Usage
As far as the look of ligatures, they can have two basic shapes: box (square), or oblique (angled). Additionally, some ligatures have tails that either point up or down, similar to how tails on modern note heads point up or down. While primarily contextual, the system of ligatures in use from the 13th to the 16th century is fairly standardized, if not objective. All ligatures of this period have the following principles in common:
- All ligature notes are either the length of a longa ("L"), a breve ("B"), or a semibreve ("S").
- All ligatures have at least two notes.
- For ease of discussion, ligatures of different lengths have different names. A ligature with two notes is called a binaria; one with three notes, a ternaria; one with four notes, a quaternaria; and one with five notes, a quinaria. Larger ones are possible, but rare.
- If a ligature has three or more notes, all notes in the middle (the mediae) are B.
- A downward tail changes the value of the note where the tail occurs, either from L to B or, less commonly, from B to L.
- An upward tail indicates that the next two notes are to be a series of S.
- Tails at the end of a ligature would indicate an additional note be sung or played, called a plica, that was not part of the ligature. This was especially common with the rhythmic modes to accommodate in practice what could not be accomplished within the very strict theoretical basis for modal music.
Read more about this topic: Ligature (music)
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