Musical notation is amongst the rarest of all early church graffiti, with only a few dozen high quality examples being recorded across the entire country.
Most musical graffiti is found in our larger religious buildings, such as Norwich Cathedral and York Minster (and Exeter Cathedral), and most examples identified to date appear to be examples of chant or plainsong. The notation is often shown on a four line stave – the modern five line stave not entering general usage until the late15th or early 16th centuries.
The reason for the bias towards abbeys, priories and cathedrals may be because it was only at these larger monastic sites that musical notation was regularly used and taught, with musical knowledge generally being acquired less formally elsewhere.
