What is the origin of the flat and natural signs? Note the points of similarity and difference in the three scale forms on page 65 in this lesson. As an exercise take well-known airs to see if they are Authentic or Plagal. In the “Taming of the Shrew,” by Shakespeare, is a passage in which reference is made to the names of the notes as found in this lesson. Read this passage in class. LESSON VI. NOTATION. =System of Notation by Letters=.—The earliest system of Notation, attributed to =Boethius=, the Roman philosopher, seems to have been the placing of letters over the syllables, thus: C C D B C D My country ’tis of thee. [Music: Boethius’ Notation] During the period of history dominated by Pope Gregory the Great, a change was made in this system by which capital letters, small letters and double letters were used, an improvement, since only the first seven letters of the alphabet were employed, thus: [Music] This system seems to have been used chiefly for theoretic demonstration. These two methods indicated the _pitch_ sufficiently, but _not_ the _duration_ of the sounds. =Neumes=.—The next attempt was somewhat of a retrogression instead of an improvement. Signs called _Neumes_ were placed over the words. These signs consisted of points, lines, accents, hooks, curves, angles and a number of other characters placed more or less exactly over the syllables to which they were intended to be sung, in such manner as to show, relatively, by the distance above the text, how much the voice was to rise or fall. They did _not_ indicate _absolute pitch_ or _duration_. The number of characters in use, according to manuscripts still preserved, varied from seven to forty. In later forms they appear in the notation used for the old Plain Song melodies (Gregorian) which were recalled into general use by Pope Pius X, in 1904. [Music: Neumes. Lettres. fh f gd fff efgfd d g g hg hi h kk hg ef Notation du treizième siècle. Notation moderne. Neumes. Lettres. gfg ef hi g g fd f de de c d gh efg f d c dd. Notation du treizième siècle. Notation moderne.] =Parallel Lines=.—Another plan was to use a variable number of _lines_, writing the syllables in the spaces, thus: [Illustration]