Neume Notation

ネウマ譜 / 9th century– / Style / Notation Systems

The West's oldest musical writing: melodic inflection recorded in curves like the motion of a hand. The gesture of melody before pitch was fixed to lines, still alive in the manuscripts of Gregorian chant.

Neume Notation — Chant score of Ave Maria (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Domínio Público — Chant score of Ave Maria (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Domínio Público

Neume Notation — Neumes in the Hartker Antiphonary, St. Gallen Codex 391, 990s — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Neumes in the Hartker Antiphonary, St. Gallen Codex 391, 990s — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Curves as melodic gesture
Four-line staves and square notes
Manuscript red and black
Signs floating above the words

Best used for

Conveying chant inflection as breath rather than as exact pitch
Bringing medieval manuscript texture into a binding or exhibition graphic

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Dictionary entry

Type: Text leads and signs follow, set small directly over each word
Composition: Signs on four lines, leading wide enough for the text to breathe
Material: Black and red only on a parchment ground, staff lines in red
Caution: Curves drawn as ornament lose their correspondence with melodic motion, and the notation sinks into decoration nobody can sing from.
Further study: the St. Gall manuscripts / the Solesmes restoration / from neumes to square notation

Related entries

Staff Notation (五線譜)Same Notation Systems lineage.Compare Neume Notation and Staff Notation
Illuminated Manuscript (彩飾写本)Shared effects: Calm / Nostalgia.Compare Neume Notation and Illuminated Manuscript

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/neume-notation
Markdown: [Neume Notation — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/neume-notation)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/neume-notation">Neume Notation — IndexStyle</a>

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