Black letter styles were a feature of most late Mediaeval hand-scribed manuscripts. Thick nibs scratching away on parchment could not produce light airy forms; rather, and to avoid raising the pen too often from the page, the hand was crowded, filled with numerous ligatures, often close to illegible and very black. This sense of overcrowding persisted even after a further refinement, heightened neumes arranged above and below a line (which appeared sometime towards the end of the tenth century), made the intervals of the melody somewhat clearer.

Neumatic Notation through History (this notation was not standardised - there would have been considerable local variation)
Neume names	9th-10th centuries	11th-13th centuries	modern notation
Neumes
virga (or virgula) (single note)
tractulus punctus/punctum the earlier gravis was generally converted into a short horizontal line (tractulus) or a dot, or something similar (hence punctum or punctus)
podatus pes combination of the earlier gravis and acutus, lower and higher notes, an ascending group of two notes
clivis (more properly clinis) virga flexa (an earlier name) combination of the earlier acutus and gravis, a higher note followed by a lower one, a descending group of two notes
scandicus virga præpunctis (group of three notes)
climacus virga subpunctis (group of three notes)
torculus pes flexus combination of the earlier gravis, acutus, gravis, a group of three notes of which the second is the hightest
porrectus flexus resupinus combination of the earlier acutus, gravis, acutus, a group of three notes of which the second is the lowest
Compound neumes
scandicus flexus clivis præpunctis (group of four notes)
porrectus flexus (group of four notes)
torculus respinus (group of four notes)
pes subpunctis podatus subpunctis (group of four notes)
quilisma - it occurs invariably as the middle note in an ascending group and seems to indicate a glide of the voice, being accompanied by a sustaining of the note or group of notes preceding it
strophicus - one group of hook form signs shaped like a comma - singly it is called apostropha, when doubled, distropha; when trebled, tristropha. The apostropha is generally found at the end of another neum, or followed by a distropha at a higher pitch; it is never used as a single note over a syllable
oriscus - apostropha and oriscus are sometimes interchanged in different manuscripts. In a few instances the oriscus, however, is found as the single sign over a syllable
Latin Glossary: virga, virgula (from the Latin virga, rod) - punctus or punctum (Latin, point, dot) - tractulus (Latin, little stroke) - pes, podatus (from the Latin, pes, foot) - torculus (Latin, twisted - from torquere, to twist, from its broken form) - clivis (more properly clinis) (Latin, bend) - porrectus (Latin, extended - from porrigere, to extend, from the extended form of its lines) - climacus (from the Latin climax, stair, ladder) - scandicus (Latin, climber - from scandere, to rise) - salicus (from the Latin, salire, to jump) - flexus (Latin, 'bent' - the addition of a lower note to a group ending with a higher note) - resupinus (Latin, 'bent back' - the addition of a higher note to a group ending with a lower note) - præpunctis (the placing of several puncta before a sign) - compunctis (addition of puncta before and after a group of notes) - subpunctis (the placing of several puncta after a sign)

Ashenafi Kebede, in Music in Black Jewish and Christian Communities, describes the 'dual' system introduced in the sixteenth century that featured in Ethiopic chant notation. It employed both milikitoch (neumatic signs: curves, dots, dashes, etc.) and siraye (letter notation taken from the Ethiopian Ge'ez alphabet). To keep the two systems apart, the siraye was often placed above, while the milikit was placed below the text of the manuscripts. The siraye consisted of small letters usually written in red ink; the milikitoch were easily recognizable by their distinct shapes, and they were often written in black ink. Although neither the signs nor the letters indicated individual pitches, they clearly reminded the knowledgeable cantor of melodic passages, each with its own relative pitches, each passage being both melodically and textually meaningful. The duration of each pitch, silence, and volume was also measured according to their importance within each passage and the entire chant as a whole.

We would recommend the reference below for further information about the development of neumatic notation.

Reference:

In modern printing of medieval chant usually four line staffs are employed. In medieval manuscripts, however, there might be no staff line, or anything from one to six lines per staff, where each line signified a different voice.

