.10086 (see fig.23 ) with red F- and green c-line,
clefs a 5th apart (also from Prüfening come D-Mbs lat.23037, f.240
with clefs on all lines and a pes sometimes like an Arabic ‘3’; and
Mbs Clm 13021 and 12027). Some sources with mostly south
German neumes and script-direction appear to borrow from Messine
practice (cephalicus like an Arabic ‘9’, right-pointing virga), for
example, D-Mbs lat.9921 (f.40v, from Ottobeuren) and D-KA 60 (f.
267r, from Zwiefalten).

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 40. South German staff notation: gradual, 12th–13th century, from
Prüfening (D-Mbs lat.10086)

Closely related to these is the distinctive notation in 12th-century

Bamberg sources. Its typical features are a right-leaning virga like
an Arabic ‘1’, an elongated tractulus (punctum planum), both
pointed and right-angled clivis forms, the latter with a long first
element. (This type of clivis can already be seen in the late
adiastematic notation of Bamberg sources, e.g. D-BAs 24 and 26,
both of the 13th century.) Early examples include the 12th-century
music theory manuscript D-Mbs Clm 14965b (f.30r; see Smits van
Waesberghe, 1969, p.97) and two fragments of monastic antiphoners
from the turn of the 12th century (A-KN F8 and F19). This script
evolved further in 13th-century sources such as D-BAs 25 (an
antiphoner, first notation, f.2r) and 12 (gradual frag., f.8r).

Messine (Lorraine) features are predominant in Klosterneuburg

notation, which also seems to be of south German Benedictine
origin. Only the clivis and the special neumes (strophici, oriscus,
virga strata, liquescents) are German. The direction of the script
(ascending diagonally, descending vertically) is also Messine. The
old, wavy quilisma is replaced by a form similar to the conjunct
scandicus, while the normal form of the scandicus contains three
Messine tractuli (uncini). Red F- and yellow c-lines are used
consistently, all lines have clefs, but the custos is avoided. Sources
include D-Mbs lat.9921 (ff.1, 54–7; see Smits van Waesberghe,
1969, p.111), from Ottobeuren, and three from Augsburg: A-Wn
573 (ff.19–25; see Berschin, 1975); D-Mbs lat.22025 (flyleaf); and
D-W Gud.lat.334 (olim 4641). The most important group of
completely preserved codices are those from the house of
Augustinian canons at Klosterneuburg, including a gradual from the
first third of the 12th century, A-Gu 807 (facs. in PalMus, 1st ser.,
xix, 1974) and the antiphoners from later in the century, for example,
A-KN 1010, 1012 and 1013.

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 (k) Hungary.
In the 12th century, when the Guidonian reform was carried out,
Hungary was politically and ecclesiastically an independent
kingdom. The notational reform may have been part of more general
changes to the liturgy. Older Hungarian codices used south German
neumes. At this time a deliberate campaign seems to have been
carried out to create a new, reformed notation. Neumes of Messine
and Italian origin were combined in a unique synthesis and set on
the staff to create an independent notational type, known as
‘Esztergom’ or ‘Graner’ notation (see fig.24 from H-Bn MNy 1,
13th-century additions; see also Szendrei, 1988). Some remnants of
the German neumes found in 12th-century sources gradually
disappeared: only the supple appearance and careful calligraphy are
reminiscent of the superseded German models. The characteristic
features of the Esztergom notation are: tractulus rather than
punctum; right-facing pes; right-angled clivis; vertically descending
climacus – often starting with a stereotyped wave like a double-note;
and a conjunct scandicus (the last two after Italian models).
Liquescent and other special signs are rare. 12th-century sources
include H-Bn MNy 1 (first notation), HR-ŠIBf 10 (binding) and
H-Bu U.Fr.1.m.214; from the 13th century date A-GÜ 1/43 and
CZ-Ps DE.I.7; and SK-BRm EC Lad.3 and EL18 were copied in the
early 14th century. TR-Itks 42 dates from around 1360 (facs.,
Szendrei, 1999).

(l) German-Messine mixed notations in Germany and

central Europe.
The change to staff notation was somewhat delayed in non-monastic
scriptoria using German neumes. Only after the mid-13th century
did sources with staff notation appear regularly east of Mainz or in
the south German dioceses. Palaeographically these notations
belong together, for they are all characterized by a fusion of German
and Messine forms (in differing combinations, some an equal mix,
others predominantly one or the other). The direction of the script is
German (ascending and descending diagonally). The rhomboid single
note typical of the whole region is a stylized evolution of the Messine
punctum (uncinus). Since these developments were relatively late,
the appearance of the notations was influenced by gothic scribal
characteristics. Until the sources have been more comprehensively
investigated it is not possible to say if these notations were
disseminated initially from one centre or represent simultaneous and
independent developments.

The earliest among the preserved sources is the Quedlinburg

gradual D-Bsb 40078 (fig.25 ), from the start of the 13th century
(sometimes dated to the end of the 12th; facs. in Haug, 1995, pp.
109–12). The usual form for a single note is a virga with short stem

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 and left-facing head (showing Messine influence on German form).
The other neumes are of German or Messine type. There are
coloured lines, but clefs are found only in the middle of lines for a
change of register, not at the beginning. 13th-century manuscripts
where there is also a balance between German and Messine forms
include those of Brunswick (see Härting, 1963) and Leipzig (e.g.
D-LEu 391: facs. in Wagner, 1930; see also the 13th-century
gradual CZ-Ps DF.I.8).

42. Mixed German-Messine staff notation: gradual, 12th–13th century,

from Quedlinburg (D-Bsb 40078, f.245v)

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Musikabteilung

A number of notations more decidedly Messine in character are

found from the mid-13th century onwards. The shape of the neumes
is always articulated, consisting of rhomb for the noteheads
connected by thick Gothic strokes. Examples are common in
Austrian and Moravian sources (A-Wn 1925; Olomouc, Kapitulni
Knihovna CO 3; CZ-Bam 6/11 and 19/27). Staff notation is known to
have been introduced in the Moravian diocese (suffragan of Mainz
until 1344) by Baldwin, Dean of Olomouc (d 1203; see Pokorný,
1980, p.42).

A mixed Messine-German staff notation was adopted in the south

Polish diocese of Kraków, with sources dating as early as the 13th
century (additions in PL-Kk 51), although the first complete
sources are later. Messine elements predominate in a gradual of
about 1300 from Wislica in the Kraków diocese (Kielce, Biblioteka
Seminarium Duchownego RL 1), rather as in Moravian and Austrian
sources just mentioned.

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 Besides the forms incorporating the stylized Messine rhomb, square
note-heads were also used in some scriptoria of the region (see A-KN
629 and 1021, Olomouc, Kapitulni Kninovna CO 7). For example, the
Benedictine scriptorium of Tyniec in southern Poland, developed an
individual notation combining square and rhomboid forms (e.g. PL-Wn
Akc.10810; see Szendrei, ‘Notacja liniowa’, 1999).

Silesian notation, one of the most individual as well as best-

documented notations of this area, is also dominated by Messine
forms. The earliest sources already rely on the Messine punctum
(uncinus) for the single note, and for the pes and scandicus when the
interval of only a 2nd is involved (larger intervals end with a virga).
There are no special neumes. This notation developed independently
until the 16th century. Sources include the missal CZ-Pnm XIII.B.17
from the end of the 13th century (facs. in Hutter, 1926, Abb.VI-VII)
and the following 14th-century manuscripts: PL-WRu Br.Mus.K.21;
Ms.Muz.51322 (olim K.24); I.F.386; and R 503.

(m) The Messine notation of Prague.

Apart from some monastic houses with affiliations outside Bohemia,
scriptoria of the Prague diocese used German neumes until staff
notation was introduced by Vitus (d 1271), dean of Prague
Cathedral. (German adiastematic neumes are still found in some
Prague cathedral manuscripts as late as the early 14th century.) The
manuscripts commissioned by Vitus, dating from between 1235 and
1253, use classical Messine forms, though the direction of the script
is diagonal descending as well as ascending; the custos is absent
(see fig.26 from CZ-Pak A 26-2, dated 1253; facs. in Spunar, 1957,
pl.14c). The Premonstratensians probably played a part in this
importation of Messine notation. Codices written under Bishop
Tobias (1279–96) witness its further assimilation. The following
examples may be cited: CZ-Pak Cim.4 (dated 1235, ninth gathering:
facs. in Spunar, 1957, pl.14b); Pak LXI.2 (Evangeliary of Bishop
Tobias, dated 1293); Pak P.3 (Agenda of Bishop Tobias, 1294: facs.
in Hutter, 1926, pls.IV–V); and CZ-Pu XIV.A.19. Both staffless
German neumes and Messine staff notation are found in CZ-Pu
IV.D.9 (Liber ordinarius S Viti, 13th–14th century).

(n) Cistercian and Premonstratensian notations in

central Europe.
Cistercian monasteries in central Europe used staff notation much
earlier than other churches of the region, in fact from the time of
their foundation in the 12th century. They used the French-Messine
mixed notation as it had been developed in the Burgundian
homeland of the order. This Cistercian system was more or less
isolated from the traditions of its new environment, but gradually
assimilated a few gothic features.

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 Premonstratensian notation in this area was less autonomous. The
early houses of the order used Messine neumes, and the
Premonstratensians were probably influential in introducing
Messine staff notation to central Europe. Later sources with staff
notation tended to assume characteristics of the local region. The
first two notational layers of the troper CZ-Pak Cim.4 are probably
Premonstratensian (see Vlhova, 1993). (See also the Polish
Premonstratensian antiphoner of c1200, MS Arch.Norbertanek 1 in
the convent library of Klasztor Norbertanek, Imbramowice, Poland:
facs. in Miazga, 1984, p.235; and the German gradual from Arnstein,
Trier diocese, D-DS 868, dated 1208–15: facs. in Miazga, 1979, p.
120, facs.19).

(vi) Pitch-specific notations, 13th–16th centuries.

(a) Square notation.

The development of square notation may be seen as the result of
changes in both the conception and the function of chant notation.
The resolution of stroke notation into a series of discrete squares
linked by thin lines suggests that chant was thought of more in
terms of individual pitches than of lines and phrases, perhaps
because of its role as static tenor beneath more mobile upper parts
in polyphony. Because of the easier visibility of individual notes, it
facilitated singing from a codex by a group of singers (the increasing
size of manuscripts also reflects the trend towards singing from a
book instead of from memory, at least in some centres). To notate in
this way, with thick horizontal and hair-thin vertical strokes,
required a different pen-hold from that used for writing literary
texts. These new requirements and techniques led to the separation
of cursive notation (for private musical jottings) from formal book
notation (for official use).

The ‘classical’ square notation best known from Parisian books of the
mid-13th century onwards was a development of the French
notations used in northern France (especially the Ile de France) in
the 12th century. Thus the virga, pes and porrectus have a left-facing
head and the clivis has a thin initial upstroke; the direction of the
script is vertical ascending and diagonal descending. The scandicus
consists of a punctum combined with a pes, or a pes with a virga;
and the two puncta of the climacus take the form of small rhombs. A
four-line staff (sometimes red) is normal; the custos is usually
absent, as it had been in the Paris area in the 12th century. (For facs.
see PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pl.204A)

Square notation was adopted with greater or lesser promptness in

wide areas of western and southern Europe, Britain and Scandinavia
in the 13th century, occasionally (though not always) replacing a

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 different notational type (e.g. in some centres where Messine
notation had been used). Sometimes Parisian books were imitated
fairly exactly, no doubt as a result of the general political,
intellectual and cultural importance of Paris in the 13th century. But
many regional centres assimilated square forms into their traditional
notation (e.g. retaining the original direction of their script) without
adopting all features of Parisian practice. Many of these local
varieties await thorough investigation. Aquitanian scriptoria
furnished many examples of this (Stäblein, 1975, p.161, pls.43a–c),
so also the Carthusians (PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pl.105; iii, 1892,
pl.206A) or northern French centres such as Beauvais (Bernard,
1965, pl.xix–xx; Stäblein, 1975, p.159, pls.41a–b). Thus old
notational boundaries retained some of their effectiveness even in
the 13th century. Milanese notation, presumably because of the
different chant repertory it represented, remained individual
throughout the Middle Ages.

Homogenizing and standardizing forces were nevertheless at work.

Chant books could be commissioned from professional scriptoria and
executed by scribes unfamiliar with local (provincial) idiosyncrasies.
The new religious orders of the Franciscans, Dominicans and
Augustinian hermits made square notation obligatory for their chant
books (see Huglo, 1967; Van Dijk, 1963, ii, p.359); the correctoria of
the Dominicans were written in Paris in the mid-13th century
(PalMus, 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.200A–B). When the Franciscan Pope
Nicholas III (1277–80) ordered the destruction of older chant books
in Rome and their replacement with new ones after the Franciscan
model, square notation acquired the semi-official status of a ‘Roman’
notation. Thereafter it made rapid headway, especially in Italy, where
Beneventan notation, for example, was shortly superseded. It also
penetrated Germany and central Europe, mainly as the preserve of
the religious orders.

(b) ‘Gothic’ notations.

Gothic notations were not a new notational type but a change to the
surface appearance of traditional neume shapes. Something similar
had happened with the establishment of square notation, but
whereas there the pen was held parallel to the line, in gothic style it
remained diagonal. The horizontal and in particular the vertical
down-strokes are strongly marked, the diagonal up-strokes fine.
Whereas elegant, curved shapes were still common in the 13th
century, by the 15th century thick, often uninterrupted chains of
geometrically regular strokes were used. The basic shapes, however,
are those of the German and central European notations already
established in the 12th and 13th centuries, with the variety already
described above, at least at first. The number of types diminished
with time. Cistercian notation and that of Bamberg (except for its
distinctive clivis) were eventually assimilated into the regional types
with which they coexisted. Klosterneuburg notation disappeared

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 after the 14th century. But the Esztergom notation in Hungary, and
the notations of Prague and Silesia retained their independence. The
rest of Germany and central Europe used either the (west) German
or the mixed Messine-(east) German type. The former predominated
as before in the area from the Rhineland up to the Low Countries,
the latter in eastern and southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
Poland (the geographical boundaries have not been precisely
determined).

The chief difference between the (west) German and the Messine
lies their preference as regards in the sign for single notes. In the
former both the punctum (as always, for lower notes) and the virga
(for higher notes and recitation) are used. Here the head of the virga
is shaped like a horseshoe nail (Ger. ‘Hufnagel’, hence the common
designation of this notation as Hufnagelschrift; see fig.27 ). On the
other hand, the mixed Messine-German notation preferred the
rhomb (lozenge, diamond, derived from the uncinus; see fig.28 ) for
single notes. In German notation the rounded clivis with initial
vertical shaft was preferred, in Messine-German the right-angled
clivis. The westerly scriptoria cultivated more rounded shapes and
placed less emphasis on the individual note-head, and liquescents –
the strophici, even the quilisma – are still to be found. (PalMus, 1st
ser., iii, 1892, pl.141; Hourlier, 1960, pl.7.) Messine-German notation
appears to place more emphasis on the individual note. Liquescents
remained but other special neumes disappeared.

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 44. West German Gothic notation: gradual, 15th century, from the
collegiate chapter of St Martin, Bonn (H-Bn Clmae 259, f.1v)

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 45. Messine-German Gothic notation: gradual, dated 1360, from
Moosburg (D-Mu 2° 156, f.114r)

In neither family is uniformity to be expected; for example, D-W

528, from Minden, is basically Messine-German but has a virga with
its head on the right-hand side – a kind of compromise between
Hufnagel and Messine rhomb (Haug, 1995, pp.156–60). Some
Messine-German sources occasionally (but inconsistently) use a
virga for a single higher note (e.g. San Cándido Stiftsbibliothek, VII
a 7: facs. in Haug, 1995, pp.129–30; D-Mu 2° 156: facs. in Hiley,
1996).

Within the general areas of dissemination of the types mentioned

above, notational ‘islands’ are discernible, where a tradition other
than the prevailing regional system was employed. The Benedictines
of the Abbey of St George in Prague, no doubt because of their
connection with Hirsau in the Black Forest, used German staff
notation in the very heartland of Prague-Messine notation. The
Order of Teutonic Knights brought (west) German notation (together
with the Dominican liturgy) into the north-eastern areas of Europe
they colonized (e.g. the 14th-century antiphoner PL-PE L 19; see
also Szendrei, 1994, and ‘Notacja liniowa’, 1999).

Professional workshops producing manuscripts to order were

responsible for a gradual simplification and standardization of the
notational picture, although some local scriptoria continued to
produce codices of more individual appearance. In the late Middle
Ages the number of sources made for private purposes (as informal
music notebooks and school music books) increased. The
appearance of the cursive notations in this class of music
manuscripts naturally differs radically from the highly artistic books
for official use.

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 (c) Esztergom, Prague and Wrocław.
Three larger enclaves of independent notations persisted to the end
of the Middle Ages in Hungary, Bohemia and Silesia, respectively.

Esztergom notation was uniquely long lived. Although losing ground

fractionally to Messine-German notation, it retained all its essential
characteristics, its arsenal of signs and typical direction, even
beyond the Middle Ages (see fig.29 ; survey with facs. in Szendrei,
1988). In surface appearance it acquired some gothic features. In a
few scriptoria a new mixed notation incorporating some Messine-
German elements was practised for luxury manuscripts (for facs. see
Szendrei, 1990–93).

46. Later Esztergom notation: gradual fragment, 15th century, of the

Paulite Order (H-Ba K 484, f.1r)

Prague notation continued to develop during the 14th and 15th

centuries. After Prague became canonically independent of Mainz in
1344, its status as seat of the archbishopric, the imperial power and
the university demanded the production of numerous splendid
presentation codices; in such books the way in which every note is
represented by a rhomb, joined by hair-thin lines (in traditional
Messine combinations) is particularly noticeable (fig.30 ). When
Olomouc became suffragan of Prague the local notation disappeared
in favour of the latter’s notation, which also spread beyond the
borders of Bohemia and Moravia, influencing practice in Kraków in
the 14th century and other areas in the 15th, during the time of the
Hussite ascendency. (For facs. see Hutter, 1930, and Plocek, 1973.)

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 47. Later Prague notation: gradual, c1470, from Hradec Králové (CZ-
HK 40 (II A 2), f.8v)

In Silesia the notation of Wrocław (Breslau) attained its fullest

individuality in the second half of the 15th century. Here, too,
rhombs were used for pes and scandicus with intervals of a 2nd, and
they predominate as component elements in other neumes as well,
joined by lines of varying slenderness. (For facs. see Miazga, 1984,
pls.71, 81, 91; Musica Medii Aevi, iv, 1973, pls.16–17; ibid., viii,
1991, pls.11–12.)

(vii) Printed notations.

Early printed chant sources have been surveyed by Riemann (1896)
and Molitor (1904). They precede the earliest printed polyphonic
music by over two decades. Some 270 books with printed music
were published by 1500 (King, 1964, p.8), almost all liturgical. Some
of the earliest examples are in missals where only some of the
priest’s chants are provided with music. The first known book of this
kind is the missal printed in Rome in 1476 by Ulrich Han from
Ingolstadt. The earliest choirbook is even older, a gradual probably
printed in Konstanz in 1473. The gradual uses ‘gothic’ notation with
a pleasing repertory of shapes, even including the distropha and

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 custos. The Roman print uses square notation. Printers displayed
considerable ingenuity in devising appropriate note-forms, with
German printers generally approaching the flexibility of handwritten
neumes more successfully than their Latin counterparts, who often
relied on the square and lozenge, or even the square alone.

Even before the advent of music printing, plainchant notations

occasionally adopted features of mensural notation. Manuscripts
with signs such as the semibrevis and minima are not uncommon in
the 16th century in the south of the German-speaking regions. These
were not used for traditional melodies but for new compositions,
particularly melodies for the Mass Ordinary (e.g. the pieces in CH-SGs
546: ed. Marxer, 1908; also Sigl, 1911). Mensural notational signs
were then taken up in some printed chant books; for example, books
printed in Venice by Francis de Bruges regularly include the
mensural Credo known as the ‘Credo cardinale’ (Tack, 1960, p.50).

Mensural signs were also adopted in Giovanni Guidetti’s influential

Directorium chori (1582), which includes the simple tones of the
Mass and Office. There is a fourfold distinction between lozenge
(semibrevis, short), square (brevis), square surmounted by an arc,
and square with fermata (longest value), in the ratio 1:2:3:4 (see ex.
7 ). A ‘dotted rhythm’ is always indicated by using 3 with 1. Such
shapes were then widely adopted in later books, particularly for the
notation of the new chants produced in profusion in France as part
of the ‘neo-Gallican’ ecclesiastical movement.

(See Plainchant, §9(i) ;Plain-chant musical; and Neo-Gallican

chant.)

In printed chant books of the 19th century various styles were used,
which were derived and developed from earlier printing practice,
often incorporating mensural features. The melodies thus notated,
when not actually new compositions, were the result of much
revision and recasting, whose principal monument was the gradual
in the ‘Medicean edition’ (1614–15) composed by Felice Anerio and
Francesco Soriano. When the Benedictines of Solesmes made new
editions of the chant melodies in their medieval form they decided to
develop a new font incorporating as many features as possible of the
‘classical’ quadratic notation of the 13th century, but also including a
sign for the quilisma, which by the 13th century was no longer in
use. In the Solesmes Antiphonale monasticum (Tournai, 1935) a sign
for the oriscus was introduced. More recent books (Liber hymnarius
cum invitatoriis & aliquibus responsoriis, Solesmes, 1983) have
developed further signs to represent other features of the early
chant manuscripts (a greater variety of liquescent signs, apostropha,
pes with light first note etc.: see Liber hymnarius, p.xii).

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 Research at Solesmes had made it clear that the notation of early St
Gallen and Laon manuscripts was particularly rich in rhythmic
detail. The question as to whether such indications should be
represented in the Vatican editions caused a rift in the commission
appointed to prepare the new books. Pothier, the chairman of the
commission, saw them as a local and temporary phenomenon that
need not become part of an official edition with claims to universal
validity (see Pothier, 1880; David, 1927; Bescond, 1972). Eventually
two parallel editions appeared, that of the Vatican was ‘plain’, that of
Solesmes contained supplementary horizontal bars (known as
‘episemata’) over certain notes and dots after others, to indicate
lengthening. The Solesmes version became particularly well known
after the publication of the compendium Liber usualis (Solesmes,
1921), and was propagated in numerous explanations of the
‘Solesmes method’ (Suñol, 1905 etc.; Gajard, 1951) as well as in
Mocquereau’s weighty treatise, Le nombre musical (1908–27).

An interesting development has been the re-publication by the

Benedictines of Solesmes of older chant editions with the addition of
hand-drawn reproductions of the neumes of F-LA 239, CH-SGs
359, E 121 and so on in the Graduale triplex and Offertoriale
triplex. The purpose of such editions is to enable performers to take
the notation of the early sources into account. Starting with the
writings of Cardine (esp. 1968), a large body of literature has been
created to support theories of chant performance based on details of
these neumatic notations (see Performing practice, §I, 2(i) ).

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 Bibliography

A: General

A General: (i) General studies and facsimile collections (ii)

Principal characteristics (iii) Origins. B Regional notations: (i)
French (ii) English (iii) German and St Gallen (iv) Central
European (v) Spanish (vi) Italian (vii) Palaeo-Frankish (viii)
Breton (ix) Messine/Laon/Lorraine (x) Aquitanian. C
Significative letters, D Pitch-specific systems. E Staff notations:
(i) Introduction (ii) France, England and Spain (iii) Low
Countries and Germany (iv) Italy (v) Hungary, Bohemia and
Poland. F Printed notations.

(i) General studies and facsimile collections

MGG2 (‘Notation IV: Neumen’; M. Haas)

Paléographie musicale: les principaux manuscrits de chant

grégorien, ambrosien, mozarabe, gallican (Solesmes, 1889–) [for
details of individual vols. see Solesmes, §4]

P. Wagner: Neumenkunde: Paläographie des liturgischen Gesanges

(Leipzig, 1905, 2/1912/R)

J.B. Thibaut: Monuments de la notation ekphonétique et neumatique

de l’église latine (St Petersburg, 1912/R)

H.M. Bannister: Monumenti vaticani di paleografia musicale latina

(Leipzig, 1913/R)

G.M. Suñol: Introducció a la paleografia musical gregoriana

(Montserrat, 1925; Fr. trans., enlarged, 1935)

J. Hourlier, ed.: La notation musicale des chants liturgiques latins

présentée par les moines de Solesmes (Solesmes, 1960)

F. Tack: Der gregorianische Choral, Mw, 18 (1960; Eng. trans., 1960)

M. Bernard: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, Répertoire de

manuscrits médiévaux contenant des notations musicales, 1 (Paris,
1965)

E. Jammers: Tafeln zur Neumenschrift (Tutzing, 1965)

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 M. Bernard: Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris, Répertoire de manuscrits
médiévaux contenant des notations musicales, 2 (Paris, 1966)

M. Bernard: Bibliothèques Parisiennes: Arsenal, Nationale

(musique), Universitaire, Ecole des beaux-arts et fonds privés,
Répertoire de manuscrits médiévaux contenant des notations
musicales, 3 (Paris, 1974)

B. Stäblein: Schriftbild der einstimmigen Musik, Musikgeschichte in

Bildern, 3/4 (Leipzig,1975)

S. Corbin: Die Neumen (Cologne, 1977)

M. Huglo: ‘Bilan de 50 années de recherches (1939–1989) sur les

notations musicales de 850 à 1300’, AcM, 62 (1990), 224–59

D. Hiley: Western Plainchant: a Handbook (Oxford, 1993)

(ii) Principal characteristics

E. de Coussemaker: Histoire de l’harmonie au Moyen Age (Paris,
1852)

F. Raillard: Explication des neumes ou anciens signes de notation

musicale pour servir à la restauration complète du chant grégorien
(Paris, 1852)

J. Pothier: Les mélodies grégoriennes d’après la tradition (Tournai,

1880)

A. Mocquereau: ‘Origine et classement de differentes écritures

neumatiques: 1. Notation oratoire ou chironomique, 2. Notation
musicale ou diastématique’, Le codex 339 de la Bibliothèque de
Saint-Gall, PalMus, 1st ser., 1 (1889), 96–160

A. Mocquereau: ‘Neumes-accents liquescents ou sémi-vocaux’, Le

répons-graduel Justus ut palma, PalMus, 1st ser., 2 (1891), 37–86

H. Freistedt: Die liqueszierenden Noten des gregorianischen Chorals

(Fribourg, 1929)

M. Huglo: ‘Les noms des neumes et leur origine’, EG, 1 (1954), 53–
67

W. Wiesli: Das Quilisma im Codex 359 der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen:

eine paläographisch-semiologische Studie (Immensee, 1966)

E. Cardine: Semiologia gregoriana (Rome, 1968; Eng. trans., 1982);

Fr. trans. in EG, 11 (1970), 1–158, and also pubd separately
(Solesmes, 1970)

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 C. Thompson: ‘La traduction mélodique du trigon dans les pièces
authentiques du Graduale romanum’, EG, 10 (1969), 29–85

J.B. Göschl: Semiologische Untersuchungen zum Phänomen der

gregorianischen Liqueszenz: der isolierte dreistufige Epiphonus
praepunctis, ein Sonderproblem der Liqueszenzforschung (Vienna,
1980)

W. Arlt: ‘Anschaulichkeit und analytischer Charakter: Kriterien der

Beschreibung und Analyse früher Neumenschriften’, Musicologie
médiévale: Paris 1982, 29–55

D. Hiley: ‘The Plica and Liquescence’, Gordon Athol Anderson, 1929–

1981, in memoriam, ed. L.A. Dittmer (Henryville, PA, 1984), 379–91

J.B. Göschl: ‘Der gegenwärtige Stand der semiologischen

Forschung’, Beiträge zur Gregorianik, 1 (1985), 43–102

A. Haug: ‘Zur Interpretation der Liqueszenzneumen’, AMw, (1993),

85–100

A. Odenkirchen: ‘13 Neumentafeln in tabellarischer Übersicht’, De

musica et cantu: Helmut Hucke zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. P. Cahn and
A.-K. Heimer (Hildesheim, 1993), 257–62

(iii) Origins
F. Steffens: Lateinische Paläographie (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1903)

J.B. Thibaut: Origine byzantine de la notation neumatique de l’église

latine (Paris, 1907)

R. Beer, ed.: Monumenta palaeographica vindobonensia: Denkmäler

der Schreibkunst aus der Handschriftensammlung des Habsburg-
Lothringischen Erzhauses, 2 (Leipzig,1913)

B. Laum: ‘Alexandrinisches und byzantinisches

Akzentuationssystem’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, new ser.,
73 (1920–24), 1–34

B. Laum: Das alexandrinische Akzentuationssystem unter

Zugrundelegung der theoretischen Lehren der Grammatiker und mit
Heranziehung der praktischen Verwendung in den Papyri
(Paderborn, 1928)

E. Jammers: ‘Zur Entwicklung der Neumenschrift im

Karolingerreich’, Otto Glauning zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. H.
Schreiber (Leipzig, 1938), 89–98

J. Handschin: ‘Eine alte Neumenschrift’, AcM, 22 (1950), 69–97; 25

(1953), 87–8

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 L. Brou: ‘Notes de paléographie musicale mozarabe’, AnM, 7 (1952),
51–76

S. Corbin: ‘Les notations neumatiques à l’époque carolingienne’,

Revue d’histoire de l’église de France, 38 (1952), 225–32

E. Jammers: Die Essener Neumenhandschriften der Landes- und

Stadtbibliothek Düsseldorf (Ratingen, 1952)

E. Jammers: ‘Die paläofrankische Neumenschrift’, Scriptorium, 7

(1953), 235–59 [repr. in Hammerstein, 1969]

E. Jammers: ‘Die materiellen und geistigen Voraussetzungen für die

Entstehung der Neumenschrift’, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für
Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 32 (1958), 554–75

B. Stäblein: ‘Zur Frühgeschichte der Sequenz’, AMw, 18 (1961), 1–

33

K. Gamber: Codices liturgici Latini antiquiores (Fribourg, 1963,

2/1968, suppl. ed. B. Baroffio and others, 1988)

M. Huglo: ‘La chironomie médiévale’, RdM, 49 (1963), 155–71

A.-M. Bautier-Regnier: ‘A propos du sens de neuma et de nota en

latin médiéval’, RBM, 18 (1964), 1–9

E. Jammers: ‘Studien zu Neumenschriften, Neumenhandschriften

und neumierter Musik’, Bibliothek und Wissenschaft, 2 (1965), 85–
161

E. Jammers: ‘Rhythmen und Hymnen in einer St. Galler Handschrift

des 9. Jahrhunderts’, Festschrift Bruno Stäblein zum 70. Geburtstag,
ed. M. Ruhnke (Kassel, 1967), 134–42

E. Hammerstein, ed.: Schrift, Ordnung und Gestalt: gesammelte

Aufsätze zur älteren Musikgeschichte (Berne, 1969) [writings of E.
Jammers]

C. Floros: Universale Neumenkunde (Kassel, 1970)

K. Gamber: ‘Sacramentaria praehadriana: neue Zeugnisse der

süddeutschen Überlieferung des vorhadrianischen Sacramentarium
Gregorianum im 8.–9. Jh.’, Scriptorium, 27 (1973), 3–15

M. Haas: ‘Probleme einer “Universale Neumenkunde”’, Forum

musicologicum, 1 (1975), 305–22

B. Stäblein: Schriftbild der einstimmigen Musik, Musikgeschichte in

Bildern, iii/4 (Leipzig, 1975)

M.-E. Duchez: ‘La représentation spatio-verticale du caractère

musical grave-aigu et l’élaboration de la notion de hauteur de son
dans la conscience occidentale’, AcM, 51 (1979), 54–73

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 H. Hucke: ‘Die Cheironomie und die Entstehung der Neumenschrift’,
Mf, 32 (1979), 1–16

K. Gamber: ‘Fragmentblätter eines Regensburger Evangeliars aus

dem Ende des 8. Jahrhunderts’, Scriptorium, 34 (1980), 72–7

P. Jeffery: ‘An Early Cantatorium Fragment Related to MS Laon 239’,

Scriptorium, 36 (1982), 245–52

L. Treitler: ‘The Early History of Music Writing in the West’, JAMS,

35 (1982), 237–79

H. van der Werf: The Emergence of Gregorian Chant, 1 (Rochester,

NY, 1983)

S.K. Rankin: ‘From Memory to Record: Musical Notations in

Manuscripts from Exeter’, Anglo-Saxon England, 13 (1984), 97–112

L. Treitler: ‘Reading and Singing: on the Genesis of Occidental

Music-Writing’, EMH, 4 (1984), 135–208

H. Hucke: ‘Die Anfänge der abendländischen Notenschrift’,

Festschrift Rudolf Elvers, ed. H. Herttrich and H. Schneider
(Tutzing, 1985), 271–88

H. Möller: ‘Die Prosula “Psalle modulamina” (Mü 9543) und ihre

musikhistorische Bedeutung’, La tradizione dei tropi liturgici: Paris
1985 and Perugia 1987, 279–96

F. Unterkircher: ‘Fragmente eines karolingischen Chorantiphonars

mit Neumen (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. Ser. n.
3645 und München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Vorsatzblätter in
Cgm 6943)’, Codices manuscripti: Zeitschrift für
Handschriftenkunde, 11 (1985), 97–109

M. Huglo: ‘Les évangiles de Landévennec (New York, Public Library,

De Ricci 115)’, Landévennec et le monachisme breton dans le haut
Moyen Age: Landévennec 1985 (Landévennec, 1986), 245–52

K.J. Levy: ‘On the Origin of Neumes’, EMH, 7 (1987), 59–90

C.M. Atkinson: ‘From “Vitium” to “Tonus acquisitus”: on the

Evolution of the Notational Matrix of Medieval Chant’, Cantus
Planus III: Tihány 1988, 181–97

J. Hourlier: ‘Trois fragments de Laon’, EG, 22 (1988), 31–42

H. Hucke: ‘Gregorianische Fragen’, Mf, 44 (1988), 304–30

M. Bielitz: Die Neumen in Otfrids Evangelienharmonie: zum

Verhältnis von Geistlich und Weltlich in der Musik des frühen
Mittelalters sowie zur Entstehung der raumanalogen Notenschrift
(Heidelberg, 1989)

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 K. Levy: ‘On Gregorian Orality’, JAMS, 43 (1990), 185–227

L. Treitler: ‘The “Unwritten” and “Written Transmission” of Medieval

Chant and the Start-Up of Musical Notation’, JM, 10 (1992), 131–91

B. Sullivan: Grammar and Harmony: the Written Representation of

Musical Sound in Carolingian Treatises (diss., U. of California, 1994)

C.M. Atkinson: ‘De accentibus toni oritur nota quae dicitur neuma:
Prosodic Accents, the Accent Theory, and the Paleofrankish Script’,
Essays on Medieval Music: in Honor of David G. Hughes, ed. G.M.
Boone (Cambridge, MA, 1995), 17–42

M. Haas: Mündliche Überlieferung und altrömischer Choral:

historische und analytische computergestützte Untersuchungen
(Berne, 1996)

M. Bernhard: ‘Die Überlieferung der Neumennamen im lateinischen

Mittelalter’, Quellen und Studien zur Musiktheorie des Mïttelalters,
ed. M. Bernhard, 2 (Munich, 1997), 13–91

B: Regional notations

(i) French
Antiphonarium tonale missarum, XIe siècle: codex H. 159 de la
Bibliothèque de l’Ecole de médicine de Montpellier, PalMus, 1st ser.,
8 (1901–5/R)

W.H. Frere, ed.: Pars antiphonarii (London, 1923) [facs. of GB-DRc

B.3.11]

J. Hourlier: ‘Remarques sur la notation clunisienne’, Revue

grégorienne, 30 (1951), 231–40

R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Les manuscrits musicaux de Jumièges (Mâcon,

1954)

Le manuscrit du Mont-Renaud, Xe siècle: graduel et antiphonaire de

Noyon, PalMus, 1st ser., 16 (1955)

S. Corbin: La notation musicale neumatique des quatre provinces

lyonnaises: Lyon, Rouen, Tours et Sens (diss., U. of Paris, 1957)

Fragments des manuscrits de Chartres, PalMus, 1st ser., 17 (1958)

D. Escudier: Le scriptorium de Saint-Vaast d’Arras, des origines au

XIIe siècle: contribution à l’étude des notations neumatiques du
Nord de la France (diss., Ecole des Chartes, Paris, 1970)

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 R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Le graduel de St. Denis (Paris, 1981) [F-Pm 384]

D. Escudier: ‘La notation musicale de St. Vaast: étude d’une

particularité graphique’, Musicologie médiévale: Paris 1982, 107–18

(ii) English
W.H. Frere: The Winchester Troper from MSS of the Xth and XIth
Centuries (London, 1894)

L. Gjerløw: Adoratio crucis, the Regularis concordia and the Decreta

Lanfranci: Manuscript Studies in the Early Medieval Church of
Norway (Oslo, 1961)

A. Holschneider: Die Organa von Winchester: Studien zum ältesten

Repertoire polyphoner Musik (Hildesheim, 1968)

S.K. Rankin: ‘Neumatic Notations in Anglo-Saxon England’,

Musicologie médiévale: Paris 1982, 129–44

S.K. Rankin: ‘From Memory to Record: Musical Notations in

Manuscripts from Exeter’, Anglo-Saxon England, 13 (1984), 97–112

(iii) German and St Gallen

Le codex 339 de la Bibliothèque de Saint-Gall (Xe siècle):
antiphonale missarum sancti Gregorii, PalMus, 1st ser., 1 (1889)

Le codex 121 de la Bibliothèque d’ Einsiedeln (IXe–XIe siècle):

antiphonale missarum sancti Gregorii, PalMus, 1st ser., 4 (1894)

Antiphonaire de l’office monastique transcrit par Hartker: MSS.

