Beginnings of Music Notation

[Herzeleide]

He's an extremely modest little first year essay of mine.

What do we know about the beginnings of music notation
in the west? What effects did notation have on the transmission and performing of music?


Western music notation has its nascency in neumes. This was the earliest form of music notation found in the west,[1] ostensibly originating in the 9th century. Etymologically, the word 'neume' came from the word 'neuma', from the Latin meaning 'gesture, sign, movement of the hand'[2], and the Greek definition of 'neuma': 'nod or sign'[3]. This original Latin definition has some relevance as to the neumes came into fruition, which will be seen further on; however, in the cognate form of the word (with the orthography 'neume') the semantics of the word was musical: a denoted melodic element, and from the 10th century, and thereafter, its meaning was that of graphic signs representing each syllable of the text of the music. The purpose of neumes was as an aide- memoire for monks singing plainchant; the neumes only delineated the shape of a melody rather than the precise pitches, rhythm or intervals[4]. Neumes can be identified as being simple (denoting up to three notes) compound (conflated or extended simple neumes) or special (ornamental neumes).

The pertinence of origins the neumes is of paramount importance in discovering the principles which underlie notational development, as even its embryonic stage; the foundations were set which would influence all notational practices thereafter, though there is disagreement about this. It is something of a nebulous area, and several theories and conjectures have been propounded as to the origins of neumes, none, however, that have come to be putatively veridical, nor close to lifting the brume of history to reveal a verifiable and satisfying explanation. Nonetheless, it shall be assumed that there is at least some truth in some of the theories and conjectures, for practical purposes if nothing else.

One such theory is that the precursors of neumes were the prosodic accents of Alexandrine grammarians (i.e. accents from the Latin language). These have frequently been sited as adumbrative of neumes[5]. This theory has been espoused and expounded by Charles M. Atkinson in his essay 'De Accentibus Toni Oritur Nota Quae Dicitur Neuma: Prosodic Accents, the Accent Theory and the Paleofrankish Script' (in reference to the treatise 'Quid est cantus', by an anonymous Vatican author, as evidence of the origins of neumes):

I quote it here because it is one of the only medieval statements I know of concerning the origins of neumes. Given its temporal proximity to the events it is reporting and given the clarity of its statement about the basis of neumes, one is surprised to find that if mentioned at all, it has been treated only in passing in several recent articles on the beginnings of music-writing in the west. Moreover, given the Vatican Anonymous's unequivocal statement that the neumes were derived from prosodic elements...[6]

Allegedly, the acute accent was the antecedent of the neume virga, the grave accent the antecedent of punctum and the circumflex the antecedent of clivis, or flexa.[7] Although the links are tenuous between the prosodic features of medieval Latin and the neumes (one can make this judgement merely from the graphic appearance) the theory should not be dismissed entirely. There may be some cogency in the theory purely from links between speech, prosody and the music, which was, after all, vocal music. This coupled with the fact that each neume would be used to represent each syllable, which certainly is highly indicative of the neumes being derived from Latin accents. The one problem with this theory, however, and the one issue which might raise incredulity over this theory is geographical, since the theory only has convincing validity if only applied to Palaeo-Frankish neumes[8], which would thus preclude the theory being a definitive one which would apply to the multifarious developments of neumes around Europe.


Another theory is that neumes were a graphic depiction of cheironomy - which the neumes denote gestures made the cantor during a performance. The main argument for this appears to be the aforementioned etymology of the word 'neume'; the literal definition from Latin is 'gesture, sign, movement of the hand'. The drawback of this theory is that the only influences of cheironomy were non-western[9], and cheironomy was used in these music cultures to illustrate exact pitches, which neumes flagrantly do not do.

There are a plethora of other theories, but they will not be mentioned here for the sake of concision. However, as a concatenation in surveying the early history of western notation, it would be pertinent to mention dissent to the notion that neumes foreshadowed staff notation so it can be confuted, so that the logical progression of music notation in the west can be resumed. Treitler has repeatedly asserted that neumes cannot be regarded as imperfect precursors of staff notation, because if there had been a need to denote actual pitches, a means would have been found[10]. This is sophism in that Treitler's justification for the conclusion drawn has nothing to do with it; the link is very superficial and the argument is basically an ignoratio elenchi. It is important to realise that although the neumes do not denote actual pitches, they give a graphical representation of the shape of the melody; an integral part of staff notation, so that the basic tenor of a melody shape could be depicted. It is worth noting that other systems of notation that did notate precise intervals did so in such a way that the melodic shape of a line would not be obviously ascertained visually, for example, the encipherment of Byzantine music notation. Thus, a system which does not depict precise intervals or pitches does not preclude its having an effect upon later developments.

A tremendous break through in music notation came with the Italian Guido of Arezzo's reformation of theories of music notation to make them practical and widely used. Essentially Guido of Arezzo simplified complicated and strictly theoretical ideas on music notation to make them palatable for and conducive to the reproduction of liturgical music.[11] Indeed, according to C. F. Abdy Williams, Guido's 'chief characteristic seems to have been practical common sense'[12]. The Guidonian system exhibits all the germs of modern notation, for instance the staff lines represent notes a third apart. It was not only this which contributed to the dissemination of Guidonian notation though. Pope John XIX contributed to its dissemination by commissioning Guido to notate Roman liturgical books in staff notation. The link can be made here between neumes and the Guidonian notation system in that Guido would set his own traditional adiastematic neume shapes on lines[13], thus proving that the neume notation systems influence upon later developments in notation in western music. These were the foundations and principles of early music notation.


Bibliography
Janka Szendrei, 'History of Western notation', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. http://www.grovemusic.com
C. F. Abdy Williams, The Story of Notation (London, 1903).
Charles M. Atkinson, 'De Accentibus Toni Oritur Nota Quae Dicitur Neuma: Prosodic Accents, the Accent Theory and the Paleofrankish Script' Essays on Medieval Music, I, (Harvard, 1995), 17-42.

Carl Parish, The Notation of Medieval Music (London, 1958).

[micrologus]

Thank you for this Herzeleide

EarlyMusicNotation.JPG

[MusicLover24]

Thanks for this post, I am actually a slow learner when it comes to theory and I appreciate your post it was very helpful

[Herzeleide]

You're welcome, MusicLover24!

Originally Posted by Herzeleide

There are a plethora of other theories, but they will not be mentioned here for the sake of concision.

"I have neither the time nor the motivation to reach the prescribed word count."

[Joe Townley]

Very good history lesson