Gregorian note shapes
Provided that four line staffs are used, gregorian music was
frequently quoted using specific neumes, and this way of coding
has been commonly used for the coding of liturgical chant in the Catholic
Church until the middle of the twentieth century. Symbols available in
MusicTEX are :
- Diamond shaped punctum: � =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\diamg p ,
- Square punctum: =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\carrg p ,
- Left stemmed virga: =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\carpg p ,
- Right stemmed virga: =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\carqg p .
They all have a non-spacing variant, which are :
- Non spacing diamond shaped punctum: � =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\zdiamg p ,
- Non spacing square punctum:
=
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\zcarrg p ,
- Non spacing left stemmed virga: =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\zcarpg p ,
- Non spacing right stemmed virga: =
normalshapemediumseriesnormalshapemediumseries\zcarqg p .
To memorize these symbols, remember that carr comes from the French
word carré which means square, that the letter p has a
tail on the left side and the q has a tail on the right side. Other
neumes can ne obtained by combining two or more of these symbols