noun In Ancient Greek musical theory, the highest-pitched fixed note in the nearer tetrachord on a lyre, always pitched a perfect fourth above the hypate, with two movable notes between them, the parhypate (lower in pitch) and the lichanos (higher in pitch). The mese was lower than the paramese (the lower-pitched fixed note in the farther tetrachord on a lyre) by a ratio of 8:9.