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Article: The Armenian neume system of notation.(Review)
- Article from:
- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
- Article date:
- December 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Royal Anthropological Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AT'AYAN, ROBERT. The Armenian neume system of notation; translation and annotation by V.N. Neressian (Caucasus Wld). 288 pp., illus., bibliogr. Richmond: Curzon, 1999. [pound]40.00
The book presents one of the enigmas of Armenian medieval culture, the khaz or neume system of notation. This system, as the author shows, was introduced in the eighth century, reached its peak in the twelfth-fifteenth centuries and declined after the fifteenth century to be lost once and for all in the late Middle Ages. This study is not a final deciphering of the Armenian khazes; its purpose, as the author notes (p. 130), is rather 'to articulate certain procedures and functional ...