Page "Medieval music" Paragraph 12

The earliest Mediaeval music did not have any kind of notational system.

The tunes were primarily monophonic and transmitted by oral tradition.

However, this form of notation only served as a memory aid for a singer who already knew the melody.

Also, as Rome tried to centralize the various liturgies and establish the Roman rite as the primary tradition the need to transmit these chant ideas across vast distances effectively was equally glaring.

The first step to fix this problem came with the introduction of various signs written above the chant texts, called neumes.

The origin of neumes is unclear and subject to some debate ; however, most scholars agree that their closest ancestors are the classic Greek and Roman grammatical signs that indicated important points of declamation by recording the rise and fall of the voice.

The two basic signs of the classical grammarians were the acutus, /, indicating a raising of the voice, and the gravis,