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one. Thus :  (spondaic tempo),  (spondaic tempo), :  . |
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In instrumental music a time-unit might occasionally be divided between two notes of equal pitch ( for  ). This was called kompismos, and indicated by writing the note symbols with the sign  between them. There are three instances in the Berlin instrumental pieces, and the device is recorded in the Anonymus Bellermanni together with similar ones called melismos and teretismos, which apparently represented the division of  into  and  respectively.36 In the manuscripts of the Anonymus the kompismos symbol appears as +, the melismos symbol as X or  or  or,  or  . Teretismos is notated with a combination of the two, e.g.  . In two of the three examples in the Berlin papyrus the group of symbols is followed by the double point,  :. This evidently serves, as in the usage described above, to draw attention to the connectedness of the group by marking it off from its surroundings; but it is surprising that the double point is placed after and not before the group. A double point appears twice elsewhere in the second Berlin piece, once preceding a compound rhythmic figure ( ), and once for no reason that we can discern, but presumably indicating something about the phrasing. |
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Another symbol of frequent occurrence is the single point (stigme) added above or just to the right of note-signs (and above any diseme or triseme symbol). This marks the arsis or up-beat, as the Anonymus states: 'The thesis is indicated when there is simply the note-symbol without the point, and the arsis when it has the point.'37 Where the arsis embraces two or three notes, each of them commonly has the stigme, but sometimes only one of them has it. Some texts, such as the Delphic Paeans, have no pointing, and in others it is sporadic. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of, and seems to have become confused. A mere point was especially vulnerable to faults of transmission: it was easily overlooked, and on the other hand it was possible for a stray spot of ink, or of some alien substance, to be mistaken for a stigme.38 |
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36 Cf. p. 204. The Anonymus renders the effects in solmization code as follows: (kompismos) tonto, tanta; (melismos) tonno, tanna: (teretismos) tontonno. |
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37 Anon. Bellerm. 3 = 85. |
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38 For detailed remarks on the pointing and other rhythmical notation in texts known up to 1955 see Winnington-Ingram, Symb. Osl. 31 (1955), 35-42, 73-87; |
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(Footnote continued on next page) |
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