Saint-Gall 390–391 (980–1011), PalMus, 2nd ser., 1 (1900/R)

Cantatorium, IXe siècle: no. 359 de la Bibliothèque de Saint-Gall,

PalMus, 2nd ser., 2 (1924/R)

H. Malloth: ‘Die ältesten Kärnter Tondenkmäler’, Carinthia I, 156

(1966), 203–52

H. Malloth: ‘Kärnter Tondenkmäler des Hoch- und Spätmittelalters’,

Carinthia I, 157 (1967), 542

F. Unterkircher and O. Demus, eds.: Antiphonar von St. Peter (Graz,

1969–74) [A-Wn s.n.2700; colour facs.]

K. Biegaņski and J. Woronczak, eds.: Missale plenarium

Bib.Capit.Gnesnensis Ms. 149 (Warsaw and Graz, 1970–72) [facs.]

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 S. Corbin: ‘Le fonds d’ Echternach à la Bibliothèque nationale de
Paris’, Ecole pratique des hautes études: annuaire, 4 (1971–2), 371–
9

K.H. Staub, P. Ulveling and F. Unterkircher, eds.: Echternacher

Sakramentar und Antiphonar: vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe im
Originalformat der Handschrift 1946 aus dem Besitz der Hessischen
Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt (Graz, 1982) [colour
facs.]

Die Handschrift Bamberg Staatsbibliothek Lit. 6, Monumenta

palaeographica Gregoriana, 2 (Münsterschwarzach, 1986) [facs.]

G.M. Paucker, ed.: Das Graduale Msc. Lit. 6 der Staatsbibliothek

Bamberg: eine Handschriften-Monographie unter besonderer
Berücksichtigung des Repertoires und der Notation (Regensburg,
1986)

A. Haug: Gesungene und schriftlich dargestellte Sequenz:

Beobachtungen zum Schriftbild der ältesten ostfränkischen
Sequenzenhandschriften (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1987)

H. Möller: ‘Deutsche Neumen – St. Galler Neumen: zur Einordnung

der Echternacher Neumenschrift’, SMH, 30 (1988), 415–30

F.C. Lochner: ‘La “notation d’Echternach” reconsidérée’, RBM, 44

(1990), 41–55

H. Möller, ed.: Das Quedlinburger Antiphonar (Berlin,

Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Mus. ms. 40047)
(Tutzing, 1990) [facs.]

F.K. Prassl: ‘Beobachtungen zur adiastematischen Notation in

Missalehandschriften des 12. Jahrhunderts aus dem Augustiner-
Chorherrenstift Seckau’, Cantus Planus IV: Pécs 1990, 31–54

E. Höchtl: Die adiastematisch notierten Fragmente aus den

Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek Melk: Versuch einer
Bestandsaufnahme (diss., U. of Vienna, 1992)

H. Möller: ‘Deutsche Neumenschriften ausserhalb St. Gallens’, De

musica et cantu: Helmut Hucke zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. P. Cahn and
A.-K. Heimer (Hildesheim, 1993), 225–42

K. Schlager and A. Haug, eds.: Tropi carminum: Liber hymnorum

Notkeri Balbuli: Berlin, Ehem. Preussische Staatsbibliothek,
Ms.theol.lat.qu.11 (z.Zt. Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellónska, Deposit)
(Munich,1993)

M. Czernin: ‘Beobachtungen zur Neumenschrift der Handschrift CC

28 der Stiftsbibliothek von Kremsmünster’, SMw, 43 (1994), 7–35

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 S. Engels: Das Antiphonar von St. Peter in Salzburg: Codex ONB Ser.
Nov. 2700 (Paderborn, 1994)

A. Hänggi and P. Ladner, eds.: Missale basileense saec. XI (Codex

Gressly) (Fribourg, 1994) [facs.]

W. Arlt and S. Rankin, eds.: Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen Codices

484 & 381, 1: Kommentar, 2: Codex Sangallensis 484, 3: Codex
Sangallensis 381 (Winterthur, 1996) [colour facs.]

(iv) Central European

J. Hutter: Česká notace [Czech notation]: Neumy (Prague, 1926)
[with Fr. summary]

J. Hutter: Notationis bohemicae antiquae specimina selecta e

codicibus bohemicis, 1: Neumae (Prague, 1931)

Z. Falvy and L. Mezey, eds.: Codex albensis: ein Antiphonar aus dem
12. Jahrhundert (Budapest and Graz, 1963) [facs. of Graz,
Universitätsbibliothek, 211]

B. Bujić: ‘Zadarski neumatski fragmenti v Oxfordu’ [Neumatic

fragments from Zadar in Oxford], Muzikološki zbornik, 4 (1968), 28–
33

J. Szendrei: Középkori hangjegyírások Magyarországon [Medieval

notation in Hungary] (Budapest, 1983) [with Ger. summary]

(v) Spanish
MGG2 (‘Mozarabischer Gesang’; I. Fernández de la Cuesta)

J. Moll: ‘Nuevos hallazgos de manuscritos mozárabes con neumas

musicales’, AnM, 5 (1950), 11–14

L. Brou: ‘Fragments d’un antiphonaire mozarabe du monastère de

San Juan de la Peña’, Hispania sacra, 5 (1952), 35–65

L. Brou: ‘Un antiphonaire mozarabe de Silos d’après les fragments

du British Museum (Mss. add. 11695, fol. 1r–4v)’, Hispania sacra, 5
(1952), 341–66

L. Brou: ‘Notes de paléographie musicale mozarabe’, AnM, 7 (1952),

51–76; 10 (1955), 23–44

L. Brou and J.Vives, eds.: Antifonario visigótico-mozárabe de la

Catedral de León (Barcelona, 1953–9)

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 L. Brou: ‘Le joyau des antiphonaires latins’, Archivos leonenses, 8
(1954), 7–114

A.M. Mundó: ‘La datación de los códices litúrgicos visigóticos

toledanos’, Hispania sacra, 18 (1965), 1–25

I. Fernández de la Cuesta, ed.: Antiphonale silense: British Library

Mss.Add.30850: introducción, indices y edición (Madrid, 1985)
[facs.]

M. Huglo: ‘La notation wisigothique est-elle plus ancienne que les

autres notations européennes?’España en la música de occidente:
Salamanca 1985, 19–26

Antiphonale hispaniae vetus (s. X–XI): Biblioteca de la Universidad

de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, 1986)

A. Durán, R. Moragas and J. Villarreal, eds.: Hymnarium oscense (s.

XI), i: Edición facsímil, ii: Estudios (Zaragoza, 1987)

J. Mas: ‘La notation catalane’, RdMc, 11 (1988), 11–30

(vi) Italian
Le codex 10673 de la Bibliothèque vaticane fonds latin (XIe siècle):
graduel Bénéventain, PalMus, 1st ser., 14 (1931)

Le codex VI. 34 de la Bibliothèque capitulaire de Bénévent (XIe–XIIe

siècle): graduel de Bénévent avec prosaire et tropaire, PalMus, 1st
ser., 15 (1937/R) [incl. J. Hourlier: ‘Etude sur la notation
bénéventaine’, 71–161]

R. Arnese: I codici notati della Biblioteca nazionale di Napoli

(Florence, 1967)

Le codex 123 de la Bibliothèque angelica de Rome (XIe siècle):

graduel et tropaire de Bologne, PalMus, 1st ser., 18 (1969)

A. Moderini: La notazione neumatica di Nonantola (Cremona, 1970)

A.M.W.J. Kurris: ‘Les coupures expressives dans la notation du

manuscrit Angelica 123’, EG, 12 (1971), 13–63

M.T.R. Barezzani: La notazione neumatica di un codice Bresciano

(secolo XI) (Cremona, 1981)

Le manuscrit VI.33, Archivio arcivescovile Benevento: missel de

Bénévent (début du XIe siècle), PalMus, 1st ser., 20 (1983)

J. Boe: ‘The Beneventan Apostrophus in South Italian Notation, A.D.

1000–1100’, EMH, 3 (1983), 43–66

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 T.F. Kelly: The Beneventan Chant (Cambridge, 1989)

T.F. Kelly: Les témoins manuscrits du chant bénéventain, PalMus, 1st

ser., 21 (1992)

J. Boe: ‘Chant Notation in Eleventh-Century Roman Manuscripts’,

Essays on Medieval Music: in Honor of David G. Hughes, ed. G.M.
Boone (Cambridge, MA,1995), 43–57

M.T.R. Barezzani and G. Ropa, eds.: Codex angelicus 123: studi sul
graduale-tropario bolognese del secolo XI e sui manoscritti collegati
(Cremona, 1996)

J. Boe: ‘Music Notations in Archivio San Pietro C 105 and in the

Farfa Breviary, Chigi C.VI.177’, EMH, 18 (1999), 1–45

(vii) Palaeo-Frankish
J. Handschin: ‘Eine alte Neumenschrift’, AcM, 22 (1950), 69–97; 25
(1953), 87–8

E. Jammers: Die Essener Neumenhandschriften der Landes- und

Stadtbibliothek Düsseldorf (Ratingen, 1952)

E. Jammers: ‘Die paläofrankische Neumenschrift’, Scriptorium, 7

(1953), 235–59

J. Hourlier and M. Huglo: ‘La notation paléofranque’, EG, 2 (1957),

212–19

(viii) Breton
Antiphonale missarum Sancti Gregorii, Xe siècle: codex 47 de la
Bibliothèque de Chartres, PalMus, 1st ser., 11 (1912) [incl. A.
Ménager: ‘Etude sur la notation du manuscrit 47 de Chartres’, 41–
131]

M. Huglo: ‘Le domaine de la notation bretonne’, AcM, 35 (1963), 53–

84; rev. with plates and index as Britannia Christiana, 1, ed. J.-L.
Deuffic and A. Dennery (Daoulas, 1982)

(ix) Messine/Lorraine/Laon
Antiphonale missarum Sancti Gregorii, IXe–Xe siècle: codex 239 de
la Bibliothèque de Laon, PalMus, 1st ser., 10 (1909) [incl. A.
Ménager: ‘Aperçu sur la notation du manuscrit 239 de Laon: sa
concordance avec les codices rythmiques sangalliens’, 177–211]

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 U. Sesini: La notazione comasca del cod. Ambrosiano E.68 sup.
(Milan, 1932)

J. Hourlier: ‘Le domaine de la notation messine’, Revue grégorienne,

30 (1951), 96–113, 150–58

W. Lipphardt: ‘Punctum und Pes in Codex Laon 239’, KJb, 39 (1955),

10–40

W. Lipphardt: ‘Flexa und Torculus in Codex Laon 239’, KJb, 41

(1957), 9–15

P.M. Arbogast: ‘The Small Punctum as Isolated Note in Codex Laon

239’, EG, 3 (1959), 83–133

P. Jeffery: ‘An Early Cantatorium Fragment Related to MS. Laon 239’,

Scriptorium, 36 (1982), 245–52 [F-LA 266, ff.A–B]

J. Hourlier: ‘Trois fragments de Laon’, EG, 22 (1988), 31–42 [F-LA 9,

121, 266]

(x) Aquitanian
Le codex 903 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris (XIe siècle):
graduel de Saint-Yrieix, PalMus, 1st ser., 13 (1925/R) [incl. P.
Ferretti: ‘Etude sur la notation aquitaine d’après le graduel de Saint-
Yrieix’, 54–211]

M.-N. Colette: ‘La notation du demi-ton dans le manuscrit Paris,

B.N.Lat.1139 et dans quelques manuscrits du Sud de la France’, La
tradizione dei tropi liturgici: Paris 1985 and Perugia 1987, 297–311

B. Gillingham, ed.: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds latin 1139

(Ottawa, 1987) [facs.]

C: Significative letters
R.-J. Hesbert: ‘L’interprétation de l’equaliter dans les manuscrits
sangalliens’, Revue grégorienne, 18 (1938), 161–73

J. Smits van Waesberghe: Muziekgeschiedenis der Middeleeuwen

(Tilburg, 1938–42)

E. Cardine: ‘Le sens de iusum et inferius’, EG, 1 (1954), 159–60

J. Froger: ‘L’épître de Notker sur les “lettres significatives”’, EG, 5

(1962), 23–72

M.-C. Billecocq: ‘Lettres ajoutées à la notation neumatique du codex

239 de Laon’, EG, 17 (1978), 7–144

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 D: Pitch-specific systems
J. Gmelch: Die Vierteltonstufen im Messtonale von Montpellier
(Eichstätt, 1911)

S. Corbin: ‘Valeur et sens de la notation alphabétique à Jumièges et

en Normandie’, Jumièges … XIIIe centenaire: Rouen 1954, 913–24

J. Smits van Waesberghe: ‘Les origines de la notation alphabétique

au Moyen-Age’, AnM, 12 (1957), 3–14

F.E. Hansen, ed.: H 159 Montpellier: Tonary of St. Bénigne of Dijon

(Copenhagen, 1974)

W. Babb, C.V. Palisca and A.E. Planchart, eds.: Hucbald, Guido, and
John on Music: Three Medieval Treatises (New Haven, CT, 1978)

J. Froger: ‘Les prétendus quarts de ton dans le chant grégorien et les

symboles du ms. H.159 de Montpellier’, EG, 17 (1978), 145–79

A. Holschneider: ‘Die instrumentalen Tonbuchstaben im Winchester

Troper’, Festschrift Georg von Dadelsen zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. T.
Kohlhase and V. Scherliess (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1978), 155–66

R.L. Crocker: ‘Alphabet Notations for Early Medieval Music’, Saints,

Scholars, and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honor of
Charles W. Jones, ed. M.H. King and W.M. Stevens (Collegeville, MN,
1979), 2, 79–104

A.C. Browne: ‘The a–p System of Letter Notation’, MD, 35 (1981), 5–

54

H. Schmid, ed.: Musica et Scolica enchiriadis una cum aliquibus

tractatulis adiunctis (Munich,1981)

N. Phillips: ‘The Dasia Notation and its Manuscript Tradition’,

Musicologie médiévale: Paris 1982, 157–73

N. Phillips: Musica et Scolica enchiriadis: its Literary, Theoretical,

and Musical Sources (diss., New York U., 1984)

A.C. Santasuosso: Letter Notations in the Middle Ages (Ottawa,

1989)

A. Traub: ‘Hucbald von Saint-Amand “De harmonica institutione”’,

Beiträge zur Gregorianik, 7 (1989), 3–101 [whole issue]

W. Arlt: ‘Die Intervallnotation des Hermannus Contractus in

Gradualien des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts: das Basler Fragment N I 6
Nr.63 und der Engelberger Codex 1003’, De musica et cantu: Helmut
Hucke zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. P. Cahn and A.-K. Heimer
(Hildesheim, 1993), 243–56

B. Hebborn: Die Dasia-Notation (Bonn, 1995)

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 E: Staff notations

(i) Introduction
J. Smits van Waesberghe: ‘The Musical Notation of Guido of Arezzo’,
MD, 5 (1951), 15–53

J. Smits van Waesberghe: De musico-paedagogico et theoretico

Guidone Aretino eiusque vita et moribus (Florence, 1953)

S.J.P. van Dijk: Sources of the Modern Roman Liturgy: the Ordinals
by Haymo of Faversham and Related Documents (1243–1307)
(Leiden, 1963)

M. Huglo: ‘Règlement du XIIIe siècle pour la transcription de livres

notés’, Festschrift Bruno Stäblein zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. M.
Ruhnke (Kassel, 1967), 121–33

J. Smits van Waesberghe: Musikerziehung: Lehre und Theorie der

Musik im Mittelalter, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, 3/3 (Leipzig, 1969)

(ii) France, England and Spain

W.H. Frere, ed.: Graduale Sarisburiense (London, 1894/R) [facs. of
GB-Lbl Add.12194]

W.H. Frere, ed.: Antiphonale Sarisburiense (London, 1901–24/R)

[facs.]

H. Loriquet, J. Pothier and A.K. Collette, eds.: Le graduel de l’église

cathédrale de Rouen au XIIIe siècle (Rouen, 1907) [facs. of F-Pn lat.
904]

Antiphonaire monastique, XIIIe siècle: codex F. 160 de la

Bibliothèque de la cathédrale de Worcester, PalMus, 1st ser., 12
(1922/R)

W.M. Whitehill, J. Carro García and G. Prado, eds.: Liber Sancti

Jacobi: Codex Calixtinus (Santiago de Compostela, 1944) [facs.]

S. Corbin: Essai sur la musique religieuse portugaise au Moyen Age

(1100–1385) (Paris, 1952)

R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Le prosaire de la Sainte-Chapelle (Mâcon, 1952)

[part of I-BAca 1]

S.R. Marosszéki: ‘Les origines du chant cistercien: recherches sur

les réformes du plain-chant cistercien au XIIe siècle’, Analecta sacri
Ordinis Cisterciensis, 8 (1952), 1–179

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 R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Le tropaire-prosaire de Dublin: manuscrit Add.
710 de l’Université de Cambridge (vers 1360) (Rouen, 1966)

Jacobus: Codex Calixtinus de la catedral de Santiago de Compostela

(Madrid, 1993) [colour facs.]

D. Hiley, ed.: Oxford Bodleian Library MS. Lat.liturg.b.5 (Ottawa,

1995) [facs.]

D. Saulnier, ed.: Verdun, Bibliothèque municipale, 759. Missale

(Padua, 1995) [facs.]

O.T. Edwards, ed.: National Library of Wales MS. 20541 E: the

Penpont Antiphonal (Ottawa, 1997) [facs.]

(iii) Low Countries and Germany

O. Marxer: Zur spätmittelalterlichen Choralgeschichte St. Gallens:
der Codex 546 der St. Galler Stiftsbibliothek (St Gallen, 1908)

M. Sigl: Zur Geschichte des Ordinarium Missae in der deutschen

Choralüberlieferung (Regensburg, 1911)

P. Wagner, ed.: Das Graduale der St. Thomaskirche zu Leipzig (14.

Jahrhundert) (Leipzig, 1930–32/R)

R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Le prosaire d’Aix-la-Chapelle (Rouen, 1961) [part

of D-AAm 13 (XII)]

M. Härting: Der Messgesang im Braunschweiger Domstift St. Blasii

(Handschrift Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv in Wolfenbüttel VII B
Hs 175) (Regensburg, 1963)

Le manuscrit 807, Universitätsbibliothek Graz (XIIe siècle): graduel

de Klosterneuburg, PalMus, 1st ser., 19 (1974)

W. Berschin: ‘Historia S. Kuonradi’, Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv, 95

(1975), 107–28

W. Arlt and M. Stauffacher, eds.: Engelberg Stiftsbibliothek Codex

314 (Winterthur, 1986)

J. Szendrei: ‘Linienschriften des zwölften Jahrhunderts auf

süddeutschem Gebiet’, Cantus Planus IV: Pécs 1990, 17–30

P. van Poucke, ed.: Hildegard von Bingen, Symphonia harmoniae

caelestium revelationum: Dendermonde, St.-Pieters & Paulusabdij,
ms. cod.9 (Peer, 1991) [facs.]

A. Haug: Troparia tardiva: Repertorium später Tropenquellen aus

dem deutschsprachigen Raum, MMMA, Subsidia, i (1995)

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 H. Möller, ed.: Antiphonarium: Karlsruhe, Badische
Landesbibliothek, Aug.perg.60 (Munich, 1995) [facs.]

J. Szendrei: ‘Prager Quellen zum Hirsauer Choral’, Cantus Planus

VII: Sopron 1995, 555–74

D. Hiley, ed.: Moosburger Graduale: München,

Universitätsbibliothek, 2° Cod. ms. 156 (Tutzing, 1996) [facs.]

I. de Loos, C. Downey and R. Steiner, eds.: Utrecht, Bibliotheek der

Rijksuniversiteit, MS 406 (3.J.7) (Ottawa, 1997) [facs.]

(iv) Italy
Antiphonarium ambrosianum du Musée britannique (XIIe siècle):
codex additional 34209, PalMus, 1st ser., 5 (1896)

Antiphonaire monastique, XIIe siècle: codex 601 de la Bibliothèque

capitulaire de Lucques, PalMus, 1st ser., 9 (1906)

P. Ferretti: ‘I manoscritti musicale gregoriani dell’ Archivio di

Montecassino’, Casinensia, 1 (1929), 187–203

G. Vecchi, ed.: Troparium sequentiarum nonantulanum (Cod.

Casanat. 1741), MLMI, Latina, 1 (1955)

M. Huglo and others, eds.: Fonti e paleografia del canto ambrosiano

(Milan, 1956)

B. Stäblein: Hymnen, I: die mittelalterliche Hymnenmelodien des

Abendlandes, MMMA, 1 (Kassel, 1956; repr. 1995 with additional
appendix)

M. Lütolf, ed.: Das Graduale von Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Cod.

Bodmer 74) (Cologny-Geneva, 1987) [facs.]

B.G. Baroffio: ‘Le grafie musicali nei manoscritti liturgici del secolo
XII nell’Italia settentrionale: avvio a una ricerca’, Cantus Planus IV:
Pècs 1990, 1–16

G. Cattin: Musica e liturgia a San Marco: testi e melodie per la

liturgia delle ore dal XII al XVII secolo (Venice, 1990–92)

N. Albarosa and A. Turco, eds.: Benevento, Biblioteca capitolare 40,

graduale (Padua, 1991) [facs., incl. essays by J. Mallet, A. Thibaut, R.
Fischer, T. Kelly]

G. Cavallo, G. Orofino and O. Pecere: Exultet: rotoli liturgici del

medioevo meridionale (Rome, 1994)

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 B.G. Baroffio and Soo Jung Kim, eds.: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana,
Archivio S. Pietro B 79: antifonario della Basilica di S. Pietro (Sec.
XII) (Rome, 1995) [facs.]

R. Camilot-Oswald: Die Liturgischen Musikhandschriften aus dem

mittelalterlichen Patriarchat Aquileia, MMMA, Subsidia, 2 (1997)

C. Ruini: I manoscritti liturgici della Biblioteca musicale L. Feininger

presso il Castello del Buonconsiglio di Trento (Trent, 1998)

(v) Hungary, Bohemia and Poland

J. Hutter: Česká notace [Czech notation], 2: Nota choralis (Prague,
1930) [with Fr. summary]

J. Hutter: Notationis bohemicae antiquae specimina selecta e

codicibus bohemicis, 2: Nota choralis (Prague, 1931)

P. Spunar: ‘Das Troparium des Prager Dekans Vit (Prag,

Kapitelbibliothek, Cim 4)’, Scriptorium, 9 (1957), 50–62

K. Szigeti: ‘Denkmäler des gregorianischen Chorals aus dem

ungarischen Mittelalter’, SMH, 4 (1963), 129–72

V. Plocek: Catalogus codicum notis musicis instructorum qui in

Bibliotheca publica rei publicae Bohemicae socialisticae in
Bibliotheca universitatis pragensis servantur (Prague, 1973)
[describes 243 MS sources with musical notation in CZ-Pu ]

T. Miazga: Die Gesänge zur Osterprozession in den handschriftlichen

Überlieferungen vom 10. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert (Graz, 1979)

F. Pokorný: ‘Mährens Musik im Mittelalter’, Hudební veda, 17/1

(1980), 36–52

J. Szendrei and R. Rybarič, eds.: Missale notatum strigoniense ante

1341 in Posonio (Budapest, 1982)

J. Szendrei: Középkori hangjegyírások Magyarorzágon [Medieval

notation in Hungary] (Budapest, 1983) [with Ger. summary]

T. Miazga: Notacja gregoriańska w świetle polskich rekopisów

liturgicznych (Graz, 1984)

J. Szendrei: ‘The Introduction of Staff Notation into Middle Europe’,

SMH, 28 (1986), 303–19

J. Szendrei: ‘Die Geschichte der Graner Choralnotation’, SMH, 30

(1988), 5–234

L. Dobszay: ‘Plainchant in Medieval Hungary’, Journal of the

Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, 13 (1990), 49–78

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 J. Szendrey, ed.: Graduale strigoniense: s.XV/XVI (Budapest, 1990–
93)

L. Dobszay: A gregorián ének kézikönyve [Handbook of Gregorian

chant] (Budapest, 1993)

H. Vlhová: ‘Die Ordinarium-Tropen im Troparium des Prager Dekans

Vít’, Cantus Planus VI: Éger 1993, 763–79

J. Szendrei: ‘Choral notationen in Polen’, Musica antiqua X:

Bydgoszcz 1994, 257–74

A. Haug: Troparia tardiva: Repertorium später Tropenquellen aus

dem deutschsprachigen Raum, MMMA, Subsidia, 1 (1995)

J. Morawski: Recytatyw liturgiczny [Liturgical recitative] (Warsaw,

1996)

J. Szendrei, ed.: The Istanbul Antiphoner (Budapest, 1999) [facs. of

TR-Itks 42]

J. Szendrei: ‘Notacja liniowa w polskich żródłach chorałowych XII–

XVI wieku’ [Staff notation of Gregorian chant in Polish sources from
the 12th to 16th centuries], Notae musicae artis: notacja muzyczna
W żródłach polskich XI–XVI wieku, ed. E. Witkowska-Zaremba
(Kraków, 1999), 187–281

F: Printed notations
H. Riemann: Notenschrift und Notendruck (Leipzig, 1896)

R. Molitor: Deutsche Choral-Wiegendrucke: ein Beitrag zur

Geschichte des Chorals und des Notendruckes in Deutschland
(Regensburg, 1904)

G.M. Suñol: Método completo para tres cursos de canto gregoriano

segun la escuela de Solesmes (Montserrat, 1905; Eng. trans., 1930)

A. Mocquereau: Le nombre musical grégorien ou rythmique

grégorienne: théorie et pratique, 1 (Tournai, 1908; Eng. trans.,
1932); 2 (Tournai, 1927)

L. David: ‘La restauration du chant grégorien et le mensuralisme’,

Ephemerides liturgicae, 41 (1927), 245–77, 349

J. Gajard: La méthode de Solesmes, ses principes constitutifs, ses

règles pratiques d’interprétation (Tournai, 1951)

A.H. King: Four Hundred Years of Music Printing (London, 1964)

A.J. Bescond: Le chant grégorien (Paris, 1972)

Graduale triplex, seu Graduale romanum Pauli PP. VI cura

recognitum & rhythimicis signis a Solesmensibus monachis ornatum,

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 neumis laudunensibus (cod. 239) et sangallensibus (cod. San
Gallensis 359 et Einsidlensis 121) nunc auctum (Solesmes, 1979)

Offertoriale triplex cum versiculis (Solesmes, 1985) [with neumes of

F-LA 239 and E 121]

2. Polyphony and secular monophony to c1260.

David Hiley

, revised by Thomas B. Payne

This section is devoted almost exclusively to the notational

delineation of rhythm, an emphasis borne out by the theoretical
sources from later in this period. Apart from the Aquitanian
manuscripts mentioned below, which display the neume dialects
particular to their region of inscription, the music is typically written
in the square notation of plainchant (see above, §III, 1(vi)), which
originally had no rhythmic significance, but acquired durational
values for use in polyphony. Detailed descriptions of the sources of
early polyphony discussed below may be found in Sources, MS, §IV;
manuscripts containing secular monophony are treated in Sources,
MS, §III.

(i) Neume patterns in Aquitanian polyphony, c1100–

c1200.
Several conspicuous features emerge in the notation of Aquitanian
polyphony, including the Codex Calixtinus (E-SC , likely copied in
Spain c1150 by a French production team; see the articles by
Williams, Stones and Díaz y Díaz, in Williams and Stones, 1992). One
is a predilection for stronger consonance at the ends of neume-
against-neume or note-against-neume units; another is the use of
patterned melismas (e.g. strings of two- or three-note neumes).
Regular neumatic patternings are most apparent in final melismas
(or caudas); they also sometimes appear in organal voices of chant
settings. The preference for consonance at the ends of neumes is
particularly striking in texted sections of Aquitanian and
Compostelan conductus, versus and Benedicamus settings, where it
appears to belie the supposed pitch alignment and syllable
placement implied by the sources. For instance, in a case where a
neume in one voice is set against a single note and text syllable in
another, the stronger consonance with the ending note of the neume
suggests this final pitch should synchronize with the single note and
the change to the new syllable. No contemporaneous body of music
theory discusses the rhythmic implications of this repertory. A
connection with Parisian polyphony is possible, but theoretical
support for such an association is also absent. One of the pieces in
the Codex Calixtinus is attributed to a Magister Albertus Parisiensis

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 (d 1177), who has been identified with a cantor of Notre Dame; this
and the numerous other ascriptions in this source, though, have
been contested. Despite such obstacles, Stäblein (1963) and Karp
(1992) have proposed that rhythmic configurations akin to those of
the later modal system may be present. Ex.5 is an example of
Aquitanian/Compostelan polyphony with such a hypothetical
rhythmic transcription.

(ii) Pre-modal rhythm.

As with the interpretations of the Aquitanian repertory, the first
manifestations of rhythmic indications in the Parisian corpus are
difficult to construe (for some recent attempts, see Roesner, 1990
and Sanders, 2006). The period proposed for the musical activity is
between about 1160 and 1250, while the surviving manuscript
sources and theoretical testimony date from between about 1230
and 1300; this disjunction has meant that the historical picture is
largely speculative, in dispute, and likely to remain so. What does
appear evident is that at some point during the inscription of the
Notre Dame repertory certain melismatic portions of organa (discant
passages, copula segments and clausulas) and conductus (caudas)
were subject to rhythmic realization and recorded in a notation that
conveyed the essence of this practice. The duration of pitches was
not signaled through the use of discrete note shapes, but by
grouping various numbers of notes together with a single penstroke
as in chant—a figure now called a ligature. Successions of ligature
chains containing particular numbers of notes were thereby able to
indicate rhythmic values.

The earliest evidence of this practice occurs in the opening (and

presumably older) portion of the anonymous treatise Discantus
positio vulgaris (c1230–40), which advises that two-note ligatures
represent a short–long (i.e. breve–long, or B–L) gesture, three-note
groups signify long–breve–long (L–B–L) and those with four notes are
all short; when more than four notes are found in a ligature they are
executed at the discretion of the performer and not according to any
specified criteria. In this system the ratio of the long value to the
short is 2:1, with greater or lesser durations described as ‘beyond
measure’ (ultra mensuram). Although such lengths are inexpressible
in the Discantus as strictly ‘long’ or ‘short’, they were not alien to
the rhythmic practice. For example, single notes, such as those
employed for a chant tenor in a discant passage or as a solitary
figure within an otherwise ligated portion, are described as ‘longer
than a long’, and as having the duration of a long and a breve
combined, that is, a ternary (later ‘perfect’) long value. In addition,
the treatise indicates that durations in ligatures are contextually
flexible; they may communicate different values depending on their
position in a melodic phrase (e.g. a three-note ligature may have a
value of B–B–L when preceded by a long). Such basic rules of thumb
as given in this earlier section of the Discantus form the starting
point for interpreting the rhythmic properties of Parisian polyphony.

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 However, they neither suggest a fully developed system nor invoke
the terminology of the rhythmic modes that was to be a staple of
later theoretical works.

(iii) The system of modal rhythm.

At some point between the formulations in the early part of the
Discantus positio vulgaris and the treatise ascribed to Johannes de
Garlandia (c1240–60) the diverse rhythms of Parisian polyphony
were abstracted into a series of repetitive patterns, analogous
perhaps to the conception implied by the modern function of a time
signature. The series of rhythmic durations within each pattern was
conveyed by chains of ligatures containing varying numbers of notes,
such as a single three-note figure followed by any number of two-
note ligatures, or a separate single note followed by a series of
three-note forms -- to mention only two such designs. These
underlying patterns, termed ‘modes’ (Lat. modi, sing. modus;
Garlandia: manieres), formed the principal means of decoding
ligature rhythms until the advent of mensural clarifications to their
shapes (see Rhythmic modes). The following list names authors
whose works include discussions of modal rhythm. However, it is
important to realize that mensural doctrines appear in treatises even
as early as Garlandia’s text. Furthermore, occasional inconsistency
exists in these theoretical works as to the number of the modes,
their ordering, and the depiction of particular ligature shapes.

Anonymous: Discantus positio vulgaris, (c1230–40: survives only in a

partly revised form; see Reckow, AcM, 1976, p.137, n.81); ed.
Cserba, 1935, pp.189–94Johannes de Garlandia: De mensurabili
musica (c1240–60: portions may stem from an anonymous earlier
treatise; the final chapter of the work as it survives in F-Pn lat.
16663, ed. in CoussemakerS, i, postdates Franco); ed. Reimer,
1972Bruges Organum Treatise (possibly earlier than Garlandia); ed.
Pinegar, 1992Anonymus 7 (certain portions identical to the Bruges
treatise; others may postdate Franco; see Reimer, 1972, i, p.31, n.
20); CoussemakerS, i, 378–83, and CSM, xxxviAmerus/Aluredus: De
musica libellus (1271); ed. Kromolicki, 1909, and CSM,
xxvAnonymus 4 (after 1272, mentions Franco); ed. Reckow,
1967Dietricus: Regule super discantum (c1275); ed. Müller,
1886Magister Lambertus: Tractatus de musica (c1275);
CoussemakerS, i, 251–81Anonymus of St Emmeram (1279); ed.
Sowa, 1930, and Yudkin, 1988Franco of Cologne: Ars cantus
mensurabilis (c1280: see Frobenius, 1970); CSM, xviiiWalter
Odington: Summa de speculatione musicae (before 1300); CSM, xiv

Table 6 shows the six commonest rhythmic modes in their most

conventional numerical ordering together with their associated
ligature patterns (indicated by brackets over the notes). Each has a
fundamental recurrent pulse equivalent to the ultra mensuram long
(= dotted crotchet), and each pulse divides into three smaller time
units (tempora/breves = quaver). Several important distinctions

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 among the patterns are defined by whether the main pulse falls on
the last note of the ligature (i.e. 1, 3a–b, 6a–b) or on the first (2, 4,
6c), whether the pulse is divided L–B (1a–b, 3b, 6b) or B–L (2, 3a, 4,
6c) and whether a ternary ligature extends over one, two, or three
pulses. (The value of the three-note ligature is the most equivocal
and in the 5th mode is restricted largely to the tenor part in discant
passages; the 4th mode, curiously, appears to be a theoretical
construction not encountered in practice, but which is included -- as
has been argued -- to make up a complementary pair with mode 3;
see Sanders, 1980, n. 101.) In all these important distinctions, the
note shapes as they appear in the manuscript sources remain
ambiguous; harmonic consonance, the succession of ligatures, and
the proportions between parts all contribute to suggest (or
confound) the intended rhythm. This ambiguity appears to have
prompted the writing of many of the treatises listed above, as their
authors tried to clarify and rationalize the intended durations by
modifications to the standard, chant-based notational figures.

Table 6: Rhythmic modes and concomitant ligature patterns

(iv) Coniuncturae, plicae, and strokes.

Perhaps the most intractable of all figures in modal notation were
ones that used series of descending lozenge-shaped notes, similar in
appearance to the climacus found in chant sources. These were
called currentes (Lat.: ‘running’) by Anonymus 4, probably as an
extended use of a term that originally referred to the descending
scales found in Aquitanian as well as Parisian polyphony. Johannes
de Garlandia did not mention them at all, possibly because they
could be confused with the rhomboid semibreve. Lambertus and
Franco of Cologne called the figure the coniunctura (Lat.: ‘joined
[notes]’), and even in Franco’s most rational system it eluded
specific rhythmic codification.

Liquescent forms of neumes also appeared in the notation of

melismatic polyphony in modal rhythm in places where they serve no
function of text articulation. Because a single liquescent note was
usually written like a ‘U’ or an inverted ‘U’, it was termed Plica (Lat.:
‘fold’, ‘doubling’). A vertical stroke added to the end of ligatures
made them ‘plicata’ (‘plicated’). Usually the plica indicates that an
extra note should be supplied that takes away a portion of the
rhythmic value from the note to which it is attached. This extra note
will ascend or descend depending on the direction of the plica
stroke. Most typically the presence of a plica results in an added
breve on a weak beat (see modes 6b–c, where the plicas are shown
by a stroke through the notes’ stem), although other values were
possible according to the prevailing rhythmic framework and the
length of the host note. Plicas, thus, can sometimes serve as a
convenient way to indicate rhythmic divisions within a modal pattern
without disturbing its succession of ligatures. The liquescent neume,

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 however, did not abandon altogether its original function in such
texted music as conductus, secular monophony, and in chant settings
if the cantus firmus demanded it.

Vertical strokes were used primarily for two different purposes: as

indications of changes of syllable and to signify rests. For the first
purpose 12th-century scribes would often draw a roughly vertical
line through the entire staff system, although in Parisian sources this
shrank to a small stroke drawn through only one or two lines in each
voice staff. At this point in time the length of the stroke does not
usually indicate its intended duration, which frequently corresponds
to the penultimate value of the modal pattern.

Whereas former repertories tended to preserve the ligatures of

cantus firmi, undifferentiated single notes (simplices) were
commonplace for tenors in the early Parisian corpus, whether the
tenor held long notes in Organum or moved with the pulse in discant
(see Discant, §I). Only in the later layers of discant did tenors include
ligatures indicating breves. Although a stroke generally appears
after each note of the tenor in organum, the pitch seems to have
been sustained beneath the continuing organal voices. Anonymus 4
called this a burdo (Lat.: ‘support’, ‘drone’).

(v) Modal rhythm in practice.

The system of modal rhythm outlined by the theorists is an
intellectual abstraction from the highly flexible practice found in the
musical sources. The rudimentary, repetitive patterns of the modes
cited by the theorists are of course frequently encountered in the
late 12th- and early 13th-century Parisian repertory, and are
particularly clear in the tenors of later clausulas and motets. But in
practice the surface rhythmic activity suggested by ligature
groupings is often so extensively varied (not merely vertically in
different voices but successively in single parts) that the rhythmic
modes are only of limited descriptive use if treated strictly. The
modal integrity of a musical phrase may be compromised not only by
the insertion of unligated long notes within its course, but also by
the practice of fractio modi (Lat.: ‘breaking of the mode’) – the
introduction of shorter note values than normal into the pattern.
Such deviations will alter the expected sequence of ligatures for a
particular mode. Fractio modi may have prompted an early
formation of the 6th mode (6a) from the 1st, as the typical series of
two-note ligatures succeeding an initial ternary figure in mode 1 is,
in mode 6, replaced by three-note figures following an initial four-
note gesture. In most cases of fractio modi the final note of the
ligature tends to retain its normal value within the prevailing mode
as far as is feasible, with the added notes splitting the prior elements
of the pattern within the ligature. Even with this provision, however,
the profusion of ‘non-modal’ ligatures in an ornate passage of fractio
modi can seriously obscure a clear reading of the rhythm. Fig.31
gives some of the patterns described by Anonymus 4.

