Home›Open Questions›What do the neumes in the tenth century Georgian hymn books record?Open QuestionsWhat do the neumes in the tenth century Georgian hymn books record?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "What do the neumes in the tenth century Georgian hymn books record?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-do-the-neumes-in-the-tenth-century-georgian-hymn-books-record.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). What do the neumes in the tenth century Georgian hymn books record?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-do-the-neumes-in-the-tenth-century-georgian-hymn-books-recordCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-what-do-the-neumes-in-the-tenth-century, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {What do the neumes in the tenth century Georgian hymn books record?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-do-the-neumes-in-the-tenth-century-georgian-hymn-books-record}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionGeorgian hymn books of the tenth century carry chant signs, but nobody can say what they instruct. Comparison against Byzantine notation has not produced a reading and the Georgian signs do not map onto it cleanly. The consequence is severe for the tradition: no medieval Georgian melody can be recovered, and everything sung today descends from transcriptions made from living singers nine hundred years later. Nobody holds a rival decipherment; the question has simply been left where it was.What would resolve this A Georgian manuscript giving the same chant in both neumes and a notation of known values, or a bilingual source setting Georgian signs beside Byzantine ones, would supply the external control the system lacks. Systematic comparison of the neume repertory across the surviving tenth century books may also isolate a small core of signs whose behaviour is regular enough to test.OpenMusicology and Georgian palaeographyJohn A. Graham, The Transcription and Transmission of Georgian Liturgical ChantCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnGeorgian Chant, Sacred Sound Well-attested Source The Transcription and Transmission of Georgian Liturgical ChantJohn A. Grahamtier 1SourcesThe Transcription and Transmission of Georgian Liturgical Chanttier 1John A. Graham, Princeton University, 2015View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year