Frettelés

Frettelés is a term used in Hungarian musicology to describe a specific method of notating music, particularly associated with the folk music of the Carpathian Basin. It refers to the practice of using lines or dots above or below the musical staff to indicate microtonal alterations or ornamentation. These markings are not part of the standard Western musical notation system but were developed to capture the nuances found in traditional folk melodies that often lie between the pitches of the equally tempered scale.

The purpose of frettelés was to preserve the authentic sound of folk songs, which frequently employed subtle pitch variations, slides, and embellishments that could not be accurately represented using only conventional notes. The precise meaning of each frettelés symbol could vary depending on the region or the specific tradition, but generally, they indicated a slight raising or lowering of a note, or a rapid, decorative flourish. While frettelés was crucial for ethnomusicologists in documenting and analyzing Hungarian folk music, it is less commonly encountered in contemporary musical scores outside of specialized academic contexts. The system's visual nature allowed for a direct representation of the perceived melodic inflections.