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 Ambiguities within the modal system may be demonstrated by two
examples. Ex.9 gives the opening of the verse section of Perotinus’s
Alleluia, Posui adiutorium (I-Fl Plut.29.1, f.36v). Judging from the
ligature patterns, both upper parts appear closest in form to the 2nd
mode; yet the duplum lacks a final three-note ligature to match the
triplum (which, contrary to the rules, ends with a two-note ligature
followed by a single note). In this case, the penultimate note may
reasonably be interpreted as a long. Consonances between the
second note of each ligature, however, are greater in number than
between the first – a transcription in the 1st mode thus appears to
be just as appropriate, so that each pulse is coincident with a
consonance.

Ex.10 is from a Benedicamus Domino (I-Fl Plut.29.1, f.41r). Because

of the prevalence of repeated notes, which defy ligation, the passage
may be transcribed in the 6th mode (as in Husmann, 1940) as easily
as in the 3rd. But most of the rest of the piece is in the 1st mode, so
that a reading in the ‘alternative’ 3rd mode (3b) probably causes the
least disruption, assuming this is to be preferred. The consideration
of variants in the concordant sources may also influence the
interpretation, as, for example, in the third phrase where I-Fl Plut.
29.1 notates the duplum with a 2nd-mode pattern, whereas D-W
Guelf.628 (677) uses the 1st mode. Furthermore, cadences such as
that in ex.10 are ambiguous in their rhythmic profile and frequently
present problems of interpretation; the transcriptions given here
present only a few out of many justifiable readings.

(vi) Organum purum, modus non rectus, and irregular

modes.
For all the ambiguities inherent in the notation of ‘modal’ rhythm,
the situation pales even further for particular segments of sustained-
tone organum duplum (termed organum purum by Anonymous IV,
organum in speciali or organum per se by Garlandia), where the
extent and type of rhythmic interpretation has caused the most
serious disagreement among scholars. Unlike discant or copula
passages, whose unfolding often suggests a
‘straightforward’ (rectus) rhythmic mode, the ligature formations of
organum purum defy such easy categorization. Garlandia’s
representative discussion of the rhythmic component, with its
emphasis on oppositional construction, demonstrates vividly how the
subsequent imposition of the modal system failed to reflect
accurately the capricious style of organum purum:

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 Organum purum is said to be that performed according to a
certain mode that is not rectus but non rectus. A rectus
mode is used here to mean that by which discant is
performed. … But in non rectus [measure] the long and
breve are taken not in the first way, but according to the
context (ex contingenti).

Just what contexts might affect the performance appear in a later

paragraph:

Longs and breves in organum are recognized in this way,

that is to say through [concord], through notation, through
the penultimate. Whence the rule: each thing [?duplum
note] that falls upon something [?tenor pitch] in compliance
with the strength [of the consonances] is said to be long.
Another rule: whatever is notated long according to the
organa before a rest or in [?the] place [of a concord] is said
to be long. Another rule: whatever is accepted before a long
rest or before a perfect concord is said to be long.

Thanks, perhaps, to the vagueness of passages such as this, no

agreement on the rhythmic medium of organum purum has yet
emerged. Does the first rule imply that every harmonic interval
between duplum and tenor owes its length to consonance, or only
the contact points between the two parts at the start and close of
major sections? Does the last rule apply to all perfect concords, or
more specific ones? And what is the role of the notational component
in the upper voice? What purpose should the duplum ligatures serve
and how are they to be coordinated with the other strictures
mentioned by Garlandia? Finally and perhaps most important is the
question whether the theoretical information and manuscript
sources may either reflect or recast an oral performance tradition
that began at least a half-century earlier. Faced with such dilemmas
it is easy to understand why editors of this repertory often choose a
non-committal approach to organum purum by using stemless note
heads, although several transcriptions with specified durations are
also available (e.g. Waite, 1954; Tischler, 1988; Payne, 1996).

Another perplexing phenomenon related to the performance and

rhythmical interpretation of organum are the ‘modi irregulares’
described by Anonymus 4. According to the theorist, these modes
are called voluntarie (‘capricious’, ‘arbitrary’, ‘done at pleasure’).
They incorporate atypical or unusual note durations with such
names as longa media (‘medium long’), brevis parva (‘little long’),
longa nimia (‘very long’), longa tarda (‘slow/late long’), mediocris
(‘moderate’), festinans (‘hastening’). While the first two of
Anonymous IV’s irregular modes appear to be rhythmically sharper
versions of the normal 1st and 2nd modes, interpretations of the
others have ranged from positing a binary division of the long to
mere nuances of tempo or performance articulation (see fig.32 ,
which gives one of possibly many hypothetical elucidations of the

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 theorist’s descriptions). Most notable is the theorist’s 7th irregular
mode (not included in fig.32), which he associates directly with
organum purum, and which appears to be the most flexible and all-
inclusive in its incorporation of note values:

And in accordance with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is

the seventh [irregular] mode – exceedingly noble and
exceptionally worthy, all the more voluntary and pleasing.
And this mode is a mixed and universal mode, and it is
[made up] of all the two-note ligatures mentioned above,
and all the three-note ligatures, and all the four-note
ligatures, etc. And properly speaking it is called organum
purum et nobile (‘pure and noble organum’), etc.

(vii) English practice.

Sanders (1962) has convincingly demonstrated that pairs or longer
chains of lozenge shaped notes (‘English breves’) used in Insular
manuscripts dating up to about 1300 signify 1st-mode rhythms (L–B,
L–B etc.). Such breves appear in D-W Guelf.628 (677) (even in the
non-English works: for a facs. of Perotinus’s Sederunt see Sources,
ms, §IV, fig. ), GB-Lbl Harl.978 (in which some pieces have been
‘reformed’ by adding tails to alternate lozenges to make them longs)
and the Worcester Fragments (earlier layers). Johannes de Garlandia
and Anonymus 4 both reported that the English interpreted ternary
ligatures in what has become known as ‘alternative 3rd mode’ (3b in
Table 6. Similarly, Wibberly (EECM, xxvi) argued that certain
nuances in the slanting of ligatured notes by English scribes may
reflect an attempt to distinguish between complementary insular
and continental rhythmic practices.

(viii) Mensural notation before Franco.

Clarification of ambiguities in modal notation already appears in the
earliest Parisian sources, though inconsistently, and in the theory of
Johannes de Garlandia. Such specifications affected the appearance
of discrete note shapes, ligatures, and to a lesser extent rests.

The pressure towards the codification of note forms seems indebted

to the motet (see Motet, §I). Many early 13th-century motets were
clausulas with text added to their upper voice or voices; because the
text usually set a separate syllable to every pitch, the ligatures of
these clausulas were thus split into single notes when written as
motets. Hence in older sources the music of motets was often
available in melismatic notations as clausulas, but in texted form
with undifferentiated note heads.

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 All the chief sources of Parisian polyphony up to about 1260 may
occasionally distinguish between a single long and a single breve in
instances involving repeated notes (the long with a palpable
downward stem attached to its right-hand side, the breve rendered
as a square shape). The opening of the organum quadruplum
Sederunt has already been cited; another example is the clausula
Mulierum (Apel, 1942, facs.52a). But it is also arguable that such
cases scribes may denote how such a group of repeated notes
(apparently rendered B-B-L here) could be mentally reconstructed
into a three-note ligature. Double longs, whose lengths are
sometimes required based on the rhythmical context of the other
parts, are sometimes distinguished by a relative horizontal
elongation of the note shape (see above, ex.6).

In early mensural sources certain conventions were observed

regarding the value of the discrete notes. A long contained three
tempora if followed by another long (as in mode 5), and two tempora
if succeeded (mode 1) or preceded (mode 2) by a breve; pairs of
breves (mode 3) were normally interpreted in the order brevis recta
(one tempus) – brevis altera (two tempora), except by the English,
who preferred the opposite interpretation (see above, §2(vii)).

The semibreve (single lozenge) attained its form at about the time of
De mensurabili musica (c1240–60); but this shape is rarely
encountered in sources from this period. (Both Garlandia and
Anonymus 4, however, used the term semibrevis to refer to half a
brevis altera; see Sanders, 1962, p.267.) The earliest surviving
manuscripts clearly and consistently making the distinction are
rather later: F-Pn n.a.fr.13521 (‘La Clayette MS’) and GB-Lbl
30091, from the end of the 13th century. Other important steps
concerned the clarification of ligatures. Theorists conferred qualities
of ‘propriety’ (proprietas) and ‘perfection’ (perfectio) on the
traditional chant-based shapes of modal rhythm. The former term
generally referred to the formation of the first note of the ligature –
whether it was drawn ‘properly’ (cum proprietate) or not (sine
proprietate) – the latter originally specified whether the shape of the
ligature concluded in a regular manner (cum perfectione) or denoted
a ‘broken’ or ‘unfinished’ figure (hence ‘imperfect’, sine perfectione).
Fig.33 gives the basic shapes and their alterations. The meaning of
the modifications (as well as the default forms) depended on the
individual theorist. Garlandia, for example, held that lack of
propriety reversed the default values of an entire two- or three-note
ligature (a proper, perfect B–L thus became L–B, and L–B–L inverted
to B–L–B), whereas imperfect ligatures needed to be reconstituted to
perfect forms according to the context of the phrase. Franco’s
enduring innovation was to specify undeviating values for ligatures
of all types and to equate propriety and perfection respectively with
the durations of only the first and last notes of a figure. (For a
comparative table drawn from several theorists, see Reimer, 1972, i,
56.)

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 The ligature that became known as ‘having opposite propriety’ (cum
opposita proprietate), usually written with an ascending stroke to
the left, is first seen in D-W 1099. Garlandia was the earliest
theorist to describe such a figure, but whereas he interpreted it in a
manner akin to fractio modi (with the last note as a long and all
others equal either to a breve, or a long plus a breve depending on
the number of notes in the ligature), later practice (as in Franco)
was to read the first two notes as semibreves and the remainder
according to the rules of perfection (see below, §III, 3). An
alternative form of the descending ligature cum opposita proprietate
had three lozenges with a tail descending obliquely from the left of
the first, and is found in some French and many English
manuscripts.

Johannes de Garlandia used a stroke through one space of the staff

for a breve rest and a stroke through two or more for a long (the
number of tempora was undifferentiated). Magister Lambertus used
a stroke through one space for the semibreve rest, through two for
the brevis recta, three for the brevis altera and longa imperfecta,
and four for the longa perfecta (a practice found in D-BAs lit.115).
Franco used strokes through the lower portion of a space for
semibreve rests, and one complete space for each tempus. The
duration of the two-tailed plica might also be differentiated. The
plicated breve had either a very short tail to the right or a single tail
to the left, the plicated long a long tail to the right and a shorter one
to the left. English scribes used a lozenge with a short tail
descending obliquely to the left for a semibreve.

(ix) The rhythmic interpretation of polyphonic and

monophonic conductus.
The melismatic caudas of the more complex Parisian conductus were
usually written in the ligature notation (‘sine littera’) associated with
modal rhythm. Realization of the syllabic sections (‘cum littera’),
however, is far less certain. As with the texted versions of early
motets, the note values set to the cum littera portions of conductus
verses are ambiguous in the major sources; but in contrast to the
motet the routine absence of melismatically or mensurally notated
forms of the music compounds the problems of interpretation. Often
it is presumed that the texts themselves provide clues for
performance in a particular rhythmic mode. However, there are
several methodological problems with such a premise. Firstly,
datable examples of Parisian conductus indicate that the genre was
cultivated from about 1160 to about 1240, well before the
codification of the modal system and only briefly coincident with the
imposition of its strictures; it is therefore questionable whether
modal interpretations of conductus poetry should apply to the entire
repertory, if at all. Secondly, the modal system originated as a means
of interpreting ligatures in a melismatic context; it cannot be
assumed that its successive long and breve durations apply equally

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 to cum littera passages before the advent of the motet. Lastly,
although the poetry of conductus is ‘rhythmic’ in the specific sense
that it relies on lines with set numbers of syllables that incorporate
an accentual stress at the end of the line, the accentual
configurations within each line do not always approach the
regularity of poetic metre and can frustrate a performance that
adheres too strictly to a modal pattern (see Sanders, 1995).

The series of transcriptions of the opening of Hac in anni ianua (ex.

11 ) reflects the diversity of attempted solutions with specified
rhythms (see also Apel, 1942, p.258). Exx.11a–d treat each syllable
as occupying the same length of time. 11a interprets the ligatures in
binary rhythm (perhaps the least justifiable historically) and 11b in
ternary, both within the 1st mode; 11c gives a strict reading in mode
1, as if there were no text (compare the treatment and results with
the Aquitanian versus in ex.8), and 11d is a strict reading in mode 2.
Exx.11e–f abandon the principle of giving equal time to each
syllable: 11e interprets the text as if in the 1st mode; 11f as if in the
2nd. On the other hand, ex.11g gives the closing cauda of the piece;
its ligatures suggest the 3rd mode (although the alternative mode 3
could serve equally well), which conceivably could influence the
choice of rhythm for the rest of the work. Page (1997) has suggested
transcribing the syllabic portions of all conductus with unmeasured
values to allow for flexibility in execution, a practice that has
become increasingly common.

Given the difficulties of transcribing polyphonic conductus, where

the rhythm might be expected to be evident from the relationship
between the parts, it is not surprising that monophonic conductus
present even greater problems. In several of the more elaborate
works, rhythmic transcriptions that give each syllable an equal
duration are often complicated by the presence of compound
neumes of six or more notes (these are occasionally present in
polyphonic conductus also). As an illustration, ex.12 gives a rhythmic
rendition of the opening of one of the most ornate works in the
Parisian corpus, Turmas arment christicolas, on the murder of
Adalbert of Leuven, Bishop of Liège, by German knights in 1192. The
principle of equal syllables has been applied wherever a syllable
carries one, two or three notes; where it has four or more its value
has been extended to two or more dotted crotchets. If such an
interpretation was originally intended, the notation displays nothing
of the regular ligature patterns characteristic of the organa tripla
and quadrupla of this period, nor is the stress of the text
complemented. Interestingly, the ligature shapes and melodic
content of ornate monophonic conductus such as this often recall the
modus non rectus of organum purum rather than the more clearly
notated forms of the rhythmic modes. As a result, transcription in
unmeasured values for the pieces in this repertory, as well as for
other types of monophony from the period, has become standard
practice.

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 (x) The rhythmic interpretation of secular monophony.
The same cautions exercised in the treatment of conductus rhythm
apply to the secular monophonic repertory, but with even more
circumspection. The application of modal rhythms before the
codification of the system and outside the Parisian orbit is highly
questionable (this includes the majority of troubadour and trouvère
songs): the texts are non-metrical and therefore not conducive to
patterned rhythms, and, except for a handful of songs in F-Pn fr.846
and a few in other manuscripts, mensural notation is not used, even
though the bulk of the sources of secular monophony dates from
after c1250. In retrospect, the suggestion that troubadour and
trouvère melodies might be transcribed in rhythmic patterns
resembling those of the rhythmic modes (see Sanders, 1985) seems
to have been adopted with excessive zeal, although it still has its
adherents.

Yet, as in the case of the conductus, even with a preference for

unmeasured transcriptions, opinions are divided on the fundamental
procedures for interpreting the songs. Among representative
treatments, van der Werf (1972 etc.) suggested an essential
rhythmic equality for each pitch that could be adapted to
accommodate rhetorical features of the poem. Stevens (1986)
proposed a single elastic rhythmic unit for each syllable, and along
with Page (1987) recommended the recognition of various registers
(high/courtly versus low/popular styles) among songs – distinctions
that could affect the imposition of rhythm as well as the use of
instruments in performance. Aubrey’s approach (1996) is the most
flexible and inclusive, eschewing single, systematic procedures and
suggesting that the different contexts in which songs were
performed might have significantly altered the presentation of even
the same piece by the same executor. This method favours the
investigation of each piece on its own terms to uncover patterns of
musical structure and emphasis that can inform the rhythmic
treatment.

Bibliography

Theoretical sources
listed alphabetically as items largely undatable

Amerus: Practica artis musice, ed. J. Kromolicki Die Practica artis

musicae des Amerus und ihre Stellung in der Musiktheorie des
Mittelalters (Berlin, 1909); ed. C. Ruini, CSM, 25 (1977)

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 Anonymous: Ad organum faciendum [Milan organum treatise (prose
and verse); Berlin treatises A and B; Montpellier treatise], ed. H.H.
Eggebrecht and F. Zaminer:Ad organum faciendum: Lehrschriften
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S.M. Cserba:Hieronymus de Moravia O.P.: Tractatus de musica
(Regensburg, 1935), 189–94; Eng. trans., J. Knapp, JMT, 6 (1962),
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152–73, 173–212; ed. H. Schmid: Musica et scolica enchiriadis
(Munich, 1981); Eng. trans., R. Erickson: Musica enchiriadis and
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Anonymous [St Emmeram anonymus], ed. H. Sowa: Ein anonymer

glossierter Mensuraltraktat 1279 (Kassel, 1930); Eng. trans., Yudkin
(1990)

Anonymous [Vatican organum treatise], ed. F. Zaminer: Der

Vatikanischen Organum-Traktat (Tutzing, 1959); ed. I. Godt and B.
Rivera: ‘The Vatican Organum Treatise: a Colour Reproduction,
Transcription, and Translation into English’, Gordon Athol Anderson,
1929–81, in memoriam, ed. L.A. Dittmer (Henryville, PA, 1984), 2,
264–345

Anonymus 4 [CoussemakerS, i]: De mensuris et cantu,

CoussemakerS, 1, 327–65; ed. F. Reckow Der Musiktraktat des
Anonymus 4: Edition und Interpretation der Organum purum-Lehre
(1967), 1; Eng. trans., Yudkin (1985)

Anonymus 7 [CoussemakerS, i]: De musica libellus, CoussemakerS,

1, 378–83; ed. G. Reaney,CSM, 36 (1996), 19–35; Eng. trans., J.
Knapp: ‘Two 13th-Century Treatises on Modal Rhythm and the
Discant’, JMT, 6 (1962), 200–215 [see also Pinegar, 1992, for edn of
Bruges organum treatise]

Dietricus: Regule super discantum, ed. H. Müller Eine Abhandlung

über Mensuralmusik (Leipzig, 1886)

Franco of Cologne: Ars cantus mensurabilis, CoussemakerS, 1, 117–

36; GerbertS, 3, 1–16; ed. G. Reaney and A. Gilles, CSM, 18 (1974);
ed. F. Gennrich, Musikwissenschaftliche Studien-Bibliothek, 15–16
(Darmstadt, 1957)

Guido frater: Ars musice mensurate, ed. F.A. Gallo Mensurabilis

musicae tractatuli, AntMI, Scriptores, 1/1 (1966), 17–40

Guido of Arezzo: Micrologus, GerbertS, 2, 2–24; ed. J. Smits van

Waesberghe, CSM, 4 (1955); Eng. trans., W. Babb, in Hucbald, Guido

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 and John on Music: Three Medieval Treatises, ed. C.V. Palisca (New
Haven, CT, 1977)

Hieronymus de Moravia: Tractatus de musica, CoussemakerS, 1, 1–

94; ed. S.M. Cserba: Hieronymus de Moravia O.P.: Tractatus de
musica (Regensburg, 1935)

Jacobus of Liège: Speculum musice, CoussemakerS, 2, 193–433

[attrib. Johannes de Muris]; ed. R. Bragard, CSM, 3 (1955–73)

Johannes de Garlandia: De mensurabili musica, CoussemakerS, 1,

175–82; later version as De musica mensurabili positio,
CoussemakerS, 1, 97–117; ed. E. Reimer (Wiesbaden, 1972); Eng.
trans., S. Birnbaum (Colorado Springs, CO, 1978)

Magister Lambertus [Pseudo-Aristoteles]: Tractatus de musica,

CoussemakerS, 1, 251–81; CSM (forthcoming)

W. Odington: Summa de speculatione musicae, CoussemakerS, 1,

182–250; ed. F.F. Hammond, CSM, 14 (1970); Eng. trans. of pt.vi, J.A.
Huff, MSD, 31 (1973)

For further bibliography seeOrganum.

monophony to c1260: studies

J.B. Beck: Die Melodien der Troubadours (Strasbourg, 1908/R)

P. Aubry: Trouvères et troubadours (Paris, 1909, 2/1910; Eng. trans.,

1914/R)

F. Ludwig: ‘Zur “modalen Interpretation” von Melodien des 12. und

13. Jahrhunderts’, ZIMG, 11 (1909–10), 379–82

P. Aubry and A. Jeanroy, eds.: Le chansonnier de l’Arsenal (trouvères

du XIIe–XIIIe siècle) (Paris, 1909–12)

J.B. Beck: La musique des troubadours (Paris, 1910/R)

E. Jammers: ‘Untersuchungen über die Rhythmik und Melodik der

Melodien der Jenaer Liederhandschrift’, ZMw, 7 (1924–5), 265–304

R. Lach: ‘Zur Frage der Rhythmik des altfranzösischen und

altprovenzalischen Liedverses’, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache
und Literatur, 47 (1924–5), 35–59

J.B. Beck, ed.: Le chansonnier Cangé: manuscrit français no.846 de

la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, Corpus cantilenarum medii aevi,
1st ser., 1 (Paris and Philadelphia, 1927/R) [facs.]

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 J. Handschin: ‘Die Modaltheorie und Carl Appels Ausgabe der
Gesänge von Bernart de Ventadorn’, Medium aevum, 4 (1935), 69–82

J.B. Beck and L. Beck, eds.: Le manuscrit du roi: fonds français no.
844 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, Corpus cantilenarum
medii aevi, 1st ser., 2 (London and Philadelphia, 1938/R) [facs.]

H. Anglès: ‘Der Rhythmus der monodischen Lyrik des Mittelalters

und seine Probleme’, IMSCRIV: Basle 1949, 45–50

H. Husmann: ‘Zur Grundlegung der musikalischen Rhythmik des

mittellateinischen Liedes’, AMw, 9 (1952), 3–26

H. Husmann: ‘Zur Rhythmik des Trouvèregesanges’, Mf, 5 (1952),

110–31

H. Husmann: ‘Die musikalische Behandlung der Versarten im

Troubadourgesang der Notre Dame-Zeit’, AcM, 25 (1953), 1–20

H. Husmann: ‘Das Prinzip der Silbenzählung im Lied des zentralen

Mittelalters’, Mf, 6 (1953), 8–23

F. Gennrich: ‘Grundsätzliches zur Rhythmik der mittelalterlichen

Monodie’, Mf, 7 (1954), 150–76

H. Husmann: ‘Das System der modalen Rhythmik’, AMw, 11 (1954),

1–38

F. Gennrich: ‘Ist der mittelalterliche Liedvers arhythmisch?’, Cultura

neolatina, 15 (1955), 109–31

F. Gennrich: Musica sine littera: Notenzeichen und Rhythmik der

Gruppennotation (Darmstadt, 1956)

F. Gennrich: ‘Wer ist der Initiator der “Modaltheorie”? Suum cuique’,

Miscelánea en homenaje a Monseñor Higinio Anglés (Barcelona,
1958–61), 315–30

H. Anglès: ‘Die volkstümlichen Melodien bei den Trouvères’,

Festgabe für Joseph Müller-Blattau, ed. W. Salmen (Saarbrücken,
1960, 2/1962), 15–22

H. Anglès: ‘Der Rhythmus in der Melodik mittelalterlicher Lyrik’,

IMSCRVIII: New York 1961, 1, 3–11

B. Kippenberg: Der Rhythmus im Minnesang: eine Kritik der literar-

und musikhistorischen Forschung (Munich, 1962)

H. van der Werf: ‘The Trouvère Chansons as Creations of a

Notationless Musical Culture’, CMc, no.1 (1965), 61–8

H. van der Werf: ‘Deklamatorischer Rhythmus in den Chansons der

Trouvères’, Mf, 20 (1967), 122–44

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 H. van der Werf: The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères: a
Study of the Melodies and their Relation to the Poems (Utrecht,
1972)

E. Jammers: Aufzeichnungsweisen der einstimmigen

ausserliturgischen Musik des Mittelalters, Palaeographie der Musik,
1/4 (Cologne, 1975)

B. Stäblein: Schriftbild der einstimmigen Musik, Musikgeschichte in

Bildern, 3/4 (Leipzig, 1975)

T. Karp: ‘Three Trouvère Chansons in Mensural Notation’, Gordon

Athol Anderson, 1929–1981, in memoriam ed. L.A. Dittmer
(Henryville, PA, 1984), 474–94

H. van der Werf: The Extant Troubadour Melodies: Transcriptions

and Essays for Performers and Scholars (Rochester, NY, 1984)

C. Page: Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages: Instrumental

Practice and Songs in France, 1100–1300 (Berkeley, 1986)

J. Stevens: Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative,

Dance and Drama, 1050–1350 (Cambridge, 1986)

E. Aubrey: The Music of the Troubadours (Bloomington, IN, 1996)

S Engels: ‘Mittelalterliche Notationen und ihre Bedeutung für eine

musikalische Interpretation in einstimmigen Gesängen’, De Musica
Disserenda, 5/1 (2009), 19–32

polyphony to c1260: studies

G. Jacobsthal: Die Mensuralnotenschrift des zwölften und
dreizehnten Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1871/R)

W. Niemann: Über die abweichende Bedeutung der Ligaturen in der

Mensuraltheorie der Zeit vor Johannes de Garlandia (Leipzig, 1902/
R)

F. Ludwig: Repertorium organorum recentioris et motetorum

vetustissimi stili, 1/1 (Halle, 1910/R), 42–57

A.M. Michalitschke: Theorie des Modus: eine Darstellung der

Entwicklung des musikrhythmischen Modus und der entsprechenden
mensuralen Schreibung (Regensburg, 1923)

J. Handschin: ‘Zur Notre Dame-Rhythmik’, ZMw, 7 (1924–5), 386–9

A.M. Michalitschke: ‘Zur Frage der Longa in der Mensuraltheorie

des 13. Jahrhunderts’, ZMw, 8 (1925–6), 103–9

A.M. Michalitschke: ‘Studien zur Entstehung und Frühentwicklung

der Mensuralnotation’, ZMw, 12 (1929–30), 257–79

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 H. Sowa: ‘Zur Weiterentwicklung der modalen Rhythmik’, ZMw, 15
(1932–3), 422–7

H. Husmann, ed.: Die drei- und vierstimmigen Notre-Dame-Organa:

kritische Gesamtausgabe, Publikationen älterer Musik, 11 (Leipzig,
1940/R)

W. Apel: The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900–1600 (Cambridge,

MA, 1942, rev. 5/1961; Ger. trans., rev., 1970)

R. von Ficker: ‘Probleme der modalen Notation (zur kritischen

Gesamtausgabe der drei- und vierstimmigen Organa)’, AcM, 18–19
(1946–7), 2–16

M. Bukofzer: ‘Rhythm and Meter in the Notre Dame Conductus’,

BAMS 1948, 63–5

F. Gennrich: ‘Perotins Beata viscera Mariae virginis und die

“Modaltheorie”’, Mf, 1 (1948), 225–41

W. Apel: ‘From St. Martial to Notre Dame’, JAMS, 2 (1949), 145–58

J. Handschin: ‘Zur Frage der Conductus-Rhythmik’, AcM, 24 (1952),

113–30

W. Waite: ‘Discantus, Copula, Organum’, JAMS, 5 (1952), 77–87

C. Parrish: ‘Some Rhythmical Problems of the Notre Dame Organa

and Conductus’, JAMS, 6 (1953), 89–90

H. Husmann: ‘Das System der modalen Rhythmik’, AMw, 11 (1954),

1–38

W.G. Waite: The Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony: its Theory

and Practice (New Haven, CT, 1954/R)

H. Husmann: ‘Les époques de la musique provençale au Moyen Áge’,

Actes et mémoires du ler congrès international de langue et
littérature du Midi de la France: Avignon 1955 (Avignon, 1957), 197–
201

C. Parrish: The Notation of Medieval Music (New York, 1957, 2/1959/

R), chaps.3–4

H. Tischler: ‘Ligatures, Plicae and Vertical Bars in Premensural

Notation’, RBM, 11 (1957), 83–92

H. Tischler: ‘A propos the Notation of the Parisian Organa’, JAMS, 14

(1961), 1–8

E.H. Sanders: ‘Duple Rhythm and Alternate Third Mode in the 13th
Century’, JAMS, 15 (1962), 249–91

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 B. Stäblein: ‘Modale Rhythmen im Saint-Martial-Repertoire?’,
Festschrift Friedrich Blume, ed. A.A. Abert and W. Pfannkuch
(Kassel, 1963), 340–62

E.F. Flindell: ‘Aspekte der Modalnotation’, Mf, 17 (1964), 353–73

F. Reckow: Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4, 2: Interpretation der

Organum purum-Lehre (Wiesbaden, 1967)

F. Reckow: ‘Proprietas und perfectio: zur Geschichte des Rhythmus,

seiner Aufzeichnung und Terminologie im 13. Jahrhundert’, AcM, 39
(1967), 115–43

G.A. Anderson: ‘Mode and Change of Mode in Notre Dame

Conductus’, AcM, 40 (1968), 92–114

G.A. Anderson, ed.: The Latin Compositions in Fascicules VII and VIII
of the Notre Dame Manuscript Wolfenbüttel Helmstadt 1099 (1206),
pt.i: Critical Commentary, Translation of the Texts and Historical
Observations (New York, 1968–76)

R. Flotzinger: Der Discantussatz im Magnus liber und seiner

Nachfolge (Vienna, 1969)

S. Fuller: Aquitanian Polyphony of the Eleventh and Twelfth

Centuries (diss., U. of California, Berkeley, 1969)

R.A. Rasch: Iohannes de Garlandia en de ontwikkeling van de voor-

Franconische notatie (New York, 1969) [with Eng. and Ger.
summaries]

H.H. Eggebrecht and F. Zaminer, eds.: Ad organum faciendum:

Lehrschriften der Mehrstimmigkeit in nachguidonischer Zeit (Mainz,
1970)

W. Frobenius: ‘Zur Datierung von Francos Ars cantus mensurabilis’,

AMw, 27 (1970), 122–7

J. Stenzl: Die vierzig Clausulae der Handschrift Paris, Bibliothèque

nationale latin 15139 (Saint Victor-Clausulae) (Berne, 1970)

H.H. Eggebrecht: ‘Organum purum’, Musikalische Edition im Wandel

des historischen Bewusstseins, ed. T.G. Georgiades (Kassel, 1971),
93–112

W. Frobenius: ‘Longa–Brevis’, ‘Minima’, ‘Modus (Rhythmuslehre)’,

‘Perfectio’, ‘Prolatio’, ‘Proprietas (Notationslehre)’, ‘Semibrevis’,
‘Semiminima’, (1971–4), HMT

R. Flotzinger: ‘Zur Frage der Modalrhythmik als Antike-Rezeption’,

AMw, 29 (1972), 203–8

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 E. Reimer: Johannes de Garlandia: De mensurabili musica, 2:
Kommentar und Interpretation der Notationslehre (Wiesbaden,
1972)

G.A. Anderson: ‘Magister Lambertus and Nine Rhythmic Modes’,

AcM, 45 (1973), 57–73

G.A. Anderson: ‘The Rhythm of cum littera Sections of Polyphonic

Conductus in Mensural Sources’, JAMS, 26 (1973), 288–304

R. Baltzer: Notation, Rhythm, and Style in the Two-Voice Notre Dame

Clausula (diss., Boston U., 1974)

K.-J. Sachs: ‘Punctus’ (1974), HMT

G.A. Anderson: ‘The Notation of the Bamberg and Las Huelgas

Manuscripts’, MD, 32 (1978), 19–67

G.A. Anderson: ‘The Rhythm of the Monophonic Conductus in the

Florence Manuscript as Indicated in Parallel Sources’, JAMS, 31
(1978), 480–89

J. Knapp: ‘Musical Declamation and Poetic Rhythm in an Early Layer

of Notre Dame Conductus’, JAMS, 32 (1979), 383–407

E. Roesner: ‘The Performance of Parisian Organum’, EMc, 7 (1979),

174–89

L. Treitler: ‘Regarding Rhythm and Meter in the Ars Antiqua’, MQ,

65 (1979), 524–58

E.H. Sanders: ‘Consonance and Rhythm in the Organum of the 12th

and 13th Centuries’, JAMS, 33 (1980), 264–86 [see comments by
Reckow and reply, ibid., 34, 1981, 588–9]

H. Tischler: ‘Versmass und musikalischer Rhythmus in Notre-Dame-

Conductus’, AMw, 37 (1980), 292–304

J. Yudkin: ‘The Copula According to Johannes de Garlandia’, MD, 34

(1980), 67–84

C. Morin: ‘Mise en place de l’écriture polyphonique: l’école de

Notre-Dame’, EG, 20 (1981), 69–76

R. Rastall: The Notation of Western Music: an Introduction (New

York, 1982)

E.H. Roesner: ‘Johannes de Garlandia on organum in speciale’, EMH

, 2 (1982), 129–60

H. Tischler: ‘A Propos Meter and Rhythm in the Ars Antiqua’, JMT,

26 (1982), 313–30

L. Treitler: ‘Regarding “A Propos Meter and Rhythm in the Ars

Antiqua”’, JMT, 27 (1983), 215–22

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 J. Yudkin: ‘The Rhythm of Organum Purum’, JM, 2 (1983), 355–76

M. Haas: ‘Die Musiklehre im 13. Jahrhundert von Johannes de

Garlandia bis Franco’, Geschichte der Musiktheorie, ed. F. Zaminer,
5 (Darmstadt, 1984), 91–158

D. Hiley: ‘The Plica and Liquescence’, Gordon Athol Anderson, 1929–

1981, in memoriam, ed. L.A. Dittmer (Henryville, PA, 1984), 379–92

E.H. Sanders: ‘Sine littera and Cum littera in Medieval Polyphony’,

Music and Civilization: Essays in Honor of Paul Henry Lang, ed. E.
Strainchamps, M.R. Maniates and C. Hatch (New York, 1984), 215–
31

H. Tischler: ‘Gordon Anderson’s Conductus Edition and the Rhythm

of Conductus’, Gordon Athol Anderson, 1929–1981, in memoriam,
ed. L.A. Dittmer (Henryville, PA, 1984), 561–73

J. Yudkin: ‘The Anonymous of St. Emmeram and Anonymous IV on

the Copula’, MQ, 70 (1984), 1–22

E.H. Sanders: ‘Conductus and Modal Rhythm’, JAMS, 38 (1985),

439–69

L.C.H. Spottswood: Accents in Texted Ligatures: the Influence of Old

French on the Rhythm and Notation of the Polyphonic Conductus
(diss., U. of Maryland, 1985)

J. Yudkin: The Music Treatise of Anonymous IV: a New Translation

(Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1985)

B. Gillingham: Modal Rhythm (Ottawa, 1986)

H. Ristory: ‘Ein Kurztraktat mit Binärmensuration und

praefranconischem Gepräge’, Studi musicali, 15 (1986), 151–66

E. Apfel: Die Lehre vom Organum, Diskant, Kontrapunkt und von der
Komposition bis um 1480 (Saarbrücken, 1987, 4/1997)

M.E. Fassler: ‘Accent, Meter, and Rhythm in Medieval Treatises “De

rithmis”’, JM, 5 (1987), 164–90

M. Huglo: ‘La notation franconienne: antécédents et devenir’,

Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 31 (1988), 123–32

M. Lütolf: ‘Les notations des XIIe–XIIIe siècles et leur transcription:

difficultés d’interprétation’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 31
(1988), 151–60

M. Pérès: ‘L’interprétation des polyphonies vocales du XIIe siècle et

les limites de la paléographie et de la sémiologie’, Cahiers de
civilisation médiévale, 31 (1988), 169–78

H. Tischler, ed.: The Parisian Two-Part Organa (New York, 1988)

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 G. Le Vot: ‘La notation et l’oralité des musiques polyphoniques aux
XIIe et XIIIe siècles’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 31 (1988),
133–50, 179–81

M.E. Wolinski: The Montpellier Codex: its Compilation, Notation, and

Implications for the Chronology of the Thirteenth-Century Motet
(diss., Brandeis U., 1988)

C.M. Atkinson: ‘Franco of Cologne on the Rhythm of Organum

Purum’, EMH, 9 (1989), 1–26

L. Lera: ‘Grammatici della notazione di Notre-Dame’, AcM, 61

(1989), 150–74

R.L. Crocker: ‘Rhythm in Early Polyphony’, CMc, nos.45–7 (1990),

147–77

N.E. Smith: ‘The Notation of Fractio modi’, CMc, nos.45–7 (1990),

283–304

J. Knapp: ‘Polyphony at Notre Dame of Paris’, NOHM, 2 (2/1990),

557–635

E.H. Roesner: ‘The Emergence of Musica mensurabilis’, Studies in

Musical Sources and Style: Essays in Honor of Jan LaRue, ed. E.K.
Wolf and E. Roesner (Madison, WI, 1990), 41–74

L.C.H. Spottswood: ‘The Influence of Old French on Latin Text

Settings in Early Measured Polyphony’, Beyond the Moon:
Festschrift Luther Dittmer, ed. B. Gillingham and P. Merkley
(Ottawa, 1990), 163–82

H. Tischler: ‘Words and Music in the Middle Ages: a Critique of John

Stevens’ “Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative,
Dance and Drama, 1050–1350”’, De musica hispana et aliis:
miscelánea en honor al Prof. Dr. José Lopez-Calo, ed. E. Caseres and
C. Villanueva (Santiago de Compostela, 1990), 181–96

J. Yudkin, ed. and trans.: De musica mensurata: the Anonymous of St.

Emmeram: Complete Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary
(Bloomington, IN, 1990)

S. Pinegar: Textual and Conceptual Relationships among Theoretical

Writings on Measurable Music from the Thirteenth and Early
Fourteenth Centuries (diss., Columbia U., 1991)

J. Yudkin: ‘The Anonymous Music Treatise of 1279: Why St.

Emmeram?’, ML, 72 (1991), 177–96

T. Karp, ed.: The Polyphony of Saint Martial and Santiago de

Compostela (Oxford, 1992)

S. Pinegar: ‘Exploring the Margins: a Second Source for Anonymous

7’, JMR, 12 (1992), 213–43

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 J. Williams, A. Stones, eds.: The Codex Calixtinus and the Shrine of
St. James (Tübingen, 1992)

E.H. Roesner, ed.: Les quadrupla et tripla de Paris, Le magnus liber

organi de Notre-Dame de Paris, 1 (Les Remparts, 1993) [see esp.
‘Introduction: the Interpretation of Rhythm’]

E.H. Sanders: ‘The Earliest Phases of Measured Polyphony’, Music

Theory and the Exploration of the Past, ed. C. Hatch and D.W.
Bernstein (Chicago, 1993), 41–58

M. Huglo: ‘The Origin of the Monodic Chants in the Codex

Calixtinus’, Essays on Medieval Music in Honor of David G. Hughes,
ed. G.M. Boone (Cambridge, MA, 1995), 195–206

E.H. Sanders: ‘Rithmus’, Essays on Medieval Music in Honor of

David G. Hughes, ed. G.M. Boone (Cambridge, MA, 1995), 415–40

A.M. Busse Berger: ‘Mnemotechnics and Notre Dame Polyphony’, JM

, 14 (1996), 263–98

T.B. Payne, ed.: Les organa à deux voix du manuscrit de

Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, cod. Guelf. 1099 Helmst.,
Le magnus liber organi de Notre-Dame de Paris, 6 (Les Remparts,
1996) [incl. ‘Introduction: the Interpretation of Rhythm’]

C. Page: Latin Poetry and Conductus Rhythm in Medieval France

(London, 1997)

R. Eberlein: ‘Vormodale Notation’, AMw, 55/3 (1998), 175–94

T.C. Karp: ‘Measurability in Medieval Music before 1300’, Orbis

Musicae: Studies in Musicology, 12 (1998), 107–39

E.H. Sanders: French and English Polyphony of the 13th and 14th
Centuries: Style and Notation (Aldershot, 1998)

L. Lera: ‘Polifonia delle orgini: Per superare un’ “‘impasse”’. Musica

e storia, 7/1 (1999), 31–46

M.-N. Colette, M. Popin and P. Vendrix: Histoire de la notation: du

Moyen Âge à la Renaissance (Paris, 2003)

A.M. Busse Berger: Medieval Music and the Art of Memory

(Berkeley, 2005)

E.H. Sanders: ‘The Notation of Notre-Dame Organa tripla and

quadruple’, Le notazioni della polifonia vocale dei secole IX–XVII:
Antologia, Parte prima, secoli IX–XIV, ed. D. Sabaino and S. Aresi
(Pisa, 2007), 57–128

G. Gross: Chanter en polyphonie à Notre Dame de Paris aux 12e et

13e siècles, Studia Artistarum, 14 (Turnhout, 2007)

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 S. Rankin: ‘Thirteenth-Century Notations of Music and Arts of
Performance’, Vom Preis des Fortschritts: Gewinn und Verlust in der
Musikgeschichte, eds. A. Haug and A. Dorschel (Vienna, London and
New York, 2008), 110–41

For further bibliography see Organum.

