Neume
A neume (/njuːm/; sometimes spelled neum)[1][2][3] is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation.
The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not necessarily the exact
Etymology
The word neume entered the English language in the
Early history
Although chant was probably sung since the earliest days of the church, for centuries it was transmitted only orally.
The earliest known systems involving neumes are of
Around the 9th century neumes began to become shorthand
Slavic neume notations ("
Western plainchant
The earliest Western notation for chant appears in the 9th century. These early staffless neumes, called cheironomic or in campo aperto, appeared as freeform wavy lines above the text. Various scholars see these as deriving from cheironomic hand-gestures, from the ekphonetic notation of Byzantine chant, or from punctuation or accent marks.[8] A single neume could represent a single pitch, or a series of pitches all sung on the same syllable. Cheironomic neumes indicated changes in pitch and duration within each syllable, but did not attempt to specify the pitches of individual notes, the intervals between pitches within a neume, or the relative starting pitches of different syllables' neumes.
There is evidence that the earliest Western musical notation, in the form of neumes in campo aperto (without staff-lines), was created at Metz around 800, as a result of Charlemagne's desire for Frankish church musicians to retain the performance nuances used by the Roman singers.[9]
Presumably these were intended only as mnemonics for melodies learned by ear. The earliest extant manuscripts (9th–10th centuries) of such neumes include:
- the abbey of St. Gall, in modern-day Switzerland
- Messine neumes (from the monastery of Metz in northeast France)
- Aquitanian neumes (southern France, also used in Spain)
- Chartres, Montpellier
In the early 11th century, Beneventan neumes (from the churches of
By the 13th century, the neumes of Gregorian chant were usually written in square notation on a staff with four lines and three spaces and a clef marker, as in the 14th–15th century Graduale Aboense shown here. In square notation, small groups of ascending notes on a syllable are shown as stacked squares, read from bottom to top, while descending notes are written with diamonds read from left to right. In melismatic chants, in which a syllable may be sung to a large number of notes, a series of smaller such groups of neumes are written in succession, read from left to right. A special symbol called the custos, placed at the end of a system, showed which pitch came next at the start of the following system. Special neumes such as the oriscus, quilisma, and liquescent neumes, indicate particular vocal treatments for these notes. This system of square notation is standard in modern chantbooks.
Solesmes notation
Various manuscripts and printed editions of Gregorian chant, using varying styles of square-note neumes, circulated throughout the Catholic Church for centuries. Some editions added rhythmic patterns, or
As a general rule, the notes of a single neume are never sung to more than one syllable; all three pitches of a three-note neume, for example, must all be sung on the same syllable. (This is not universally accepted; Richard Crocker has argued that in the special case of the early Aquitanian polyphony of the
Rhythmic interpretation
The Solesmes monks also determined, based on their research,
The Solesmes school, represented by Dom Pothier and Dom Mocquereau, supports a rhythm of equal values per note, allowing for lengthening and shortening of note values for musical purposes. A second school of thought, including Wagner, Jammers, and Lipphardt, supports different rhythmic realizations of chant by imposing musical meter on the chant in various ways.[13] Musicologist Gustave Reese said that the second group, called mensuralists, "have an impressive amount of historical evidence on their side" (Music in the Middle Ages, p. 146), but the equal-note Solesmes interpretation has permeated the musical world, apparently due to its ease of learning and resonance with modern musical taste.[14]
Illustrations
Examples of neumes may be seen here: "Basic & Liquescent Aquitanian Neumes" (archive from 10 June 2006, accessed 12 September 2014), [1], [2].
Clefs
Neumes are written on a four-line
Single notes
The virga and punctum are sung identically. Scholars disagree on whether the bipunctum indicates a note twice as long, or whether the same note should be re-articulated. When this latter interpretation is favoured, it may be called a repercussive neume.
Two notes
When two notes are one above the other, as in the podatus, the lower note is always sung first.
Three notes
Scandicus Three notes ascending Climacus Three notes descending Torculus down-up-down Porrectus up-down-up
The fact that the first two notes of the porrectus are connected as a diagonal rather than as individual notes seems to be a scribe's shortcut.
Compound neumes
Several neumes in a row can be juxtaposed for a single syllable, but the following usages have specific names. These are only a few examples.
