Editing Musical notation (section)

===Byzantine Empire===
{{further|Byzantine music}}
[[File:Stavropoleos-anastasimatar-macarie-viena-1823-p11.png|thumb|right|Byzantine music notation in the first edition (1823) of Macarie Ieromonahul's ''anastasimatarion'', a hymnal with daily chant (including resurrection troparia called ''apolytikia anastasima'') in [[Octoechos (liturgy)#Types of octoechos books|oktoechos]] order, each section began with the evening psalm 140 (here section of echos protos with Romanian written in Cyrillic script)]]

[[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] music once included music for court ceremonies, but has only survived as vocal [[church music]] within various [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] traditions of monodic ([[Monophony|monophonic]]) chant written down in Byzantine round notation (see Macarie's ''[[Octoechos (liturgy)|anastasimatarion]]'' with the Greek text translated into [[Romanian language|Romanian]] and transliterated into its corresponding [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic script]]).<ref>Printed chant books with a modern simplified version of round notation were published since the 1820s and also used in Greece and Constantinople and in Old Church Slavonic translation within the slavophone Balkans and later on the territory of the autocephalous foundation of [[National awakening of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]].</ref>

Since the 6th century, Greek theoretical categories (''melos'', ''genos'', ''[[harmonia]]'', ''systema'') played a key role to understand and transmit Byzantine music, especially the tradition of [[Damascus]] had a strong impact on the pre-Islamic [[Near East]] comparable to the impact coming from [[Persian traditional music|Persian music]]. The earliest evidence are [[papyrus]] fragments of Greek tropologia. These fragments just present the hymn text following a modal signature or key (like "{{lang|el|ΠΛ Α}}" for ''echos plagios protos'' or "{{lang|el|Β}}" for ''echos devteros'').

Unlike Western notation, Byzantine [[neume]]s used since the 10th century were always related to [[Mode (music)|modal]] steps (same modal degree, one degree lower, two degrees higher, etc.) in relation to such a clef or modal key ([[Enechema|modal signatures]]). Originally this key or the incipit of a common melody was enough to indicate a certain [[Melodic pattern|melodic model]] given within the [[echos]]. Next to [[ekphonetic notation]], only used in [[Lectionary|lectionaries]] to indicate formulas used during scriptural lessons, melodic notation developed not earlier than between the 9th and the 10th century, when a ''theta'' ({{lang|el|θ}}), ''oxeia'' ({{lang|el|/}}) or ''diple'' ({{lang|el|//}}) were written under a certain syllable of the text, whenever a longer [[melisma]] was expected. This primitive form was called "theta" or "diple notation".

Today, one can study the evolution of this notation in Greek monastic chant books like those of the [[Sticheron|sticherarion]] and the [[Irmologion|heirmologion]] (Chartres notation was rather used on [[Mount Athos]] and Constantinople, Coislin notation within the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria), while there was another gestic notation originally used for the ''asmatikon'' (choir book) and kontakarion (book of the soloist or monophonaris) of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite. The earliest books which have survived, are "kondakars" in Slavonic translation which already show a notation system known as [[Byzantine music#The Kievan Rus' and the earliest manuscripts of the cathedral rite|Kondakarian notation]].<ref>Only one Greek asmatikon written during the 14th century (Kastoria, Metropolitan Library, Ms. 8) preserved this gestic notation based on the practice of cheironomia, and transcribed the gestic signs into sticherarion notation in a second row. For more about kondakar, see {{harvp|Floros| Moran| 2009}} and {{harvp| Myers|1998}}.</ref> Like the [[Greek alphabet]] notational signs are ordered left to right (though the direction could be adapted like in certain [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] manuscripts). The question of rhythm was entirely based on ''cheironomia'' (the interpretation of so-called great signs which derived from different chant books). These great signs ({{lang|el|μεγάλα σῃμάδια}}) indicated well-known melodic phrases given by gestures of the [[Cantor (Christianity)|choirleaders]] of the cathedral rite. They existed once as part of an oral tradition, developed Kondakarian notation and became, during the 13th century, integrated into Byzantine round notation as a kind of universal notation system.<ref>After the decline of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite during the fourth crusade (1201), its books ''kontakarion'' and ''asmatikon'' had been written in monastic scriptoria using Byzantine round notation. For more, see [[Byzantine music#The end of the cathedral rite in Constantinople|Byzantine music]].</ref>

Today the main difference between Western and Eastern neumes is that Eastern notation symbols are "differential" rather than absolute, i.e., they indicate pitch steps (rising, falling or at the same step), and the musicians know to deduce correctly, from the score and the note they are singing presently, which correct interval is meant. These step symbols themselves, or better "phonic neumes", resemble brush strokes and are colloquially called ''gántzoi'' ('hooks') in [[modern Greek]].

Notes as pitch classes or modal keys (usually memorised by modal signatures) are represented in written form only between these neumes (in manuscripts usually written in red ink). In modern notation they simply serve as an optional reminder and modal and tempo directions have been added, if necessary. In Papadic notation medial signatures usually meant a temporary change into another echos.

The so-called "great signs" were once related to cheironomic signs; according to modern interpretations they are understood as embellishments and microtonal attractions (pitch changes smaller than a [[semitone]]), both essential in Byzantine chant.<ref>See {{harvp|Alexandru|2000}} for a historical discussion of the great signs and their modern interpretations.</ref>

[[File:ChrysanthosTable.png|thumb|upright=1.8|center|Chrysanthos's ''Kanonion'' with a comparison between Ancient Greek tetraphonia (column 1), Western [[Solfeggio]], the ''Papadic Parallage'' (ascending: column 3 and 4; descending: column 5 and 6) according to the ''trochos system'', and his heptaphonic ''parallage'' according to the New Method (syllables in the fore-last and ''martyriai'' in the last column){{sfnp|Chrysanthos|1832|p=33}})]]

Since [[Chrysanthos of Madytos]] there are seven standard note names used for "solfège" (''parallagē'') ''pá, vú, g<sup>h</sup>á, d<sup>h</sup>i, ké, zō, nē'', while the older practice still used the four enechemata or intonation formulas of the four echoi given by the modal signatures, the authentic or ''kyrioi'' in ascending direction, and the plagal or ''plagioi'' in descending direction ([[Papadic Octoechos]]).<ref>{{harvp|Chrysanthos|1832}} made a difference between his monosyllabic and the traditional polysyllabic ''parallage.''</ref> With exception of ''vú and zō'' they do roughly correspond to Western solmization syllables as ''re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do''. Byzantine music uses the eight natural, non-tempered scales whose elements were identified by ''Ēkhoi'', "sounds", exclusively, and therefore the absolute pitch of each note may slightly vary each time, depending on the particular ''Ēkhos'' used. Byzantine notation is still used in many Orthodox Churches. Sometimes cantors also use transcriptions into Western or Kievan staff notation while adding non-notatable embellishment material from memory and "sliding" into the natural scales from experience, but even concerning modern neume editions since the reform of Chrysanthos a lot of details are only known from an oral tradition related to traditional masters and their experience.