3. Polyphonic mensural notation, c1260–1500.

Margaret Bent

(i) General.
Well before this period the notation of pitch had lost all ambiguity
apart from occasional uses of the Plica and the operation of the rules
of musica recta and Musica ficta. The four-line staff used for
plainchant was still sometimes retained in polyphony, especially for a
voice presenting plainchant, but the five-line staff had come to be
used for polyphonic voices. A six-line staff became normal for the
14th-century Italian repertory, and was occasionally used outside it.
Additional staff-lines were provided throughout the period wherever
the range of a voice demanded, though the leger line itself was rare.
The most commonly used clef was the C (on any line), as in
plainchant, and its position was readily movable from line to line
when range or a copying error made this expedient. Of the other two
clefs used in plainchant the F came increasingly into use with the
gradual extension of the lower pitch register, but the B♭ – that is, the
♭ sign used on its own as a clef – was rare in polyphony, probably
because of the growing use of the same symbol to supply what would
later be called a key signature. The treble G clef appeared in the
14th century; it came increasingly into use, especially in England,
again in connection with extension of range; bass G and D clefs are
rare. (See Staff and Clef.)

Score notation had disappeared by about 1260, except for late

copies of the organum and conductus repertory, and certain
categories of composition in England, for which it was retained late
into the 15th century (including carols, homophonic sequences and
cantilenas, and English discant). Notation in separate voices
reflected their new rhythmic independence.

Throughout the period there were three principal signs for what are
now called accidentals. They did not function as modern accidentals
do, in that they did not signify the automatic raising or lowering of
an otherwise ‘natural’ note by a semitone. They were adjuncts of the
solmization system: the signs in fig.34a (alternative forms adopted
by different scribes) designated the note following it to be sung to

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 the syllable mi, and fig.34b designated it to be sung to the syllable
fa. Fig.34c was often used simply as an alternative to fig.34b ,
though it seems to have been used by some scribes to refer to notes
in the upper octave of a given voice range. In consequence, the note
F, for example, would be rendered not flat but F♮ by the placing of
the ‘flat’ sign (fig.34b ) before it; a ‘sharp’ or hard b(♭) sign before
the note E would render it E♮. Ambiguity could arise with A and D as
to whether a flat sign meant natural or flat, and with G and D as to
whether a sharp sign meant natural or sharp; but this ambiguity
could usually be resolved by consideration of context. Significantly,
the three clef signs discussed above were all indications of fa in the
three basic hexachords (based on G, C and F respectively).

See Accidental; Score, §3; Solmization, §I; Sources, MS, §I.

(ii) Franconian notation.

The development of notation during the period c1260–1500 was
almost exclusively in the realm of rhythm, and specifically concerned
with achieving precise notation for note values shorter than the long
and breve. The 13th century saw the gradual adoption of graphic
distinctions between the long and the breve, both as isolated note
shapes (simplices) and as they appear within ligatures. The forms of
square note with and without stem had been used arbitrarily in the
Florence manuscript (I-Fl Plut.29.1), but were used throughout the
next generation of sources, including the Montpellier manuscript (
F-MOf H196), to indicate long and breve respectively (see Sources,
MS, §V for these manuscripts). Ligatures began to have fixed
evaluations regardless of their modal context, even though they still
often adhered to modal patterns and though the values assigned to
them derived from their modal interpretations. These and other
fundamental changes can be traced in the musical sources, and are
mentioned in the theoretical writings (c1240) ascribed to Johannes
de Garlandia, Magister Lambertus (before 1279) and the St
Emmeram anonymus [Sowa anon. 1930] (1279), all of which are now
dated earlier than the main formulation of these changes by Franco
of Cologne (?c1280) on whose rules the following summary is based.

The Franconian system required that note symbols should be

capable of indicating the rhythmic modes rather than being
determined by them. Under this system, each of the three principal
note values had two states. The long was either ‘perfect’ or
‘imperfect’, there was also a duplex long, worth two longs, which
Franco explained as a means of avoiding repeated notes. The breve
was either recta or altera (‘other’ – Robert de Handlo in 1326
proposed that the breve be thought of as alterata, ‘altered’,
CoussemakerS, i, 385). The semibreve could be either ‘major’ or
‘minor’.

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 The perfect long was worth three breves. The imperfect long was
worth two breves, as had been the earlier long, and was used in
combination with a preceding or following breve; it could not stand
on its own (i.e. only triple time was allowed on the level of the long),
and hence could not be called longa recta (but see Johannes de
Garlandia, ed. Reimer, i, 37). When a long preceded a second long
the first must always be perfect (thus, in terms of breves, 3–3 or 3–
2).

The brevis altera was worth two recta breves. It arose as the second
breve in the context breve–breve–long (1–2–3 breve units
respectively): see fig.35a (in the upper voice the first breve is
subdivided into semibreves). Although identical in duration with the
imperfect long it could not be written thus because of the preceding
rule. Where a long followed by a breve would normally be imperfect,
it could be rendered perfect by the placing immediately after it of a
dot or stroke, variously called tractulus, signum perfectionis or
divisio modi, as in fig.35b . A long followed by two breves was
perfect unless preceded by a single breve. The following set of
patterns illustrates the operation of the system (numerals represent
multiples of breve-values; primes represent signs of perfection):

LBLB = 2–1–2–1

L′BLB = 3–1–2–1

LBBL = 3–1–2–3

BLBBL = 1–2–1–2–3

LB′BL = 2–1–1–2

LBBBL = 3–1–1–1–3

LB′BBL = 2–1–1–2–3

LBBBBL = 2–1–1–1–1–3

L′BBBBL = 3–1–1–1–1–2

The brevis recta might contain not more than three semibreves and
not fewer than two. If three, they would be equal and all minor; if
two, they would be minor–major (1–2). Franco made no provision for
two equal semibreves, though several earlier theorists did not
specify the value of a pair of semibreves when it constituted a breve
nor did they recognize a group of three (Johannes de Garlandia, ed.

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 Reimer, i, 50; Dietricus, ed. Müller, 5; Amerus, p.II). (The semibreve
pairs in F-MOf H196 and D-BAs ED.N.6, and possibly other
sources, in most cases lend themselves much more comfortably to
equal performance, and it is not always certain that Franco’s rules
apply.)

There is no provision as yet for the breve to be imperfected by the

semibreve, or for the semibreve to stand alone: the breve-semibreve
relationship was not at that stage analogous to that of the long-
breve. This meant also that the principle of ‘alteration’ did not apply.
A breve preceding a second breve is not said to be perfect, because
there is no question of its being imperfected. Similarly, the second of
a pair of semibreves is not said to be ‘altered’ before a breve,
because a pair of semibreves is rendered iambically, regardless of
what follows. Hence the following patterns (numerals represent
multiples of semibreve-values):

BSSSS = 3–1–2–1–2

SSS′SS = 1–1–1–1–2

Several of Franco’s contemporaries (e.g. St Emmeram anonymus,

1279) added to the semibreve-pair rule ‘and vice versa’, implying the
reverse interpretation (2–1); and one later writer, the author of the
Quatuor principalia (CoussemakerS, iv; see also John of
Tewkesbury), even attributed this interpretation directly to Franco.

Franco defined ascending and descending plicae for the long and
breve. Plicae continued in use in the 14th century, but their pitch
and rhythmic evaluation are sometimes open to question (see
Handlo’s evaluations, CoussemakerS, i, 383ff; also ed. in Lefferts).
They were obsolete before 1400, by which time any surviving plica
shapes no longer have the former significance of a plica.

Franco took over the existing ligature shapes with their connotations
of propriety and perfection depending on the presence or absence of
stems (see §III, 2). He provided evaluations that were mostly
consistent with the earlier system but which could stand
independent of their modal meanings. The first note of a ligature
‘with propriety’ was a breve, the last note of a ligature ‘with
perfection’ was a long. He opened the door to many hitherto unused
ligature shapes and provided a means of evaluating them, simple for
anyone familiar with the existing shapes. A ligature with a stem
ascending from the first note was described as having ‘opposite
propriety’: it signified two semibreves. All notes other than the first
and last were breves. In practice, downward stems were
occasionally used to create a long in the middle of a ligature; the
upward stem could occur elsewhere than at the beginning to create
two semibreves; and the long body of the duplex long or maxima
could be used to create this value anywhere in the ligature. These

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 are later modifications to Franco’s system. Notes in ligature were
subject to the same rules for imperfection and alteration as single
notes, but in practice grouping in ligatures tended to favour certain
groupings as strongly as did a divisio modi.

Franco advocated the use of ligatures where possible; if possibility

here implies absence of constraints from word underlay, he did not
say so. However, it remains generally true (with a few exceptions)
that two syllables do not have to be fitted to one ligature. On the
other hand, Franco disallowed the pre-Franconian practice of
notating 5th-mode tenors in motets as three-note ligatures and
insisted on a succession of separate longs. Fig.36 shows the
principal ligature shapes of the Franconian system. (An oblique
shape involves only two pitches: the first and last covered by the
ligature.) In evaluating ligatures of more than two notes, the first
and last were treated as though each formed a two-note ligature
with its neighbour. Middle notes were breves unless modified by
stems making them longs or semibreves, or by extension of the note
body to make a duplex long or maxima (see fig.37 ).

Fig.38 shows the rests given by Franco, together with their values in
terms of recta breves. They are respectively the perfect long, the
imperfect long and brevis altera, the brevis recta, the major
semibreve, the minor semibreve and the finis punctorum, which
marked the end of a section or piece and was immeasurable. All
these rests were fixed in value, not subject to imperfection or
alteration.

Franco made no provision for a binary division of the long, though it

is generally agreed that some pre-Franconian compositions require
this. Such a division became common in the following generation
(see Sanders, 1962). After Franco the breve was further subdivided,
being replaceable by more than three semibreves. The evaluation of
these smaller semibreves differed, both in theory and in practice, in
the separate 14th-century traditions of France, Italy and England,
and the resulting rhythmic differences contributed largely to the
musical distinctness of the three styles. Franco was the starting-
point for all three. In none of them was a primary division of the
breve into more than three semibreves called for: smaller note
values were achieved by further subdivision of the primary divisions
– subdivisions that were still regarded as types of semibreve, and
were written without differentiation as semibreves. In addition,
French and Italian theorists introduced imperfect time, with two
equal semibreves constituting one breve, on an equal footing with
perfect time.

Jacobus of Liège alleged that Petrus de Cruce had used up to seven

semibreves in the space of a breve. He said that ‘another’ had used
up to nine semibreves, and Robert de Handlo and John Hanboys said
the same of a ‘Johannes de Garlandia’ (CoussemakerS, i, 389; see
also edn by Lefferts); both cite pre-Ars Nova motets (F-MOf H196)
in support. They do not specify the semibreves’ values. But Petrus
seems to have earned Jacobus’s approval for staying within the

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 Franconian tradition and distinguishing the semibreves adequately
from each other without recourse to stems; and Robert de Handlo
attributed to him the orthodox Franconian division of the breve into
two unequal or three equal semibreves. In view of these two facts,
there is no compelling reason to assume that his shorter notes were
anything other than forerunners of one of the 14th-century systems,
all of which arranged the shorter notes, according to rules
prescribed in increasing detail as the century progressed, within the
primary perfect or imperfect division. (Apel’s claim (1942, 5/1961, p.
319) that Petrus introduced a system without precedent or progeny
using five or seven equal semibreves is based on a misreading of
Jacobus, who would surely have condemned such temerity.) There is
no mention of Petrus in the early French or Italian treatises.

(iii) French 14th-century notation.

The first theoretical formulations of French 14th-century notation
were those of Philippe de Vitry and Johannes de Muris dating from
the early 1320s. Their starting-point was explicitly the teaching of
Franco. In addition to the triple division of the breve permitted by
the latter, they reintroduced duple division and further subdivided
these semibreves into shorter notes, which were regarded as
different orders of semibreves, and were at first not differentiated
graphically except for the occasional lengthening downstem. The
first surviving musical instances of this practice are some of the
motets interpolated between about 1317 and 1319 into one copy of
the roman de Fauvel (F-Pn fr.146). Some are cited in Ars nova, and
Vitry may well have been the composer of them, for composer and
theorist alike were concerned mainly with a metrical scheme in
which the breve was divided into two equal semibreves each of
which was in turn subdivided into three smaller values. Fig.39 shows
the interpretation of the contents of the breve when subdivided by
two, three, four and five semibreves respectively. Other musical
sources of these motets corroborate these interpretations by
distinguishing the shorter order of semibreve with an upward stem,
thereby converting them into a new level of note value known as the
minima. Italian theorists of the time (see §iv below) also gave these
interpretations.

Vitry’s Ars nova established the following hierarchy of five possible

subdivisions of the breve: ‘minimum perfect time’ (i.e. Franconian,
although he stated that interpretation of semibreve pairs as 2–1 had
been superseded by that of 1–2, and thus departed from Franconian
practice in his only statement about perfect time), three semibreves;
‘minimum imperfect time’, two semibreves each comprising two
minims; ‘medium perfect time’, three semibreves each comprising
two minims; ‘major perfect time’, three semibreves each comprising
three minims; ‘major imperfect time’, two semibreves each
comprising three minims (Roesner, Avril and Regalado, 30–38).

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 Taken together with later treatises embodying the theory of the Ars
Nova as it developed (including Johannes de Muris’s later treatise,
Libellus cantus mensurabilis, c1340, and Anonymus 5 of
CoussemakerS, iii), the French system can be summarized as
follows. There was a graphic distinction of the minim by an upward
stem from approximately the time of Vitry’s treatise. The four
principal levels of note value, the long, breve, semibreve and minim,
were thus visually distinct. The relationships between these four
levels of note value were given names: modus (‘mode’ or ‘mood’) for
the long-breve relationship, tempus (‘time’) for breve-semibreve,
prolatio (‘prolation’) for semibreve-minim. Each of these
relationships might be binary or ternary. The various relationships of
mode, time and prolation came to be termed ‘mensurations’. The
four combinations of tempus and prolatio were attributed to Vitry as
the ‘quatre prolacions’. Various special signs were proposed for the
available mensurations, but none was much used during the 14th
century. Their appearance in the later part of the century reflected
the existence in composition of a wider range of possibilities and
therefore the need to specify which combination of relationships was
in force. Yet they were in practice confined, with few exceptions, to
the circle for perfect tempus and the half-circle for imperfect
tempus, with a dot in the centre to designate major prolatio (its
absence designated minor).

The existing range of symbols for rests was extended. The semibreve
rest became a short vertical bar suspended from a staff-line, and the
minim a similar bar placed upon a staff-line. These rests, like
Franco’s, were fixed in value. Within a given mensuration, which
established the value of each rest as perfect or imperfect, no rest
was imperfectible or alterable – a situation that did not apply in
either Italy or England.

Dots were used to mark off groups of notes according to tempus,

that is according to breves’-worth, by extension of Franco’s
principle, and also to indicate perfection. This led in later treatises
towards the idea of a ‘dot of addition’ which added half again to the
value of an imperfect note. At first this concept was expressed in
terms of showing the perfection of an imperfect note. Muris stated
that an imperfect note might be made perfect by the addition of half
its value (Libellus; no dot is mentioned there, but one source of the
treatise has a musical example with a dotted breve in imperfect
time). Anonymus 5 stated that ‘a dot, when it perfects, always adds
to the note after which it is placed the neighbouring part’ (i.e. the
next note value down).

Vitry prescribed red notes for various purposes. Where black notes
were perfect, red indicated imperfect mode or imperfect mode and
time. The roles of black and red could also be reversed. Red could be
used to prevent individual notes from being perfect or altered (i.e. to
fix their value regardless of context). Red could effect octave
transposition (though no surviving examples are known) or pick out
a plainchant voice.

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 Franco’s rules for imperfection of the long were now also applied to
the breve and semibreve, and his rules for alteration of the breve to
the semibreve and minim. The precise evaluation of any note
depended on the governing mensuration and on the context.

Not only could the long be imperfected by the breve, the breve by
the semibreve and the semibreve by the minim, but imperfection by
non-adjacent values was permitted – for example the long by the
semibreve and the breve by the minim. A note could be imperfected
to a varying extent: a breve might be imperfected by one minim or
two. Vitry specified four types of semibreve: the major (i.e. altera),
equal to six minims, the ‘semimajor’ or imperfect equal to four or
five, the recta or vera equal to three, and the minor equal to two.
The minim was often described as a semibrevis minima, the lowest
value that a semibreve could have.

Franco’s rule that a long preceding a long was always perfect came
to be strictly applied to breves and semibreves, and was later
formulated as the rule similis ante similem perfecta (‘like before like
is perfect’). Particular contexts yielded fixed values for certain notes
by requiring them to be perfect: for example, the semibreve shown
in fig.40a could be imperfect, yet the first semibreve in fig.30b had
to be perfect, so that only by means of the minima altera could the
rhythm given in fig.40c be shown. Such alteration of the minim
became possible only when the minim was graphically distinct: a
pair of unstemmed semibreves, according to Vitry, was trochaic. The
full application of these relationships on all levels was not yet in
operation at the time of Vitry’s treatise.

Syncopation was discussed by theorists, and was allowed by

Johannes de Muris in perfect or imperfect mood, time and prolation.
Although it was not discussed systematically, it seems clear from the
musical sources that the means of syncopation were notes or rests of
fixed value (e.g. any rest, or a note imperfected by coloration or
perfected by a dot). Dots of syncopation are in effect dots of division
unusually positioned to show displacement. A note set off by two
dots, as found in later 14th-century sources, is thus isolated as the
agent of displacement or prevented from alteration.

See also Ars Nova; Fauvel, Roman de; Isorhythm; Sources, MS,
§VII.

(iv) Italian 14th-century notation.

The early development of Italian Trecento notational theory has been
clarified by reference to treatises which apparently antedate
Marchetto da Padova, who had long been regarded as its first
exponent (Gallo, La teoria della notazione, 1966). Amerus, in 1271,
recognized exclusively binary division of the long with each of the

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 two breves further subdivided into two semibreves. Guido frater (?
1326–30) showed the systematic fusion of this binary tradition with
Franconian teaching, dealing with perfect and imperfect time, and
agreed in most essential points with Marchetto’s Pomerium.

In perfect time the breve was divided into three ‘major’ semibreves
(the use of the term is different from Vitry’s). Each of these might be
divided into two ‘minor’ semibreves (as in fig.41a ), and each of
those into two ‘minimum’ semibreves, totalling 12 minimum
semibreves or minims (Guido: semibreves minime; Marchetto:
minime). Alternatively, each major semibreve might be divided into
three, making nine in all; Guido, unlike Marchetto, spoke of this as a
French practice. (Guido called the resulting nine notes minimum
semibreves, whereas Marchetto called them minor semibreves.) In
imperfect time the breve was divided into two equal major
semibreves and was defined as two-thirds the value of the breve of
perfect time. Each of these two major semibreves might be divided
into two minor semibreves, and each of those into two minims,
making eight minims in all (Guido: semibreves minime; Marchetto:
minime in secundo gradu. Guido and Marchetto both called this
manner of division the ‘Italian way’. Alternatively, each of the two
major semibreves might be divided into three minims (Marchetto:
minime in primo gradu), making six minims in all (as in fig.41b , bars
4–5); this Guido and Marchetto call the ‘French way’ (their
evaluations are shown in fig.42 ). Marchetto admitted, but did not
enlarge upon, the further division of the six minims of imperfect time
into two to make 12, and into three to make 18.

Unstemmed semibreves (naturales) were evaluated according to

certain prescriptions which could be overruled artificially (via artis)
by means of stems. Downward stems (as in fig.41b , bar 3) indicated
longer notes whose precise value depended on context as well as on
the ‘division’ (approximately equivalent to the French ‘mensuration’)
that was in operation. Upward stems indicated the minim, whose
value was fixed within any division that contained that level of note.
The use of these stems was not necessary, even that of stems for
minims, if what was required was the normal arrangement of a
certain number of notes within a certain division. It became
necessary only with abnormal arrangements of notes.

The primary division of perfect time placed the longer of two notes
at the end of the tempus unless a downward stem was attached to
the first note (as in fig.41a , bars 1, 8). This is not the same as
alteration in French notation, since here a semibreve in such a
position need not precede a breve; the procedure is Franconian.
Whenever unequal division of notes within an ‘Italian’ division was
called for, the longer note (or notes) was again placed at the end (as
in fig.41a , bars 2–3) unless modified by stems. But the ‘French’
divisions, whose evaluations as given in the right-hand column of fig.
42 are taken from Guido, normally placed the shorter notes after the
longer. Though not entirely consistent, and thus in defiance of

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 Marchetto’s attempt to impute superior logic to the French system,
they are the rhythms most commonly encountered in contemporary
French music.

Unless bounded by a breve or ligature, each tempus group of

semibreves was marked off by a dot. Any ligature comprising two
semibreves occupied a full tempus. Although Guido provided two
forms of semibreve rest (both standing on the staff-line), one
occupying a quarter, the other a third of the space between two
staff-lines (ed. Gallo, 27), he did not equate these with the three
levels of semibreve. In practice, rests were inconsistently indicated
and were as much subject to variation in value as the notes to which
they corresponded; this was diametrically opposed to the French use
of rests, to which however Italian notation moved closer as the
century progressed.

The breve could not be imperfected: the rhythm that French notation
rendered as an imperfect breve followed by a semibreve (2–1) was
represented in Italian notation by a semibreve with a downward
stem followed by a plain semibreve: that is, a semibreve prolonged
by via artis to two-thirds of a tempus followed by a major semibreve.
Hence, since a semibreve could not occupy a tempus alone, no
semibreve could be used alone. That also derives from Franco.

Marchetto proposed that the initial letters of certain modi and

divisions be used to identify them. This was the counterpart to the
French mensuration signs (see (iii) above), which found no place in
the Italian tradition until it merged with the French later in the
century. Marchetto advocated ‘.i.’ and ‘.p.’ for ‘imperfect’ and
‘perfect’ modus (see figs.41b and a ), not for the divisions of senaria
imperfecta and perfecta (see fig.43 ) which had not yet acquired
these names. The letters ‘.b.’ and ‘.t.’ were to indicate the binary and
ternary divisions of the breve (CSM, vi, 164). The letters ‘Y’ and ‘G’
were to indicate the Italian and French (literally ‘Gallic’) manners in
imperfect time. In addition, the letters ‘S.G.’ were used presumably
for secundum gallicos or senaria gallica in I-Rvat Rossi 215. The
later uses of letters, derived from musical sources and subsequent
theoretical writings, in particular from Prosdocimus de Beldemandis,
are shown in fig.43 . There seems to be no theoretical or practical
justification for the widespread modern teaching that undesignated
semibreves in senaria imperfecta are to be read with the longest
note last (in the bar or in each half of it); if anything other than the
French way was wanted, it was specified by stems.

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 61.

Minims were present only in the French divisions and in the third
division or beyond of the Italian manner. They did not technically
halve the value of a semibreve, although two minims were equal to
one minor semibreve, because they were themselves a kind of
semibreve. Semiminims, on the other hand, which were mentioned
in Ars nova but not by the Italian theorists, came into use in later
musical sources to divide the minim in half. They had a loop to the
right or left of the minim stem. Triplets – three minims in the time of
two – were shown by a loop in whichever was the opposite direction
(as in fig.41c ).

Other innovations of the later sources included the dragma – a

semibreve with upward and downward stem (fig.44a ) – with a fixed
value of two minims. This was often used to represent three minor
semibreves in the time of two major semibreves. The same effect
could also be achieved by void coloration, which could give three
notes in the time of two or four in the time of three. A note
augmented by half was represented as shown in fig.44b . A dot could
not be used because of its function as marking the division.

See also Sources, MS, §VIII.

(v) Late 14th-century notation.

Towards the end of the century, in the music of Landini’s generation,
many French features had entered Italian notation. The Italian
division signs, although Prosdocimus’s formulation of them was even
later, were increasingly superseded by actual or implicit French
mensuration signs. Dots of division, downward stems and variable
rests gradually disappeared. Breves were imperfected, and dots of
addition replaced the other special signs. The notational unrest of
this stage was reflected in many pieces combining French and
Italian characteristics, and in the existence of more than one notated
version of some pieces, an otherwise rare phenomenon (Fischer,

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 1959). The eventual absorption of Italian notation by French was the
result of a final exploitation of the inherent possibilities of both
systems. Extreme rhythmic complexities were indulged in by
composers of both nationalities, largely in the orbit of the schismatic
papal court at Avignon and of Gaston Fébus, Count of Foix.

The principal technique used was syncopation. The existing means of

fixing the values of notes that were to act as syncopating agents
were greatly expanded by the use of a variety of stems, hooks,
dashes and loops whose precise meaning varied from piece to piece
and sometimes within a single piece, as well as by the use of
displaced dots of division. Specialized colorations were also used.
These sometimes fixed note values and were thus additional means
of achieving syncopation, and sometimes they expressed a
proportional relationship of one passage to another (see §vii below).
The main manuscripts containing this sophisticated and short-lived
repertory are I-MOe α.5.24, F-Pn it.568 and CH 564 (for further
discussion see Stone, 1994).

See also Ars Subtilior and Sources, MS, §VIII.

(vi) English 14th-century notation.

Robert de Handlo, in 1326, gave clear indications that the English
continued to pursue the notational individuality they had shown in
their pre-Franconian notation (see §III, 2 above) into the 14th
century, and musical sources confirm this. Handlo’s treatise is an
expanded and glossed version of Franco; his other chief authorities
were Petrus de Cruce and a certain ‘Johannes de Garlandia’ (for
discussion of the identity of the theorist see Johannes de Garlandia).
Here if anywhere there is justification for crediting Petrus de Cruce
with an important stage in notational development; however,
Handlo’s account does not permit the ascription to him of any
advance on Franco that was not more exhaustively dealt with by
Johannes de Garlandia. All three follow Franco in accepting only a
ternary division of the breve. (Other than an apparent reference to
duple time in the problematic dicta of Petrus le Viser
(CoussemakerS, i, 388; see also edn of Robert de Handlo by
Lefferts), there is no theoretical support for duple time in England
until the late 14th-century treatise of Hanboys, though a few
compositions at an earlier date require duple interpretation.)

The basic ternary division of the breve was into three ‘minor’
semibreves. If two semibreves took the place of a breve, one of them
became major and was distinguished by a downward stem. Some
evidence, more musical than theoretical, points to pairs of
semibreves without stems and separated by dots often being
performed trochaically (see (ii) above). Evidence for trochaic
performance of undesignated pairs of breves in 13th-century English

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 music is strong (Sanders, 1962): this may support the 14th-century
case, but the grounds are musical rather than notational, because
Franco’s long-breve relationship was not applied at the level of the
semibreve (i.e. like Italy, unlike France).

Each of the three minor semibreves was subject to a further

subdivision into three. Each minor semibreve’s-worth might be
marked off by a small circle, or signum rotundum, which was quite
distinct from the dot of division used to mark off tempus. If only two
semibreves fell within one such division they were to be read
unequally as 1–2 (minima–minorata) unless the reverse was
indicated by a downward stem on the first of the pair. As in Italy, the
French concepts of imperfection and alteration were entirely absent
and cannot thus be used to justify iambic interpretation of strings of
semibreve pairs. The system of circles reflected an English
reluctance to use stems where a note could be evaluated by
convention, although not many occur in surviving musical sources. If
four was considered the basic Italian division of the breve and six
the French, the English was nine, which necessitated some
additional clarification by stems or circles.

Later in the century, after the period of French influence discussed

below, Hanboys (?c1370) distinguished within imperfect time
between curta and longa mensura, the former having four minims to
the breve, the latter eight (as in GB-Lbl Sloane 1210 and DRc 11).

Rests were inconsistently notated early in the century; by the latter

half, despite the allegation by several English theorists, including
Hanboys, that rests could be altered or imperfected, the forms of
rests followed French practice: semibreve hanging from a staff-line,
minim placed on a line. There is one important exception: a rest
intersecting a line, in effect a semibreve plus a minim rest, was often
used for the perfect semibreve. Even in a major-prolation piece an
imperfect semibreve rest was often shown by the normal semibreve
rest, whereas in French notation it would be shown by two minim
rests (as it sometimes was in England, too).

Other English peculiarities, mostly with theoretical and musical

documentation, included the brevis erecta (fig.45a ) to indicate
chromatic alteration, the swallow-tailed note (fig.45b ) to indicate
rhythmic alteration (also serving to elongate the first of a pair of
semibreves – it appears to be a successor to the downward-stemmed
semibreve), and the use of the stepwise descending form of the
semibreve–semibreve ligature (fig.45c ) to indicate rhythmic
alteration of the second note.

It is clear from the variety of notational practice in musical sources,

as well as from the treatise of Hanboys, that at this period there was
no single English notation but, rather, that there were diverse
English notations. Hanboys cited some individual notational
practices of which he disapproved. One of these accords with a
surviving musical composition which is adjacent in its source to an
example of approved practice.

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 French influence was not felt until some time after the middle of the
century. It is clearly present in the pro-Vitrian treatise Quatuor
principalia (completed in 1351), as well as in some imported French
motets, all of which are in imperfect time and major prolation. The
dot of addition makes no appearance in England (nor is there any
substitute for it, as in Italy) until the very end of the century when
the French influence was most fully assimilated, just before the Old
Hall manuscript (GB-Lbl Add.57950) was compiled. Quatuor
principalia condemned some uses of the more notably eccentric
auxiliary signs in England, but at the same time achieved some
startling fusions of English and French practice. Imperfect breves
started to appear in English sources around that time, often in
trochaic alternation with semibreves. Quatuor principalia declared
the major semibreve (presumably of the English tradition) to have
the same value as an imperfect breve and to be written like it. Thus
it is not known whether these English breves were thought of as
imperfected breves or major semibreves (evidence of parallel
passages favours semibreves). Minims, with upward stems, began to
appear around that time, occasionally in combination with
unstemmed minims and in conjunction with signa rotunda which are
in fact made redundant by the stems and did not long survive them.

See also Sources, MS, §VI; Old Hall Manuscript; Worcester

polyphony.

(vii) 15th-century notation.

In England about 1400 there existed notational practices as complex
as those in southern France; these can be seen in the Old Hall
repertory. There are canonic and isorhythmic pieces that involve
advanced notational features, and virtuoso essays in syncopation and
complex proportional usage. The full resources of continental
coloration were available: that is, in addition to normal black-full
notes there were black-void, red-full and red-void; and two pieces in
the Old Hall repertory use blue-full notes. The normal coding of
colour for proportions in English pieces was black-void 2:1, red-full
3:2, red-void 3:1. These colorations could be further modified by the
use of numerals and signatures. They made it possible to conceive of
rhythmic patterns that could otherwise have been notated in only
the most clumsy or inadequate way. It was this, rather than innate
conservatism, that led the English to retain some use of black-full
notation, alongside black-void, after most continental scribes had
abandoned black-full about 1430.

Coloration was used also to express imperfection: to prevent

alteration and perfection in notes that might otherwise be subject to
them, rather than to bring about a reduction in all note values. When
the notation was principally black-full, the coloration was red or

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 black-void; when black-void, the coloration was normally black-full.
The indication of imperfection remained the most common function
of coloration throughout the 15th century and into the 16th. Fig.46
shows black-void coloration being used to bring about imperfection
and to prevent alteration (see also Woodley, 1993).

64. Part of the tenor of a Gloria by Dunstaple (I-Bu 2216, p.24), with
transcription (below)

The earliest examples of black-void notation date from about 1400

and are mostly English. The reason for the change is obscure but
may perhaps best be accounted for by the change in writing habits
associated with the general move from parchment to paper as the
main writing surface. It is also true that the greater simplicity of
style that dawned with the 15th century did not, except in the
continuing English tradition, require the availability of so many
colorations for proportions. For the change was much more than a
simple reversal of black-full and black-void: as black-void superseded
black-full, so the latter came largely to replace red-full and thus red
notation came to be abandoned (as in fig.47 – see bars 8–9).
Continental compositions using proportions (e.g. those in GB-Ob
Can.misc.213, from the late 1430s) inclined much more to the use of
numerical proportion signs and mensuration signs with graphic or
numerical modifications.

The reason for proportional notation lay in what may be called

minim equivalence: that is, in French notation, where a change of
mensuration occurred, the relationship between the two
mensurations was that of minim = minim (this is clearly established
at this time by pieces in which mensuration changes in the different
parts occur at different points in the composition – it applies in fig.
47 between bar 16 and bar 17). Proportional notation was simply a
way of overriding that equivalence, and thus of extending the
possibilities of the mensural system. It did so for shorter or longer
passages by expressing a different note relationship to a preceding
passage or to other voices in the composition.

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 If the relationship was expressed numerically, the number of new
units would be placed above the equivalent number of old units in
the form of a fraction. The unit referred to in such a fraction was
normally the minim, though it could be the semibreve of the same
kind. Thus the ‘3’ in fig.47 , which implies 3 over 2, indicates the
occurrence of three minims in the time of the previous two. The half-
circle with vertical bar (often called ‘cut C’ by modern writers: fig.
48a ) indicated what was known as ‘diminution’: that is, the
performance of a passage faster than normal, by a specified ratio.
Sometimes diminution occurred in the exact ratio of 2:1, in which
case it was called dimidietas. In other cases it did not or could not; a
slight acceleration may be denoted by Tinctoris’s acceleratio
mensurae. Anonymus 12 (CoussemakerS, iii, 484) reported that with
the circle with vertical bar (‘cut O’: fig.48b ) one third of all values
was taken away. Later in the century these ‘cut’ mensuration signs
were sometimes used as a conventional signal for imprecise
diminution which enabled longer note values to be written, and
sometimes they were used with no apparent mensural significance
or as general-purpose signs (Wegman, 1992; Bent, 1996). This was a
way of avoiding an otherwise inevitable flood of short note values,
with their less easily legible stems. The reversed half-circle (fig.48 c)
sometimes carried the function of duple diminution when placed
after a passage governed by the half-circle. However, when it
occurred after a passage with a triple dimension to its mensuration
(circle or half-circle with dot) it indicated a proportion of 4 : 3 (see
Hamm, 1964; see also Proportional notation). The principle of
equating notes of different denominations by means of a stated ratio
became a well-established practice in the music of Ockeghem’s
generation, when numerically modified mensuration signs could shift
the basic set of relationships in the way shown in fig.49 .

67.

