GUY A. MARCO The Music Manuscript Period; A Background Essay and Bibliographical Guide

The characteristics of music, notation, principal manuscripts, and con­ temporary literature on music are described briefly for each of five chronological periods; namely: antiquity, early Christian through the sixth century; seventh through the tenth centuries; eleventh through the thirteenth centuries; and the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The resulting outline is intended as an aid for the «non-musicological music, humanities, or reference librarian who needs to have an under­ standing of the nature of music materials in the pre-printing era, whether or not he is actually charged with handling them."

ANOTHER ASPECT of these plays which up the interdisciplinary function which has been generally unexplored is their mel­ musicology was even then assuming. To­ odies . . . since the plays of the Church day it is not unusual for students of re­ were actually sung, our know ledge of them ligion, drama, poetry, linguistics, and cannot be complete until such of their numerous other fields to find themselves music as exists has been published, eluci­ -when their researches lead into medie­ dated and heard. I am not a specialist in the theory of plain-song or in musical val times-involved with musical doc~ palaeography . ... The adequate editing and uments. One is not surprised to find the exposition of the music associated with the facsimile of a fourteenth-century music dramatic texts might well require a separate manuscript used as frontispiece to a vol­ treatise equal to the present one in extent. ume of Chambers' Medieval Stage nor Such a study would undoubtedly aid in the to see Speculum review books by musical interpretation of certain texts, would as­ specialists in the middle ages. A recent sist a demonstration of relationships, and list of sources dealing with Tudor poetry would probably disclose unsuspected tra­ and music permits easy observation of ditional aims or originalities throughout the the considerable number of poetic rem­ body of plays. nants which contain «tunes," «bass-part These remarks by Karl Young, in the of a set of part-songs," «lute tablatures," preface to his monumental Drama of the "plain-song Magnificats," and other "no­ Medieval Church (Oxford, 1933 ), point tational matter."1 Thus the reference or humanities li­ brarian may well be confronted with Dr. Marco is Chairman of the Depart­ 1 John Stevens, Music and Poetry in the Earl11 ment of Library Science, Kent State Uni­ Tudor Court (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, versity, Ohio. 1961). pp.461-68. /7 8 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1965 manuscripts that are musical at least in bibliographies-such as those of Reese­ part, or with questions about them, rather than to compound the number of though he himself is likely to have no footnote references unnecessarily. Both deep knowledge about them; indeed of the great contemporary musical en­ such knowledge would hardly be a nor­ cyclopedias, Grove's Dictionary of Music mal part of his background: and Musicians and M usik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, are worthy of consulta­ The librarian of a research library should be a musicologist with some training in library tion at nearly any point, but in the inter­ techniques whereas the librarian of a school est of space conservation specific refer­ or college library is first of all a librarian ences have not as a rule been made to with a strong musical background. . . . The them. training required for the librarian of the The music manuscript period begins public library's music department is essen­ in Hellenic Greece and ends with the tially the same as that of the school librar­ application of printing techniques to the ian.2 setting down of music in the late fif­ The present essay is for this nonmusico­ teenth century. Musical scores were still logical music, humanities, or reference hand produced, at least in part, after librarian who needs to have an under­ the printing of books had become wide­ standing of the nature of music materi­ spread. The Psalterium printed by Fust als in the pre-printing era, whether or and Schaffer at Mainz in 1457 is the not he is actually charged