) appears as
. The two forms of lambda serve for different notes, thus bringing the number of symbols up to fifteen. Besides these there are two characters,
and
, 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:
These notes, it will be seen, compose two octaves of the Diatonic scale, identical with the two octaves of the Greater Perfect System. They may be regarded as answering to the white notes of the modern keyboard,—those which form the complete scale in the so-called 'natural' key.
The other notes, viz. those which are required not only in different keys of the Diatonic scale, but also in all Enharmonic and Chromatic scales, are represented by the same characters modified in some simple way. Usually a character is turned half round backwards to raise it by one small interval (as from Hypatê to Parhypatê), and reversed to raise it by both (Hypatê to Lichanos). Thus the letter epsilon,