In the 12th the notation becomes very square and from this epoch liturgical books almost do not change. Only a difference of dimensions is seen as the time passes, since the notes are bigger as the time passes and they are not already tied between themselves like in the 12th century, where the scheme of the neumes is still present. After the 13th century, the copyists write often in neumes without lines, in campo aperto, initially in certain regions, where the stave intervenes slowly, and where the writing is legible without stave. Later, when it is a question of inserting a notation in a too narrow space (Sankt Gallen), in which the notation has not been foreseen, it is done almost always with neumes without lines (Aquitaine). A picture of neumas cannot be precise and general at the same time because the form of the neumes changes according to the regions. The names of the neumes depend already on his form or on his nature.

PLAINCHANT FORMS. THE CANTILATIO

The cantilatio is probably the most ancient form for adjusting the music to the texts. Combined for texts in prose, it is applied everywhere, in countries of oral tradition to the big essential texts: laws, education, etc., and it seems to be correct to think that it is the only form of the Christian music that has never experienced a reform. Of such a way, it is in connection with the substance itself of the solemn declamation of a text. He consists of singing the text in small propositions, underlining the punctuation. Therefore, it is a genre that, at first, only is applied to the prose and between the prose to texts to which the verbal expression must award a special solemnity. The reforms that have had historical importance, as for example that of Alcuino, consist of correcting the own text in order that it becomes understandable for the listeners.

The art of the reader has been one of the disciplines most monitored in the ancient churches. The cantilatio consists of two elements: the tone of the recitation and the cadenzas, certainly very varied. The tone of the recitation serves for reading the phrase. The cadenzas adapt themselves to the diverse punctuations, like the Hebrew taamin, stepping back to place the accents in certain notes. It is a question of a very difficult skill that is not practiced by the singers but by the celebrant or the deacon in reader's functions.

THE PSALMODY. THE DERIVATIVE FORMS, ANTIPHONS AND RESPONSORIES

The voices are discordant but the piety is solely. There are almost so many coral psalmodies as varieties of peoples: St. Jerome, Paula and Eustaquia letter to Marcela... This form cannot come to us, in any case, from the Greek ancient world that ignores her. It comes to us from the Jewish world and it is probable that the Byzantine world has contributed to organizing the disposition that has been transmitted to us. The psalms are sung from the beginning of the christianity. The assembly answers hallelujah to the psalm singed by the deacon during the banquet (3rd century). From this elementary response, the forms have been complicated gradually; adornments have been added to them. In a way of successive stratifications, of sclerosis of the previous ornate layers, these adornments become like the background of the melody in the following epoch. This way we have received the form of the tract, that of the responsorial modern psalmody and that of the antiphonic psalmody, antiphon from now on outlying or tied to his psalm as in the case of the Office. The current psalmody is meticulously regulated. It endures an initial formula repeated only in the canticles, a recitation, two in the psalm In exitu (Antiphonale Monasticum, 132, Psalterium Monasticum, 310), formula of the middle and of the conclusion. Each of the poems is sung in a beginning by half of the choir. The adjustment of the melodic form to the text is difficult, and every versicle must be studied carefully. It is a more rigid art and less rich than the cantilatio. Besides, the psalm is fitted by an antiphon in the same tone. Finally, the psalmody uses the eight Gregorian modes, but every mode has given diverse melodic forms.

The tract is an ornate psalmody sung after the gradual in the days of atonement. It consists of several versicles, up to fourteen, which can come even from different psalms. It is sung by a soloist. The name comes, undoubtedly, from that this type of chant is sung without any repetition. Finally, the tract melody (psalmodic melody at first) is very ornate and consists of pattern formulae related between them.

The antiphon and the antiphonic psalmody are not probably previous to the 4th century, in which they were imposed to the oriental church and later, probably by St. Ambrose as an imitation in Occident of oriental rites. There is ignored the precise form of the so called antiphonic melodies of the 4th century: alternation of two choirs or alternation of the psalm and of his refrain. It is probable that the ancient churches were not doing a classification of these formulae before adopting them and that there have existed many that we ignore still. In any case, it seems that the idea of singing a psalm with inserted refrain is very ancient; that is the Hyppolit's form. We have preserved several antiphons forms always qualified; the psalm with inserted refrain corresponds to a very ancient form: it is that of Hyppolit. The refrain has been lengthened by the specialists. It became an antiphon much more educated than the initial refrain and only has been sung before and after the psalm. There is only one case, that of the psalm Penite, in which the refrain is still intoned after every versicle.