with handling earliest extant printed book containing them. To profit from this presentation, music, but the music seems to have been the reader must expect to consult a fair manually inscribed. Later practice in­ number of the books and articles cited volved printing either the notes or the in footnotes, as the text itself touches staff lines and completing the score by only quickly on highlights and ignores hand, this procedure arising from an numerous complexities entirely. inability to achieve accurate imposition These venerable documents pose prob­ in printing notes on staves. Not until the lems which are by nature quite formida­ mid-1470's are there examples of printed ble, since the music involved is gener­ notes and lines. 3 ally unfamiliar to nonspecialists and its In the survey which follows, these bibliographical features are highly eso­ subdivisions are utilized: antiquity, early teric. Yet it is hoped that this little sur­ Christian through sixth century, seventh vey will offer some guides and points of through tenth centuries, eleventh through departure, as well as a collection of ref­ thirteenth centuries, and fourteenth 3 erences which may later prove useful. • For concise information about early music print­ Ing,. see ~- . Hyatt King, Four Hundred Years of The reader who follows the thread at­ Mustc Pnnttng (London: British Museum 1964) · tentively will discover that the labyrinth Kathi Meyer and Eva Judd O'Meara, "The 'Printin~ of Music," The Dolphin, II ( 1935), 171-207 ; Gustave is not hopeless, and at the exit he might Reese, Music in the Renaissance (New York: Nor­ be equipped to classify, date (to the ton, 1954), pp.154-56 (hereinafter cited as Reese R ena:issance) ;. Willi Ape}, Harvard Dictionary oi century), and to some extent interpret Muste ( Cambndge: Harvard University Press 1951) typical survivors of the music manu­ P~-6?1-603 ; or Hubert Foss, "Printing," ' Grove'; Dw twnary of Music and Musicians (5th ed.; Lon­ script period. Certainly he will be able don: Macmillan, 1954), VI, 928-34. For facsimiles of ~arly _ printing see Georg Kinsky, A History of Music to offer guidance to patrons in need of tn Pw tures (London and Toronto: Dent; New York: basic or specialized readings. Du~ton, 1930) ; and A. Beverly Barksdale, The Prtnted W ote (Toledo, Ohio: Toledo Museum of Art It has seemed preferable to make re­ 1957 ). A guide to other facsimiles is provided i~ peated citations to a limited number of ~uy A. Marco, The Earliest Music Printers of Con­ t~n ental Europe (Charlottesville: Bibliographical So­ particularly valuable works with strong c_Iety of the University of Virginia, 1962). A recent hs~ ~or further reading is A. D. Walker, "Music 2 Lester Asheim, The Ilttm anities and the Librarf!l Prmti_ng. and Publis hing : a Bibliography," Library (Chicago : ALA, 1957) , pp.173-74, 177. A ssocmtwn Record, LXV (May 1963), 192-95. Study of the Music Manuscript Period I 9 through fifteenth centuries. The discus­ oping into our familiar system of notes sion of each of these periods will be fur­ and staves. The Greeks utilized what is ther divided into four sections: charac­ known as letter notation, through which teristics of the music, notation, principal each pitch can be represented by a let­ manuscripts, and contemporary litera­ ter from one or more alphabets. Letter ture on music. notation does not require a staff and is a simple, satisfactory way of writing ANTIQUITY down monophonic music if the rhythmic With the possible exception of one patterns are known to the performer or apparently indecipherable Babylonian communicated to him by means of sup­ tablet of ca. 800 B.c.4 no examples of plementary symbols; one Greek frag­ pre-Greek music have survived. Fewer ment includes such symbols. Two sets than twenty fragments of Greek music of letters were in use: one set for vocal are extant; two on marble, one on a music and the other for instrumental stone slab, and the remainder on papy­ music.8 rus.5 Principal Manuscripts. Three items Characteristics of the Music. The prin­ among the small number of survivals cipal function of music in Greece was are of particular interest because of their that of adjunct to the drama and the age, length, and state of preservation. dance. While the surviving examples All