di·a·ste·ma

(dī′ə-stē′mə)

n. pl. di·a·ste·ma·ta (-mə-tə)

A gap or space between two teeth.

[Late Latin diastēma, interval, from Greek, from diistanai, diastē-, to separate; see diastasis.]

di′a·ste·mat′ic (-stə-măt′ĭk) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

diastematic

(ˌdaɪəstɪˈmætɪk)

adj

characterized by diastema

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

The only way to reconstruct the long-silenced sounds is through comparison of the early neumes with East Frankish diastematic manuscripts, most of which were copied centuries after the completion of the Liber ymnorum, and many of which stem from centers a long way from Saint Gall.

A SCHOLARLY EDITION OF THE LIBER YMNORUM

The manuscripts of this latter period conceal the answer to a much-disputed problem concerning the development of Byzantine music up to Chrysanthos' reform: the ways that neumes denoting melodic formulas have been gradually replaced by their analysis in diastematic neumes, a process known as the stenographic theory.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Manuscript Collection of the National Library of Greece. Byzantine Chant and other Music Repertory Recovered

Of course, such neumatic sources are routinely interpreted by reference to later diastematic sources, but should a similar comparative method be used to interpret the rhythmic patterns of unmeasured sources (trobador or trouvere songs, or the Latin songs of the Carmina Burana), we are told that the later, measured, sources "imposed" rhythms on songs hitherto innocent of such affronts.

Liturgical drama and the "School of Abelard"

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