In his theoretical tonary "Musica disciplina" Aurelian of Réôme asked a Greek about the meaning of the syllables, and reported that they had no meaning, they were rather an expression of joy as used by peasants to communicate with their working animals like horses.
Quite the opposite, as a universal approach to music traditions of the Mediterranean it was rather based on the integrative power of the psaltic art and the Papadike, which can be traced back to the Hagiopolitan Octoechos and its exchange with Oriental music traditions since more than thousand years.
•
In the early Hagiopolitan Octoechos (6th-13th century) the diatonic echoi were destroyed by two phthorai nenano and nana, which were like two additional modes with their own melos, but subordinated to certain diatonic echoi.
•
According to medieval theory, the plagioi (oblique) echoi mentioned above (Hagiopolitan Octoechos) employ the same scales, the final degrees of the plagioi echoi are a fifth below with respect to the ones of the kyrioi echoi.
The music contained in the troper was long considered to be indecipherable, as there are only rudimentary indications of pitch and duration by the use of a form of notation known as neumes and a tonary which classified and indicated the melodic mode (octoechos).