For most people Bach is the oldest composer on their repertoire, who lived somewhere between the 1600s into the 1700s. In the mainstream the oldest things out there are probably Vivaldi or Pachelbel. There is nothing wrong with that. It is understandable that fairly modern techniques are not directly transferrable to the Baroque music style.
But this post is not about Baroque music (which is another story to itself). What if I told you that before Bach, even before the Renaissance, their music was written with square notes?
These square notes are neumes. Notice that there are four staff lines instead of five.. and there are no definite measures or tempo. Is this notation outdated, antiquated, primitive, or what? No, this comes to the same issue as Baroque music: the style is simply different.
This notation was often used for plainchant sung in churches. More important to understand is the purpose of plainchant. It was not so much for public performance than for personal prayer. Those European cathedrals had very deep echoes, so sounds delayed, overlapped and bounced back. In that environment there was no need for precise rhythmic notation.
Another quirk about neumes: there is no specified starting pitch. You get to sing with whatever "key" you like. Notice that four staff lines just about spans one octave, which is the average vocal range.
Brilliant. How to sing it?
An Idiot's Guide to Square Notes tells you everything you need to know! In fact it explains better than I can. I like how it explains that you would not notate a symphony with neumes any more than you would a Gregorian chant with modern notation, because the styles require different approaches. The two notations were even invented by the same person. Hur hur.
For a feel of how it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqDIEjQfdNk
Why are neumes not getting much attention? Perhaps the religious background makes people wary? What I am more interested in is how this style of notation can change our mentalities towards music. Is there some potential we can rediscover from the freedom neumes provide?
Brilliant. How to sing it?
An Idiot's Guide to Square Notes tells you everything you need to know! In fact it explains better than I can. I like how it explains that you would not notate a symphony with neumes any more than you would a Gregorian chant with modern notation, because the styles require different approaches. The two notations were even invented by the same person. Hur hur.
For a feel of how it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqDIEjQfdNk
Why are neumes not getting much attention? Perhaps the religious background makes people wary? What I am more interested in is how this style of notation can change our mentalities towards music. Is there some potential we can rediscover from the freedom neumes provide?
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