Aretino ChantA text format for Gregorian chant

Write chant in plain text, render it as notation in the browser.

Transcription, not replacement

Aretino does not try to cover everything GABC and Gregorio do. It is a target notation for practical chant transcription.

Modern staff, Gregorian logic

The notation uses familiar staff reading without turning chant into ordinary modern rhythm or note-by-note melody.

Neumes remain units

Melodic figures stay visibly grouped through stems, descending connections, spacing, text alignment, and Gregorian signs.

Aretino is a staff-based chant notation concept for transcribing Gregorian music in a form readable to modern musicians, without turning it into ordinary modern notation. It preserves the neumatic logic of chant by keeping the sung figure of each syllable as a musical unit, even while using modern staff orientation, round noteheads, and familiar notation symbols. It follows the Gregorian transcription method promoted by László Dobszay and Janka Szendrei in Hungarian Catholic chant practice.

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Official editor

For fuller work, use the official online editor. It is still a text editor, but it can be used as a "quasi-graphical" editor: keep the preview visible while you type, and every change is rendered immediately. This lets you work from the notation you see, with instant feedback, while keeping the source in plain text.