noun
- a symbol used in medieval musical notation to represent one or more musical tones
Usage: music history; medieval
Examples
- The manuscript contained ancient neumes that scholars struggled to decipher.
- Medieval monks used neumes to notate their chants before modern musical notation was developed.
- Each neume could represent a single note or a group of notes sung to one syllable.
- The study of neumes helps musicologists understand how medieval music was performed.
- Gregorian chant was originally written using neumes rather than the staff notation we know today.