How does African church music change when it is written down? How do village choirs succeed in passing down songs orally? This book focuses on the work of the Cameroonian village pastor Elias E. Ngole (1913-2005). Based on the British Tonic Sol-fa notation system, he developed a notation for his songs. The author reconstructs the system of this musical notation and analyzes the techniques of oral transmission, which are primarily secured through specialized gestures. The book is an ethnomusicological study of a musical practice in the Bakossi region that incorporates not only sound and language but also body movements. At the same time, it offers many points of comparison regarding the emergence of musical notations in general.