are stone inscriptions discovered in are monodic (or monophonic: consist­ the late nineteenth century. The first ing of a single unaccompanied melody) Delphic Hymn to Apollo is our most ex­ further parts were probably improvised. tensive piece of Greek music; it dates The theoretical basis of Greek music is from ca. 138 B.c. The second Delphic highly complex and hardly relative· to Hymn to Apollo, also of considerable this discussion.6 It may be mentioned length, is about ten years younger. The that music to the Greeks had a moral, Song or Epitaph of Seikilos is of uncer­ ethical significance which is not yet en­ tain date: between the years 200 B.c. tirely explained. 7 and 100 A.D.9 Notation. Musical paleography or Contemporary Literature on Music. handwriting, usually termed notation, More can be learned of Greek music assumed numerous forms before devel- from the eighteen extant treatises about it than from the few fragments of actual 4 A photograph of the tablet, in conjunction with the most recent analysis of its possible musical con­ music preserved. Since Reese provided tent, appears in Curt Sachs, "The Mystery of the a commentary on these writings as' well Babylonian Notation," Papers of the International Congress of Musicology, 1939 (New York: American as a guide to texts and translations, it Musicological Society, 1944), 161-67 ; als~ printed in Musical Quarterly, XXVII January, 1941), 62-69. seems sufficient here only to mention For a recent analysis of music in ' this period see the most important authors. These may Henry G. Farmer, "Music in Ancient Mesopotamia," N ew Ox ford History of Music, Vol. I: A ncient and . be divided into three groups: those fol­ Oriental Music (London: Oxford University Press, lowing the theories of Pythagoras ( sixth · 1957). 5 Gustave Reese, Music in the Middle Ages (New century B.c.), those pursuing the some­ York: Norton, 1940), pp.48-49, offers brief descrip­ what conflicting views of Aristoxenos tions of all of them, and provides a g uide to tran­ scriptions and facsimiles. This book by Reese will (born ca. 354 B.c. ) , and those not partie- hereinafter be cited as Reese, Middle A ges. 6 For a notable summation of Greek theory, see s Both groups are shown, with modern eq'uivalents, Cecil Torr, "Greek Music," Ox ford History of Music, in Reese, Middle Ages, pp.26-27. Introductory Volume (London: Oxford University 9 Transcriptions, not mentioned in Reese, Middle Press, 1929), pp.1-22. More detail in Reese, Middle A ges, of the first Hymn a nd of the Seikilos appear A ges, pp.ll-51. A good recent survey is Isobel Hen­ in Archibald Davison and Willi Ape!, Historical derson, "Ancient Greek Music," N ew Ox ford History Antholog.y of Music (Cambridge: Harvard University of Music, I. Press, 1946), I , 9-10. This two-volume compilation ' 7 See Louis Harap, "Some Hellenic Ideas on Music is a highly valuable sources of musical examples and Character," Musical Quarterly, XXIV (April from preclassical times. Variant transcriptions are 1938 ) , 153-68. given in Henderson, op. cit., pp.364-73. 10 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1965

uHuly associated with either of these Church, which still considers the so­ theorists.10 The Pythagoreans were Eu­ called Gregorian chant to be the ideal clid, Nicomachos, Ptolemy of Alexan­ music for divine services. These chants dria, and Porphyry; the Aristoxenians are monophonic, rhythmically free, and were Aristoxenos himself, Kleonides, sung by cantor and unison choir. The and Bakcheios; the independents were melodies are intended solely as orna­ Plato, Aristotle, Quintilianos, and Alyp­ mentations of the texts: they are re­ ios. stricted in range, sparing in use of wide intervals, and free from dissonance or EARLy CHRISTIAN THROUGH SIXTH sharp contrasts. Authentic performance CENTURY does not admit instrumental accompani­ This is truly a dark age for the study ment.12 of western music manuscripts, for there Pope Gregory I ( 590-604) appears to are no surviving examples. From numer­ have instigated a reform and codifica­ ous contemporary allusions and trea­ tion of the chant repertoire, which re­ tises, and from later copies of pre-700 sulted in a curtailed but collated body music, it has been possible to derive of melodies. It seems