Odo, abbot of the great abbey of Cluny from 927 to 942, actively fostered choral music both in his own abbey, where a hundred or more psalms were being sung daily, and in his travels to other monasteries, inspecting their music and instructing their choirs. From documents of the period, we know both of his teaching methods and of the importance attached to music at Cluny. His great innovation was to arrange the notes of the scale into an orderly progression from A to G, in this way developing the earliest effective system of Western musical notation. To aid the pitching the notes in the various Gregorian modes he associated them with string lengths on the monochord. Reproducibility replaced unreliable 'learning by rote'.

The failure of the neume system to maintain consistency in the performance of religious chant, inspired Guido d'Arezzo, in about 1025, to extend Odo's methods, and perfect his new staff-based system of music notation.

Reference:

Sometime during the tenth century, a red line, traced horizontally above the text, gave the singer a fixed note (F=fa), and so helped him to approximate the intervals. A second line in yellow (for C=ut) was added later. The staff arose from the addition of further black lines. It should be emphasised that these developments varied from place to place and that a remarkable range of notations coexisted at any one period. These experiments would result in the assignment of a four-lined staff to sacred music and of a five-lined staff to secular music. The yellow and red colours were later replaced by Guido who indicated the pitch of certain lines on the stave using letters. From one assigned pitch, the pitch of the remaining lines and spaces followed. By the time Petrucci's 1501 Harmonice musices odhecaton appeared, the first book of music printed from moveable type, bass and alto clefs identifying the note F and the note C respectively, symbols virtually identical to those found in earlier manuscript, had become standard. Only in the case where the cantus line was preceded by a C clef marking the bottom line of the stave, would we use today a treble clef marking G on the second line from the bottom of the stave. We illustrate the C and F clef signs below:

An example of the Petrucci 'style' may be found on page 160 of A History of Western Music by Grout and Palisca (published by W.W. Norton).

As we have noted above, Guido also named the degrees of the scale using the initial syllables of the lines of a Latin hymn (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la). Originally used for teaching sight singing, these or their derivatives are also used in some languages for naming absolute pitches. However, the term 'absolute pitch' when referring to medieval music should be handled with care.

Reference:

While a staff of five lines was adopted in France for vocal music, one of six lines was used in Italy and, as the example illustrates, in the Reading Abbey manuscript in which the Reading rota (entitled Sumer Is Icumen In) appears. Instrumental music employed staves of varying numbers of lines until the sixteenth century when the five-line staff became the standard. Accidental notation derives from variations of the letter B, particularly, the sharp and natural from the square B quadratum, and the flat from the B rotundum. In the earliest European music notation, 4-line staff Gregorian chant manuscripts, only B needed to be altered. It could be flattened, so altering from its position in the hexachordum durum ('hard hexachord' - hard because of the 'hard b': G-A-B-C-D-E) where it is natural, to that in the hexachordum molle ('soft hexachord' - soft because of the 'soft b': F-G-A-Bb-C-D) where it is flat. B is absent from the third hexachord, hexachordum naturale ('natural hexachord' - natural because it is neither hard nor soft: C-D-E-F-G-A).

This use of B as the only altered note explains some modern notational peculiarities. The flat sign actually derives from a round B (b), to signify the B of the soft hexachord, that is B flat (hence the name of the flat sign in French bémol from medieval French bé mol, modern French bé mou or 'soft b') and originally meant only the altered B, Bb. The natural sign derives from a square B (), to indicate the B of the 'hard hexachord', that is, B natural (hence the name of the natural sign in French bécarre from medieval French bé carre, earlier bé quarre, modern French bé carré or 'square b') and originally meant only the unaltered B, B natural. For the same reason, in the German notation the letter B only designates the B flat while the letter H, which is actually a deformation of a square B designates the B natural. As polyphonic harmony developed more alterations were required. The first sharp in use was F#, then came the second flat Eb, then C#, as so on. By the sixteenth century Bb, Eb, Db, Ab, Gb and F#, C#, G#, D# and A# were all in use.

