Florid neumes

Some signs could easily be replaced by the basic forms, but they are used alternatively to indicate a particular ornament. Today we do not know the proper performance from a regional living tradition. Singers have to find their own way of performing it, based on studies of medieval sources and living traditions of monodic chant.

The following sound examples are sung by Burkard Wehner in his own interpretation, as well the versions of the Gradual «Viderunt omnes» in which the ornaments can be heard in the context of chant. These recordings were made 1998 in preparation of a musicological seminar to offer the students an introduction into the notation of Western plainchant.

Lorraine:	St. Gall:
strophicus:
oriscus:
salicus:
quilisma:
trigon:
pressus (fast and slow form):