Other basic markings
Flat Same meaning as modern flat; only occurs on B, and is placed before the entire neume, or group of neumes, rather than immediately before the affected note. Its effect typically lasts the length of a word and is reinserted if needed on the next word. Custos At the end of a staff, the custos indicates what the first note of the next staff will be Mora Like a dot in modern notation, lengthens the preceding note, typically doubling it
Interpretive marks
The interpretation of these markings is the subject of great dispute among scholars.
Vertical episema
(vertical stroke)Indicates a subsidiary accent when there are five or more notes in a neume group. This marking was an invention of the Solemnes interpreters, rather than a marking from the original manuscripts. Horizontal episema
(horizontal stroke)Used over a single note or a group of notes (as shown), essentially ignored in the Solesmes interpretation; other scholars treat it as indicating a lengthening or stress on the note(s). Liquescent neume
(small note)Can occur on almost any type of neume pointing up or down; usually associated with certain letter combinations such as double consonants, consonant pairs, or diphthongs in the text; usually interpreted as a kind of grace note Quilisma
(squiggly note)Always as part of a multi-note neume, usually a climacus, this sign is a matter of great dispute; the Solesmes interpretation is that the preceding note is to be lengthened slightly.
Other interpretations of the quilisma:
- Shake or trill—William Mahrt of Stanford University supports this interpretation. This interpretation is also put into practice by the Washington Cappella Antiqua, under the current direction of Patrick Jacobson.
- Quarter-tone or accidental. The support for this interpretation lies in some early digraphic manuscripts that combine chironomic neumes with letter-names. In places where other manuscripts have quilismas these digraphs often have a strange symbol in place of a letter, suggesting to some scholars the use of a pitch outside the solmization system represented by the letter names.[citation needed]
There are other uncommon neume shapes thought to indicate special types of vocal performance, though their precise meaning is a matter of debate:[15]
- The trigon.microtonal meaning, but there is "an admitted lack of conclusiveness in the arguments in favor of notes smaller than a semitone."[19]
- The distropha and tristropha are groups of two and three apostrophes, usually of the same pitch. They probably differed from normal repeated notes (virgae or puncta) in the way they were sung. Although there is some doubt on the matter, most modern writers accept Aurelian of Réôme's description of a staccato reiteration.[20]
- The oriscus is a single-note neume, usually found added as an auxiliary note to another neume. The name may derive from either the Greek horos (limit) or ōriskos (little hill). Its intended manner of performance is not clear. Although a microtonal interpretation has been suggested, there is possible contradicting evidence in the Dijon tonary, Montpellier H. 159.[21]
- The pressus is a compound neume, usually involving an initial neume followed by an oriscus and a punctum. The initial neume may be a virga (in which case the virga + oriscus may be together called a virga strata), in which case the pressus indicates three notes; if the initial neume is a pes, then the compound indicates a four-note group. Just as with the oriscus itself, the interpretation is unsure. When chant came to be notated on a staff, the oriscus was normally represented as having the same pitch as the immediately preceding note.[22]
There are also litterae significativae in many manuscripts, usually interpreted to indicate variations in tempo, e.g. c = celeriter (fast), t = tenete (hold) (an early form of the tenuto), a = auge (lengthen, as in a tie). The Solesmes editions omit all such letters.
Other functions
Neumes were used for notating other kinds of melody than plainchant, including
Other types
- Ekphonetic neumes annotating the melodic recitation of (Christian) holy scriptures.
- Neumes of Byzantine music – in several stages, old Byzantine, middle Byzantine, late Byzantine and post-Byzantine, and neo-Byzantine (reformed).
- Neumes of Slavic chant (Slavic neumes or "Znamenny Chant").
- Mozarabic or Hispanic neumes (Mozarabic liturgy varies somewhat from the Roman rite.
- Catalan notation.[23]
- Daseian notation – an early form of Western music notation used in 9th and 10th-century music theory treatises.
- Buddhist chantuses a type of neume.
Digital notation
Because notation software usually focuses on modern European music notation, software that allows the user to use neumes is rare.
- Gregorio is a software especially written for that purpose. With its own GABC-Syntax and together with LuaTeX it provides high quality output of square notation neumes and also St. Gall neumes.
- Lilypond is able to produce output using neumes.[26]
- Some open fonts[27][28] for neumes are available, which can be used by common office software or scorewriters.
See also
- Mensural notation
- Musical notation
- Znamenny Chant
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-7661-7241-8.