The opposition of the 'soft b' (B flat) and the 'hard b' (B natural) went beyond the fact that they are present in different hexachords: the rules of polyphony stated that they could not be sung together or even consecutively either in the same part or in different parts. The segregation of the 'hard b' (which in the medieval hexachordal system bore the name 'b mi') from the 'soft b' (which in the medieval hexachordal system bore the name 'b fa') was extended in polyphonic music to the rule of 'mi contra fa', whereby the tritone, the medieval 'diabolo in musica' was a forbidden melodic and vertical interval and had to be corrected to a perfect fourth or fifth.

References:

After a period during which printers sought to replicate features of handwritten manuscript in their choice of print face, a process of standardisation took place and when new ideas in letter form design were adopted in one country, they became commonplace elsewhere.

Those interested in the history of design and form in early printing, much of it unrelated to notation of music, may like to read The Alphabet Abecedarium by Richard A. Firmage published in 2000 by Bloomsbury (ISBN 0 7475 4757 2) - an earlier edition appeared in 1993 published by David R. Godine, Boston, MA, USA.

The evolution of rhythmic notation took much longer than that for pitch. It would appear that prior to mensural notation the length of notes would be determined by the ancient rules of proportional rhythm applied to the words accompanying the melody (prosodic feet and proportions). By the tenth century, notation was beginning to develop its own rules. We find, in the anonymous Commemoratio brevis, some striking observations on the relative lengths of different notes.

Even so, it remains a problem when classifying and analysing the music of the troubadour, associated with Southern France between 1100 and 1300, as to whether the lyrics or the melody form the foundation for interpretation and performance. There is a complete absence of any mensural notation. Mensural or 'measured-time' notation would emerge only slowly and the golden era of the troubadours was a time of evolution.

Mensural notation became a necessity as polyphony and, in particular, the motet developed. Time could no longer be elastic. A single invariable time-unit became essential. At first, rhythmic modes were represented by certain patternings of neumes; later, in his Ars cantus mensurabilis (c.1280), Franco of Cologne clearly indicated, for each note, its exact rhythmic length and represented notes of long and short duration by particular specific neumes. In his system, the longer value was in principle equal to three of the shorter values. Indeed, the essence of mensuration was the relationships between two sets of note durations specifically, the ratio of breves to semibreves (called tempus), and of semibreves to minims (called prolatio).

In the fourteenth century, Philippe de Vitry, author of Ars nova, expanded Franco's 3:1 system to allow duple divisions of the long and short notes, i.e. a 2:1 system. At the various rhythmic levels of a given piece, either relationship was implied, and a system of signs and coloured notes was used to identify which relationship was currently being used or being temporarily set aside.

Mensural notation had become, then, a system of rhythmic notation where distinct note-shapes (from about 1260, maxima, longa, brevis and semibrevis - from the fourteenth century, minima - from the fifteenth century, semiminima, fusa and semifusa) indicated the relative lengths of different notes.

Groups of notes could be 'bound' together to form ligatures. This notational system was distinct both from that of rhythmic modes in which the context of the musical line limited any rhythmic flexibity, and unmeasured music which was entirely free from any set rhythmic values.

The ternary ratio (3:1) applied to the tempus (ratio of breves to semibreves), was called perfect, and was represented by a complete circle; applied to the prolatio (ratio of semibreves to minims), it was called major and was represented by a dot in the middle of the sign. The binary ratio (2:1) applied to the tempus was called imperfect, and was represented by an incomplete circle; applied to prolatio, it was called minor and was represented by the lack of an internal dot.

This system was extended to the ratio of longer note values, in particular, of maxima to longa (called modus maximorum, modus major or maximodus) and of longa to breve (called modus longarum, modus minor or simply modus).

The mensural notation system remained in use until about 1600.

We thank Ken Moore for his help in clarifying this section on mensuration.

