<P> During the Medieval period the foundation was laid for the notational and theoretical practices that would shape Western music into the norms that developed during the common practice era . The most obvious of these is the development of a comprehensive music notational system; however the theoretical advances, particularly in regard to rhythm and polyphony, are equally important to the development of Western music . </P> <P> The earliest Medieval music did not have any kind of notational system . The tunes were primarily monophonic (a single melody without accompaniment) and transmitted by oral tradition . As Rome tried to centralize the various liturgies and establish the Roman rite as the primary church tradition the need to transmit these chant melodies across vast distances effectively was equally glaring . So long as music could only be taught to people "by ear," it limited the ability of the church to get different regions to sing the same melodies, since each new person would have to spend time with a person who already knew a song and learn it "by ear ." The first step to fix this problem came with the introduction of various signs written above the chant texts to indicate direction of pitch movement, called neumes . </P> <P> The origin of neumes is unclear and subject to some debate; however, most scholars agree that their closest ancestors are the classic Greek and Roman grammatical signs that indicated important points of declamation by recording the rise and fall of the voice . The two basic signs of the classical grammarians were the acutus, /, indicating a raising of the voice, and the gravis, \, indicating a lowering of the voice . A singer reading a chant text with neume markings would be able to get a general sense of whether the melody line went up in pitch, stayed the same, or went down in pitch . For a singer who already knew a song, seeing the written neume markings above the text could help to jog his or her memory about how the melody went . However, a singer reading a chant text with neume markings would not be able to sight read a song which he or she had never heard sung before . </P> <P> These neumes eventually evolved into the basic symbols for neumatic notation, the virga (or "rod") which indicates a higher note and still looked like the acutus from which it came; and the punctum (or "dot") which indicates a lower note and, as the name suggests, reduced the gravis symbol to a point . Thus the acutus and the gravis could be combined to represent graphical vocal inflections on the syllable . This kind of notation seems to have developed no earlier than the eighth century, but by the ninth it was firmly established as the primary method of musical notation . The basic notation of the virga and the punctum remained the symbols for individual notes, but other neumes soon developed which showed several notes joined together . These new neumes--called ligatures--are essentially combinations of the two original signs . </P>

Secular song of europe in the medieval period were sung by all of the following except