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Still later four lines were used. There were many varieties of forms of the neumes employed by the different copyists and by different nationalities, the heaviest marks of this kind being those of the Lombard-Gothic represented in [Fig. 35]. These marks were afterward written upon a four-line staff, and the note heads were derived from them.

Fig. 34.

NEUME NOTATION OF GUIDO OF AREZZO.

There were no marks whatever for duration or measure in the neumes notation, and its persistence through so long a time signifies very plainly that it was not in the line of the musical life of the world, but was a special hieratic notation made to answer for ecclesiastical purposes by the help of carefully transmitted traditions.

Fig. 35.