Pre-Mensural Notation Symbols
Ekphonetic Notation		accentus acutus or acutus the acutus, being drawn upwards, from left to right, indicates a rise in the melody, a higher note	accentus gravis or gravis the gravis, being drawn downwards, from left to right, indicates a fall in the melody, a lower note
Neumatic Notation 6th to 13th centuries		Virga	virga jacens (Latin, literally 'thrown rod')
			punctus or punctum
Mensural Notation Symbols
Mensural Notation	maxima (duplex long)	longa (long)	brevis (breve)	semibrevis (semibreve)	minima (minim)	semiminima	fusa	semifusa
13th century
14th century
15th to 17th centuries
Modern Notation from the 17th century			breve (double whole note)	semibreve (whole note)	minim (half note)	crotchet (quarter note)	quaver (eighth note)	semiquaver (sixteenth note)

References:

• Raybro's Renaissance Music Pages
• Alain Naigeon: Renaissance Music Information
• Reading Early Notation by David Read

We thank Christian Mondrup for recommending and providing information about two of these links

By the fifteenth century, numbers appeared in the form of fractions, which in time developed into our time signatures, to mark when one proportionality of rhythmic values was temporarily being substituted for by another. Bar lines, expression signs, and, by the seventeenth century, Italian became the standard language for indicating the tempo (e.g. allegro, andante, largo). It should be mentioned that indications of the character of a piece had been used as far back as the Musica Enchiriadis (ninth century) employing the Latin words morosus (sadly) and cum celeritate (fast).

Nicola Vicentino (1511-1575/76) was one of the first theorists to mention volume as an expressive parameter. In his treatise L'antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (1555) he mentioned that the strength of singing must respect carefully the text and passage being sung and Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacrae Symphoniae (1597) is an early example where we find dynamic markings (i.e. piano, forte, pianissimo, fortissimo) used in their abbreviated form. German, French and English composers sometimes indicated, at the top of the page, the mood or speed of a piece in their own language while employing titles drawn from a wide range of languages.

With the adoption of equal temperament and the major and minor modes, key signatures indicating a major key or its relative minor became conventional and assumed their present form during the baroque period.

Even so there could be the odd example where composers modified standard notation to meet specific needs.

This is a portion of the first movement of Partita VII from Biber's collection of scordatura trios, Harmonia artificiosa-ariosa diversimode accordata, a work in 7 movements for two violas d'amore and basso continuo, originally published in 1696; this is a facsimile from the 1712 reprint. The tuning given is for 6 strings. The 9 line stave is Biber's way of extending the fingerings of the ordinary 4 string viola to the viola d'amore. There is one other example of this 9 line stave notation surviving.

To those interested in hearing this Partitia by Biber we recommend the superb recording of the complete Harmonia Artificioso Ariosa by The Rare Fruits Council on Auvidis France E 8572.

The Auvidis label is now part of Naive Classique.
Naive Classique
148 rue du Faubourg Poissonnière
75010 Paris
France

Tel: +33 (0)1 44 91 64 00
Fax: +33 (0)1 44 91 64 02
Email: info@naive.fr

In the example below, taken from the Lilypond music processor web site, the arrangement of stems in the second half of the first bar, the whole of the second bar and the first half of the third bar, reflects the fact that the left hand melody line has been written on both staves for clarity. In order to make readable multiple voices on an individual staff, the engraver combines notes and rests so that the player can follow easily the disposition of the individual voices from beat to beat, bar to bar.

The advent of aleatory music has produced new notational systems, varying from piece to piece, indicating only approximate pitch, duration, and dynamic relations. Notation for electronic music is still not standardized but generally uses traditional reference symbols (staff and clef signs) in conjunction with specially adapted pitch and rhythm notation. Proportionate (proportional) Notation, a graphic method of indicating durations, where instead of traditional notation, the horizontal spacing of symbols represents the intended length of durations has been introduced to handle pulseless music and music in which different and often complicated rhythms progress simultaneously at different speeds.

Sagittal is a microtonal notation system by George D. Secor and David C. Keenan. George Secor began development of the Sagittal (pronounced SAJ-i-tl) notation system in August 2001. In January 2002 he presented what he had developed to the Yahoo group tuning and offered to consider suggestions for improvements. At that stage the system could notate the equal temperaments with 17, 19, 22, 29, 31, 41, and 72 divisions per octave. Little did he know that he had provided a unifying symbolic principle which would ultimately be developed into a system capable of notating almost any conceivable microtonal tuning.

References: