This is Followed by discussions on the relationships between words and music; chant transmission before
neumes; various types of Byzantine musical notations; problems of sizes of intervals and tunings; signs and interpretations of Middle Byzantine notation including rhythm, modes, melody.
In a broad comparative way the author discusses the Latin
neumes as well.
In the
neumes written by [Sigma], there are many groups that appear more than once, further affirming the discoveries by Haug and Gunilla Bjorkvall (as noted by Arlt on page 63 of the commentary) that certain melismas used to trope Proper chants recur in one chant after another.
Notker makes no mention of it, yet the
neumes are critical in tying down the fleeting musical sounds as groups of notes, as musical gestures (see 1:32-41).
"The neumators," says Ziolkowski, "who may often have been the very individuals who had most need and greatest desire to consult the
neumes, probably wrote down only as much of the melodies as they needed tojog their memories to recall the remainder" (55).
On the other hand, Helisachar's letter tends to support Levy's argument for an early date for the origin of
neumes. The rationalism of Helisachar's work as a grammarian might have led him to realize he had to indicate in some form of musical notation the melodies of the chants he included in his antiphoner.
Palomares's copy is remarkable for its nearly exact representation of both the text and the
neumes of the medieval model at a time when few were studying liturgical books in Spain, much less their musical notation.
In a discussion of the one medieval chansonnier with Messine
neumes, not quadratic as in the other manuscripts (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, f.
Most red staff lines and
neumes are legible, and the rubrics appear as a lighter shade of gray.