Neum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fundamental unit in music notation representing a single pitch or a group of pitches; a symbol used in medieval musical manuscripts indicating how a melody should be sung; a notation mark that guides singers on vocal performance in early music forms
2. A basic element in traditional musical writing that signifies one or more sounds; a character found in historical scores that helps to convey melodic direction; a graphical representation essential for early vocal music interpretation
3. A key symbol in the study of early music that denotes pitch or a series of pitches; a mark employed in ancient scores for indicating melody; a notation used for guiding singers in the performance of chant and early music styles

Etymology: The neume is a small symbol in medieval chant notation, and its name hides a quiet rivalry between two Greek words. Medieval Latin "neuma" or "pneuma" may come from Ancient Greek "neûma", meaning "sign", or else be a garbled form of "pneûma", meaning "breath". Scholars cannot settle which, and the two possibilities are doublets: both descend from the same Greek stem, so the word carries either a gesture or a breath inside it. The "breath" reading is the more evocative one, since chant was sung on breath and the symbols were originally used to recall melodic movement. Yet the "sign" reading fits the function of the notation better, because the neume was a written mark that told a singer how a phrase rose or fell. The word reached English in the 15th century as "newme", "nevme" or "neme", borrowed through Middle French "neume". Its spelling wandered for centuries before the modern form settled, and "neum" survives as a variant spelling.

Synonyms: note, musical notation