NOTES. 
With refpeét to the firft forms of modern notation, which 
fucceeded points, it is not difficult to deduce them wholly from 
the black {quare note, somata a breve, the firft and almot only 
note ufed in canto fermo; which, with a foot or tail to it, is 
a long, and if doubled in ‘breadth, a ae rge. The {quare note 
alfo placed on one of its angles, differs very little from the 
rhombus or lozenge, and witha tail placed at its loweft an- 
BC DEFG 
gle, eas open, becomes a minim, and, when full, a 
crotc 
Rouffeau fays, and others have faid before him, that the 
Latins had eafed themfelves of all thefe difficulties of nota- 
tion, and that Boethius eftablifhed the ufe of fifteen letters 
only, for notation; but he does not te) us where, in what 
book or chapter, of his treatife De Mufica, this reform is to 
be found. Boethius was only a compiler and tranflator 
from the Greek, and never feems to propefe a new {fyftem or 
new doctrines. But it 1s more true, and better afcertained, 
that pope Gregory, in arranging and regulating the eccle- 
ar maa chants, finding that the riba Noed of the fecond 
oiave of the f{cale were,.in effe e fame as the firft, wa 
that ae order was the fame in i upper and lower oftav 
of the fyftem; reduced the notes to the /eptem di ieriminata 
vocum, as the ancient Romans had dene in the 
Horace and Virgil ; and thefe notes, exprefled by the firtt 
feven letters of the phabet, were repeated in a different 
fized literal charaGter, from o€tave to odtave, the gravelt of 
which he Felines by capitals, the mean by minufcules, and 
ce higheft by double ieee thus : which in modern notes 
would ent aue the following fcale. 
a bc dee fg aa bb cc dd ee ff gs 
7 ee} y PS SE A | e 
oP Es —-. 0 if 7 * | —— | 
oa? =] Pile 1 
o_? 1 ad i x | 
And thefe letters are {till retained in moft parts of Europe, 
as denominations of mufical founds, though a different enta- 
blature and pais is ufed in practice At length Guido, a 
4s 
, adding 
nd difcovering af- 
ea ds that the firft fyllable of each hemiftich in the hymn 
t. John the Baptift, written by Paul Diaconus, oe 
ied about the year 774, formed a regular feries of fix founds 
ng» 
fa, 
he placed at the fide of each : thefe fyllables one of the 
firft nba ee of the alphabet, A, 
and bec he accompanied the note which he added below 
the sical ce with the letter gamma, t whole {cale was 
called gammut, aname by which itis diftinguithed tothis day.”’ 
Ut, re, mi, 
Vor. XXV 
For a long time the alee ne and fyllables which 
ferved as notes, were of no other to mark the de- 
grees of gravity and aciteale, <a fix the intonation. As 
to duration, they were all equal, with no other ference, 
than that of long and fhort fyllables, ufed in chantin 
Canto fermo {ftil]l remains nearly in the fame fate c this 
day in the Roman Catholic churches. And the mufic of the 
metrical pfalms, with the Proteftants, is ftill more Amper- 
fect ; fince in the performance of them no diftinGtion is made 
and their va- 
lue o duration, is generally ieee . ie continued 
il fon alt year 1338, ween John de Mauris is faid to have 
vented figures to is different durations of foun 
snd to have formed a time-table. His claim to this inven- 
tion is confidered in his biographical article. (See alfo 
CuHaracters and Time-Tasiz.) In the firft tables that 
were found, the notes were all black ; then full and void, 
g of a mov e ti 
tion a Levene are agen aferibe re 
the notes now in ufe in fecular mufic, are coe in ke fol- 
lowing table. 
One 