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 But apart from the cultivation of proportions in a few works by a
small number of composers, the trend of the late 15th century was
towards notational simplification. It is significant that, at just the
same time, the late 15th century and the early 16th, cases arose of a
simplified notation using only one note shape and repeating it at the
same pitch to make up any note of greater value, or using only a
short vertical stroke in the same way. Such a notation was
presumably designed for singers who could not cope with the
complexities of the mensural system, especially with imperfection
and alteration. It was in the early 16th century that note values in
mensural notation came to be precisely determined by their
appearance regardless of context, rather than by their denomination
as long, breve, semibreve or minim in a given context (the step that
Franco had achieved) – at least, that became true of the essential
working of notation, for imprecision and considerations of context in
practice continue to feature in notation right up to the present day.
However, in about 1500 musicians increasingly often placed a dot
after a note that was to be perfect, even where earlier practice
would not have required one. The practice of alteration gradually
decayed. An intermediate stage before notators felt free to place an
imperfect breve before a perfect one was the use of the coloured
(black-full) breve where previously an altered semibreve would have
been used.

See also Sources, MS, §IX, 2.

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 Odington, Walter: Summa de speculatione musice, CoussemakerS, 1,
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F.A. Gallo: ‘Alcune fonti poco note di musica teorica e practica’, L’ars
nova italiana del trecento: convegni di studi 1961–1967, ed. F.A.
Gallo (Certaldo, 1968), 49–76

C.A. Miller: ‘Gaffurius’s Practica musicae: Origin and Contents’, MD,

22 (1968), 105–28

G. Vecchi: ‘Primo annuncio del sistema proporzionale di Marchetto

in un passo del “Lucidarium”’, Quadrivium, 9 (1968), 83–6

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 M. Bent: The Old Hall Manuscript: a Paleographical Study (diss., U.
of Cambridge, 1969)

R. Federhofer-Königs: ‘Ein Beitrag zur Proportionslehre in der

zweiten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts’, SM, 11 (1969), 145–57

F.A. Gallo: ‘Tra Giovanni de Garlandia e Filippo da Vitry: note sulla

tradizione di alcuni testi teorici’, MD, 23 (1969), 13–20

U. Michels: ‘Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus OP: ein frühes

Theoretiker-Zeugnis der Ars nova’, AMw, 26 (1969), 49–62

G. Vecchi: ‘Anonimi Rubrice breves’, Quadrivium, 10/1 (1969), 125–

34

E.C. Fellin: A Study of Superius Variants in the Sources of Italian

Trecento Music: Madrigals and Cacce (diss., U. of Wisconsin, 1970)

W. Frobenius: ‘Zur Datierung von Francos Ars cantus mensurabilis’,

AMw, 27 (1970), 122–7

N.S. Josephson: ‘Vier Beispiele der Ars Subtilior’, AMw, 27 (1970),

41–58

U. Michels: Die Musiktraktate des Johannes de Muris (Wiesbaden,

1970)

C. Wolff: ‘Arten der Mensuralnotation im 15. Jahrhundert und die

Anfänge der Orgeltabulatur’, GfMKB: Bonn 1970, 609–13

N. Böker-Heil: ‘Weisse Mensuralnotation als Computer-Input und -

Output’, AcM, 43 (1971), 21

R. Bockholdt: ‘Französische und niederländische Musik des 14. und

15. Jahrhunderts’, Musikalische Edition im Wandel des historischen
Bewusstseins, ed. T.G. Georgiades (Kassel, 1971), 149–73

C. Dahlhaus: ‘Die Mensurzeichen als Problem der Editionstechnik’,

Musikalische Edition im Wandel des historischen Bewusstseins, ed.
T.G. Georgiades (Kassel, 1971), 174–88

W. Frobenius: ‘Minima’, ‘Semibrevis’, ‘Tactus’ (1971), HMT

F.A. Gallo: ‘Due trattatelli sulla notazione del primo Trecento’,

Quadrivium, 12/1 (1971), 119–30

N.S. Josephson: ‘Rodericus, Angelorum psalat’, MD, 25 (1971), 113–

26

M.L. Martinez-Göllner: ‘Musik des Trecento’, Musikalische Edition

im Wandel des historischen Bewusstseins, ed. T.G. Georgiades
(Kassel, 1971), 134–48

H. Schoop: Entstehung und Verwendung der Handschrift Oxford

Bodleian Library, Canonici misc. 213 (Berne, 1971)

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 W. Arlt: ‘Der Tractatus figurarum: ein Beitrag zur Musiklehre der
“Ars Subtilior”’, Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 1
(1972), 35–53

J.A. Bank: Tactus, Tempo and Notation in Mensural Music from the
13th to the 17th Century (Amsterdam, 1972)

W. Frobenius: ‘Prolatio’, ‘Semiminim’ (1972), HMT

H. Besseler and P. Gülke: Schriftbild der mehrstimmigen Musik,

Musikgeschichte in Bildern, iii/5 (Leipzig, 1973)

W. Frobenius: ‘Longa – Brevis’, ‘Perfectio’ (1973), HMT

F.A. Gallo: ‘Figura and Regula: Notation and Theory in the Tradition
of Musica mensurabilis’, Studien zur Tradition in der Musik: Kurt
von Fischer zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. H.H. Eggebrecht and M. Lütolf
(Munich, 1973), 43

W. Frobenius: ‘Modus (Rhythmuslehre)’, ‘Proprietas

(Notationslehre)’ (1974), HMT

P. Gossett: ‘The Mensural System and the Choralis Constantinus’,

Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music in Honor of Arthur
Mendel, ed. R. Marshall (Kassel and Hackensack, NJ, 1974), 71–107

K.-J. Sachs: ‘Punctus’ (1974), HMT

M. Bent: ‘A Preliminary Assessment of the Independence of English

Trecento Notations’, La musica al tempo del Boccaccio e i suoi
rapporti con la letteratura: Siena and Certaldo 1975 [L’Ars Nova
italiana del Trecento, 4 (Certaldo, 1978)], 65–82

L. Treitler: ‘Regarding Meter and Rhythm in the Ars Antiqua’, MQ,

45 (1979), 524–58

M.P. Long: Musical Tastes in Fourteenth-Century Italy: Notational

Styles, Scholarly Traditions, and Historical Circumstances (diss.,
Princeton U., 1981)

A.E. Planchart: ‘The Relative Speed of Tempora in the Period of

Dufay’, RMARC, no.17 (1981), 33–51

E. Schroeder: ‘The Stroke Comes Full Circle: 𝇉 and 𝇍 in Writings on

Music, ca. 1450–1540’, MD, 36 (1982), 119–66

F.A. Gallo: ‘Die Notationslehre im 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts’, Die

mittelalterliche Lehre von der Mehrstimmigkeit, Geschichte der
Musiktheorie, ed. F. Zaminer, 5 (Darmstadt, 1984), 257–356

W. Arlt: ‘A propos des notations pragmatiques: le cas du codex Las

Huelgas: remarques générales et observations particulières’, RdMc,
13 (1990), 401–19

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 A.M. Busse Berger: ‘The Myth of diminutio per tertiam partem’, JM,
8 (1990), 405–10

E. Roesner, F. Avril and N.F. Regalado: Introduction to Le Roman de

Fauvel in the Edition of Messire Chaillou de Pesstain (New York,
1990)

B.J. Blackburn, E.E. Lowinsky and C.A. Miller, eds.: A

Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians (Oxford, 1991)

R.C. Wegman: ‘What is “acceleratio mensurae”?’, ML, 73 (1992),

515–23

A.M. Busse Berger: Mensuration and Proportion Signs: Origins and

Evolution (Oxford, 1993)

R. Woodley: John Tucke: a Case Study in Early Tudor Music Theory

(Oxford, 1993)

A. Stone: Writing Rhythm in Late Medieval Italy: Notation and

Musical Style in the Manuscript Modena, Biblioteca Estense,
Alpha.M.5.24 (diss., Harvard U., 1994)

M. Bent: ‘The Use of Cut Signatures in Sacred Music by Binchois’,

Binchois Studies: New York 1995

A. Blachly: Mensuration and Tempo in 15th-Century Music: Cut

Signatures in Theory and Practice (diss., Columbia U., 1995)

M. Bent: ‘The Early Use of the Sign 𝇉’, EMc, 24 (1996), 199–225

M. Bent: ‘The Use of Cut Signatures in Sacred Music by Ockeghem

and his Contemporaries’, Johannes Ockeghem: Tours 1997, 641–680

B.J. Blackburn: ‘Did Ockeghem Listen to Tinctoris?’, Johannes

Ockeghem: Tours 1997, 597–640

A.M. Busse Berger: ‘Cut Signs in Fifteenth-Century Musical

Practice’, Music in Renaissance Cities and Courts: Studies in Honor
of Lewis Lockwood, ed. J.A. Owens and A.M. Cummings (Warren, MI,
1997), 101–12

4. Mensural notation from 1500.

Geoffrey Chew

, revised by Richard Rastall

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 (i) General.
The simplified void notation of the late 15th century and the 16th,
used throughout Europe for the international polyphonic repertory,
was, like the medieval systems from which it developed, a singer’s
notation. It was not well suited to notating more than a single
melodic line, especially when associated with printing by movable
type. In succeeding centuries, however, especially after the rise of
the thoroughbass, theory and teaching were increasingly controlled
by instrumentalists such as keyboard players, and the staff notation
used for the bulk of the repertory was influenced by instrumental
requirements, adopting many features that permitted it to express
increasingly complex information. Conversely, keyboard tablature
began to decline. The instrumental features adopted included, in the
16th and 17th centuries, the bar-line, beam and slur, permitting the
clear grouping of notes for rhythmic and other purposes; the
standardization of clefs, facilitating the sight-reading of even fairly
complex textures; and the reintroduction of the score, which had
been dropped in French notation in the 13th century. In the 16th,
17th and 18th centuries, the demisemiquaver and the
hemidemisemiquaver were added to the range of note values;
keyboard notation adopted, when necessary for the sake of clarity, a
score layout with more than two staves to the system, not previously
used except in the partitura. In the 19th century, the vocabulary of
signs for dynamics, accents and articulation was greatly extended;
some novel features, which became basic to 20th-century practice,
were introduced by Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt.

Thus notation continued to develop after the 16th century. Yet a rift
gradually developed between notational theory and notational
practice; professional musicians often came to treat theory as
elementary and in consequence to expound it merely within the
sphere of musical rudiments or incidentally in treatises on
performance. This situation began to change only in the second half
of the 19th century. Meanwhile, however, proposals for reform had
been made, from the 17th century onwards, by those seeking a
universal musical notation. Even though most proposed reforms
were impracticable and were adopted by no-one but their inventors,
as a whole they strikingly illustrate the desire of Western notators
for a notation independent of any single musical style. Even a system
as economical and adequate as Tonic Sol-fa was not adopted for the
bulk of diatonic music: its limitation in practice to a single style was
felt as a fatal flaw, as similar limitations had never been present in
medieval notational systems. That did not prevent its use for the
benefit of the musically uneducated: and Tonic Sol-fa merely
exemplifies the numerous novel notational systems for vocal music
devised from the 16th century onwards for this purpose. These
systems are often unconcerned with theoretical abstractions, and
thus resemble instrumental tablatures. Most of them were based on
popular solmization practice, and many provide the same
information in more than one way.

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 A turning-point in notational practice seems to have occurred in the
second half of the 19th century in consequence of the harmonic and
rhythmic theory of the period (Moritz Hauptmann, Hugo Riemann
and Mathis Lussy). The notational principles outlined, to some extent
en passant, by these theorists were popularized in Germany, France
and Britain and may have laid the foundations for a number of
details of modern notational theory and practice. In particular, the
rules for orthography in accidentals and in rhythmic notation (with
slurs and beams) came under close scrutiny, with attempts to abolish
the less theoretically justifiable aspects of notation in the 18th
century and the early 19th. The heavily edited versions of Classical
works produced by Riemann and others may well represent attempts
at transcription into a new notational language, rather than arbitrary
suppression of the composer’s wishes in favour of the editor’s;
perhaps for that reason, some scholars opposed the concept of the
Urtext edition, holding that the careless adoption of obsolete and
hence misleading notational conventions was indefensible.

The notation evolved by Riemann and Lussy, precise as it is in

rhythmic detail, well deserves the title of ‘orthochronic’ notation (an
equivalent term was coined by Chailley, 1950): note shapes uniquely
fix durational relationships between notes, and there are no
subdivisions of notes other than duple unless specially indicated.
However, the extension of this term to all notation since the 16th
century seems arbitrary, since no account is then taken of the
numerous conventions whereby rhythms intended in performance
were not explicitly indicated in the score. These conventions,
including the occasional anomalous triple subdivision of note values,
were widespread until the last third of the 19th century, and may be
found in much music (though not the bulk of the repertory) even
later than that. The term ‘orthochronic’ is, accordingly, avoided here
in favour of the more comprehensive term ‘mensural’, which may
legitimately be used wherever note shapes are directly related –
even if only vaguely or notionally – to the durations of notes in
performance; in other words, to almost all notation in the
mainstream repertory, classical or popular, except tablature, from
Franco of Cologne to the present.

In the 20th century proposals for notational reform by professional

notators and experiments in notation by composers greatly
increased. Where these are not simply arbitrary, they represent to
some extent further developments of the notation of the late 19th
century, with further extensions of the capacity of mensural notation
to carry large quantities of information; they may be seen as new
departures reflecting the new ideas underlying the music. With the
rise of historical musicology and ethnomusicology, notation has been
faced with new problems in the attempt to use it to represent
material originally designed for another, or no, notational system. In
ethnomusicology, notation has become for almost the first time on
any large scale descriptive rather than prescriptive. Since most
musical works notated in the 20th century were tonal and traditional
in style, whether editions of old music or new compositions, only

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 certain universally useful devices, such as the representation of
durations proportionally by the spacing and alignment of notes,
gained universal currency.

The fullest discussion of the history of Western notation, copiously

illustrated, is to be found in the two volumes of Wolf’s Handbuch der
Notationskunde (1913–19/R), to which the reader is referred for
more detailed information; a shorter survey is Rastall’s The Notation
of Western Music (1983, rev. 2/1998). Apel’s Notation of Polyphonic
Music, 900–1600 (1942, rev. 5/1961) is also valuable for medieval
and Renaissance notations. For information on recent notational
usage the volumes by Read (1964 and 1978), Karkoschka
(Schriftbild, 1966) and Risatti (1975) may be found helpful.

(ii) Notes: shapes, colours, abbreviations.

Void (‘white’) notation (see §3(vii) above), with duple relationships
for the most part between note values, and dots (when used for
rhythmic purposes) only as dots of addition, was generally (though
not universally) adopted by the early 16th century in both vocal and
instrumental music, tablatures apart. It was generally adopted by
printers from Petrucci onwards, since it was readily adaptable to
printing from movable type; in some music, such as popular metrical
psalters, this notation survived virtually unchanged for centuries (as
in fig.50 , a 19th-century metrical psalter). Even when the
appearance of the notation changed, the representation of primary
(uninflected) pitches by their position on the staff, in the manner
established in the Middle Ages, remained unchanged in succeeding
centuries except in occasional instances where staff notation was
treated as a tablature. The latter may be seen in the modern
notation of harmonics on string instruments by finger position rather
than by sound, and more strikingly still from the 17th century in
Scordatura notation, where the written notes or chords represent
finger positions and, since the instrument is abnormally tuned, do
not correspond with the sounds. For the notation of accidentals, see
§(vi) below.

After 1600 black-full notation (i.e. where the note heads of minims
and higher values are black) was never again of great importance,
despite the advocacy of such a notation by Lacassagne (1766). It was
used for symbolic reasons in some works of the 15th, 16th and 17th
centuries, such as Ockeghem’s Missa ‘mi-mi’, with black-full notes at
the word ‘mortuorum’, and J.C. Kerll’s Missa nigra (see Eye music).
The opposition of void and full notes was used also in various 20th-
century reform proposals, for distinguishing pitches rather than
durations (e.g. in Equitone, where full notes are a semitone higher
than the equivalent void notes, and in Klavarskribo, where void and
full notes correspond with white and black notes on the modern
keyboard).

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 Red notes were still in occasional use at the beginning of the 16th
century for distinguishing rhythmic proportions (as in GB-Llp 1,
probably dating from the reign of Henry VIII), but dropped out of
general use as rhythmic style became simpler; their use would,
moreover, have entailed unnecessary expense in music printing.
They continued, however, to be described by theorists such as
Morley (A Plaine and Easie Introduction, 1597; ed. Harman, pp.
114ff), and red and other colours have remained in occasional use to
the present day in one of their oldest and simplest uses: to
distinguish individual strands of the notation from one another. Red,
green and black notes are used for this purpose in the 16th-century
manuscript D-Bsb Mus.ms.theor.57, and red and black notes on a
single staff in the 18th-century manuscript Bsb Mus.ms.40296. Red
is used to distinguish the main melody in 16th-century Spanish lute
tablatures (here with red numerals rather than red notes); and the
same principle appears in a few late 19th-century editions.
Dallapiccola used square red notes for a canon whose resolution is
printed in normal notation, in the ‘Andantino amoroso e
contrapunctus tertius’ from the Quaderno musicale di Annalibera
(1952). Other uses of colour include yellow or red for notes subject
to chromatic alteration (G.M. Trabaci).

Coloration in a more general sense – full notes used in opposition to

void notes for rhythmic purposes – survived in the 16th and 17th
centuries especially for expressing hemiola rhythms in 3/2 time,
three full semibreves or equivalent replacing two normal void dotted
semibreves. The derivation of these full semibreves from 14th- and
15th-century imperfect semibreves is clear, even though redundant
dots had been placed after perfect semibreves generally from about
1500; the continuing influence of 15th-century principles may be
seen in the omission of dots after ‘perfect’ void semibreves in even
so late a source as Caccini’s Euridice of 1600.

Soon after 1600, coloration was used for entire movements in

mensural notation, such as courantes, whether or not hemiola
rhythms were intended (fig.51a , from Frescobaldi, 1626, where the
rests show that the ‘crotchets’ are coloured minims). This practice,
derived from tablature notation, may have contributed to the
increasing use of the crotchet as the beat; in G.B. Fontana’s practice
(1641, fig.51b ) crotchet rests are used to correspond to coloured
minims, and the semibreve rest is used for a bar’s rest (Riemann,
1910, pp.140ff).

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 71. (a) Coloration used throughout a section in triple time, the notes
with stems (‘crotchets’) being equivalent in value to minim rests (see
line 2, bar 3) (Frescobaldi, ‘Il primo libro di capricci’; Venice: Alessandro
Vincenti, 1626) (b) Coloration used throughout a section in triple time,
the notes with stems (‘crotchets’) being equivalent in value to
semiminim rests (see system 2, bar 1) (G.B. Fontana, ‘Sonate a 1.2.3.’;
Venice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1641)

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

Smaller note values (fusa and semifusa) were increasingly used in

the 16th century, owing to, or resulting in, the slowing down of note
values in general (see §(iii) below). In the late Middle Ages, a
semiminim could be written as a coloured note (red in black
notation, black in void notation) with a stem but without a flag, or as
a non-coloured note with both stem and flag; this generated a series
of smaller note values with alternative forms, the non-coloured forms
bearing one more flag than the coloured. These alternative forms
remained theoretically available, although the coloured forms (as in

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 modern practice, where a crotchet is the coloured form of the
minim) have been generally preferred. This meant, paradoxically,
that as small note values were increasingly used, and especially as
the semiminim came to represent the beat at the end of the 16th
century, ‘void’ notation (i.e. notation in which the minim and larger
values were written with white note heads) consisted more and more
of black notes.

The non-coloured forms of the semiminim and below, which in the

16th century often occur in sections in fast triple time where the
time unit was the semibreve rather than the minim, survived until
the 18th century (fig.52 , from Couperin). By the time of Couperin
almost all the shorter note values used today may be found, mostly
in written-out ornamentation; both small and large note values, with
corresponding exceptional time signatures, occur for symbolic
reasons in Telemann’s Getreuer Music-Meister of 1728 (see Eye
music, fig.). Beethoven used small note values and rests
particularly lavishly (fig.53 , from the Fantasia op.77). For the
grouping of smaller note values by means of beams, and for the
continuing use of ligatures, see §(iv) below.

72. Void notation for a triple-time section in an 18th-century work (F.

Couperin, ‘Second livre de pieces de clavecin’; Paris, 1745)

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 73. Small note values in a slow tempo with quaver beats, including in
the penultimate bar semihemidemisemiquavers and a
semihemidemisemiquaver rest (Beethoven, Fantasia op.77; Vienna:
Artaria, c1810)

Standard small melodic formulae, mostly of short notes (ornaments),

had been abbreviated with special signs in keyboard tablatures from
the late Middle Ages onwards, and in medieval vocal music some
abbreviations are also found to indicate repeated material (for an
example see Isorhythm). The double bar with two (or four) dots to
indicate repetition is already found in essence in 15th-century
polyphony. A large vocabulary of signs indicating abbreviations of
ornaments, not generally precise before the 17th century, was
developed in the 18th century, especially in French keyboard and
lute music (see Ornaments, §7). Some notators, such as Bach, often
preferred to write ornaments out in full, a tendency increasingly
evident in the 19th century as improvised ornamentation declined
(see Improvisation, §II, 3(iv)). A parallel phenomenon was the
increasing reluctance of notators during the 19th century to
abbreviate at the repetitions of short phrases, for example in Alberti
basses. (For details of special notations for abbreviating repeated
notes and figures see Periodicals, .)

Notation for the Geneva melodies in a Malay metrical psalter, including

traditional clefs, time signatures, lozenge-shaped notes and the custos
at line ends (‘Sûrat Segala Mazmûr’; Haarlem: Enschedé, 1822) [tops of
two columns]

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 The lozenge-shaped notes of many 15th-century sources continued
to be used in much printing from movable type (see fig.50 above)
and in carefully written manuscripts throughout the 16th century.
Rounded note shapes came increasingly to replace them from as
early as the 15th century (fig. 74 , with pear-shaped notes, from
I-PEc G.20); no adequate reason seems yet to have been given for
this change. Etienne Briard jettisoned the lozenge-shaped notes in
favour of oval ones in French printing as early as about 1530, but in
England the change did not occur in printing until Carr’s Vinculum
societatis (1687; fig.54 ).

75. Modern oval notes, with modern bar-lines, beams and slurs (J. Carr,
‘Vinculum societatis’; London, 1687)

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 Notes of a smaller than normal size occur in early 19th-century
English songs, printed as keyboard music (i.e. with the vocal part
and accompaniment notated on two staves rather than three: see
§(v) below). The main melody is notated normally, whereas the
accompaniment on the upper staff is distinguished by small notes
(fig.55 ). The use of small notes to distinguish ornamentation,
alternative versions of passages or other subsidiary material became
normal in 19th-century piano music (fig.56 , from Chopin’s Prelude
op.28 no.8, published in 1839; the proportion of small notes to large
is particularly high). The small notes often did not count towards the
value of the full bar; sometimes they refer to notes intended to be
played very rapidly. (For the use of small notes to represent music
without a regular pattern of beats, see §(iii) below.)

76. Small notes distinguishing subsidiary material from a song melody

(R.A. Smith, ‘The Scottish Minstrel’, i; Edinburgh: Purdie, 1821)

77. Small notes, to be played in measured time, distinguishing

ornamental figuration (Chopin, Prelude op.28 no.8; Paris: Catelin, 1839)

Unconventional note shapes, like some coloured notes, have

occasionally been used within the normal mensural system for
special purposes (see fig.57 , with reversed note shapes
representing one strand of a complex texture). The problem of
differentiating such strands was solved by Schoenberg, on the other

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 hand, by the use of squared slurs joined to the capital letters H
(Hauptstimme, principal voice) or N (Nebenstimme, subordinate
voice).

78. Reversed notes distinguishing a subsidiary strand of the texture

(J.S. Bach, arr. M. Hess, ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’; London: Oxford
University Press, 1926); the small note in bar 1 of system 2 also has this
meaning, and the note in parentheses may be omitted

Since the reintroduction of the score, and particularly in the 20th

century, duration has frequently been related to the horizontal
distance between notes, though aesthetic considerations have often
led notators to place notes symmetrically between bar-lines, so that
arguments about simultaneity cannot usually be settled conclusively
by considering alignment. Thus the staff has been treated as the axis
of a graph; and, as far as this is true, the indication of duration by
note shapes is redundant. Reformers have sometimes attempted to
eliminate the redundancy: Hans Wagner (Vereinfachte Notenschrift,
1888) proposed the abolition of all note shapes but the semibreve.
The Equitone and Klavarskribo systems have attempted the same:
duration is related to the distance between notes, and note shapes
are used to represent pitch.

Other proposals for changing or abolishing the mensural note

shapes, up to the late 19th century, have generally been of little
practical significance. Examples are the 15th-century proposals of
Giorgio Anselmi to distinguish durations by ascending and
descending stems variously applied to a void breve shape (Gaffurius,
Practica musice, 1496, ii, chap.4) and, as one of the first efforts to
devise a thoroughly reformed notation, J. van der Elst’s series of
somewhat complex note shapes (fig.58 , from Notae Augustinianae,
1657; see also his Den ouden ende nieuwen grondt van de musijcke,
1662) for both vocal and instrumental notation. Another
unsuccessful reform, that of Sauveur (Système général des
intervalles des sons, 1701), attempted to give each pitch a distinctive
note shape, and may thus be seen as a forerunner of the 19th-
century shape-note system (see §5(iv) below; the shape-notes were
taken up and used in a different sense by Cowell: see §(iii) below).
(For details of other reforms, see Wolf, 1919, 335ff; for novel note
shapes representing various durations, see Risatti, 1975, pp.1ff.)

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 80. Proposed novel note shapes (right) compared with the established
shapes (left) (J. van der Elst, ‘Notae augustinianae’, Ghent, 1657)

For chords including several adjacent semitones, notated on a single

staff, traditional mensural notation is inadequate, allowing as it does
only for two vertical groups of notes a 3rd apart, either side of the
stem. From the early 20th century such chords were notated with
supplementary diagonal stems branching from the common stem, by
means of which the chords could include three vertical groups of
notes. The extension of such chords into clusters suggested the
adoption of abbreviated signs, notably those of Henry Cowell, which
have been adapted also to represent sustained clusters (see fig.59
and Risatti, 1975, pp.26–7, 36).

(iii) The division of time.

Vestiges of the system of proportional mensuration signs persisted to
the 18th century in some places. After 1500 the more complex
proportions are found only in theoretical works, and in a few 16th-
century polyphonic works to illustrate the text (e.g. the pieces by
Renaldi and Striggio quoted by Morley, 1597). Nevertheless
proportional signatures, in the form of fractions like those of the
15th century and, as then, cancelled by the reciprocals of the
fractions, were used in the 17th and the early 18th centuries in Italy
and Germany for pieces with short sections in different metres (e.g.
12/8 is cancelled by 8/12, 6/4 by 4/6). Apel’s suggestion (Notation of
Polyphonic Music, 5/1961, pp.163, 442) that these mensuration
changes might have carried connotations of tempo change seems
only speculative. Examples of this notation occur in Frescobaldi,
Corelli’s op.5, Georg Muffat (Apparatus musico-organisticus, 1690),
F.X. Murschhauser (Prototypon longo-breve organicum, 1707) and
the manuscript CS-KRa II/133. On the more complicated question of 𝇍
and 𝇍 as proportional signatures, see below.

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 A fundamental change in tactus notation occurred, however, from
the 17th century; it eroded the significance of proportional
signatures for tempo, and makes unambiguous determination of
tempo very difficult in a good deal of later music. In medieval
notation there was a progressive slowing down of note values (see §3
above), and this continued during the 16th century, partly no doubt
owing to the proliferation of short note values. By the second half of
the century the minim had become the normal beat in polyphony. But
this slowing down did not continue uniformly throughout the
polyphonic repertory: even though the crotchet became the main
time unit for much music in the 17th century, the minim continued to
be the normal beat in much music produced for popular
consumption, such as the metrical psalters and hymnals, and in
church music in the stile antico. Indeed it still survives as the normal
beat in hymn tunes and Anglican chants; the crotchet has only
recently taken its place in some hymn tunes, and then usually only
when settings are complex or connotations of a modern style are
sought.

The change, then, lies largely in the increasing readiness of notators

arbitrarily to adopt different note lengths as the main beat in
different contexts (for an example of this see Madrigal,). This variety
in tactus notation presumably had its roots in the 15th-century
notation of augmentation and diminution, which continued to be
expounded as the basis for theoretical distinctions such as those
between 𝇍 and 𝇍. By the time of Beethoven any note value between
the semiquaver and the dotted minim was capable of functioning as
the main beat (compare parts of the Arietta of the Sonata op.111,
fig.63 below, with his scherzos: that of the Ninth Symphony includes
specific recognition of the dotted minim as the beat – ‘ritmo di tre
battute’, etc.).

With this increasing variety of augmentation and diminution,

especially from the 18th century, any note value could theoretically
function as the beat, independent of considerations of tempo,
through a novel explanation of fractional time signature (found at
least as early as G.M. Bononcini’s Musico prattico, 1673). Here, as in
modern theory, the denominator of the fraction representing the
time signature indicates the note value on which the metre is based
(usually the beat, with the figure 1 for the semibreve, 2 for the
minim, 4 for the crotchet etc.), and the numerator indicates the
number of such note values to the bar.

Parallel with the partial emancipation of the time signature from

tempo, there were two developments tending to make the
determination of tempo and time easier: the increased use of bar-
lines and of verbal specifications of tempo. Vertical lines had been
used through staves in medieval score notation, not in their modern
sense as bar-lines but to divide sections from one another; but some
15th- and 16th-century keyboard and lute sources include the visual
separation of units of one or more bars, either by a space left
between them or by a bar-line. Such bar-lines are used with varying

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 degrees of consistency and frequency (for bar-lines marking off
single beats, see Apel, 1942, p.67). The bar-line was used in vocal
music also (mainly in scores) from the late 16th century, but was not
adopted generally in mensural notation until the 18th century. Even
later than that some notation lacked it, as do some 19th- and 20th-
century editions of old music. In 20th-century music dotted bar-lines
were used to clarify the subdivisions of larger bars, as in Debussy’s
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir (from Préludes, i,
1910). (For the use of conflicting bar-lines, see below.)

The increasing unreliability of time signatures as indicators of tempo

is also reflected in the adoption of Italian (and later German, English
and other) terms for this purpose. These tempo indications (in
Donington’s terminology, ‘time-words’: see Interpretation of Early
Music, 3/1974, pp.386ff), like bar-lines, seem to have appeared first
in polyphonic music for soloists, perhaps because of the complexity
of this music from the individual performer’s point of view when
compared with vocal music. Tempo indications occur in Luis de
Milán’s El maestro (1536) but were not generally adopted before the
17th century: the terms adagio, allegro, grave, largo, lento and
presto are attested between 1596 and 1619, with others during the
17th century. These tempo indications have not always carried their
present connotations, nor has their significance always been precise.
From the early 19th century (Beethoven) they were supplemented
still further by metronome indications, and in the 20th century
(Bartók) by precise indications of the duration of a piece in minutes
and seconds (see Tempo and expression marks and Metronome).

Despite these developments, time signatures never completely lost

their associations with tempo, although the associations of numerical
(fractional) time signatures, taken in isolation, are seldom
unambiguous. No consistency exists in the music of the last three
centuries even in the relationship between the note values chosen to
function as beats and tempo.

With 𝇈 and 𝇍, the circular and semicircular signatures inherited from

the Middle Ages, practice was even more confused. Theorists
continued to expound the significance of vertical bars in time
signatures (as in 𝇍), and of the reversal of symbols (e.g. in 𝇌) as
signifying diminution; but even when distinctions can be drawn
between 𝇍 meaning 4/4 and 𝇉 (‘alla breve’) meaning 2/2 or 4/2 (the
latter, for example, in the Credo of Bach’s B minor Mass), it is by no
means clear that the tempos of the beats were intended to be
equivalent. In the 16th century the sign 𝇍 became uncommon, the
basic duple metre of most polyphony being signified by 𝇍; precisely
the reverse convention became common at the beginning of the 17th
century, and the reason for the change is obscure, for no change in
meaning seems necessarily to have been intended. This change
occurred in English music printing quite suddenly about 1594 in
madrigal partbooks and about 1621 in psalm books: see fig.60 .
These signs may enclose a dot without changing in meaning.
Similarly, 𝇉 is sometimes used as a synonym for 𝇈, 𝇍 3, 𝇍 3/2, 𝇊 3/2, 𝇍

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 3/2, 3, 3/1 and so on, for quick triple time; from the 17th century 𝇈
and 𝇉 seem to have been dropped until 𝇉 was later revived with a
new meaning (see below). These time signatures were used without
total consistency well into the 19th century at least; Schubert often
used 𝇍 adagio movements in 4/4 and 𝇍 for fast movements, whereas
Bruckner used 𝇍 for fast 4/4 movements and 𝇍 for slow movements.
(In the first movement of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, moreover, it
is hard to see a real tempo difference being intended between the
allegro moderato 𝇍 of the opening and the ruhig 𝇍 at bar 51.) Even
books of rudiments may imply that 𝇍 and 𝇍 are synonyms (Dibdin,
Music Epitomized, 1808 edn., p.37).

84. English psalm book with a 𝇍 time signature with an imperfectly

deleted bar (Sternhold and Hopkins, ‘The Whole Booke of Psalmes’;
London: Stationers’ Company, 1626)

The most that can be said is that vertical bars in time signatures,
and reversed (‘retorted’) signs, indicate relatively fast tempos, but
not always reliably; this is particularly likely when 𝇍 is used for music

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 in the stile antico, or when the time signature changes during the
course of a piece. (For relevant passages from a wide variety of
theorists, see Donington, Interpretation of Early Music, 3/1974, pp.
405ff.) There has been no thorough investigation of time signatures
used since the 16th century; the degree of ambiguity at different
times and places can scarcely be assessed, and the reasons for it are
unknown.

Signs sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries as equivalents

of 4/2 (‘great alla breve’) rather than 𝇍 (2/2 or 4/4) include 2/1, 𝇉,
revived in a new sense (e.g. Bach, Gigue from Partita no.6, BWV830),
CC (Rossini), 𝇍 𝇍 and 𝇍 𝇍 (Schubert, Impromptu D899 no.3, altered to 𝇍
by Schubert’s publisher). 𝇉 was sometimes written as 𝇌 | 𝇌 (i.e. with
its elements spaced out).

Even when the tempo implied by a time signature is clear, divisions

of the time within individual bars are not always literally those
written, even apart from considerations of agogics, in terms of which
most notators intended the written note values to be interpreted
with some degree of rhythmic freedom. Unwritten rhythmic
conventions cannot generally be guessed in European music before
the 16th century. At that period Tomás de Santa María wrote of pairs
of notes written equal but intended to be played unequally (Arte de
tañer fantasia, 1565); this may have been widespread, and a similar
practice is well attested in 17th- and 18th-century France (see Notes
inégales). In some cases of unequal performance of note pairs, the
first note of each pair was to be lengthened; in others it was the
second note, though this was generally indicated in some other way.
Even written-out ornaments must have been subject to some
rhythmic alteration in practice: some trills written as successions of
even rapid notes were intended to begin slowly and then speed up.
Such practice was in certain contexts so much a matter of course
that notational devices were used to indicate the absence of
inequality: either a verbal direction (e.g. ‘notes égales’) or dots
written over individual notes (Marin Marais). A comparable
unwritten rhythmic convention, attested in some 19th-century
keyboard music, is the introduction of unwritten rhetorical pauses
(see Franklin Taylor’s preface to his Clementi edition, concerning
the Didone abbandonata Sonata), though Lussy (1874) sought to
restrict this practice to salon pieces (Eng. trans., pp.207–8).

Discrepancies between written and intended rhythms are

particularly likely when different strands of the texture are notated
in different time signatures; these multiple time signatures (in
Read’s terminology, ‘polymeters’) occur fairly frequently in the 18th
century (as in Bach and Mozart). In such cases it is usually at least
possible that the conflicting rhythms which result are to be
accommodated to one another (for exceptions, see below). Dotted-
note figures with duple subdivisions against triplets are cases in
point: particularly in late Baroque music it often seems likely that
dotted rhythms are to be relaxed into triplet rhythms: the use of a
crotchet and quaver under the numeral 3 (and often slurred), for the

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 more accurate notation of triplet rhythms in cases such as these, is
attested in the mid-18th century (Arne, 1756; see fig.61 , where it is
immediately adjacent to the older convention) but not generally used
before the 19th. In some 19th-century notation, for example chorus
parts in Verdi operas, the accommodation of dotted rhythms to
triplets also seems highly probable. There is even some evidence in
the 19th century of duplets in a melody and triplets in an
accompaniment being accommodated to each other (Bochsa, New
and Improved Method of Instruction for the Harp, c1818–19, p.60);
although theorists explain triplets as three notes in the time of two,
they do not always state that all the notes involved are equal in
length. Some piano notation, with polyphonic figuration and notes
occurring in more than one polyphonic voice, absolutely requires
accommodation of the rhythms, though its evidence ought not,
perhaps, to be pressed into proving rhythmic accommodation
elsewhere. The correct practice in Schubert’s music, where dotted
and triplet rhythms often appear simultaneously, is particularly
difficult to establish (see MT, civ (1963), 626, 713, 797, 873).

85. Three different but perhaps synonymous rhythmic conventions in a

single piece in 6/8 time: crotchet-quaver alone (bar 8), crotchet-quaver
with a figure 3 signifying a triplet (penultimate bar), and dotted quaver-
semiquaver (system 2, bar 1) (T.A. Arne, ‘VIII Sonatas or Lessons’;
London: Walsh, 1756)

On the other hand, even an apparently straightforward case of

dotted notes against triplets in Paisiello was cited as early as 1806
by Callcott (fig. 87 , from A Musical Grammar, p.236, repeated in
many subsequent editions) as an ambiguous case: ‘There is some
doubt whether this Melody should be played as written, or as if it
were compound; that is, one dotted Crotchet, one Crotchet, and one
Quaver, in the first Measure’. The possibility of maintaining
conflicting rhythms in certain contexts had been raised by some in

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 the second half of the 18th century (Quantz, Eng. trans., 1966, p.82;
Türk, 1789). A general tendency in cases of conflict to accommodate
all rhythms to the most relaxed within a texture ultimately lacks
logic, and a cautious approach combined with aesthetic judgment
seems advisable in the present lack of detailed studies based on a
large cross-section of notational evidence.

