Medieval and Renaissance plainchant multiple-note forms (U+E9B0–U+E9CF)

GlyphDescriptionGlyphDescription
U+E9B0
chantPodatusLower
Podatus, lower
U+E9B1 (and U+1D1D4)
chantPodatusUpper
Podatus, upper
U+E9B2
chantDeminutumUpper
Punctum deminutum, upper
U+E9B3
chantDeminutumLower
Punctum deminutum, lower
U+E9B4
chantEntryLineAsc2nd
Entry line, ascending 2nd
U+E9B5
chantEntryLineAsc3rd
Entry line, ascending 3rd
U+E9B6
chantEntryLineAsc4th
Entry line, ascending 4th
U+E9B7
chantEntryLineAsc5th
Entry line, ascending 5th
U+E9B8
chantEntryLineAsc6th
Entry line, ascending 6th
U+E9B9
chantLigaturaDesc2nd
Ligated stroke, descending 2nd
U+E9BA
chantLigaturaDesc3rd
Ligated stroke, descending 3rd
U+E9BB
chantLigaturaDesc4th
Ligated stroke, descending 4th
U+E9BC
chantLigaturaDesc5th
Ligated stroke, descending 5th
U+E9BD
chantConnectingLineAsc2nd
Connecting line, ascending 2nd
U+E9BE
chantConnectingLineAsc3rd
Connecting line, ascending 3rd
U+E9BF
chantConnectingLineAsc4th
Connecting line, ascending 4th
U+E9C0
chantConnectingLineAsc5th
Connecting line, ascending 5th
U+E9C1
chantConnectingLineAsc6th
Connecting line, ascending 6th
U+E9C2
chantStrophicusLiquescens2nd
Strophicus liquescens, 2nd
U+E9C3
chantStrophicusLiquescens3rd
Strophicus liquescens, 3rd
U+E9C4
chantStrophicusLiquescens4th
Strophicus liquescens, 4th
U+E9C5
chantStrophicusLiquescens5th
Strophicus liquescens, 5th

Implementation notes

To produce ligatures of three or more notes, some of the glyphs in this range have to be combined.

Glyphs should be positioned relative to their starting pitch: for example, the chantLigaturaDesc3rd glyph, which describes a downwards progression by an interval of a third, should be positioned on the staff line or space of the starting note of the downwards pattern; the connecting lines (e.g. chantConnectingLineAsc3rd) should likewise be positioned on the staff line or space corresponding to the bottom of the line; for an ascending liquescent, position chantAuctumAsc on the starting staff position, and chantDeminutemUpper on the ending staff position, with the appropriate length of connecting line between them.

Scoring applications should position these glyphs like any other notehead, i.e. moving them vertically according to the desired starting staff position. Fonts intended for use in text-based applications should include glyphs that present these symbols at different staff positions, and a means to easily choose between them; one possible implementation would be to define OpenType ligatures of each of the glyphs in the Combining staff positions range with each of the glyphs in this range.

The table below shows how to produce some common ligatures, and describes which glyphs should be used; glyphs whose names appear in parentheses are control characters that move the following glyph vertically to a different staff position, as might be used in a font that employs OpenType ligatures.

ExampleDescription**Uses glyphs **
Podatus, ascending 3rdchantPodatusLower + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise3) + chantPodatusUpper
Clivis, descending 4thchantPunctumVirgaReversed + (staffPosLower4) chantConnectingLineAsc4th + (staffPosLower4) + chantPunctum
SalicuschantPunctum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPodatusLower + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc2nd + (staffPosRaise2) + chantPodatusUpper
ClimacuschantPunctumVirga + (staffPosLower1) + chantPunctumInclinatum + (staffPosLower2) + chantPunctumInclinatum
TorculuschantPunctum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPunctum + chantPunctum
PorrectuschantEntryLineAsc5th + (staffPosRaise5) + chantLigaturaDesc4th + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise4) + chantPunctum
Scandicus flexuschantPodatusLower + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc2nd + (staffPosRaise2) + chantPodatusUpper + chantPunctumVirga + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + chantPunctum
Porrectus flexuschantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise3) + chantLigaturaDesc3rd + chantPunctumVirga + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + chantPunctum
Climacus resupinuschantPunctumVirga + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPunctumInclinatum + chantPunctumInclinatum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPunctum
Torculus resupinuschantPunctum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPunctum + chantPunctum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantPunctumVirga
Pes subbipunctuschantPodatusLower + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc2nd + (staffPosRaise2) + chantPodatusUpper + chantPunctumInclinatum + (staffPosLower1) + chantPunctumInclinatum
Virga praetripunctischantPodatusLower + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise3) + chantPodatusUpper chantPodatus3rd + (staffPosRaise4) + chantPodatusLower + (staffPosRaise5) + chantConnectingLineAsc2nd + (staffPosRaise6) + chantPodatusUpper
Epiphonus (liquescent podatus)chantAuctumAsc + (staffPosRaise1) + chantDeminutemUpper
Cephalicus (liquescent flexa)chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise3) + chantAuctumDesc + (staffPosRaise2) + chantDeminutemLower
Pinnosa (liquescent torculus)chantPunctum + chantConnectingLineAsc4th + (staffPosRaise4) + chantAuctumDesc + (staffPosRaise3) + chantDeminutemLower
Porrectus liquescenschantPunctumVirgaReversed + (staffPosLower1) + chantAuctumAsc + (staffPosRaise1) + chantDeminutemUpper
Scandicus liquescenschantPunctum + (staffPosRaise1) + chantAuctumAsc + + (staffPosRaise1) + chantConnectingLineAsc3rd + (staffPosRaise4) + chantDeminutemUpper