- ^ Chants of the Church
- ^ Liber Usualis
- ^ "neume". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- Perseus Project.
- ^ "neume". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989.
- ISBN 0-521-88672-4), 225 n54. For the lyrics, see Peter Godman (1985), Latin Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 206–11.
- ^ Kenneth Levy, "Plainchant", Grove Music Online, edited by Laura Macy (Accessed January 20, 2006), (subscription access)
- ^ James Grier Ademar de Chabannes, Carolingian Musical Practices, and "Nota Romana", Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 43–98, retrieved July 2007
- ^ "Gregorian Chant - Classical Music". sites.google.com.
- ^ David Hiley. "Hufnagel". Oxford Music Online. Oxford University. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
- ^ Hiley, "Chant", p. 44. "The performance of chant in equal note lengths from the 13th century onwards is well supported by contemporary statements."
- ^ Apel, Gregorian Chant, p. 127.
- ^ Mahrt "Chant", p. 18.
- ISBN 0-674-01163-5.
- ^ Willi Apel, ed. (1972). "Neume". Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 572.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-5239-7.
- ^ David Hughes, "An Enigmatic Neume", in Themes and Variations: Writings on Music in Honor of Rulan Chao Pian, edited by Bell Yung and Joseph S. C. Lam, 8–30 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press Press, 1994), pp. 13–14.
- ^ David Hughes, "An Enigmatic Neume", in Themes and Variations: Writings on Music in Honor of Rulan Chao Pian, edited by Bell Yung and Joseph S. C. Lam, 8–30 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press Press, 1994), p. 26.
- ^ David Hiley, "Distropha, tristropha [double apostrophe, bistropha; triple apostrophe]", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ^ Anon., "Oriscus", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ^ David Hiley, "Pressus", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
- ISBN 9788489943742.
- ^ "Medieval 2 release". MakeMusic. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
- ^ "Medieval 2 website". Klemm Music Technology (for Robert Piéchaud). Retrieved 2017-06-17.
- ^ "Lilypond Notation Reference – Typesetting Gregorian Chant". Lilypond Development Team. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
- ^ "CaeciliaeCaeciliae". Marello.org. Archived from the original on 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Liturgical Music / Downloads". Monastery Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
References
- Graduale triplex (1979). Tournai: Desclée & Socii. ISBN 2-85274-094-X, a special edition of the Graduale Romanum with chant notation in three forms, one above the other, for easy comparison: Laon, St. Gall, and square note
- Liber usualis (1953). Tournai: Desclée & Socii.
- Paléographie musicale. [ISBN 2-85274-219-5. Facsimiles of early adiastamatic chant manuscripts.
- Apel, Willi (1990). Gregorian Chant. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20601-4.
- Constantin, Floros. "Universale Neumenkunde" (Universal Theory of Neumes); three-volume[full citation needed] covering all major styles and schools of neumatic musical notation in three major divisions: Byzantine, Gregorian and Slavic.
- Hiley, David (1990). "Chant". In Performance Practice: Music before 1600, Howard Mayer Brown and ISBN 0-393-02807-0.
- ISBN 0-19-816572-2.
- Mahrt, William P. (2000). "Chant". In A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music, Ross Duffin, ed., pp. 1–22. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33752-6.
- McKinnon, James, ed. (1990). Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-036153-4.
- Wagner, Peter. (1911) Einführung in die Gregorianischen Melodien. Ein Handbuch der Choralwissenschaft. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
- Wilson, David (1990). Music of the Middle Ages. Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-872951-X.
External links
- Learning Resources
- The 1961 Liber Usualis compares, inter alia, modern and chant notations. It is also a handy reference for all the types of neumes.
- Singing Gregorian Chant: Pitch and Mode
- Other
- Oliver Gerlach (Ensemble Ison): Performing Western Plainchant—Introduction into the Latin Neumes of the 10th century (Accessed November 26, 2009)
- David Hiley and Janka Szendrei: "Notation", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed June 12, 2006), (subscription access) Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Font package for writing post-Byzantine neumes
- Kenneth Levy: "Plainchant", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 20, 2006), (subscription access) Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Comparative table of cheironomic and square neumes
- Samples of early notation, showing the same chant in many different notations
- Catholic Encyclopedia entry for Neum
- Solesmes Abbey
- The Intonation of the Eight Tones Byzantine notation
- Music for Vespers Archived 2010-12-16 at the Wayback Machine Byzantine notation