In the musical codes of the Middle Ages, we find three different
notations: alphabetic, neumatic and mensural.
The Latin alphabetic notation was mainly used only in theoretical
treatises and indicated the names of the notes and their succession. The monodic medieval
chants, sacred and profane, came to us in a type of notation called neumatic (from
the Greek neuma = sign). All the Gregorian chants have come to us in this type of
notation.The first Medieval writing was called chironomic and was made of signs
which were similar to the acute or circumflex accents that were set on the syllables of
the liturgical text to be sung, to remind the singers the melodies they already knew.
Later on, the different neumatic writings that had developed in the various parts of Italy
and Europe were unified under the square notation.
With the diastematic writing, the concept
of height was introduced in the sound through two lines: one for the Do and one for the Fa
before which the corresponding keys C (Do) anf F (Fa) were written. The neumatic notation
was used for the monodic liturgical and profane chants, and also for the first forms of
polyphony. It was thanks to Guido d’Arezzo (995-1050) , a Benedictine Monk from the
Pomposa Monastery (Ferrara) that the modern notation started to be used.
He in fact worked out the first four line-stave (tetragramma) and
called the notes with the first syllables of the first stanza of The Hymn to St. John.
The syllables and the notes , separated from the context, created a scale of six sounds
called Hexachord..
The Rhythmical modes
The development of the counterpoint also contributed to an increased
precision in establishing the note-length, therefore the mensural notation was originated.
The first attempt, that of the rhythmical modes followed that of the prosody of ancient
Greece with the alternate combination of two values: the long and the short one ("longa"
and "brevis"). Their different combination originated six rhythmical
modes.
In the XIII
century Francone da Colonia added two new values: The maxima or duplex
longa and the semibrevis.
At the beginning of the XIVcentury, in
France, a new value was introduced: The semibrevis minima.
