USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts

Neumes

Neumes are part of a medieval system of musical notation used throughout Europe, now employed solely in the notation of Gregorian chant in the liturgical books. A neume was a symbol that specified pitch and manner of performance; usually each neume stood for two to four notes. Throughout Europe and throughout the Middle Ages the neumes varied, and there are many different neumatic systems still in existence in manuscripts’ early forms of notation used to write down plainsong of the Roman Catholic Church. A musical setting is neumatic if there are two to seven notes per syllable.

The term, Melisma, refers to the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. In melismatic chants, 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. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, in which each syllable of text is matched to a single note.

Sources:
“Neume” in “Medieval Music Glossary” of The ORB [Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies] Encyclopedia.

“Notation” in database: Grove music Online.