A distinction between intended and written rhythms, literally

interpreted, is likely, on the grounds of the category to which a piece
belongs, until the 19th century at least and even later in popular
music. Double-dotting, though attested in Marais as early as 1701,
is, like the precise notation of triplets, uncommon in mensural
notation before the 19th century; yet the French overture is a well-
known example of a category with a well-defined tradition of tempo
and double-dotting in performance, which was required but not
normally spelt out in the notation. There were conventions
concerning the tempo and rhythmic features of various categories,
particularly dances, such as the minuet, gavotte, chaconne and
pastorale; these conventions varied to some extent according to
period and country, and were sometimes ambiguous even to
contemporaries. Nevertheless the notation used for them might for
the sake of convenience vary in literal detail from the intended
effect, if there was no danger of misunderstanding at the time – for
example in the choice of 𝇍 as the time signature of a gigue, with
quick triple time intended throughout (see Ferguson, 1975, pp.92–3).

The tradition-bound approach to notation implicit in practice such as

this led some to retain traditional ‘category’ notation even when the
notation was no longer suitable to the category. Chopin, for example,
retained the 3/4 time signature of the scherzo (descended from the
18th-century minuet) even though the tempo had so greatly
increased by his time that the bar contains only one beat, and single
phrases frequently contain notes tied over three or four bars, as well
as rests of two bars or more (fig.62 ). According to later 19th-
century rhythmic theory, this traditional notation seemed inadequate
(for criticisms of category notation based ultimately on this theory,
see S. Macpherson, 1908, rev. 1915, pp.39ff, and 1911, rev. 1932, p.
17). Nevertheless, category (or rather style) notation remained alive
in 20th-century popular music notation: notated almost universally
in 𝇍, it very often requires to be interpreted on grounds of style as if
notated with unequal pairs of notes closer to 12/8; moreover, certain
other rhythmic characteristics (syncopation etc.) are frequently
required by the style though not spelt out in the notation.

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 88. Notation of a fast scherzo in the traditional 3/4, although this tends
to obscure the rhythmic structure (Chopin, Scherzo op.54, 1842;
autograph, PL-Kj)

Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakow

In addition to these complexities, there are many contexts in 18th-

century music where triple subdivisions of notes are extensively
tolerated. The lack of theoretical provision for such practice at times
renders passages difficult to read: a notable example is the Arietta of
Beethoven’s sonata op.111 (fig.63 ) where the demisemiquavers are
to be taken as ‘perfect’ in the medieval sense unless followed by a
hemidemisemiquaver and thus rendered ‘imperfect’ (this detail of
Beethoven’s notation survives in modern editions of the sonatas).

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 89. A mixture of triple and duple subdivisions of semiquavers and, in
the 12/32 section, demisemiquavers (Beethoven, Piano Sonata op.111;
London: Clementi, 1823); in the second 12/32 bar, for example,
demisemiquavers equal three hemidemisemiquavers except when
followed and ‘imperfected’ by a single hemidemisemiquaver

The confusion in the use of time signatures and subdivision of beats,

especially in relation to tempo, was recognized by Riemann
(Musikalische Dynamik und Agogik, 1884). He recognized that the
choice of note length for the beat was often arbitrary, particularly
since 6/8, for example, could represent either two or six beats to the
bar. Accordingly, and to facilitate the representation of beats with
triple subdivisions, he proposed a system of time signatures based
on the beat, ignoring differences that had long been artificial, such
as that between 2/4 and 2/8. In his reformed system, time signatures
were to comprise simple integers (e.g. 2, for two beats to the bar,
whatever their nominal value), integers separated by dots (e.g. 2.3,
meaning six beats in two groups of three each) or fractions (e.g. 2/3,
meaning two beats with triple subdivisions, or 3.2/3 meaning six
beats with triple subdivisions in three groups of two). However
soundly based and economical, this ingenious system did not win
general acceptance, though the use of the simple integer (found with
a more restricted meaning earlier in the French Baroque), omitting
the denominator of the conventional fractional time signature, is
fairly widespread in 20th-century mensural notation.

Another abortive attempt to increase the variety of the subdivisions

of the beat, in this case well beyond the capacity even of 14th-
century Ars Subtilior notation though not matching the theoretical
potential of 15th-century proportional notation, was the system
proposed by Henry Cowell. He sought to supplement the traditional
vocabulary of note lengths with ‘two-third notes’, ‘four-fifth notes’,
‘four-seventh notes’ (i.e. as fractions of a semibreve) and further
submultiples of the semibreve, which were to be represented with
void notes of various shapes without stems (triangles, squares,
lozenges etc.). Some of these shapes were borrowed from traditional
American shape-note notation (see §5(iv) below). These notes would
then generate others by the addition of stems and flags, in the same
way as the semibreve: with a stem, for example, ‘third-notes’, ‘two-
fifth notes’, ‘two-seventh notes’ and so forth. The system is
exemplified in Cowell’s Fabric of 1917, published in 1922 (fig. 90 :
see also Read, 1964, 2/1969, pp.76–7; Stone, 1963, p.19). A further
system of durational proportions, based on ratios and not requiring
novel note shapes – and thus more flexible than Cowell’s system –
has been adopted by Stockhausen (Klavierstück I).

Multiple time signatures occasionally occur from the 18th century in

pieces where there is clearly no question of accommodating the
rhythms in one part to those in another: Fux’s Concentus musico-
instrumentalis (DTÖ, xlvii, Jg.xxiii/2) has a movement with a

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 simultaneous ‘Aria italiana’ in 6/8 and an ‘Aire française’ in 𝇍; and the
‘Fanfare’ from La triomphante in Couperin’s tenth ordre (fig.64 ) has
conflicting signatures, with the explanatory note ‘Quoy que les
valeurs du dessus ne semblent pas se raporter avec celles de la
basse; il est d’usage de le marquer ainsi’. In some 20th-century
music and editions of older music, both conflicting signatures and
conflicting bar-lines may be found (figs.65 and 66 : examples from
Bartók, String Quartet no.3, 1929, and an edition of Monteverdi
madrigals by Leichtentritt).

91. Notation with conflicting time signatures, 9/8 against 3/4 (F.
Couperin, ‘La triomphante’, from ‘Second livre de piéces de clavecin’;
Paris, 1733)

93. Score notation of early music with conflicting bar-lines

(Monteverdi, ed. H. Leichtentritt, ‘12 fünfstimmige Madrigale’; Leipzig:
Peters, 1909)

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 Time signatures representing additive metres (those in which the
beats within a bar cannot be subdivided into groups of equal size)
are found in the 18th century: Handel included a few orchestral bars
in 5/8 in Orlando (1733) to represent madness; Burney (History)
termed this ‘a division of time which can only be borne in such a
situation’. (The principle of additive rhythm occurs much earlier
than this in vers mesurés à l’antique.) Additive time signatures were
used by Reicha (‘3/8 et 2/8’), Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Bartók (3 + 3 + 2
over 8) and others, but Moritz Hauptmann’s rhythmic theory
regarded them as ‘inorganic’ and thus to be condemned (1853, Eng.
trans., 1888, pp.196ff). A list of 20th-century works with additive
and other unusual signatures may be found in Read, 1964, 2/1969,
pp.159ff; some are based (not necessarily consistently) on small
rapid note values, rather than beats, as the unit for the numerator of
the fraction. A variant of this occurs in Stockhausen’s Klavierstück I,
with the smallest note value, not necessarily directly represented in
the changing time signatures, regarded as the basic time division. As
changes of time signature within a piece became increasingly
common in the 20th century, various notational details were
simplified: the double bar previously usual before a change was
often reduced to an ordinary single bar-line, time signatures were
enlarged and written between the staves, or above the staff
(Debussy).

For music partly or entirely outside a system of regular beats,

notational practice has varied. The oldest sign representing an
indefinite prolonging of a note’s duration is the pause sign or
fermata (a semicircle over a dot), inherited from the Middle Ages
and still universally used in Western notation (in the 20th century it
was sometimes modified to provide various degrees of extra length,
or inverted to signify shortening rather than lengthening). Relatively
lengthy passages of music without a regular metric beat occur from
the 17th century onwards in recitative; Italian recitative was
normally divided arbitrarily into bars of four beats, with 𝇍 as a time
signature, whereas French recitative was notated with frequent
changes of time signature more closely reflecting the declamation of
the text. (The arbitrary use of a time signature in Italian recitative is
paralleled by the occasional 16th- and 17th-century practice of
notating pieces in duple metre even though their musical sense is
triple: see Apel, Notation, pp.66–7.) An experimental notation is
found in some French harpsichord pieces of the last quarter of the
17th century and the early 18th century, where conventional time
divisions are quite abandoned and the music notated either entirely
in ‘semibreves’ grouped with slurs, or in a mixture of ‘semibreves’
joined with slurs and ‘short note values’ joined with beams (fig. 94 ;
for details of this notation and its interpretation see Prélude non
mesuré, and Moroney, 1976).

Various methods were used from the 18th century to notate irregular
expressive melodies in free rhythm in instrumental music as for
example in written-out cadenzas or in keyboard fantasias (Mozart,
Beethoven). They may be notated, like Italian recitative, by using a

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 regular time signature and bar-lines and by dividing the passage
arbitrarily into beats, as in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (fourth
movement) or in his Piano Sonata op.31 no.2 (first movement). This
notation has been maintained by later composers, including Wagner,
for the shepherd’s piping in Act 3 scene i of Tristan und Isolde.
Alternatively the passages may be written without a time signature,
either in notes of conventional size, or in small notes, or a mixture of
the two, grouped with beams as required to clarify the accentuation,
and with any bar-lines irregularly placed as an auxiliary means of
grouping: this method was used by Mozart and many later
composers.

In notation of this sort the note values carry only imprecise

connotations of duration. A more systematic use of imprecise
durations was required in some 20th-century works: notes of
indeterminate length were notated in various novel ways, sometimes
with imprecise distinctions between longer and shorter notes (see
Risatti, 1975, pp.1ff). In some 20th-century music, great rhythmic
variety within the texture had to be represented without the aid of
regular beats in any strand, and increased precision was sought in
the notation of accelerandos and decelerandos, previously indicated
only with verbal directions in the score. This was sometimes
achieved through the modification of aspects of notation not
formerly used to represent the division of time: converging and
diverging multiple beams used for groups of short note values
notated in an otherwise traditional fashion may denote increasing
and decreasing tempos; or staves may be slanted upwards from the
horizontal to denote an increase in tempo and downwards to denote
a decrease in tempo (Bussotti). Other devices include the
multiplication of metronome indications at short intervals, the use of
‘+’ and ‘−’ signs for (imprecise) tempo changes and so on (see
Risatti, 1975, pp.21ff). Rhythmic proportions more complex than
those available with the traditional numerals (3 = three in the time
of two, 5 = five in the time of four, etc.) have been represented by a
precise spacing of notes to a specific scale (e.g. one second to 2·5 cm
of score); this notation may be supplemented with auxiliary signs
specifying the duration of individual ‘bars’ (short subdivisions)
within the music, resembling the specifications of precise lengths in
an architectural scale-drawing. In 20th-century music generally,
whatever the style, vertical alignment of different parts of the
texture became a generally reliable indication of the order in which
notes are to be sounded, and whether or not notes are simultaneous;
and spacing of notes tends generally to be proportional to their
durations.

(iv) The joining and separation of notes.

15th-century ligature theory was fully expounded by Morley (1597),
and still appears in 17th-century didactic material; but it was not
always thoroughly understood, even by theorists, and the only

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 ligature to remain in fairly common use was that ‘with opposite
propriety’ signifying two semibreves. Even this ligature was confined
mostly to music in the stile antico. The ligature system was unsuited
to printing by movable type, and since it applied only to long note
values it was relatively useless after the minim had become the basic
beat in polyphony. The two-semibreve ligature survived in Austria as
late as the first half of the 18th century (Fux).

Ligatures had always been relatively uncommon in keyboard and

other instrumental notation, but a comparable device had been the
beam, found in some but not all early keyboard sources to join
together groups of small note values (e.g. in the Buxheimer
Orgelbuch, D-Mbs Cim.352b and in some sources to join groups of
rhythm signs together in a characteristic grid pattern. In these
sources the primary sense of the beam is rhythmic, since the first of
any group of notes joined together is stressed; this continued to be
the meaning of the beam in instrumental music even after it had
been transferred to vocal music. Another device comparable to the
ligature was the slur or tie; the latter occurs in 16th-century
keyboard sources such as Cavazzoni’s Recerchari, motetti, canzoni
(1523) and Buus’s Intabolatura d’organo (1549; fig.67 ). Both the
beam and the slur came to be used in vocal music for a purpose
originally served by the ligature: to join together the notes to be
sung to a single syllable, the slur for long note values, and both the
beam and the slur for short ones. Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, iii,
2/1619) recommended the slur in place of all ligatures save that
‘with opposite propriety’; both the slur and the beam are used to join
notes to be sung to a single syllable in Gabriel Bataille’s Airs de
différents autheurs (1608; fig.68 ), and occur generally, though not
always consistently, in 17th-century printed collections and
manuscripts of vocal music from Italy and southern Germany. They
occur for a similar purpose in English printed music first in the
Vinculum societatis of J. Carr (1687; see fig.54 above); it is not clear
which (perhaps both) of these notational innovations is intended by
the ‘vinculum’ of the title.

96. 16th-century Italian keyboard notation, including ties across bar-

lines with the beginnings and ends of ties separated where necessary (J.
Buus, ‘Intabolatura d’organo’; Venice: Antonio Gardane, 1549)

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 97. Staff notation for the vocal line (using bars and slurs) with
tablature for the lute (G. Bataille, ‘Airs de différents autheurs’; Paris:
Pierre Ballard, 1608)

This 17th-century convention still survives in most vocal music,

though some notators have begun to adopt a notation more closely
resembling instrumental notation, since syllabic vocal music is often
difficult to read if small note values are at all numerous. 20th-
century additions to it in scholarly editions of old music included
square slurs to represent notes originally grouped as ligatures, and
dotted, hairline or slashed slurs to differentiate editorial from
original ones. Even Lussy in the 19th century, despite his concern to
use the beam in the service of rhythmic theory, made a specific
exception in favour of traditional vocal notation (Eng. trans., p.29).

In instrumental music the beam continued to be used for joining

together small notes, in groups generally corresponding to a single
beat or to simple multiples and submultiples of beats. An extension
of its use occurred in the breaking of secondary beams (generally all
but the first beam) within a group to clarify the subdivisions of the
group, a practice not apparently found in Beethoven but attested at
least as early as Liszt (fig. 98 , from his Fantaisie romantique sur
deux mélodies suisses, 1837 edn) and adopted by many later
notators, including Reger. This notation was recommended by Lussy
since it clarified accentuation within groups, and is now part of
standard notational practice (Read, 1964, 2/1969, pp.83–4).

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 Certain simple standard formulae involving syncopation had been
notated since the Middle Ages contrary to the principle that a note
or rest symbol should always occur on each beat, the note being tied
to the last note of the previous beat if necessary. The chief examples
of these exceptions were patterns involving a note value between
two of the next shorter note value (e.g. quaver-crotchet-quaver) and
dotted notes; and until the 18th century at least, it was possible to
write a void note with a bar-line passing through it, or a note in one
bar and its dot in the next (the latter device occurs occasionally even
in Brahms’s practice). Other unorthodox groupings of notes,
uncommon up to the 18th century, were used more frequently from
the early 19th; they were condemned in terms of later 19th-century
rhythmic theory.

Some 19th-century unorthodox rhythmic groupings of notes were

undertaken purely for considerations of simplicity, for example
Clementi’s use in Gradus ad Parnassum of a minim (meaning a
dotted crotchet tied to a quaver) in 9/8 time (fig.69 ). Some,
however, represent the first examples of beaming across beats and
across bar-lines in order to clarify cross-rhythms. This latter
practice, whose introduction is often erroneously attributed to early
20th-century composers, is found occasionally in Beethoven’s
notation, notably in the Rondo of his Piano Sonata op.10 no.3, 1793
(fig.70 ), though it is exceptional as early as this. It occurs in
Schumann’s notation of his characteristic staggered rhythmic
groups as early as his ‘Abegg’ Variations op.1 (1830) and more
extensively in later works such as Carnaval (1834–5: fig.71 ). The
practice is important in the notation of 20th-century composers such
as Stravinsky, Bartók and Prokofiev. Some 19th-century notators,
including Brahms, sometimes used slurs across bar-lines to achieve
the same effect. The use of beams over rests, again in the interest of
clarifying rhythm, is also attested in the first half of the 19th century
though it is often attributed to 20th-century notators.

99. Unorthodox rhythmic notation for the sake of convenience: a minim

used for a dotted crotchet tied to a quaver (Clementi, ‘Gradus ad
Parnassum’; Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1817–26)

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 100. Beaming across bar-lines (Beethoven, Piano Sonata op.10 no.3;
Vienna: Eder, 1798)

101. Beaming across bar-lines throughout to show cross-rhythms

(Schumann, ‘Paganini’, from ‘Carnaval’ op.9; Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1837)

Further 20th-century developments involving beams included beams

broken by notes or rests but visually continuing through them
(Debussy, as in fig.72 , from Danseuses de Delphes, from Préludes, i,
1910, and later composers), rests connected to beams with stems
(Stockhausen, as in fig.73 , from Klavierstück IV; any distinctions
intended by the various ways of connecting the rests and beams
seem obscure), and notes written as single notes (with flags) but
joined together with beams (Boulez, Le marteau sans maître, 1953–5
and others; this symbol has been used in conflicting senses). (For the
use of beams to group together relatively fast notes of imprecise
value, and to indicate duration in other ways, see Risatti, 1975, pp.
7ff.)

Since the 16th century, slurs have come to be used for various other
purposes; all of these imply joining together two or more notes. For
example, slurs in instrumental music might by the 17th century refer
to bowing, breathing or tonguing units (see fig.74 ) and hence,
sometimes, phrasing (see Donington, Interpretation, 3/1974, pp.473–
4), sometimes denoting that the first note under the slur was to be
accented, or, with quavers slurred in pairs in the French Baroque
style, that a rhythmic inequality was intended (see Notes inégales).

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 (For further details on early conventions for notating bowing, see
Wolf, 1919, 240–41; for further on phrasing slurs, see below.) In
keyboard music, from the 18th century at the latest, rapid slurred
white-note scales implied a glissando, single or double, as in Bach’s
Concerto in C for two harpsichords BWV1061, and Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata in C op.53, last movement; the glissando (here termed
‘sdrucciolato’) and other special effects are illustrated in a didactic
‘Lesson … of Different Touches’ in Pasquali’s Art of Fingering (?
1760; fig.75 ). Vertical slurs beside chords in 18th- and 19th-century
keyboard music indicated, like the short angled line through the
chord, and wavy lines (at first an alternative form) that have now
superseded both, that the chords were to be broken or ‘sprinkled’.

105. 17th-century English viol tablature, with slurs indicating that

notes are to be bowed together and with other special signs to indicate
various graces (GB-Mp 832 Vu51, Manchester Lyra Viol MS, p.127)

Manchester public Libraries

Despite the early use of the slur for phrasing, consistency in the use
of the legato slur was apparently not generally achieved until the
middle of the 19th century. Slurs imply in a general way that the
music is to be performed legato, and the notes at the beginnings and
ends of the slurs are usually not intended to be given any special
treatment (for Berlioz’s practice, which may not have been peculiar
to him, see Temperley, ‘Berlioz and the Slur’, ML, 1, 1969, p.388–92).
The desire of notators to represent phrasing more precisely seems
likely to have developed from the rhythmic theory of the second half
of the 19th century. Lussy deplored the lax practice of earlier
notators (Eng. trans., p.44) and proposed that in keyboard notation
the slur should represent phrasing by being equated with physical
action: ‘All the notes … covered by a slur … should be played … with
a single movement of the wrist for the first note, and the other notes
must be articulated by the fingers alone, the hand merely gliding to
right or left without any further movement of the wrist’. (The
practice of placing a dot under the last note of a slurred group at

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 this period, presumably indicating staccato detachment of that note,
was deplored by Lussy on the grounds that it misled performers into
accenting these notes.) Later writers who distinguished between
traditional notation and accurate phrasing notation include Tobias
Matthay (The Slur or Couplet of Notes, London, 1928) and Stewart
Macpherson, who devoted considerable space to an attack on
traditional notation and an exposition of the ‘correct uses of
notational signs’ (Studies in Phrasing and Form, rev. 1932, pt.i),
requiring editors to adopt consistent phrasing notation rather than
reproduce the original ‘with an almost touching fidelity’. Riemann
(Musik-Lexikon, 1882) sought still further precision, because of the
ambiguity of the slur: he proposed the use of squared slurs or
commas in order to avoid confusion with the legato slur, but from
1900 used both squared and conventional slurs for phrasing. For an
example of the complexity of Riemann’s phrasing notation as evolved
for his special ‘phrasing editions’ of various classical works, see fig.
76 . The comma was frequently used in 20th-century notation, as in
Riemann’s, in order to notate articulation in a melody (see also
Rhythm).

107. Phrasing notation designed by Riemann as systematic musical

punctuation: slurs and small vertical dashes mark off the rhythmic units
of his theory; bracketed numerals indicate the incidence, or distortion,
of 8-bar phrases (W.F. Bach, Suite, g, ed. H. Riemann; Leipzig:
Steingräber, 1893)

Debussy seems to have broken new ground with ties and slurs,
particularly in indicating their beginnings and endings separately
(La fille aux cheveux de lin), and, later, in notating chords sustained
over two or more bars by a series of small ties across the bar-line,
without repetition of the chords themselves. He also used ties to

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 indicate, without theoretical accuracy, that notes within a broken
chord were to be sustained until, and beyond, the end of a bar (fig.
108 , from Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses, from Préludes, ii,
1913).

Special notation for various degrees of articulation: ‘sdr’ and slurs for
sdrucciolato or glissando, ‘st’ and dashes for staccato, ‘st.mo’ and slurs
over dotted notes for staccatissimo (a series of markedly detached notes
all to be played with the same finger) (N. Pasquali, ‘The Art of Fingering
the Harpsichord’; Edinburgh: Bremner, ?1760) [bars 1–6, 8–14]

Signs indicating the separation of notes, motifs and phrases rather

than their conjunction are found in the early 17th century: Cavalieri
used a signum at the ends of lines of text in vocal parts, perhaps, as
Schering suggested, indicating breathing marks (fig. 109 , from
Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, 1600: GMB, p.183; see
Signum concordantiae and Fermata). This usage may be seen in
chorales of Bach’s time and Bach himself used a fermata on the last
note of the phrase of a cantus firmus in chorale preludes, even
though the accompanying figuration allows no pause. Staccato signs
(dots or vertical dashes) are found in the Baroque period; for the
sake of illustration Pasquali (1758; fig.75 ) distinguished several
different degrees of articulation, but distinctions between dots,
dashes and other symbols became generally consistent only in the
19th century. Some of these symbols, including dots, seem also to
have meant accents; it is not always clear in Chopin’s music, for
example, whether bass notes with dots over or under them are to be
detached or accented. In the late 19th and the 20th centuries,
notably in the music of Reger, Debussy and Schoenberg, an
elaborate hierarchy of some dozen different combinations of signs
has sometimes been used to cover the range from strong accents to
lightly detached notes, and numerals have sometimes been
substituted for these (e.g. Read, 1964, chap.15). Many new symbols
were introduced in the 20th century to denote related matters such
as attack and playing technique on specific instruments.

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 (v) Clefs, staves, leger lines.
The F and C clefs, positioned so as to avoid leger lines, were
supplemented from the 14th century with the G clef and a bass G or
gamma clef (fixing bass G), in order to allow further exploration of
the treble and bass registers without the necessity for leger lines.
From the 15th century standard combinations of clefs became
increasingly common in vocal music: three-part songs were often
notated with a C clef on the first line for the upper voice and C clefs
on the fourth line for tenor and contratenor. Later, standard
combinations of three different clefs came to be used in four-part
songs. In 16th-century polyphony, after Petrucci’s publications,
combinations of four different clefs became more common and the
combination of soprano, alto, tenor and bass clefs – that is, C clefs
on the first, third and fourth lines and an F clef on the fourth line –
first became standard, together with the combinations of transposed
clefs, used to avoid leger lines (and obsolete by the 17th century),
known as Chiavette.

Small notes distinguishing subsidiary material from a song melody (R.A.

Smith, ‘The Scottish Minstrel’, i; Edinburgh: Purdie, 1821)

From the 17th century the G clef was increasingly used, especially in
instrumental notation. It occurs on the first line for violins and
recorders (Lully): this practice was largely French but also occurred
in Germany (Bach used it mainly for the Violino piccolo). But
increasingly it came to appear on the second line, as in modern
practice, for all instruments of treble range. It occurs in 17th- and
18th-century English vocal and keyboard music, for example, in the
upper staves of songs notated as keyboard music (melody line and
bass, without a separate staff for the keyboard right hand; for a later
example of this usage, see fig.55 above). Purcell used it in vocal
ensemble music for the treble line, with C clefs for alto and tenor

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 lines. The form of the G clef found in Vinculum societatis of 1687
(see fig.54 above) occurs throughout the 18th century in English
notation.

C clefs were retained in Italian 17th- and 18th-century vocal music,

and in German, both scores and parts, for soprano, alto and tenor
lines; they still appear in the notation of Wagner, Brahms and
Schoenberg and are not wholly obsolete even today. In vocal scores
both in Germany and elsewhere, however, modern practice is found
as early as the beginning of the 19th century, with G clefs for
soprano and alto and a G clef with octave transposition for the tenor
(this notation was not however universal at that time, even in
England). The C clef on the first line remained normal in German
keyboard music until a remarkably late date; Mozart sometimes used
it, and although Haydn and Schubert favoured the G clef, the C
appears in isolated cases much later (as in fig.76 , from an edition of
Brahms’s organ music, where the alto clef appears occasionally so
that leger lines may be avoided).

110. 20th-century keyboard notation in which the C clef is still

occasionally used (Brahms, ‘Sämtliche Werke’, xvi; Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1927)

Diversity of clefs has seemed increasingly arbitrary since the 17th

century, and notational reform, whether formulated theoretically or
not, has generally tended to reduce the number of clefs and in
consequence to be increasingly tolerant of leger lines. A single clef
with octave transpositions was advocated by Juan Caramuel (Ars
nova musicae, 1645–6) and Thomas Salmon (Essay to the
Advancement of Musick, 1672), but these proposals did not come

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 from the musical profession, and Salmon’s were ridiculed by
Matthew Locke (fig. 111 , from The Present Practice of Musick
Vindicated, 1673; see Baldwin and Wilson, 1970). Other
unsuccessful proposals for clef reform were made by Montéclair
(Principes de musique, 1736) and Lacassagne (‘Réflexions sur
l’usage des clefs’ in Traité général des élémens du chant, 1766;
L’uni-cléfier musical, 1768). In anticipation of modern practice,
Grétry sought to eliminate all but the G and F clefs, transposing
where necessary (Mémoires, ou Essais sur la musique, 1789).

In practice, notational reform has tended to abolish the C clefs,

substituting G clefs with octave transpositions where necessary
(mainly for the tenor voice and some wind instruments) but retaining
the F clef, as in keyboard music. In the 20th century several
modified forms of the G clef were introduced in order to specify
transposition unambiguously where appropriate. Examples are a
doubled G clef (used already by Grétry for a similar purpose), a G
clef with a vestigial tenor (C) clef added to it, and a G clef with a
figure 8 attached underneath. The latter version seems now to have
become standard, and the 8 has been analogously added above or
below both G and F clefs to signify transposition up or down an
octave. (The addition of other figures for transposing instruments
has been proposed, e.g. a 5 below the G clef for an english horn.)
Traditional C clefs remain standard for music for the viola and
trombone, and for the high registers of the cello and bassoon.

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 Accidentals notated with dots under the notes (bar 1), or ordinary
accidental signs next to the notes (bar 5), fairly close to them (end of bar
1, bass line) or above them (final bar) (‘Intabolatura nova di … balli’;
Venice: Antonio Gardane, 1551)

Reproduced by permission of Stainer & Bell Ltd, London. England

Five-line staves, used in the Middle Ages except in Italy for vocal
polyphony, were used for keyboard music with C clefs by Attaingnant
(1529–30), but did not become standard until the 17th century. In
16th- and 17th-century English keyboard music, pairs of six-line
staves (expanded to seven or eight if the range required) remained
normal; the six-line staff was not replaced by the five-line one in
English keyboard music until around 1700. In The Second Book of
the Harpsicord Master, 1700, six-line staves are used; in The Third
Book, 1702, the pieces are ‘now plac’d on five lines, it being now the
Generall way of Practice’. Modern practice generally adheres to the
use of the treble and bass clefs on the upper and lower of a pair of
staves; with this standardization, and with the extension during the
19th century of the range of the piano, leger lines have become
increasingly common; they appear as early as 1523 in Cavazzoni’s
Recerchari, motetti, canzoni. (For examples of 16th-century leger
lines, see fig.82 , and Leger line.) In practice more than five leger
lines are seldom found, notators preferring to transpose very high or
very low passages one or two octaves towards the central range and
to use abbreviations such as ‘8va’ or ‘8va bassa’, except in orchestral
parts. Some keyboard music since the 18th century has, however,
occasionally been written on three or more staves (see §(viii) below).

The standardization of clefs since the 19th century, and their

consequent predictability, has allowed notators unusual licence.
Some 20th-century notation, for example, includes the simultaneous
use of treble and bass clefs on a single five-line staff for notating
widely-spaced strands of the texture, when there is no possibility of
misunderstanding (see fig.77 , from Debussy’s Voiles, from Préludes,
i, 1910). Simple horizontal wedge-shapes represent the treble clef
when next to the second line and the bass when next to the fourth
(for further details of these and other notational licence, see Read,
1964, 2/1969, pp.59ff).

A number of notational reforms proposed since the 19th century

have concerned the staff. Of these the most radical is the
Klavarskribo system, in which the staves run vertically rather than
horizontally in order that the appearance of the music may more
closely resemble the layout of the piano keyboard, on which the
system is based; accordingly, bar-lines are horizontal. Another staff
reform based on the keyboard is that of W. Steffens (1961). Other
reforms have often necessitated a change in the number of lines in
the staff; Equitone uses two lines to the octave, with notes in five
possible positions relative to them: with the lines running through
the notes, or tangential to them, or with the notes (touching neither

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 of the lines) closer to one or other of the lines, or midway between
them. The use of full and void notes in these positions yields 12
different possibilities to the octave, for the 12 semitones of the
equal-tempered system. The Notagraph system of Constance Virtue
uses a seven-line staff, with the space between staves divided
proportionately to permit further representation of intervals for the
most part without leger lines; the staff covers an octave, the step
from a line to the adjacent space representing a semitone, and
different octaves are distinguished with special clefs (V, O and
inverted V, variously placed).

For the use of curved staves and other devices for representing
tempo fluctuations, see §(iii) above.

See also Clef and Staff.

(vi) Accidentals, key signatures.

The sharp and flat signs, inherited from medieval notation, were
supplemented from the late 15th century by the natural sign; this
had at an earlier period been an alternative form of b quadratum
and like the sharp and flat was derived from a version of the letter
‘b’. In medieval notation, as still during and perhaps after the 16th
century (particularly in vocal music), these signs signified that the
notes to which they applied were to be solmized using the syllable fa
(for the flat) or mi (for the sharp). Some of these accidentals are
‘cautionary signs’, warnings that a rule of musica ficta was for the
occasion to be suspended. When a distinction was drawn between
sharp and natural and three signs were used, however, there may
have been a change in the significance of the accidental: it then
came to signify the raising or lowering of pitch (see Musica ficta, §2,
(iv)). The use of all three signs did not become general until the 18th
century. Any lowering of pitch was generally indicated by a flat and
any raising by a sharp; the notator’s intention was usually clear (at
least to contemporaries) until remote chromatic chords became part
of the normal musical language and until ‘orthography’ in
accidentals became a concern (see below). The older notation
lacking the natural may be found until the end of the Baroque period
and, in isolated cases (e.g. fig.78 , dating from c1841) even later; it
survives strongly in a modified form (the sharp and flat being
replaced by ‘+’ and ‘−’ signs respectively) in 20th-century jazz and
popular music notation (see §(viii) below).

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 114. A sharp used for a natural in an English manuscript of about
1841, written by an inexpert hand (private collection)

For a similar reason, and because bar-lines were not used in the
modern way until a late date, absolute consistency in the notation of
accidentals – with a rule that accidentals are required only as shown,
and that they hold good until the end of the bar – is not generally
found before the 18th century or even the 19th. An accidental before
the late 18th century generally applies only to the note next to which
it is written or to notes in its immediate vicinity (see Donington,
Interpretation, 3/1974, pp.131ff). Even as late as the early 19th
century, for example in keyboard music printed in London,
accidentals may be provided for only one note of an octave, with the
performer expected to supply the second. Here as in other aspects of
the notation simplicity was thought more desirable than precision.

Initial flat signatures (indicating transposition down a 5th once with

one flat and twice with two) had been usual in the Middle Ages;
signatures with sharps appeared (apart from isolated examples as
early as the Middle Ages) in the 17th century, and like flat signatures
at this date are to be regarded as key signatures in the strict sense.
Nevertheless, Baroque composers often wrote the accidentals of key
signatures in more than one octave, contrary to modern practice:
this may represent an archaism (medieval signatures may be
presumed to refer only to notes at the pitch specified, with octave
transpositions remaining unaffected in the absence of any indication
to the contrary). Baroque key signatures often contain one flat or
(more rarely) sharp fewer than would be included in modern
practice, particularly in minor keys, perhaps (as Donington
suggested) because G minor, for example, was thought of as the
Dorian mode in which the E was theoretically natural, or perhaps
because a piece in G minor might have E naturals at least as often as
E flats.

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 The double sharp and double flat, like sharp key signatures, were
mainly products of the tonal system in the 17th century. Donington
provides tables showing different forms used for writing the natural,
sharp, flat, double sharp and double flat in the 17th and 18th
centuries (3/1974, p.127). Since that time, there has never been total
consistency about the method of cancelling double accidentals: a
natural alone, a sharp or flat alone, or (most commonly) a natural
with a sharp or flat have all been used.

From the Middle Ages various signs were invented for representing
intervals supposed to be those of the enharmonic and chromatic
genera of the ancient Greeks. Besides those of Marchetto da Padova,
the use by Nicola Vicentino (L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna
prattica, 1555) of dots over notes to raise them by a diesis (see
Diesis) and the special signs of Lusitano (Introdutione facilissima,
1553, 2/1558) may be mentioned. Microtonal intervals have also
been represented with special signs (see below).

Until the 19th century accidentals were often notated without

theoretical accuracy, for the sake of convenience: for example, in the
Buxheimer Orgelbuch, where E♭ is notated as the form for Dis (D♯),
A♭ analogously as G♯ etc., regardless of the incongruity of the
notation from a theoretical point of view. Similar considerations, no
doubt, led some 17th- and 18th-century notators to write
enharmonic equivalents of double sharps or double flats (e.g. G for F
double sharp), and sharps for ascending chromatic semitones and
flats for descending, as a rule of thumb not based on theoretical
considerations. With the appearance in the 19th century of theories
of harmony supposedly based scientifically on acoustical laws,
‘orthography’ – the notation of accidentals according to harmonic
grammar – seemed important enough to some to outweigh
considerations of practical convenience. According to Lussy, for
example, ‘every chromatic note, or note foreign to the key or mode
in which a melody is constructed, is accented’ in certain
circumstances (Eng. trans., p.142), and thus the presence of an
accidental has rhythmic and accentual implications. Accordingly, the
traditional lax notation was misleading for expressive purposes;
Lussy (p.151) criticized Beethoven’s notation in op.26 (fig.79 ),
submitting that B♮ should be substituted for C♭ in the first chord of
the example. (For a more detailed investigation of Beethoven’s
‘unorthographic’ notation in his piano sonatas and string quartets,
see Van der Linde, ‘Die unorthographische Notation in Beethovens
Klaviersonaten und Streichquartetten’, Beethoven-Studien:
Festgabe, ed. E. Schenk, Vienna, 1970, pp.271–325.)

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 116. Example from Beethoven, Piano Sonata op.26, cited by Lussy as
an example of notation incorrect both theoretically and for expressive
purposes (M. Lussy, ‘Traité de l’expression musicale’; Eng. trans.,
London, 1885)

For a similar reason Lussy called for ‘correctness’ of notation in key

signatures, since an incorrect key signature would misrepresent the
accentuation:

In the overture to ‘Zampa’, which starts in D with two

sharps, the Prayer is introduced in the key of B♭. The
composer, by retaining the signature of D for these sixteen
bars, is forced to use about a hundred flats and naturals …
In such cases as this the chords preceded by accidentals do
not require forcing.

Despite the general avoidance since the late 19th century of gross
incongruity in the notation of accidentals, ‘convenience’ notation of
accidentals, primarily according to the manner of playing the notes,
is still required in special notations (such as that of harp music,
because the instrument, with a natural scale in C♭, is easier to play
in flat keys: in fig.80 the harp and piano parts largely correspond,
but the notation of accidentals is different).

