What is a neum?please answer, asap

Question

please answer,asap

Answer 1

neum or neume is a noun meaning a sign used in the notation of transcriptions of Gregorian chants.

From

http://home.newadvent.org/cathen/10765b....

neum is "[a] term in medieval music theory. It does not seem to have been used before the eleventh century. From that time it was generally taken in two senses, to denote, first, a kind of melody, second, a notational sign....Applied to a melody, the term means a series of tones sung without words, generally on the last vowel of a text....The usual place of such neums is in responsorial singing... especially at the end of the Alleluia which follows the Gradual of the Mass....Akin to this use is the one which applies it to the tones or groups of tones designated by the notational signs....The names of the various signs, too, seem to date from about the same period. Previously the general name for the notation was 'usus.' The names of the single signs varied with time and place. The tables of neums found in several manuscripts not only differ in the number of names, but also give different names for the same sign, or different signs for the same name.... Accordingly the fundamental principle is that the rise and fall of the melody are expressed by the signs of the accentus acutus (/) and the accentus gravis (\). The acutus, being drawn upwards, from left to right, indicates a rise in the melody, a higher note; the gravis, being drawn downwards, a fall in the melody, a lower note....

Answer 2

A sign used in the notation of plainsong during the Middle Ages, surviving today in transcriptions of Gregorian chants.