The Greek musical notation is curiously complicated. There is a double set of characters, one for the note assigned to the singer, the other for those of the lyre or other instrument. The notes for the voice are obviously derived from the letters of the ordinary Ionic alphabet, multiplied by the use of accents and other diacritical marks. The instrumental notes were first explained less than thirty years ago by Westphal. In his work _Harmonik und Melopöie der Griechen_ (c. viii _Die Semantik_) he showed, in a manner as conclusive as it is ingenious, that they were originally taken from the first fourteen letters of an alphabet of archaic type, akin to the alphabets found in certain parts of Peloponnesus. Among the letters which he traces, and which point to this conclusion, the most-significant are the digamma, the primitive crooked iota [Symbols: Li], and two forms of lambda, [Symbols: <] and [Symbols: F], the latter of which is peculiar to the alphabet of Argos. Of the other characters [Symbols: M], which stands for alpha, is best derived from the archaic form [Symbols: NJ]. For beta we find [Symbols: c], which may come from an archaic form of the letter[1]. The character [Symbols: El], as Westphal shows, is for [Symbols:7], or delta with part of one side left out. Similarly the ancient [Symbols: O], when the circle was incomplete, yielded the character [Symbols: C]. The crooked iota ([Symbols:'-i]) appears as [Symbols:h]. The two forms of lambda serve for different notes, thus bringing the number of symbols up to fifteen. Besides these there are two characters, [Symbols: O] and [Symbols: 6], which cannot be derived in the same way from any alphabet. As they stand for the lowest notes of the scale, they are probably an addition, later than the rest of the system. At the upper end, again, the scale is extended by the simple device of using the same characters for notes an octave higher, distinguishing them in this use by an accent. The original fifteen characters, with the letters from which they are derived, and the corresponding notes in the modern musical scale, are as follows: [Symbols: H h E r P F C K r l < E N Z M] [Greek: ê i e l^1 g m [digamma] th k d l^2 b n z a] _a b c d e f g a b c d e f g a_ [Footnote 1: Since this was written I have learned from Mr. H. S. Jones that the form [Symbols:E] for beta occurs on an inscription dated about 500 B.C., viz. Count Tyszkiewicz's bronze plate, published simultaneously by Robert in the _Monumenti Antichi pubblicati per cura della reale Accademia dei Lincei_, i. pp. 593 (with plate), and Fröhner in the _Revue Archéologique_, 1891 July-August, pp. 51 ff. Pl. xix. Mr. Jones points out that this [Symbols:E] connects the crescent beta ([Symbols: C]) of Naxos, Delos, &c. with the common form, and is evidently therefore an early form of the letter. I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Jones for other help, especially in regard to the subject of this section.]