mi-tone_ at the beginning of the line to indicate
the scale interval. An example will make this clear.

[Illustration]

This indicated the precise melodic interval but did not give any idea of
the rhythm, and the natural accents of the text were the only guide the
singer had in this direction, as was the case in neume-notation and in
early staff-notation also. Various other attempts to invent a more
definite notation were made, but all were sporadic, and it was not until
the idea of using the lines (later lines and spaces) to represent
definite pitches, and writing notes of various shapes (derived from the
neumae) to indicate relative duration-values--it was only when this
combination of two elements was devised that any one system began to be
universally used.

Just how the transition from _neume_ to _staff_ notation was made no one
knows: it was not done in a day nor in a year but was the result of a
gradual process of evolution and improvement. Nor is it probable that
any one man deserves the entire credit for the invention of staff
notation, although this feat is commonly attributed to an Italian monk
named Guido d'Arezzo (approximate dates 995-1050). To this same monk we
are indebted, however, for the invention of the syllables (UT, RE, MI,
etc.) which (in a somewhat modified form) are so widely used for
sight-singing purposes. (For a more detailed account of the transition
to staff notation, see Grove, op. cit. article _notation_.) It will now
be readily seen that our modern notation is the result of a combination
of two preceding methods (the Greek letters, and the neumes) together
with a new element--the staff, emphasizing the idea that _higher tones_
are written _higher_ on the staff than lower ones. The development of
the neumes into notes of various shapes indicating relative time values
and the division of the staff into measures with a definite measure
signature at the beginning are natural developments of the earlier
primitive idea. In the system of "musica mensurabilis" or _measured
music_ which was inaugurated a little later, the _virga_ (which had
meanwhile developed into a square-headed neume) was adopted as the
_longa_ or long note, and the punctus in two of its forms as _breve_ and
_semi-breve_ (short and half-short). The longa is now extinct, but the
modern form of the breve is still used as the double-whole-note, and the
semi-breve is our modern whole-note.

Red-colored notes were sometimes use