Since the late 19th century notational practice with accidentals has
changed chiefly in music where conventional major-minor tonality
has been weakened or jettisoned. The simultaneous use of different
key signatures is occasionally found, as in Bartók’s Mikrokosmos or
Britten’s Peter Grimes. Sharps and flats in signatures may be placed
at unconventional pitches, indicating a return to the medieval
conception of the signature affecting only one pitch, not octave
transpositions (for example in Mikrokosmos). In works not in the
major-minor or any other diatonic system, where key signatures
have naturally been abandoned, it has often been found convenient
to return to the convention that an accidental applies only to the
note to which it is joined; this renders the natural sign redundant, as
is stipulated in Busoni’s Sonatina seconda, 1912: ‘die
Versetzungszeichen gelten nur für die Note, vor der sie stehen,
sodass Auflösungszeichen nicht zur Anwendung kommen’. In some
music of the 1960s and 70s, every note is preceded by a sharp, flat
or natural sign.

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 Microtonal intervals have been the subject of speculation in
European music for centuries (see Microtone). For much of the 20th
century, composers concentrated on divisions of the equal-tempered
semitone, with such intervals as the quarter-tone and the sixth-tone
being notated by various altered forms of the sharp and flat signs
(see Read, 1964, 2/1969, p.145, and Risatti, 1975, pp.16–17). Fig.
81 , an example from Hába, one of the earliest 20th-century
experimenters, illustrates one such system. With later work on
divisions of the octave in which the notes do not always coincide
with the 12-note scale (the 20- and 31-note scales, which fall into
this category, are both in use, as are many others), this type of
notation is not always convenient. Some composers have used up-
and down-arrows and/or ‘+’ and ‘−’ in conjunction with signs based
on the sharp and flat; such symbols are also found in transcriptions
by ethnomusicologists. An alternative is to use a numerical system,
in which fractions or cent values make obvious series within the
octave; and some composers have used a mixture of numerical and
symbolic signs, the latter still based on the sharp and flat (see
Darreg, 1975, and 1979; Blackwood, 1991).

Notation of accidentals with signs other than the traditional

medieval ones still in normal use is occasionally encountered in
keyboard mensural notation, or the mensurally notated sections of
Old German organ tablature. In the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, for
example, downward stems from notes are to be understood as
accidentals rather than indications that notes are lengthened. In
some early 16th-century keyboard sources, dots above or below
notes are also used for this purpose: examples are Cavazzoni,
Recerchari, motetti, canzoni (1523), the volumes of keyboard music
printed by Attaingnant, and the anonymous Intabolatura nova di
varie sorte de balli da sonare (1551; fig.82 ; this volume uses both
this notation and conventional accidentals).

See alsoAccidental

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 119. Accidentals notated with dots under the notes (bar 1), or
ordinary accidental signs next to the notes (bar 5), fairly close to
them (end of bar 1, bass line) or above them (final bar)
(‘Intabolatura nova di … balli’; Venice: Antonio Gardane, 1551)

Reproduced by permission of Stainer & Bell Ltd, London. England

(vii) Dynamics.
Indications of dynamics are rare before 1600. The rubric ‘tocca pian
piano’ occurs in Vincenzo Capirola’s lutebook (c1517), but seems to
be an isolated example until the polychoral and echo effects of the
late 16th and early 17th centuries suggested the exploitation of
dynamics; specific indications occur in the Sonata pian e forte
(1597) by Giovanni Gabrieli and other works of the period.
Mazzocchi (Madrigali, 1638) used abbreviations for forte, piano and
so on and for crescendo and diminuendo effects; otherwise
diminuendo effects in the 17th and early 18th centuries are
generally indicated by a series of dynamic markings (e.g. ‘lowd–soft–
softer’ in Matthew Locke’s music for The Tempest, 1674; and ‘forte–
piano–pianissimo’ in the pastorale from Corelli’s Christmas Concerto
op.6 no.8, posthumously published in 1714). Later in the 18th
century these were supplemented with the modern ‘hairpin’ symbols
for crescendos and diminuendos (Geminiani, Prime sonate, 1739, a
revision of his op.1, 1716). These ‘hairpins’ are in early 19th-century

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 music often combined into a characteristic lozenge shape (fig.83 ),
indicating a crescendo immediately followed by a diminuendo, but
this sign is invariably divided into two separate signs in modern
editions. (It should also be noted that it is frequently difficult to
distinguish between diminuendo signs and wedge-shaped accents in
the notation of such composers as Berlioz and Schubert.)

121. Characteristic lozenge-shaped sign combining crescendo and

diminuendo in early 19th-century notation (below bottom staff)
(Beethoven, Piano Sonata op.111; London: Clementi, 1823)

In 19th-century practice the superlatives of loudness and softness

(fff, ppp) were extended, with composers prescribing down to
pppppp and up to ffff (Verdi, Tchaikovsky), and a scale of 12 or more
imprecise degrees of loudness was constructed. These degrees were
specified with great care in some early 20th-century works, where
almost every note has its own dynamic marking; in some later 20th-
century practice, dynamic markings were graded numerically for
greater precision. Other 20th-century devices to make dynamic
indications more precise or to give them greater visual impact
include the use of progressively fuller note heads on a scale where a
void note is inaudible and a full note fff (Schäffer), the use of signs
(unfortunately resembling accents) to represent various increases in
loudness (Stockhausen, Klavierstück XI), and the relative size of note
heads (see Risatti, 1975, pp.29ff); the last device was proposed in
1903 by Abdy Williams (p.212).

See also Tempo and expression marks.

(viii) Scores; harmonic and descriptive notations.

Although score notation had been abandoned in polyphony with the
adoption of Franconian notation in the 13th century, it lingered in
certain peripheral areas of medieval notation until the 15th and 16th

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 centuries (see §3 above). Instrumental notation may be considered a
particular case of score notation, in both its tablature form and its
purely mensural score form, such as the Faenza Codex (see Sources
of keyboard music to 1660, §2, (i)). Instrumental notation of the late
Middle Ages, like later scores, frequently includes the visual
separation of ‘bars’ or other metric units by bar-lines or spaces.

Early 16th-century score notation, apart from that in tablatures,

some keyboard music (e.g. Cavazzoni, Attaingnant) and surviving
medieval repertories in Bohemia, is mostly didactic and intended for
inexperienced musicians, as in Agricola’s Musica instrumentalis
deudsch (1529), which illustrates how to put music into tablature.
From this period to the second half of the 18th century at least,
there is evidence of the use of the tabula compositoria, a device with
staff-lines and vertical bar-lines, on which polyphony could be
written in score to facilitate copying or composition and then erased
to permit re-use. Bermudo (1555) claimed that organists played,
according to their ability, in descending order of competence, from
choirbooks, tablatures and scores.

The first complete surviving scores proper are the Musica de diversi
autori … partite in caselle (2/1577¹¹) and Tutti i madrigali di
Cipriano di Rore a 4 voci (1577); printed scores are attested not
much later outside Italy (M. Gomołka, Melodie na psalterz polski
uczynione, Kraków, 1580, in score without bar-lines, fig.84 ; Balet
comique de la Royne, Paris, 1582). Some of these were intended for
keyboard and other instrumental performance, and were compiled
after the parts had been completed. The same is true of less
comprehensive organ parts, supporting the lowest-sounding voice
throughout vocal and instrumental pieces, which are attested from
1587, in a 40-part motet by Alessandro Striggio (i). Such an organ
part was often termed a Partitura (or spartitura), another respect in
which it resembles a score.

In the early 17th century Thoroughbass notation developed from

these organ parts and it too was early associated with the score. It
became almost universal in every type of polyphony except that for
solo instruments in the 17th and early 18th centuries, whether in
score or parts, after which time it declined in secular polyphony. In
essence it represents an abbreviated notation for chords, associated
with a single bass line in ordinary mensural notation. The symbols
used, as with those of musica ficta, are often warnings against
adopting a particular course of action. The abbreviations are in the
form of numerals representing the intervals to be played above the
bass line, often supplemented with accidentals. Such accidentals are
occasionally found in a partitura comprising the outer voices, as in
Banchieri’s Concerti ecclesiastici (1595) where, as in later practice,
they distinguish major and minor chords; numerals as well as
accidentals appeared around 1600 in the thoroughbasses of the
earliest operas, which were printed in score (Peri, Caccini). Unlike
later thoroughbass notation, the early operas often contain numerals
in excess of 9, and they thus specify the octave for the elaboration of
the bass (in Caccini the numerals extend to 15 and in Cavalieri even

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 beyond that. Not all early thoroughbass sources include numerals
and accidentals, partly because of the difficulties of setting them in
type.

The placing of the accidentals in early thoroughbass notation is not

always consistent; they may appear in almost any position fairly near
to the numerals they qualify. As in the ordinary staff notation of the
period, sharps and flats refer respectively to any raising or lowering
of a note. A stroke through the numeral 6 instead of a sharp next to
it, signifying that it is to be raised a semitone, was introduced by
Scheidt (1622) but not generally adopted until the second half of the
17th century (e.g. by Rosenmüller, 1652), when it was supplemented
by a 6 with a flat sign through it as a direction to lower the 6th by a
semitone. This practice was extended to other numerals (4, 5 etc.) in
some of Roger’s editions of Corelli, and became general in Italian
and Italian-derived practice of the 18th century (fig.85 ). In the
second half of the 18th century a diagonal stroke was introduced
(Kirnberger, 1781, p.74, referring to Graun’s practice; this sign is
also cited by C.P.E. Bach, together with alternatives, Versuch, ii,
1762, Eng. trans., 1949, p.196) to be placed under appoggiaturas in
the bass to signify that the following bass note was to be harmonized
in advance; but this practice is not often attested. For tasto solo (i.e.
a direction to leave the bass line unharmonized), practice varied in
18th-century thoroughbass notation: some notators used a verbal
direction, some staccato dashes (perhaps equivalent to the figure 1),
some the figure 0 and so on.

123. Thoroughbass notation with special signs through numerals,

including strokes for sharps (bar 10), and simplified flat signs (bar 1;
also used in the key signatures) (Corelli, Sonatas op.5; Amsterdam:
Roger, c1708)

Aberdeen University Library

Thoroughbass was popularized in Germany especially through the

diffusion of Viadana’s Centum concerti ecclesiastici (first published
1602); in England the practice appeared in publications from the
1630s and in France from the 1650s. French thoroughbass used
horizontal lines at an early date to indicate the retention of previous
harmony, a device used internationally in the 18th century. By the
end of the 17th century French thoroughbass notation had
developed a good number of distinctive and inconsistent traits, such
as inconsistent notation of sharps or the use of strokes through
numerals to signify, variously, both diminished and augmented

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 intervals. Many of these traits were tabulated by Rameau
(Dissertation sur les différentes méthodes d’accompagnement pour
le clavecin, ou pour l’orgue, 1732). Some French notational
characteristics are occasionally found in German figured basses
from about 1750.

While thoroughbass was still mainly a practical, rather than a

didactic or theoretical, device, occasional abortive attempts were
made to reform its notation. Rameau (1732) proposed a system
based on his harmonic theories (see Wolf, ii, 327) but later dropped
it; Telemann (preface to Musicalisches Lob Gottes, 1744) proposed a
system of numerals supplemented with horizontal, diagonal and
curved strokes, in order to achieve a ‘happy mean’ between basses
with too few figures and those ‘resembling an arithmetic book’.

During the 17th century, score notation was used in other areas of
the polyphonic repertory, such as solo songs and cantatas. Some of
these scores were intended to facilitate conducting, though until the
19th century (and in some areas later) conducting scores might
contain little more than a first violin part, or a figured bass
supplemented with cues, recitatives in full and so on; the latter type,
when intended for a conductor, might be labelled ‘M[aestro] D[i]
C[appella]’. The keyboard score also spread beyond Italy in the 17th
century (M. Rodrigues Coelho, Flores de musica, 1620; Scheidt,
Tabulatura nova, 1624). In 17th-century scores, bar-lines became
usual, though not always consistent, at a relatively early date. In
early scores they extend only through a single staff; they were
extended throughout each system by Bach and others in the 18th
century, but the practice was not standardized until the 19th.
Similarly, the order in which the parts are set out varies until well
into the 19th century (see Score). For clef reform in score notation,
see §(v) above.

Keyboard score notation developed characteristics of its own, some

deriving from tablature, from the 17th century onwards. As early as
the 17th century some notators avoided pedantic accuracy in the
notation of polyphonic textures, omitting rests and simplifying note
lengths especially in inner parts, but Bach sometimes maintained the
older practice of using precise note lengths even within a complex
polyphonic texture. A thorough-going adoption of the simpler
practice is found in Liszt’s notation, with the abandonment of rests
or precise note values where these were unnecessary to the
performer. Other devices used by Liszt to clarify complex textures
include the broken subsidiary beaming of short note values (see §(iv)
above), and the use of the direction of note stems to distinguish
strands of the texture or the notes to be played by the right or left
hands (see fig.86 , from his Rhapsodie espagnole). Other composers
used comparable devices such as the extensive use of small notes
(see §(ii) above).

The use of more than two staves in keyboard scores other than
partituras, again in the interests of clarity in complex textures, is
occasional before the 19th century, usually to distinguish lines for
separate manuals, separate instruments or (for the organ) pedals.

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 One of the earliest examples of modern keyboard notation in which
three staves are intended to be played by a single performer on a
single manual of a keyboard instrument is found in G.J. Vogler’s
‘Marlborough’ variations (fig.87 : the clef forms are typical of
Austrian and south German usage at this period). This practice too
was adopted and extended by Liszt, with piano music written on
three or four staves, and appears in the piano notation of Debussy
and Rachmaninoff.

125. Notation of single-manual keyboard music on three staves (G.J.

Vogler, ‘Variations sur l’air de Marlborough’: Speyer: Bossler, 1791); the
two upper staves are to be played by the right hand

The specialization of keyboard score notation is reflected also in the

adoption of fingering indications, found regularly from the 19th
century but quite often before that, especially in tablatures; it is also
occasionally found from the 16th century in other instrumental
music. 19th-century piano music had two distinct fingering
conventions: the ‘continental’, with numerals from 1 to 5 for the
thumb and fingers; and the ‘English’, with a ‘+’ sign for the thumb
and numerals from 1 to 4 for the fingers. The latter system, now
superseded by the former, was still used well into the 20th century.
Pedalling has been shown in piano music since the early 19th
century by a number of special signs. Comparable instructions for
physical actions, to produce special effects of many kinds, have
multiplied since the 19th century in instrumental music: these
include signs for playing harmonics and for special methods of
attack in string and harp music, bowing in string music and
percussive key-clicks in woodwind music (see Karkoschka,
Schriftbild, 1966; Read, 1964, 2/1969; and Risatti, 1975).

Specialist notations of other kinds have been used in scores to assist

the abstract study of music. Descriptive notation for analytical
purposes had been part of the European tradition since the
Renaissance but had not required material modifications to normal
notation: thus Kircher presented a (spurious) ‘Pindaric’ melody in
normal notation and Hebrew melodies, in which he had been
preceded by Johannes Reuchlin (De accentibus et orthographia
linguae hebraicae, 1518) among others. The great increase from the
second half of the 18th century in historical and analytical
musicology, and the broadening interests of scholars, prompted
notational modifications. Early examples of specialized descriptive
notations and formats include the miniature score (an early example
is a 19th-century edition of Haydn quartets by Pleyel). Both

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 performing and study scores came to be provided with bar numbers
or letters for easy reference, though the numbering of bars, every
50, is found as early as 1688 (William Nott, A Collection of
Simphonies).

Specialist score notations for presenting the results of analysis were

also developed from the early years of the 19th century (e.g.
Momigny, 1803–6). In the 20th century, analytical notation was
developed into systems of great subtlety, for example by Schenker
(see Analysis, §II, 4). Non-Western music was presented for
European readers in a kind of score comprising the original notation
in parallel with a transcription by F.J. Sulzer; this represents one of
the earliest ethnomusicological notations. The preparation in the
19th and 20th centuries of the great historical editions of early
music (see Editions, historical) has made standard many novel
practices, such as the use of a squared slur to link notes joined in
ligatures in the original, or the use of small notes or parentheses to
distinguish editorial additions. Ethnomusicological notation has
adopted many novel signs to express, for example, intervals outside
the European system. For attempts to devise machines to notate
melodies, and the notations adapted to them, see §6(i) below.

In the 19th century thoroughbass notation lent itself to adaptation

for analytical and other didactic purposes: by this time it was no
longer extensively used in practical music-making. The modifications
made to it in the 19th century tended mainly to improve it as a
theoretical harmonic notation; Honoré Langlé, for instance,
proposed a system of nomenclature that would be primarily chordal
rather than intervallic; major, minor, diminished and augmented
chords, and the various 7th chords, were consistently distinguished,
and the relationships between inversions and root positions were
shown, with a modified thoroughbass notation including symbols
such as ‘+’, ‘−’, ‘=’, circumflexes, inverted circumflexes and dots
(Nouvelle méthode pour chiffrer les accords, 1801). The figured bass
survived in its older traditional form well into the 20th century,
however, both as a shorthand harmonic notation and (as in Prout,
Harmony: its Theory and Practice, 1889 and later editions) as a
device for teaching harmony by the advance identification of chords
in harmony exercises.

Other types of chordal notation, using letters or numerals for the

chords and supplementary symbols to distinguish different types of
chord, developed from the early 19th century. The degrees of the
scale and the chords based on them were denoted by Roman
numerals as early as 1800 (G.J. Vogler, Choral-System); H.C. Koch
(Musikalisches Lexikon, 1802, ‘Klangstufe’) wrote of indicating ‘each
note of those of a key, arranged in a scale, by means of a number
associated with it’. In Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der
Tonsetzkunst (1817, 3/1830–32), Gottfried Weber distinguished
major and minor chords and keys by the use of upper- and lower-
case letters (i.e. as in modern German practice) with superscript
numerals to denote diminished chords, 7ths and so on. His proposals
were widely adopted and extended (e.g. with the symbol ‘+’ to

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 distinguish an augmented triad, and with distinctions drawn
between the inversions of chords, by E.F.E. Richter, Lehrbuch der
Harmonie, 1853, and Otto Tiersch, Kurze praktische Generalbass-,
Harmonie- und Modulationslehre, 1876). In accordance with Moritz
Hauptmann’s view of minor chords as inversions of major chords
(see Harmony, §4), Arthur von Oettingen used letters of the alphabet
with a superscript ‘+’ sign for major chords and a superscript zero
for minor chords; in minor chords the ‘root’ is reckoned as the top
note of the triad (e.g. G in a C minor triad) (Harmoniesystem in
dualer Entwickelung, 1866). Hauptmann and Oettingen also
distinguished between notes (for acoustical reasons, depending on
the way they were theoretically generated) by using upper- and
lower-case letters.

Later in the century Hugo Riemann invented a system of chordal

notation which he termed ‘Klangschlüssel’ (Skizze einer neuen
Methode der Harmonielehre, 1880; Musik-Lexikon, 1882,
‘Klangschlüssel’). Intervals were shown by numerals, those of major
chords by Arabic ones, as in thoroughbass but always reckoned from
the root of the chord upwards, and those of minor chords by Roman,
reckoned from the root (in Hauptmann’s and Oettingen’s sense)
downwards. The roots of the chords were identified alphabetically.
Intervals shown by simple numerals were perfect or major, except
for the minor 7th; major and minor triads were distinguished, when
necessary, with Oettingen’s symbols. Horizontal strokes above and
below the numerals denoted that the note in question was in the
bass or in an upper part; the notation, unlike thoroughbass, was in
principle independent of a mensurally notated bass line. The
sharpening or flattening of notes was shown by wedge shapes,
resembling accents in ordinary mensural notation, either in normal
form or reversed. In later works Riemann went on to develop a
system of ‘functional notation’ or
‘Funktionsbezeichnung’ (Vereinfachte Harmonielehre, 1893), where
he abandoned letters representing pitches in favour of the letters T,
D and S, representing tonic, dominant and subdominant functions,
qualified as Tp, Dp or Sp as necessary, the p (Parallelklang)
indicating that the 5th above or below the root of the chord had been
replaced by a 6th.

Similar systems have been the stock-in-trade of most harmony

textbooks since the late 19th century; some of the more influential
ones were those of Sechter, Grabner, Prout, Macpherson and
Schoenberg. Possibly through their influence some popular music of
the 20th century also adopted chordal notations for guitar, keyboard
and other ‘continuo’ instruments, which generally resemble
Gottfried Weber’s system. This notation has yet to be studied
historically. Chords are commonly identified by a letter for the root,
qualified with ‘mi’ for a minor chord or a superscript zero or ‘+’ sign
for a diminished or augmented chord; the letter alone represents a
major chord. Superscript numerals and accidentals are used as in
thoroughbass notation (i.e. the numerals are reckoned as diatonic
intervals from the note named, and qualified by accidentals) and,
also as in thoroughbass notation, the rhythmic realization is left to

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 the performer to supply from his knowledge of the appropriate style.
Common alternatives for accidentals are ‘+’ and ‘−’ signs, used in
the same way as sharp and flat signs in the 17th century – to signify
any raising or lowering. A tabulation of various types of sign, made
in an attempt to introduce uniformity of practice among professional
copyists, may be found in Roemer (1973, p.137; see also Read, 1964,
2/1969, pp.410–11, and Brandt and Roemer, 1975). For an example
of simple chordal notation of this type, see fig.88 . For the notation
of pitch (including distinctions between different octave repetitions
of the same pitch) seePitch nomenclature.

For bibliography see end of §6.

129. Notation for voice and guitar: letters signify major chords
unless qualified (‘m’ and ‘+’ mean minor and augmented chords;
numerals, extra notes) (P. Smith, ‘Faith, Folk and Clarity’; Great
Yarmouth: Galliard, 1967)

Reproduced by permision of Stainer & Bell Ltd, London. England

5. Alphabetical, numerical and solmization

notations.
Geoffrey Chew

, revised by Richard Rastall

The most important type of notation to be considered here is

Tablature, which is fully discussed in its practical aspects under its
own heading. For more detailed information the reader is referred to
Wolf’s Handbuch der Notationskunde (1913–19), Apel’s Notation of
Polyphonic Music, 900–1600 (1942, rev. 5/1961) and Rastall’s
Notation of Western Music (1983 rev. 2/1998).

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 (i) Keyboard tablatures.
Wolf suggested that a passage in the treatise of Anonymus 4 (c1275)
implies the existence of instrumental notation in the 13th century
(Wolf, 1919, 5, referring to the passage in Reckow’s edition, Der
Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4, 1967, i, 40, ll.24ff). No known
example survives from that date, but the earliest known keyboard
sources are nearly all in tablature, which is a distinctive
instrumental notation. The term ‘tablature’ generally signifies a
notational system using letters of the alphabet or other symbols not
found in ordinary staff notation, and which generally specifies the
physical action required to produce the music from a specific
instrument, rather than an abstract representation of the music
itself. The latter qualification, though perhaps the primary one, does
not apply to the German organ tablatures of the late Middle Ages
and later: in these, letters are used to identify pitches rather than
finger positions.

Most surviving keyboard sources up to the early 16th century are

notated in the so-called old German organ tablature. This term is
used even though the earliest source of all, the 14th-century
Robertsbridge Codex (GB-Lbl Add.28550), is of unknown origin and
has features of 14th-century Italian mensural notation. 15th-century
German tablatures include those of Adam Ileborgh (1448, in a
private collection) and Conrad Paumann (1452, Fürstliche
Stolberg’sche Bibliothek, Wernigerode, Zb 14), and the Buxheimer
Orgelbuch (D-Mbs Cim.352b). Virdung’s Musica getutscht (1511)
and Schlick’s Tabulaturen etlicher lobgesang und lidlein (1512) are
the earliest known printed keyboard music and there are several
early 16th-century manuscript tablatures from the regions of
Switzerland and Germany near the Rhine (e.g. fig.89 ) and from
Poland (the tablature of Jan z Lublina): for further details see
Sources of keyboard music to 1660. Each of these early sources
generally displays notational idiosyncrasies, but in all of them the
top voice is notated in a void or full mensural staff notation and the
other voices in alphabetical notation, the letters corresponding with
the names of the notes. In both parts of the notation accidentals are
specified; in the mensurally notated voice, this may be with unusual
signs such as downward stems with slashes. As in most later
tablatures special rhythm signs above the letters specify the
durations of the notes; they were sometimes joined with beams, as in
the 15th-century Buxheimer Orgelbuch.

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 131. Old German organ tablature: both the staff notation for the upper
voice and the rhythm signs for the lower voices use beams (early 16th-
century fragments, GB-A)

Aberdeen University Library

The number and variety of keyboard sources increase rapidly for the
period after 1500. In Italy and France there are printed keyboard
sources, using mensural notation throughout, as in the earlier
Faenza Codex. Examples are Cavazzoni’s Recerchari, motetti,
canzoni (1523) and the series of keyboard collections published in
France by Attaingnant from the 1530s. This keyboard mensural
notation is closer in a number of respects to 19th- and 20th-century
mensural notation than to contemporary vocal notation, for example
in the use of bar-lines, but complex score notation was not very well
suited to movable-type printing and came into its own only after the
introduction of music engraving. Nevertheless score notation
remained normal in French and Italian keyboard music, as it was
later in English keyboard sources (see Sources of keyboard music to
1660, §2, (vi)); it was cultivated either in the modern two-staff form
or as the partitura (see §4(viii) above).

From about 1570 the old German organ tablature was superseded in
German-speaking areas by a new German organ tablature, in which
letters were used as in the earlier system but now for the highest
voice as well as the others. This alphabetical notation was
supplemented by a uniform system of rhythm signs, derived from
those of Italian lute notation. The change may have been due in part
to the difficulty and cost of printing the mensurally notated top
voice. This system became widely diffused in northern Germany in
the 17th century and survived into the 18th, latterly mostly in
manuscripts written by organists, including J.S. Bach, for their own
use (see Bach family, §III, (7) ). It was used by Buxtehude for vocal
and single-line instrumental as well as keyboard music (for
illustration, see Buxtehude, Dieterich, and Winternitz, 1955, ii, pl.7).
A curious mixture of this system, used only for the pedal line, with
ordinary mensural notation occurs in the Tabulatuur-boeck van
psalmen en fantasyen of Anthoni van Noordt (1659; facs. in Wolf, ii,

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 263); fig.90 shows another curious and in several respects
anomalous alphabetical (?) keyboard notation from early 17th-
century France.

134. French 17th-century keyboard notation, with letters placed on

staves but without precise indications of rhythm (GB-A, MS bound with
a copy of Arcadelt’s ‘Primo libro di madregali’, 1561)

Aberdeen University Library

The only other major keyboard tradition to use tablature was that of
Spain. In Bermudo’s Declaración de instrumentos musicales (1555)
various systems are mentioned, using numerals to represent the
keys of the keyboard. The latter may be numbered consecutively
throughout, or the white keys may be numbered consecutively and
the others provided by supplementary accidentals; or the white keys
within each octave may be numbered from 1 to 7, with accidentals
and octaves distinguished by diacritical marks. Rhythm signs are
placed above the music, defining the durations in the fastest-moving
part. Such systems are also found in Italy, in the Spanish-influenced
Intavolatura de cimbalo of Antonio Valente (1576), and they
persisted into the 17th century. There is also slight evidence of the
use of comparable tablatures with letters or numerals for psaltery
music.

(ii) Tablatures for plucked string instruments.

Petrucci’s early 16th-century publications include four books in so-
called Italian lute tablature (1507–8), of which the second gives rules
for playing from the tablature, evidently for the benefit of
performers without knowledge of musical theory or notation. The
printing of Italian tablatures continued until 1616; manuscript
Italian lute tablatures are attested until the mid-17th century. The
principles on which Petrucci’s tablatures rest remained fundamental
to Italian lute tablature: six lines of a ‘staff’ represent the six courses
of the lute, with the course lowest in pitch at the top. Numerals
placed on the lines then indicate the fret to be stopped on the
relevant course, zero being used for open strings, and rhythm signs
placed above the ‘staff’ indicate the durations of the shortest notes
within the texture at any point. These rhythm signs no doubt derive

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 from mensural note shapes but lack the note heads; they were joined
with beams as early as the first half of the 16th century. The rhythm
signs appear in Petrucci’s prints above each note or chord, but even
in the early 16th century the notation is sometimes simplified by
omitting rhythm signs unless there is a change in note value. The
system of rhythm signs normally precludes the specification of
simultaneous notes of different durations, but some tablatures
employ a cross or sharp-like symbol after numerals to indicate that
the note in question is to be prolonged beyond the next note or
chord (e.g. fig.91 , from Antonio Rotta, Intabolatura de lauto, 1546);
this device also occurs in German tablature (e.g. Judenkünig, 1523).
Normally these Italian tablatures are accommodated on a single
‘staff’; a vocal part, if included, is usually but not invariably notated
mensurally on a separate staff. Spinacino occasionally placed even
the upper voice of a lute piece on a separate staff for the sake of
convenience. (For another example of Italian lute tablature, see fig.
92 ).

135. Italian lute tablature: double crosses signify that notes are to be
prolonged (A. Rotta, ‘Intabolatura de lauto’; Venice: Antonio Gardane,
1546³²)

A similar tablature notation was used in Spain for the vihuela. In the
earliest surviving example, Luis de Milán’s El maestro (1536), and
according to Bermudo in other 16th-century Spanish vihuela music
the sequence of courses is reversed, so that the highest-sounding
course is represented by the top line. Normally, however, Spanish
practice and Italian correspond in this respect. Milán and others
used complete note shapes for rhythm signs, in a manner otherwise
similar to Italian practice; vocal lines are occasionally included in
the tablature staff and distinguished from the instrumental
accompaniment by being notated in red (fig.93 ), or (Esteban Daza,
1576, the latest known source) with dots above the numerals for
alignment.

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 136. Spanish vihuela tablature, with the vocal line in red (here grey)
(E. de Valderrábano, ‘Silva de sirenas’, ii; Valladolid: Fernandez de
Cordova, 1547)

The series of printed French lute tablatures, like the Italian, has as
one of its earliest examples a publication giving instructions for
beginners in playing from tablature: Attaingnant’s Très briefve et
familière introduction (1529, published only a few months after his
Dixhuit basses dances, is the earliest surviving source. The ‘three
short rules’ of the Introduction establish the principles found in later
French tablatures. The chief differences from Italian lute tablature
lie in the use of five rather than six lines in the staff, even though
there are already six courses, the sixth being given a ‘leger line’
when necessary; the arrangement of the lines with the highest-
sounding course represented by the top rather than the bottom line;
and the use of an alphabetical sequence of letters, rather than
numerals, for the frets, with ‘a’ for open strings. Rhythm signs
generally correspond with those of Italian lute tablature; fingering is
indicated by dots, later by numerals. Other later developments in
French lute tablature include the adoption of a six-line staff; this is
used in isolation in an Attaingnant publication of 1530, but not
generally adopted until after the publication of the Pratum musicum
of Emanuel Adriaenssen in 1584, and then used almost without
exception. Various expedients were adopted to notate up to two
extra bass courses before the end of the century, and further bass
courses introduced during the 17th century and played as open
strings. For details of other subsidiary signs in 17th-century French
lute tablatures see Lute, §6.

French lute tablature declined in popularity in France from the early

18th century but had spread to England, the Netherlands, Germany
and elsewhere, and it persisted especially in Germany, where French
tablatures continued to be printed until 1771 and to be produced in
manuscript until the 1790s. Music for other string instruments such
as cittern, bandora, mandore, mandolin, colascione and angélique,
was notated in tablatures of this kind, though sometimes with fewer
lines if the instrument had fewer courses than the lute.

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 Before the introduction of French lute tablature to Germany,
lutenists there had used a German tablature, said by Agricola to
have been invented by the blind 15th-century organist Conrad
Paumann. The first surviving printed sources of this tablature are in
Virdung’s Musica getutscht (1511) and Schlick’s Tabulaturen (1512),
and German tablature persisted for about a century, when it was
finally superseded by the French tablature, which had first appeared
in German prints during the 1590s. German lute tablature is based
on a five-course lute, but early sources are for six-course
instruments: the frets of the top five strings are designated by
letters of the alphabet, supplemented with a few other symbols,
reading across the first frets of all five courses, then across the
second frets and so on rather than by a series of symbols repeated
for each course. Thus each fret on the instrument has a unique
symbol; the necessity for a staff in the French or Italian manner is
eliminated, at the cost of increased complexity in the notation. The
lowest course, presumably added after the establishment of the
notation, is assigned a series of letters independent of the rest of the
notation. Open strings are shown by numerals for each course (fig.
94 ).

138. German lute tablature, with regular bar-lines and rhythm signs
(H. Gerle, ‘Tablatur auff die Laudten’; Nuremberg: Formschneider,
1533)

Guitar music from around 1550 is notated in either Italian or French

lute tablature; as in tablatures for other instruments, the number of
staff-lines varies according to the number of courses. 17th-century
guitar tablatures developed features of their own, no doubt because
the constant repetition of chords prompted an abbreviated notation.
Of the two principal methods the Italian, attested from 1606, uses
capital letters to represent single chords, and the Spanish, attested
from 1626, uses numerals for the same purpose (fig.95 ). These
abbreviated systems were used at times in combination with the
earlier lute notation (for further details see Wolf, ii, §I, chap.3).

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 Tablatures for guitar remained in use until the late 18th century,
when they yielded to ordinary mensural notation on a single staff,
written an octave higher than sounding (fig.96 ).

139. Spanish abbreviated notation for guitar chords: the numerals,

letters etc. stand for chords (e.g. ‘5’ for D minor, ‘P’ A major, ‘6’ A
minor) (L. Ruiz de Ribayaz, ‘Luz y norte musical’; Madrid: Alvarez,
1677); the vertical strokes show the direction of attack

140. Early 19th-century guitar notation, with detailed fingering (F. Sor,
‘Six Divertimentos’; London: Regent’s Harmonic Institution, c1820)

For much of the 20th century tablatures of a new type were in use
for the guitar and ukulele in popular music, with a grid of six vertical
and four horizontal lines (guitar) or four vertical and four horizontal
(ukulele), providing a schematic picture of the fingerboard; dots
represent the positions of the fingers (fig.97 ). This tablature chord
notation, like the abbreviated representation of chords by capital
letters (an alternative to it: see §4(viii) above), lacks any indication of
rhythm within the duration of each chord, which is to be supplied by
the performer from his knowledge of the style. Some 20th-century
guitar music, mostly of a popular nature in the so-called ‘finger-
picking’ styles, uses another type of tablature notation, closer to the
lute tablatures of the Renaissance. Many publications of the 1960s
and 70s reflect this notation. A six-line staff is used, corresponding
to the strings of the instrument; as in French lute tablature the top
line represents the string of highest pitch, and as in Spanish vihuela
tablature numerals are the basis of the notation. Time signatures,
bar-lines and so on are as in staff notation; the letters ‘TAB’, written
vertically, often replace a clef, presumably for ready identification of
the tablature when both staff and tablature notation appear in the
same book. Otherwise there is no standard practice: the numerals in

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 some tablatures represent the frets, in others the fingering, the
notes being identified in some other way (e.g. by capital letters for
chords). Rhythm signs are freely used: a vertical or diagonal dash for
a crotchet, and stems (without note heads) with flags and beams as
in staff notation for quavers, semiquavers and so on. Part-writing
may be specified far more precisely in this tablature than in any
Renaissance one. Special signs are used for ornaments and other
effects.

141. Early 20th-century popular song notation, including ukelele

tablature and supplementary Tonic Sol-fa notation for the vocal part (M.
Wayne, ‘Ramona’; London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1927); tablature
symbols are provided only at chord changes

Harp tablatures are also attested from the late Middle Ages, and
Spanish vihuela tablature was intended also for the harp. Irish
manuscripts have various notational systems, perhaps for harp
music; one from the Elizabethan period has various combinations of
acute and grave accents, circumflexes and rhythm signs; another
has a series of symbols, in part resembling those of Greek notation,
representing successive notes in a diatonic series. 17th-century
Welsh manuscripts, including that copied by Robert ap Huw (GB-Lbl
Add.14905), contain another tablature for the harp, which like
German organ tablatures uses the letter-names of the notes. It is
closer than the Irish sources to other contemporary notation, being
written in score with bar-lines and rhythm signs like those of other
tablatures of the period. Extravagant claims of antiquity have been
made for both the Welsh and Irish tablatures and their repertories,
but without firm evidence.

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 French and German harp music appears to have been notated in
various ways: alphabetical tablature (Agricola, Musica
instrumentalis deudsch, 1529, f.XXXII); normal mensural notation;
with numerals corresponding to the strings (Mersenne, Harmonie
universelle, ii, 1637, bk.3, p.171); or by lute tablature. These
possibilities are not represented by surviving examples.

(iii) Tablatures for other instruments.

Viol music has normally been notated in ordinary mensural notation,
but tablature is occasionally encountered, mostly in didactic works.
The earliest sources are German (Virdung, Musica getutscht, 1511;
Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch, 1529; Gerle, Musica
teusch, 1532) and are notated in German lute tablature or other
alphabetical notation (fig.98 , from Agricola). In Italy viol tablature is
found first in Ganassi dal Fontego’s Regola rubertina (1542),
corresponding in essence to the Italian lute tablature though with
modification because of the greater number of frets required (in
both types of tablature single symbols, rather than numerals, were
used for numbers greater than 9, in order to avoid ambiguity) and
for precision of fingering. In France, in the few instances where
mensural notation was not used, French lute tablature was used for
viol music, sometimes with ancillary signs for special effects, and
also for music for other related instruments such as the viola
bastarda. French lute tablature was also used for the English lyra
viol repertory.

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 144. Tablature notation (here for bass viol) with its equivalent in
mensural notation (M. Agricola, ‘Musica instrumentalis deudsch’;
Wittenberg, 1529)

Modified lute tablatures of various national types were occasionally

used also for violin music, but with only four staff-lines,
corresponding to the strings of the instrument. In the absence of
frets, the series of numerals or letters used were not bound to
correspond to semitone steps: Italian violin tablatures, from Gasparo
Zanetti’s Scolaro … per imparar a suonare di violino, et altri
stromenti (1645), use numerals to specify diatonic steps, with

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 accidentals added for the semitones as in mensural notation. This
notation persisted for more than a century and is still attested in
Pablo Minguet y Yrol’s Academia musical (1752); comparable
modifications of French lute tablature were also made, with the
letters representing diatonic steps. The older lute notation based on
semitone steps also continued to be used for violin music.

