The NEUMES Project

Transcription Primer

3. The Chant Transcription

3.1.1. Using Tags

• character data
• metadata

• the liturgical text of the chant
• its neumation, that is, the prima facie semantic content of the artefact

'Metadata' (NeumesXML) in the form of descriptive "tags" surround the 'character data.'

Following the conventions of coded web documents, many items require both an opening and closing tag. The following paired tags are used frequently in a NEUMES transcription:
<neumed_syllable> ... </neumed_syllable>
<syllable> ... </syllable>
<neume> ... </neume>

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3.1.2. Defining the Melodic Gesture¹ We Call a "Neume"

What is a neume? For the purposes of NEUMES transcriptions, a neume is defined separately from a "glyph", that is, a "neume" is not necessarily merely a single stroke of a scribe's pen, but a melodic gesture or a coherent unit of vocal expression. From the Greek pneuma, meaning "breath", a neume is a guide to the performance of the sung liturgy, the act of "giving breath" to sacred texts.

Supporting this concept is the first definition provided in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "neume": "In plainsong, a prolonged phrase or group of notes sung to a single syllable, esp. at the end of a melody. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 354/1 Newme of a songe [H. nevme], neupma."

For the transcriber and researcher, the distinction between "symbol" (i.e. "glyph") and "melodic gesture" (i.e. "neume") involves interpretation. The difficulties lie in:

• the presence or absence of ligation between the notes of the neume
• the extent to which the notes of a neume belong together, that is, how many individual tones comprise complex or "multiple-note" neumes (such as the climacus)
• the varying levels of expertise and proficiency of both transcribers and researchers in understanding the many extant scripts

Managing and encoding the interpretive aspect of the transcription process is the function of the metadata (see section 3.1.1. "Using Tags").

Within NEUMES encoding, the "melodic gestures" which we call "neumes" consititute "semantic frames" for the purpose of melodic pattern-matching. Such "neume frames" allow software to overlook small differences of melodic or notational details when comparing similar sources. For example, if two sources differ by just one glyph (one pen-stroke) within a "neume frame," or they differ by just a few tones in the pitches of notes, these two neumes can still result in a match within an allowable margin of error.