This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts

Neumes

Neumes: A Medieval system of musical notation used throughout Europe. A neume was a symbol that specified pitch and manner of performance. 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 medieval manuscripts.

Sources:

“Notation,” Bent, Ian D. et al. Grove Music Online, 2001
Tamer, Cristina. “Music in Medieval Manuscripts,” University of Michigan - From Tablet to Tablet: A History of the Book. Online Exhibits Final projects, 2015.

https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/from-tablet-to-tablet/final-projects/music-in-medieval-manuscripts

Danielle Mihram, 2021

This page is referenced by:

Physical Description Currus pharaonis [...]

USC Digital Library copy can be found here.

This rubricated leaf is finely written in a Gothic hand, in double columns, on top-quality vellum. The text is in black ink, and the musical notations are in black ink on red staffs.
Modern foliation in pencil ("p. 154") appears at the top of Folio 40r.
Rubricated original numbering appears at the upper margin:
Folio 40r: iii xl (likely meaning section three [although it could also be read as "in")
Folio 40v: di iiii (for "Dimanche 4," as in the 4th Sunday of Lent, the day on which these chants are to be sung).

The leaf’s small size (dimension: 197 x 127 mm, 7.68 x 4.95 inches) suggests that this breviary was designed for a nun’s private use rather than community use. The mise-en-page (‘putting-on-the-page', i.e., the physical arrangement of the text) includes two columns, and the number of lines, per column, ranges between 9-11 lines for musical score, and 17-22 lines for text.

Decorative partial borders, in red, blue and green, frame the left side of each column. Minor decorated pen-flourished initials signal textual breaks: Blue initials are encircled with red ink, and red initials are encircled in green ink.

The score is written with four-line staves and square notation. The musical notation in neumes appears to be monophonic plainsong, in some parts melismatic, generally known as Gregorian chant. There is the presence of verses and responsories.

The musical notation of the Medieval era does not resemble the notation used today. The notation was based on markings called ligatures, and it did not indicate rhythmic notation. Hence, for the modern musician or researcher, medieval music cannot be deciphered. In the eleventh century, Italian music theorist Guido d' Arezzo developed a four-line staff—a precursor to the modern five-line staff. Toward the end of the Medieval era, composer Philippe de Vitry and the French Ars Nova movement helped transform notation into the form used in the Renaissance.

.