Wind music has nearly always been notated mensurally, but

tablatures are occasionally attested, based on the positions of the
fingers. A recorder tablature is found in Virdung (1511), using
numerals and diacritical marks. Thomas Greeting in his Pleasant
Companion (1682 edition) used a six-line staff for the six holes of the
flageolet with vertical lines for covered holes, crosses for half-
covered holes and commas for ornaments (fig.99 ); Pablo Minguet y
Yrol (Academia musical, 1752) used an eight-line staff, with the
spaces representing the seven holes, and full, void and half-void
circles representing covered, open and half-covered holes. Other
tablatures were devised for wind instruments such as the musette in
17th-century France, and tablatures have been attested for brass
fanfares; numerical tablatures were used in the 19th century for the
accordion and other popular instruments.

147. 17th-century flageolet tablature in which each line of the ‘staff’

represents a hole in the instrument (T. Greeting, ‘The Pleasant
Companion’; London: J. Playford, 1682 edition)

(iv) Vocal notations.

Since the 16th century, periodic attempts have been made to
construct simple systems of vocal notation, often based on the
practice of Solmization, for the benefit of the musically uneducated.
Many of these indicate pitch redundantly in two different ways: by
conventional mensural notation supplemented by some alternative
means of identifying the pitches, either with the letter-names of the
notes or with solmization syllables; or with distinctive note shapes or
numerals representing the solmization syllables. These systems
multiplied from the 18th century, mainly where rapidly acquired

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 musical literacy was sought, or in pioneering or mission areas, and
are associated mainly with popular music (hymns, psalms, ballads
etc.).

An attempt to develop a simplified solmization notation with

numerals was made by Pierre Davantes (Pseaumes de David, … avec
Nouvelle et facile methode pour chanter chacun couplet des
pseaumes sans recour au premier, Geneva, 1560; see fig.100 ).
Numerals from 1 to 9, supplemented by the letters A and B,
represent the notes in an ascending sequence beginning on E, C or B
(the latter either B♭ or B♮ depending on the hexachord); the numbers
are reckoned as in the natural hexachord if written without dots, in
the hard hexachord if followed by a dot and in the soft hexachord if
preceded by a dot. Vertical dashes are used for rhythm signs. A
simpler solmization notation was adopted in a number of psalm
books published by John Day in the 1570s, with abbreviations of the
solmization syllables joined redundantly to conventional notes on
staves (fig.101 ; see Krummel, 1975, pp.71ff).

148. Solmization notation with numerals, with mensural notation

above, supplemented by solmization syllables (P. Davantes, ‘Pseaumes
de David, … avec Nouvelle et facile methode’; Geneva, 1560)

from A. H. Littleton, "A Catalogue of One Hundred Works Illustrating the History of Music
Printing" (London 1911)

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 149. Metrical psalm notation with a solmization letter by each note
‘whereby thou mayst knowe how to call every Note by his right
name’ (Sternhold and Hopkins, ‘The Whole Book of Psalmes’; London:
John Day, 1574)

Specific solmization notation was uncommon in England. The Fasola

solmization system, later known as ‘Lancashire sol-fa’, used a
reduced series of solmization syllables; it was expounded in popular
publications from the early 17th century until the late 19th, as in
John Playford’s Breefe Introduction to the Skill of Musick (1654),
and was normally a sight-singing system applied to music in ordinary
mensural notation. In America, however, it gave rise to a number of
distinctive notational systems for hymn and psalm books, beginning
with that of John Tufts (An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm-
Tunes, 1721; earliest extant edn., 5/1726), in which the letters M, F,
S and L (for the solmization syllables Mi, Fa, Sol and La) are placed
on a conventional staff, with dots for rhythm signs (two dots for a
breve, one for a semibreve and none for a minim). Comparable
systems multiplied in the 19th century. In the south and mid-west
USA, a number contained distinctive ‘shape-notes’ (i.e. notes of four
different shapes, each representing one of the four fasola syllables);
these may have first appeared in Little and Smith’s The Easy
Instructor (1801), whose system eventually prevailed over other
early 19th-century systems (fig. 151 ). Such systems are known also
as ‘patent’, ‘buckwheat’ or ‘figured’ notes, and the shape-notes have
survived into the 20th century. (See Shape-note hymnody; also §4(iii)
above.)

From the 17th century many numerical notational systems have

been proposed as alternatives to or replacements for conventional
mensural notation. One of the earliest was that of William
Braythwaite (Siren coelestis, 1638; see Krummel, 1975, pp.100ff,
including facsimiles), comprising numerals for notes and various
different types of comma for rests; other early numerical systems
are those of Kircher (Musurgia universalis, 1650, ii, 46ff) and
Giovanni d’Avella (Regole di musica, 1657). Such systems in the 17th
century and later relied mainly on numerals, with or without letters
of the alphabet, and some used conventional rhythm signs to fix the

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 durations of notes; most used the numerals to count diatonic
intervals arithmetically from a given note or notes. An exception is
Mersenne’s proposal (Harmonicorum libri XII, vii, 1648, pp.148ff) to
represent notes by inverse intervallic ratio as calculated by the
length of string required to produce the note, rather than by
frequency; the basis was c′, taken as an arbitrary 3600.

Rousseau, in his Projet concernant de nouveaux signes pour la

musique (1742/R) and elsewhere, used the numerals 1 to 7 for the
diatonic scale of C major, placed on, above or below lines to
distinguish between different octaves; this notation was designed for
complex pieces. A second system, for simple melodies, dispensed
with lines, using dots over or under numerals to indicate a move to a
higher or lower octave (shown with only the first note in the new
register). Simple integers were used for time signatures, rather than
conventional fractional signatures; subdivisions of a bar, if unequal,
were indicated by commas and by horizontal lines over or under
groups of notes, functioning like beams in mensural notation.
Rhythm signs in the usual sense were thus dispensed with, as in the
most influential 19th-century solmization and alphabetical notational
systems. Rousseau’s notational proposals, though not widely adopted
at the time, were taken up on a relatively large scale in the 19th
century in France in the Galin-Paris-Chevé method, whose influence
extended to other European countries (Germany, the Netherlands,
Denmark and Russia).

In the English-speaking world notational systems were developed in

the 19th century based on seven-syllable solmization systems, which
had been advocated from the 18th century as theoretically superior
to fasola. The most important of these systems was the Tonic Sol-fa
system, perfected by John Curwen from a method of sight-singing.
Like some of the 18th- and 19th-century American notational
systems described in Marrocco (1964), Tonic Sol-fa jettisoned the
staff and conventional note shapes, using instead letters as
abbreviations of the syllables representing the degrees of the major
scale, with changes of vowels for accidentals. The necessity for
rhythm signs, found in most earlier notational systems in which
conventional note shapes were abandoned, and even for time
signatures, was obviated by the expedient of making the distance
between symbols proportional to the duration of the notes, with dots
and colons used to separate beats. The notation is supplemented in
teaching with hand signs and a device known as a Modulator (see
Modulator).

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 Early 20th-century popular song notation, including ukelele tablature
and supplementary Tonic Sol-fa notation for the vocal part (M. Wayne,
‘Ramona’; London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1927); tablature symbols are
provided only at chord changes

This economical and ingenious system was well suited to relatively

uncomplicated vocal music. Associated in England at first largely
with nonconformity, it was adapted for use in Germany and Poland; it
was widely diffused through Christian missionary work and popular
ballads (in printed popular ballads it sometimes supplements
ordinary staff notation: see fig.97 above). Tonic Sol-fa has become
independent of white musicians in various parts of the world; it is
widely used by African musicians, for example, for vocal music, often
without the precise spacing and distinctions between different
octaves of 19th-century Tonic Sol-fa (fig.102 ). A derived notation,
using the numerals from 1 to 7 (and 0 for rests) instead of the sol-fa
symbols from d to t, was developed in Japan and is widely used in
20th-century printed music in China and Japan (see L.E.R. Pickens,
NOHM, i, 1957, 83–104, esp. 101); bar-lines are used as in sol-fa, but
bars and double bars underneath the numerals, rather than
punctuation marks, show the subdivision of the bars (for a related
example see fig.103 ).

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 152. Simplified sol-fa, outside white influence, in an English-speaking
Aladura church hymnal (for non-Yoruba-speakers in West Africa); the
words are holy names, governed by special pronunciation rules
(‘Hymnbook of the Church of the Lord Aladura’; Ijebu Ode, Nigeria,
c1958)

153. Notation for toy koto: the notes are represented by numerals,
elsewhere equated with Japanese phonetic equivalents of sol-fa syllables
(explanatory leaflet; Ina: Japanese Violin Research Institute, n.d.)

Although Tonic Sol-fa is used by those without musical education, it

should not be regarded as a simple rule-of-thumb notation like some
other alphabetical notations. Helmholtz, for example, considered it
superior to staff notation for theoretical reasons, believing that it
was a better means of producing correct intonation from singers
(see Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, Eng. trans., 1875, appx
18). Fig.104 shows Tonic Sol-fa as applied to a fairly complex tonal
piece; most of the notational features are self-explanatory.

Since the late 19th century the limitations of Tonic Sol-fa have
become more apparent because of its clumsiness when the music
modulates rapidly and its inapplicability to non-tonal music. Notators

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 accordingly have often preferred conventional mensural notation,
which has ousted Tonic Sol-fa even from areas in which it had been
well-established, such as English choral music. On the other hand,
attempts to construct notational systems based on solmization with
more than seven syllables to the octave have had no general success.
Such systems include the Eitz method, the systems of J.L. Acheson
(Douzave System of Music Notation, 1936) and of L. Benke (1967).

For the syllabic notation employed by Scottish pipers to record pipe

music (‘canntaireachd’) see Scotland, §II, 6, (i).

For bibliography see end of §6.

6. Non-mensural and specialist notations.

Geoffrey Chew

, revised by Richard Rastall

(i) 20th-century non-mensural notation.

Although the mensural notational system proved adaptable to the
requirements of 20th-century music, there are some areas where it
proved less effective. This occurred where the music makes
relatively little use of notes of definite pitch or definite duration, or
of traditional temperament systems. It occurred also in prescriptive
notation for indeterminate music, when precise specification is at a
minimum; and, perhaps paradoxically, also in descriptive notation at
the other end of the spectrum of precision, when scientific accuracy
of notation is required – as, for example, in ethnomusicological
notations.

A move away from mensural notation occurred with so-called action

notation: expansions of the verbal directions found in earlier
notation, or symbols replacing them (e.g. the abbreviations for
pedalling, fingering etc.) at the expense of the mensural aspects of
the notation. From this, perhaps, developed the graphic notations
particularly associated with indeterminacy (graphics, implicative
graphics), which were used at least as early as 1950–51 (Morton
Feldman, Projections). This notation is generally designed to evoke a
musical response from the performer by non-specific analogy rather
than by direct instruction; thus any two performances should be
quite different. According to Karkoschka (Schriftbild, 1966, Eng.
trans., 1972, p.77), graphic notation strives to ‘stimulate without
constricting the imagination’. Theoretically, any type of visual
pattern may be used, though a certain degree of influence of
conventional notation often seems evident, particularly in the choice

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 of shapes associated with articulation and dynamics, and in the idea
that a score represents a graph with a pitch range as its vertical axis
and a time-scale as its horizontal axis. Graphic notation may be
combined with conventional notation within a single score, as in figs.
105 and 106 . In some cases, such as in the works of Logothetis and
Cardew, particular emphasis is placed on developing the aesthetic
aspects of graphic notation. The use of abstract patterns as graphics
is paralleled by the use of verbal texts not as instructions but as a
‘notation’ intended to evoke a musical response (as in the Concert
for Orchestra by George Brecht, whose score comprises the single
word ‘exchanging’). An intermediate position between graphic and
conventional notation is occupied by the so-called ‘frame’ notation,
in which relatively free interpretation is permitted within certain
prescribed boundaries; sections of scores in this notation may
literally be notated within frames.

Notation has sometimes been used for electronic music, although

when such music is composed on tape the necessity for notation is
not always present. Some pieces have been notated in order that the
composer may be protected by copyright; or to provide a study
score; or to provide a cue-sheet for performers when electronic
music is combined with live performers. Scores of electronic music
may thus be either prescriptive or descriptive, and may not always
contain representations of every aspect of the music. The notation
used may draw on the resources of conventional mensural notation,
in so far as these are usable for the purpose, and on those of graphic
notation. Proposals have been made for notational reform and
notational standardization in electronic music (Fennelly, 1968).

Another area in which mensural notation is clearly inadequate is the

precise recording of musical data, particularly those of non-Western
music and folk music. Attempts to record music as it is being
performed have been made since the mid-18th century, for example
by attaching recording machines to keyboard instruments; these
were termed ‘melographs’ at least from 1828, and it was hoped to
record improvisations on them. One such instrument, from 1780,
survives at the Deutsches Museum, Munich (inventory no.43872).
Shorthand notations for recording music at speed were also devised
(see §6(ii) below). No wholly satisfactory method was available until
the invention of machines to record sound, and even then
transcription into visual notation was seldom sufficiently precise for
ethnomusicological material, even though efforts were made from
the 1920s to divorce ethnomusicological transcriptions from Western
mensural notation. But in the 1950s an improved Melograph (see
illustrations in that article) was developed by Charles Seeger. This
machine now provides immediate transcriptions of music in
threefold graphic form; one section of the ‘melogram’ represents a
pitch-time graph, another an amplitude-time graph and the third a
timbre-time graph. The resemblance of this notation to the graphic
notation described above is clear.

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 Unprecedented precision has also been required of notation adapted
to the digital computer. If notation is to be converted into a
computer programme, ambiguity and redundancy must be
eliminated; such programmes have been used for the stylistic
analysis, along statistical lines, of various repertories. Accordingly
attempts have been made to construct methods of notation adapted
to computers which lend themselves readily to transcription between
mensural or other notation and a computer programme (see for
example Symposium II in Brook, 1970, with details of some of the
problems and proposals for solving them; see also Cole, 1974, pp.
117ff).

(ii) Musical shorthand.

Before the invention of sound recording, a musical equivalent of
shorthand was required. The first attempts to devise one were made
in France in the early 18th century (e.g. Joseph Sauveur, Principes
d’acoustique, 1701), though the earliest systems are scarcely
shorthand in a practical sense since they either are alphabetical
systems or draw heavily on the resources of conventional notation.
As late as 1805, P.J. de La Salette claimed as a shorthand system one
that required letters of the alphabet, horizontal and vertical strokes
for rhythm signs and simplified signs for accidentals (Sténographie
musicale).

Démotz de la Salle in the 1720s proposed signs more suitable to a

shorthand system, which were capable of being rotated and reversed
(Méthode de musique selon un nouveau système); they were derived
from mensural notation, but later systems used simpler geometrical
signs (e.g. J.L. Riom’s Sténographie musicale, 1833), dots, curved
lines and so on. All the early systems used separate signs for each
note, but Hippolyte Prévost attempted to overcome this drawback by
a system in which complete bars could be written as single multiple
signs; the system required the use of a five-line staff with two
auxiliary dotted lines above and two below. A similar notation was
devised to record accompanying harmonies.

(iii) Notation for the blind.

Like musical shorthand, musical notation for the blind first
developed in the 18th century and the first attempts at it were
hampered by too close an adherence to the conventional mensural
system. Rameau (Code de musique pratique, 1760), Tans’ur
(Elements of Musick, 1772) and others envisaged, broadly speaking,
a conventional notation placed in relief so that it could be read by
touch, with note shapes somewhat altered to facilitate their
recognition by touch. Several other notations for the blind were
devised in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the most
important was that devised by Louis Braille (Anaglyptographie,
1829), which departed entirely from the conventional signs.

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 Embossed dots were arranged in two adjacent vertical rows of three
each, with the upper four dots referring to pitch and the lowest two
to duration (for further details of this system, see Braille notation).
This has superseded all other notations for the blind; revisions of it
have not all been adopted universally, and different forms are used
in different places.

(iv) Cryptography.
From the 17th century at least, musical notation has occasionally
been used as a secret code for conveying messages. Even earlier
than that, the association of notes with solmization syllables had
occasionally suggested their use as a pun, as for example in the use
of an interpolated B♭ (= fa) replacing the syllable ‘fa’ in Du Fay’s
name (GB-Ob Can.misc.213); this too is a type of cryptography, and
has many later parallels. Many musical codes equate single notes
and note shapes arbitrarily with individual letters of the alphabet;
there are German examples from the 17th century and later (e.g.
Kircher, Gaspar Schott, J.B. Friderici, Michael Haydn), which are
comparable to the system described in John Wilkins’s Mercury, or
the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641; see fig.107 and Krummel,
1975, p.128).

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 159. John Wilkins’s musical cipher (‘Mercury, or the Secret and Swift
Messenger’; London, 1641)

Another type of cryptography is represented by the use of motifs

comprising notes whose letter-names (or letters derived from them,
e.g. E♭ = Ger. Es = S) spell words (for example Bach’s and other
composers’ use of the motif B–A–C–H, that is B♭–A–C–B♮ in German
terminology; Schumann’s ‘Abegg’ Variations, 1830; Ligeti’s
Fragment, 1961). These examples belong to the history of
composition, however, rather than to that of notation.

An ambitious ‘universal’ musical language was essayed by Jean-

François Sudre (Langue universelle, 1867), which was intended to
express definite extra-musical ideas in a manner intelligible to all, of
whatever nationality. Motifs were associated with ideas (fig.108 )
and were communicable through performance, notation, cheironomy
and in other ways. Although the system achieved surprisingly wide
acclaim in France at the time, it soon sank into oblivion.

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 See also Cryptography, musical.

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 160. Combinations of notes available in notation (or otherwise) to
express concepts; the resemblances between different combinations are
generally related to the resemblances between the ideas they represent
(J.F. Sudre, ‘Langue universelle’; Paris, 1867)

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C.F.A. Williams: The Story of Notation (London and New York, 1903/
R)

E. Praetorius: Die Mensuraltheorie des Franchinus Gafurius und der

folgenden Zeit bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1905/R)

J. Hautstont: Notation musicale autonome (Paris, 1907)

H. Riemann: Kompendium der Notenschriftkunde, Kirchenmusik, iv–

v, ed. K. Weinmann (Regensburg, 1910)

IMusSCRIV: London 1911 [incl. several articles relating to notation]

J. Wolf: Handbuch der Notationskunde (Leipzig, 1913–19/R)

K.W. Gehrkeng: Musical Notation and Terminology (New York, 1914)

A.E. Hull: Modern Harmony: its Explanation and Application

(London, 1914)

A. Dolmetsch: The Interpretation of the Music of the Seventeenth

and Eighteenth Centuries Revealed by Contemporary Evidence
(London, 1915, 2/1944/R)

R. Schwartz: ‘Zur Partitur im 16. Jahrhundert’, AMw, 2 (1920), 73–8

H. Jacoby: ‘Grundlagen einer schöpferischen Musikerziehung’, Die

Tat, 13 (Jena, 1921–2), 889–909; pubd separately (Karlsruhe, 1922)

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 J. Wolf: Musikalische Schrifttafeln (Leipzig, 1922–3, 2/1927)

J. Wolf: Die Tonschriften (Breslau, 1924)

J. Wörsching: ‘Neunhundert Jahre Notenschrift’, Die Musik, 18

(1925–6), 884–9

L. Schrade: ‘Das Problem der Lautentabulatur-Übertragung’, ZMw,

14 (1931–2), 357–63

O. Gombosi: ‘Bemerkungen zur Lautentabulatur-Frage’, ZMw, 16

(1934), 497–8

A. Jacob: Musical Handwriting (London, 1937, 2/1947)

J.S. Levitan: ‘Ockeghem’s Clefless Compositions’, MQ, 23 (1937),

440–64

W. Georgii: Klaviermusik (Zurich, 1941, 3/1956) [with numerous

remarks on notation]

W. Apel: The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900–1600 (Cambridge,

MA, 1942, rev. 5/1961; Ger. trans., rev., 1970), pts.i, ii

W. Tappolet: La notation musicale et son influence sur la pratique de

la musique du moyen âge à nos jours (Neuchâtel, 1947)

What is Klavarskribo?, ed. Klavarscribo Institute (Slikkerveer, 1947)

J. Chailley: Les notations musicales nouvelles (Paris, 1950)

D.P. Walker: ‘Some Aspects and Problems of Musique Mesurée à

l’Antique: the Rhythm and Notation of Musique Mesurée’, MD, 4
(1950), 163–86

H.A. Chambers: Musical Manuscript (London, 1951) [reviews in

MMR, 81 (1951), 273 only, and MT, 92 (1951), 551–2]

‘A Proposed Musical Notation’, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 253

(Feb 1952), 125–43 [with discussions by E. Ormandy, W. Hinrichsen,
E.H. Ezerman, H. Diedrichs, P. Hindemith, J.L. Bawden and P. Moon]

S. Babitz: ‘A Problem of Rhythm in Baroque Music’, MQ, 38 (1952),

533–65

H. Cole: ‘Some Modern Tendencies in Notation’, ML, 33 (1952), 243–

9

V. Godjevatz: ‘New Musical Notation’, Musical Courier (1 Nov 1952)

28 only

A.D. Fokker: ‘De behoefte aan grotere nauwkeurigheid in de

muzikale notatie der toonhoogte’, Mens en melodie, 8 (1953), 114–
16

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 F. Rothschild: The Lost Tradition in Music, 1: Rhythm and Tempo in
J.S. Bach’s Time (London, 1953); 2: Musical Performance in the
Times of Mozart and Beethoven (London and New York, 1961) [see
also reviews: W. Emery, ML, 34 (1953), 251–64, and reply, 35 (1954),
80–88; A. Mendel, MQ, 39 (1953), 617–30; P.H. Lang, MQ, 40 (1954),
50–55]

R.T. Dart: The Interpretation of Music (London, 1954, 4/1967)

T. Feige: ‘Das Siebenliniensysteme: eine chromatische Notenschrift’,

NZM, 116 (1955), 151–4

F. Noske: ‘Two Problems in Seventeenth Century Notation

(Constantijn Huygens’ “Pathodia sacra et profana”, 1647)’, AcM, 27
(1955), 113–20; 28 (1956), 55 only

E. Winternitz: Musical Autographs from Monteverdi to Hindemith

(Princeton, 1955, enlarged 2/1965)

A. Hartmann: ‘Anregungen zu einer Reform der Notenschrift’, NZM,

118 (1956), 50–51, 118–19

H.M. Johnson: How to Write Music Manuscript (New York, 1956)

A.B. Barksdale: The Printed Note (Toledo, OH, 1957)

C. Seeger: ‘Toward a Universal Music Sound-writing for Musicology’,

JIFMC, 9 (1957), 63–6

R. Fawcett: Equiton (Zurich, 1958)

C. Seeger: ‘Prescriptive and Descriptive Music-writing’, MQ, 44

(1958), 184–95

J.M. Barbour: ‘Unusual Brass Notation in the Eighteenth Century’,

Brass Quarterly, 2 (1959), 139–46

G.L. Houle: The Musical Measure as Discussed by Theorists from

1650 to 1800 (diss., Stanford U., 1960)

E.E. Lowinsky: ‘Early Scores in Manuscript’, JAMS, 13 (1960), 126–

71

G. Noll: Untersuchungen über die musikerzieherische Bedeutung

Jean-Jacques Rousseaus und seiner Ideen (diss., Humboldt U., Berlin,
1960)

K. Stockhausen: ‘Musik und Graphik’, Darmstädter Beiträge zur

neuen Musik, 3 (1960), 5–25

L. Boehm: Modern Music Notation (New York, 1961)

F. Brenn: ‘Equiton’, SMz, 101 (1961), no.2, 78–87; no.3, p.23–7

C. Cardew: ‘Notation – Interpretation’, Tempo, no.58 (1961), 21–33

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 N. Cazden: ‘Forum’, JMT, 5 (1961), 113–28

C. Dahlhaus: ‘Zur Entstehung des modernen Taktsystems im 17.

Jahrhundert’, AMw, 18 (1961), 223–40

S. Hermelink: ‘Die Tabula compositoria’, Festschrift Heinrich

Besseler, ed. E. Klemm (Leipzig, 1961), 221–30

K. Jeppesen: ‘Et par notationstekniske problemer i det 16.

århundredes musik og nogle dertil knyttede jagttagelser
(taktindelling–partitur)’, STMf, 43 (1961), 171–93

C. Johannis: Notenschrifteform (Stuttgart, 1961)

H. Otte: ‘Neue Notation und ihre Folgen’, Melos, 28 (1961), 76–8

W. Steffens: ‘Entwurf einer abstrakt-temperierten Notenschrift’,

NZM, 122 (1961), 351–5

E. Karkoschka: ‘Ich habe mit Equiton komponiert’, Melos, 29 (1962),

232–9

M. Schuler: ‘Punctum, Suspirium und Bindebogen: ein

Notationsproblem der deutschen Orgeltabulatur des 15. und 16.
Jahrhunderts’, Mf, 15 (1962), 257–60

R.T. Dart, W. Emery and C. Morris: Editing Early Music: Notes on the
Preparation of Printer’s Copy (London, 1963)

A. Donato: Preparing Music Manuscript (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963)

R. Donington: The Interpretation of Early Music (London, 1963, rev.

3/1974) [with much detail about notational problems]

K. Stone: ‘Problems and Methods of Notation’, PNM, 1/2 (1963), 9–

31

A. Tyson: The Authentic English Editions of Beethoven (London,

1963), 30 [with passing comment on early 19th-century English
printed notation]

Notation neuer Musik: Darmstadt 1964 [incl.: C. Dahlhaus:

‘Notenschrift heute’, 9–34; G. Ligeti: ‘Neue Notation:
Kommunikationsmittel oder Selbstzweck’, 35–50; R. Haubenstock-
Ramati: ‘Notation: Material und Form’, 51–4; M. Kagel: ‘Komposition
– Notation – Interpretation’, 55–63; E. Brown: ‘Notation und
Ausführung neuer Musik’, 64–84; A. Kontarsky: ‘Notationen für
Klavier’, 92–109; C. Caskel: ‘Notationen für Schlagzeug’, 110–16
(Eng. trans. in Percussionist, viii (1971), 80–84); see also reviews by
W.-E. von Lewinski, Musica, 20 (1966), 197–8, and E. Karkoschka,
Melos, 33 (1966), 76–85]

B.S. Brook and M. Gould: ‘Notating Music with Ordinary Typewriter

Characters (A Plaine and Easie Code System for Musicke)’, FAM, 11
(1964), 142–59

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 G. von Dadelsen: ‘Über das Wechselspiel von Musik und Notation’,
Festschrift Walter Gerstenberg, ed. G. von Dadelsen and A.
Holschneider (Wolfenbüttel, 1964), 17–25

E. Lin: ‘The Notation for Continuous Gradual Change of Pitch’,

JIFMC, 16 (1964), 107–8

W.T. Marrocco: ‘The Notation in American Sacred Music Collections’,

AcM, 36 (1964), 136–42

H. Mayer: ‘Musikale Grafica (Actiescrift)’, Mens en melodie, 18

(1964), 276–80

G. Read: Music Notation (Boston, MA, 1964, 2/1969, rev. 3/1971)

M.D. Hastings: ‘Will “Klavarscribo” Work? New Notation Discussed

at I.S.M. Conference’, MO, 88 (1965), 275 only

C.M. Fuller: ‘A Music Notation Based on E and G’, JRME, 14 (1966),

193–6

H. Grüss: ‘Über Notation und Tempo einiger Werke S. Scheidts und

M. Praetorius’, DJbM, 11 (1966), 72–83

E. Karkoschka: Das Schriftbild der neuen Musik (Celle, 1966; Eng.

trans., 1972) [see also review by K. Stone, PNM, v/2 (1966–7), 146–
54]

B.L. Linger: An Experimental Study of Durational Notation (diss.,

Florida State U., 1966)

J. Mainka: ‘Klangaufnahme und musikalisches Schriftzeichen–

Gedanken zu Notation und Tradition in der Moderne’, GfMKB,
Leipzig 1966, 332–9

Standard Music Engraving Practice, ed. Music Publishers

Association (New York, 1966)

G.A. O’Conner: ‘Prevailing Trends in Contemporary Percussion

Notation’, Percussionist, 3/4 (1966), 61–74

‘Percussive Arts Society: Project on Terminology and Notation of

Percussion Instruments’, Percussionist, 3/2–3 (1966), 47–53

L. Benke: ‘Javaslat a tizenkétfokú hangrendszer új

írásmódjára’ [Proposal for a new notational system for dodecaphonic
music], Magyar zene, 8 (1967), 401–7

J. Chailley: La musique et le signe (Lausanne and Paris, 1967)

K. Dorfmüller: Studien zur Lautenmusik in der ersten Hälfte des 16.

Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1967)

E. Ghent: ‘Programmed Signals to Performers’, PNM, 6/1 (1967), 96–

106

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 M. Gould: ‘A Keypunchable Notation for the Liber Usualis’,
Elektronische Datenverarbeitung, ed. H. Heckmann (Regensburg,
1967), 25–40

R. Meylan: ‘Symbolisierung einer Melodie auf Lochkarten’,

Elektronische Datenverarbeitung, ed. H. Heckmann (Regensburg,
1967), 21–4

W. Reckziegel: ‘Die Notenschrift im Computer dargestellt’, SM, 9

(1967), 395–406

C.A. Rosenthal: Practical Guide to Music Notation for Composers,

Arrangers, and Editors (New York, 1967)

K. Roschitz: ‘New Methods of Musical Notation’, Musical Austria, 3/3

(1967)

K. Roschitz: ‘Zur Notation neuer Musik: Anmerkungen über

Grundsätze, Methoden, Zeichen’, ÖMz, 20 (1967), 189–205

W. Tappolet: Notenschrift und Musizieren: das Problem ihrer

Beziehungen vom Frühmittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert (Berlin,
1967)

T.E. Warner: An Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruction

Books, 1600–1830 (Detroit, 1967)

G. Dorfles: ‘Interferenze tra musica e pittura e la nuova notazione

musicale’, Quaderni della rassegna musicale, 4 (1968), 1–24

J. Evarts: ’The New Musical Notation – a Graphic Art?’, Leonardo, 1

(1968), 405–12

B. Fennelly: A Descriptive Notation for Electronic Music (diss., Yale

U., 1968)

M.V. Mathews and L. Rosler: ‘Graphical Language for the Scores of

Computer-Generated Sounds’, PNM, 6/2 (1968), 92–118

A. Mendel: ‘Some Ambiguities of the Mensural System’, Studies in

Music History: Essays for Oliver Strunk, ed. H.S. Powers (Princeton,
NJ, 1968/R), 137–60

K. Roschitz: ‘Aspekte der Notation neuer Musik’, Wort und Wahrheit,

23 (1968), 131–9

L. Sitsky: ‘Ferruccio Busoni’s Attempt at an Organic Notation for the

Pianoforte and a Practical Adaptation of it’, MR, 29 (1968), 27–34

P. Mies: ‘Einige allgemeine und spezielle Beispiele zu Beethovens

Notation’, BeJb 1969, 214–24

K. Roschitz: ‘Über neue Formen musikalischer Notation’, Beiträge

1968/69 (Kassel, 1969), 62–6

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 O. Baldwin and T. Wilson: ‘Musick Advanced and Vindicated’, MT,
111 (1970), 148–50

S. Bauer-Mengelberg: ‘The Ford–Columbia Input Language’,

Musicology and the Computer, ed. B.S. Brook (New York, 1970), 48–
52

B.S. Brook, ed.: Musicology and the Computer (New York, 1970)
[incl. ‘The Plaine and Easie Code’, 53–6]

K. Haller: Partituranordnung und musikalischer Satz (Tutzing, 1970)

D.S. Prerau: Computer Pattern Recognition of Standard Engraved

Music Notation (diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970)

T. Ross: The Art of Music Engraving and Processing (Miami, 1970)

J. Wenker: ‘A Computer Oriented Music Notation Including

Ethnomusicological Symbols’, Musicology and the Computer, ed.
B.S. Brook (New York, 1970), 91–129

C. Wolff: ‘Arten der Mensuralnotation im 15. Jahrhundert und die

Anfänge der Orgeltabulatur’, GfMKB, Bonn 1970, 609–13

D. Cantor: ‘A Computer Program that Accepts Common Musical

Notation’, Computers and the Humanities, 6 (1971), 103–9

T.G. Georgiades, ed.: Musikalische Edition im Wandel des

historischen Bewusstseins (Kassel, 1971) [incl. articles on notational
problems, facsimiles etc.]

M. Hood: The Ethnomusicologist (Los Angeles, 1971)

E. Karkoschka: ‘Eine Hörpartitur elektronischer Musik’, Melos, 38

(1971), 468–75

E. Karkoschka: ‘Polens isomorphe Notation’, Melos, 38 (1971), 230–

34

P. Nitsche: ‘Transponierte Notation bei Wagner: zum Verhältnis von

Notation und Instrument’, Richard Wagner: Werk und Wirkung, ed.
C. Dahlhaus (Regensburg, 1971), 221–36

M. Vinquist and N. Zaslaw, eds.: Performance Practice: a

Bibliography (New York, 1971) [repr. from CMc (1969), no.8, pp.5–
96; (1970), no.10, p.144]; suppls., CMc (1971), no.12, p.129; (1973),
no.15, p.126

R. Kowal: ‘New Jazz and some Problems of its Notation: Exemplified

in the Scores of Polish Jazz Composers’, Jazzforschung, 3–4 (1971–2),
180–93

J.A. Bank: Tactus, Tempo and Notation in Mensural Music from the
13th to the 17th Century (Amsterdam, 1972)

M. Bent: ‘Musica recta and musica ficta’, MD, 26 (1972), 73–100

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 P. Cooke: ‘Problems of Notating Pibroch: a Study of “Maol Donn”’,
Scottish Studies, 16 (1972), 41–59

F. Goebels: ‘Gestalt und Gestaltung musikalischer Grafik’, Melos, 39

(1972), 23–34

A. Hughes: Manuscript Accidentals: Ficta in Focus, 1350–1450, MSD

, 27 (1972)

A. Logothetis: ‘Karmadharmadrama in graphischer Notation’, ÖMz,

27 (1972), 541–6

H. Besseler and P. Gülke: Schriftbild der mehrstimmigen Musik,

Musikgeschichte in Bildern, iii/5 (Leipzig, 1973)

Y. Bukspan: Towards a New System of Music Notation (Tel-Aviv,

1973)

E. Kilgore: ‘Time Signatures of the Well-tempered Clavier: their

Place in Notational History’, Bach, 4/2 (1973), 3–16

A.M. Locatelli de Pérgamo: La notación de la música contemporánea

(Buenos Aires, 1973)

C. Roemer: The Art of Music Copying (Sherman Oaks, CA, 1973)

A. Szentkirályi: ‘An Attempt to Modernize Notation’, MR, 34 (1973),

100–23

H. Cole: Sounds and Signs: Aspects of Musical Notation (London,

1974)

New Musical Notation: Ghent 1974 [Interface, 4/1 (1975)]

C. Brandt and C. Roemer: Standardized Chord Symbol Notation

(Sherman Oaks, CA, 1975)

I. Darreg: ‘Xenharmonic Bulletin, No.vi: the Notation Question’,

Xenharmonikôn, 4 (1975)

H. Ferguson: Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th

Century: an Introduction (London,1975)

D.W. Krummel: English Music Printing 1553–1700 (London, 1975)

H. Risatti: New Music Vocabulary: a Guide to Notational Signs for

Contemporary Music (Urbana, IL, 1975)

B. Boretz and E.T. Cone, eds.: Perspectives on Notation and

Performance (New York, 1976)

I. Darreg: ‘Xenharmonic Bulletin, No.ix: the Calmer Mood’,

Xenharmonikôn, 7–8 (1979)

D. Moroney: ‘The Performance of Unmeasured Harpsichord

Preludes’, EMc, 4 (1976), 143–51

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 Musi-graphies (Paris, 1977) [exhibition catalogue]

G. Read: Modern Rhythmic Notation (Bloomington, IN, 1978)

C. Page: ‘French Lute Tablature in the 14th Century’, EMc, 8 (1980),

488–92

K. Stone: Music Notation in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1980)

C. Page: ‘The 15th-Century Lute: New and Neglected Sources’, EMc,

9 (1981), 11–21

R. Rastall: The Notation of Western Music (London, 1983; rev.

2/1998)

R. Black: ‘Contemporary Notation and Performances Practice: Three

Difficulties’, PNM, 22 (1983–4), 117–46

M. Bent: ‘Diatonic ficta’, EMH, 4 (1984), 1–48

D.A. Byrd: Music Notation by computer (diss., Indiana U., 1984)

L. Gariépy and J. Décarie: ‘A System of Notation for Electro-acoustic

Music’, Interface, 13 (1984), 1–74

H. Davies, J. Lawson and M. Regan: Eye Music: the Graphic Art of

New Musical Notation (London, 1986) [exhibition catalogue]

D. Guaccero: ‘L’aléa: du son au signe graphique’, Cahiers du CIREM,

18–19 (1990–91), 9–24

E. Blackwood and others: ‘How do you Notate your Music?’, PNM,

29 (1991), 189–96

A.M.B. Berger: Mensuration and Proportion Signs: Origins and

Evolution (Oxford, 1993)

R. DeFord: ‘Tempo Relationships between Duple and Triple Time in

the Sixteenth Century’, EMH, 14 (1995), 1–51

M. Bent: ‘The Early Use of the Sign 𝇉’, EMc, 24 (1996), 199–225

For further bibliography see Articulation and phrasing;

Articulation marks; Bow; Chiavette; Computers and music;
Continuo; Cryptography, musical; Dotted rhythms; Editing;
Expression; Eye music; Fingering; Improvisation; Musica ficta;
Notes inégales; Ornaments; Performing practice; Printing and
publishing of music; Proportional notation; Rhythm; Score;
Tablature; Tempo and expression marks and Theory, theorists.

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 More on this topic
Notation (jazz) <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/
grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-
e-2000333500> in Oxford Music Online <http://
oxfordmusiconline.com>

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