reasonable to sup­ .considerable knowledge about these ~ost pose that any manuscripts bearing su­ documents. The music of these centuries perseded versions of a chant would not is largely religious in nature, and it may have merited preservation, and indeed appear strange that the monasteries did the corpus of extant chant examples dates not preserve copies of it. Two reasons from the seventh century on. may be advanced for their failure to do About three thousand chant melodies so: the prevalence of oral tradition and remain in the present day repertoire.13 the subsequent Gregorian reform. Both Notation. Apparently not much need factors will receive further attention for a precise notation was felt during shortly. this period. In its stead there was a Characteristics of the Music. So little strong oral tradition; chant melodies is known about the secular music of this were transmitted from master to pupil period that it is necessary to confine the and from monastery to monastery with discussion to liturgical music. Most of remarkably few corruptions; it was con­ this sacred music falls into one of two sidered sacrilegious . to alter a sacred categories: music written for the Mass melody. Nevertheless ~here were inev­ (texts in the Roman Missal; music in itable local variants, and doubtless it the Gradual), and music written for the was a principal aim of the Gregorian Daily Hours (texts in the Breviary; reform to purify them. music in the Antiphonary). The char­ There is evidence that a certain sys­ acter and, in some cases, the actual mel­ tem of signs, known as ekphonetic nota­ odies11 of pre-700 liturgical music have tion, had its beginnings in Byzantium been preserved by the Roman Catholic during this period. Originally these

to The essence of Pythagorean harmonics (and Pythagorean philosophy generally) has long eluded 12 There is a vast literature on the chant. Harvard satisfactory analysis. The first exposition of the roots Dictionary, pp.304-10, offers a concise introduction of esoteric Pythagoreanism is Hans Kayser, Lehr­ and brief bibliography; Reese, Middle Ages, pp.57- buch der Harmonik (Zurich: Occident Verlag, 1950). 197, is a more detailed study, with comprehensive Kayser's research derived largely from study of a bibliography, pp.431-45. The biggest and finest mod­ rare volume by Albert Thimus : Die harmonikale ern compendium is Willi Ape!, Gregorian Chant S11mbolik des Altertums (Koln: Dumont-Schawberg, (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1957). 1868-76). The less obscure Aristoxenian tradition is Higini Angles has two useful chapters in New Ox­ well expounded by Henry S. Macran, The Harmonics ford History of Music, II. of Aristoxenos (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902). 1s The official versions of these melodies appear in u Listed speculatively in Amedee Gastoue, L'Art the Liber Usualis, ed. by the Benedictines of Solesmes Gregorien (Paris: F. Alcan, 1911), pp.121 f. (Boston: McLaughlin & Reilly, 1950). Study of the Music Manuscript Period I 11 signs were but accents indicating a rise eighth or ninth century it was enriched or fall in pitch; later they came to rep­ by the development of tropes. These resent stereotyped melodic formulas. were interpolations made in the autho­ The first extant manuscript containing rized texts, ranging in extent from a few these signs dates from the ninth century. amplifying words to lengthy. sentences Contemporary Literature on Music. and even entire poems. The new text The patristic writings are a source of was either fitted to a pre-existing musi­ much information regarding attitudes cal pattern which had previously been toward music and the function it had in sung on a single syllable-a so-called early church services.14 melismatic pattern-or sung to a new Three men served to extend the tra­ melody. Tropes which took the form of dition of Greek theory: Boethius (d. dialogues were forerunners of the litur­ 524) ,1 5 Cassiodorus ( 4 79-515) ,1 6 and gical drama.18 Isidore of Seville ( 565-636) .17 Boethius A second innovation of this period was continued the Pythagorean school and the rise of the secular song, but there Cassiodorus that of Aristoxenos. Their is a dearth of manuscripts in readable writings, with those of Isidore, formed