=System of Notation by Letters=.—The earliest system of Notation,
attributed to =Boethius=, the Roman philosopher, seems to have been the
placing of letters over the syllables, thus:
C C D B C D
My country ’tis of thee.
[Music: Boethius’ Notation]
During the period of history dominated by Pope Gregory the Great, a
change was made in this system by which capital letters, small letters
and double letters were used, an improvement, since only the first
seven letters of the alphabet were employed, thus:
[Music]
This system seems to have been used chiefly for theoretic
demonstration. These two methods indicated the _pitch_ sufficiently,
but _not_ the _duration_ of the sounds.
=Neumes=.—The next attempt was somewhat of a retrogression instead
of an improvement. Signs called _Neumes_ were placed over the words.
These signs consisted of points, lines, accents, hooks, curves, angles
and a number of other characters placed more or less exactly over the
syllables to which they were intended to be sung, in such manner as to
show, relatively, by the distance above the text, how much the voice
was to rise or fall. They did _not_ indicate _absolute pitch_ or
_duration_. The number of characters in use, according to manuscripts
still preserved, varied from seven to forty. In later forms they appear
in the notation used for the old Plain Song melodies (Gregorian) which
were recalled into general use by Pope Pius X, in 1904.
[Music:
Neumes.
Lettres.
fh f gd fff efgfd d g g hg hi h kk hg ef
Notation du treizième siècle.
Notation moderne.
Neumes.
Lettres.
gfg ef hi g g fd f de de c d gh efg f d c dd.
Notation du treizième siècle.