LilyPond Music Glossary: 1.171 ligature

## 1.171 ligature

ES: ligadura, I: ?, F: ligature, DE: Ligatur, NL: ?, DK: ?, S: ?, FI: ligatuura.

A ligature is a coherent graphical symbol that represents at least two distinct notes. Ligatures originally appeared in the manuscripts of Gregorian chant notation around the 9th century to denote ascending or descending sequences of notes. In early notation, ligatures were used for monophonic tunes (Gregorian chant) and very soon denoted also the way of performance in the sense of articulation. With the invention of the metric system of the white mensural notation, the need for ligatures to denote such patterns disappeared.

#### See also

mensural notation.

#### LilyPond — Music Glossary