notation before the eleventh century. the basis of academic music study until The most important development of the ninth century. these four centuries was that of polyph­ ony: the sounding and writing of two SEVENTH THROUGH TENTH CENTURIES or more simultaneous melodies, in con­ Now the music manuscript period be­ trast to the single line monophony found 19 gins to flourish. There is an abundance earlier. In addition to the artistic sig­ of examples, and improved notation ren­ nificance of this new kind of music, we ders them more or less readable. can observe a considerable impact Characteristics of the Music. Gregory's which it had upon manuscript produc­ codification of the plainchant became tion and notation. The increased com­ the norm fot all western churches. This plexity resulting from extra voices ren­ standardized body of melodies was dered less satisfactory the practice of not long untouched, however, for in the retaining compositions in the memory and was a reason for the larger number 14 The standard source for this material is Jacque of manuscripts; and further, the neces­ Paul Mig ne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus . . . (Paris, 1857-66), but it is conveniently summarized sity for two singers or groups of singers in Theodore Gerold, L es P eres de l'Eglise et la Musique (Paris: F. Alcan, 1931). For guidance through Migne's 161 volumes there is a table of con­ 18 The history of the trope is sketched in Reese, tents in the Catalogue of the L ibrary of the P eabody Middle Ages, pp.185-97, and in Jacques Handschin, Institute (Baltimore: Isaac Friedenwald, 1883), IV, "Trope, Sequence and Conductus," 'New Oxford His­ 2908-28 ; and an Index Musicae to the Latin series tory of Music, II. There are four examples in the in Vol. CCXXI, col. 625 ff. Reese, Middle Ages, 61-67, Davison and Apel, op. cit. (numbers 15b, 16, 27b and is a brief survey of patristic writings in the area. 37 of Vol I). 15 De Institutione Musica . . . modern ed. by Gott­ 19 The physical, physiological, psychological, and fried Friedlein (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1867). Ger­ artistic factors which led to polyphony have been man translation: Oskar Paul, Boethius ; Fii.n Bii.cher studied by many scholars. Some of the noteworthy ii.ber die Musik (Leipzig: E. C. Leuckart, 1872). contributions are: Armand Machabey, Histoire et 16 Treatise on music reprinted in Martin Gerbert, Evolution des Formules Musicales . . . (Paris: Payot, Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica . . . (facsimile 1928) ; Joseph Yasser, "Medieval Quartal Harmony," reprint, Milan: BoUettino Bibliografico Musicale, Musical Quarterly, XXIII, XXIV (1937-38); Amedee 1931; first published, 1784), I, 14-19; and in Roger A. Gastoue, "Moyen Age II (La Musique occiden~ale), .. Mynors, Cassiodori Senatoris Institutiones . . . (Ox­ Encyclopedie de la Musique ... ed., A. Lavignae ford: Clarendon Press, 1937). Partial English trans­ (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1913-31), I, I, 556 ff; Anselm lation in Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music Hughes, "The Origins of Harmony," Musical Quar­ Histocy (New York: Norton, 1950). terly, XXIV (1938) ; Marius Schneider, Geschichte 17 De Ecclesiastis Officiis, Migne 'Latin series der Mehrstimmigkeit (Berlin: J. Bard, 1934-35). A LXXXIII, 743 f. Etymologies, III, chapter 14-22, somewhat onesided summary of these and other views Migne Latin series, LXXXII ; modern edition by is given by Hughes in New Oxford History of Music. Wallace M. Lindsay, Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi II. Further bibliography in Reese, Middle Ages, Etymologiarum . . . (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911). pp.451-52. 