Daseian notation

word syllables would be raised or lowered to a different staff line. This was used to notate organum in two, three and four-voice styles.[2] In addition to the Enchiriadis treatises, this notation is also used in the Commemoratio brevis de tonis et psalmis modulandis treatise.[3] However, despite the wide circu- lation of the Enchiriadis treatises, this notation was not widely used in practical sources. Music manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries record almost exclusively monophonic music, and even the extant sources of poly- phonic music, such as the Winchester Troper, are written Tu patris sempiternus est filius, written in Daseian notation. The in unheighted neumes.[6] This would continue until the Daseian signs are at the far left of the staff. development of the widely used staff system of Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century. Daseian notation (or dasian notation) is the type of Philipp Spitta was the first modern musicologist to cor- musical notation used in the ninth century anonymous [2] musical treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiri- rectly interpret this notation, in an 1889 publication. adis. The music of the Musica enchiriadis and Scol- ica enchiriadis, written in Daseian notation, are the ear- liest known examples of written polyphonic music in history.[1]

1 Usage

Musicologist Willi Apel has called the notation “a me- diaeval imitation of the ancient Greek notation”.[2] The treatises themselves refer to it as “dasia"; the word derives from the Greek daseia, which refers to "rough breathing" at the start of a word in spoken prosody.[3] Daseian notation makes use of a staff of varying num- bers of lines, from four to as many as eighteen, as well Daseian notation and its modern equivalents. as a system of four shapes which are rotated in various ways to represent the full gamut of eighteen pitches used in the treatises. These eighteen pitches are based on a system of four repeating hexachords, resulting in the fol- 2 See also lowing scale: G A B♭ c | d e f g | a b c' d' | e' f♯' g' a' | b' c♯''. This scale does not correspond to any known perfor- • mance practice. When it is used to construct polyphonic Musica enchiriadis music, as directed in the treatises, it results in a number • of written tritones, which were considered undesirable by Scolica enchiriadis theorists in performance and were probably mistakes of • the author.[4] Tonary The notational signs were then placed at the far left of the staff (similar in placement to modern clef), and some il- lustrations are supplemented with “T” and “S” in between 3 References the signs so as to clarify the placement of semitones.[5] Syllables of the spoken words were then written on the [1] Burkholder, Grout, and Palisca. A History of Western Mu- staff lines (see example above). If the pitch changed, the sic. Norton, 2006, p. 88.

1 2 3 REFERENCES

[2] Apel, Willi. The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900- 1600. Revised 4th edition. Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953, pp. 204-206.

[3] Hiley, David. “Dasian [Daseian] Notation”. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed Stanley Sadie. London:Macmillan, 2001.

[4] Hoppin, Richard. Medieval Music. Norton, 1978, p. 192.

[5] Grout, p. 90.

[6] Hoppin, pp. 198-199. 3

4 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1 Text

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