12 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1965 to perform different melodies simulta­ flaw in neumatic notation was felt only neously militated against improvised later: it was that the size of the interval performance, for objectionable disso­ was not specified with the direction. An nances might be the res~lt. acute, for instance, signified a rise in Notation. It was inevitable that nota­ pitch but did not designate how much tion of a sort should develop to keep of a rise. To musicians who knew the pace with the changes taking place in repertoire and its idiom this fault was composition; the interesting point is the perhaps not serious, but it prevented the direction taken by those who sought to learning or singing of an unfamiliar mel­ write down music. The choice lay be­ ody "at sight." tween the adaptation of one of the Although the earliest extant manu­ two radically different systems already script containing neumes dates from the known, and the invention of something eighth century, 23 completely new. The existing methods . . . The history of Gregorian Chant would were the letter notation ( originating seem to support the assumption that with the Greeks; promulgated by Boeth­ neumes existed as early as the sixth cen­ ius) and the vague ekphonetic symbols. tury. For it is difficult to conceive how the complex task of codifying plainsong mel­ While letter notation is found in the odies could have been undertaken during most valuable musical document of the the time of Gregory without the aid of period, the "M usica Enchiriadis," this some system of notation. 24 fairly accurate and unequivocal scheme In any case there is a large number of was not generally adopted. Instead there manuscripts dating from the ninth cen­ was developed, perhaps from the ek­ tury on.25 phonetic symbols20 or Hebrew cantilla­ , Principal Manuscripts. The outstand­ tion signs, 21 or possibly from the Greek ing musical work of the period is the and Latin grammatical accent signs, a ninth-century manual "Musica Enchiri­ system of neumes which seemed to sat­ adis," the precise date and authorship isfy the practical musician, if not the the­ of which remain in dispute.26 This trea- orists, for several centuries. The neumes 23~roit Ad Te Levavi, Brussels Codex 10127- were stylized versions of the acute, 10144. Facsimile in Gregorio Suiiol, Introduction a la Paleographie Musicale Gregorienne (Paris: Societe grave, circumflex and (artificial) anti­ de St. Jean L'Evangeliste, 1935), p.33. circumflex accents, and indicated respec­ 24 Reese, Middle Ages, p.133. In fact the sixth­ century palimpsest, Codex 912 of St. Gall, bears tively (as the accents did) a rise in traces of neumelike symbols. See Suiiol, op. cit., pitch, a drop, a · rise and drop, a drop p.480. 25 22 An extensive collection of facsimiles with com­ and rise. These signs were placed over mentaries has been compiled by the Benedictines of the points in the text where pitch change Solesmes, under the title Paleographie Musicale (Tour­ nai: Desclee, 1889- ) in 17 volumes. Contents of was desired. Used in combination as well the set are given in Reese, Middle Ages, p.441, and as singly, they were capable of indicat­ Harvard Dictionary, p.233. 26 Note the title of A. H. Fox-Strangways' informa­ ing fairly complex melodic patterns and, tive article about it: " A Tenth-Century Manual," Music and L etters, XIII ( 1932), 183-93. The treatise as the system was elaborated, a number is reprinted by -Gerbert, op. cit., I, 152-212, who of subtleties in performance. The great attributes it to Hucbald. Locations of the numerous manuscript versions are given in Robert Eitner 20 See Jean Baptiste Thibaut, Origine Byzantine Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon de; ·de la Notation N eumatique .•. (Paris: A. Picard, Musiker und Musikgelehrten ... (Leipzig: Breitkopf 1907). und Hartel, 1900-1904), V, 218-19. Although much 21 Amedee Gastoue, Cours Theorique et Pratique de in need of revision, Eitner remains the best guide Plainchant ... (Paris: Scola Cantorum, 1904), p.15. to library locations of music manuscripts; it is how­ On the relationships among all these signs see Eric ever being replaced by the R epertoire International Werner, The Sacred Bridge (New York: Columbia des Sources Musicales ( 1960- ) , a series described University Press, 1959). in a review article by Daniel Heartz, Journal of the 22 Illustrated, with modern equivalents, in Harvard American Musicological Society, XIV-2 (Summer ·Dictionary, p.487. 1961)' 268-73. Study of the Music Manuscript Period I 13 tise is a primer of practice for early po­ centuries; 4,000 poems with 1,400 melo­ lyphony, with musical examples in let­ dies). Though monophonic, this music ter notation.27 generally differs from plainchant in sev­ Contemporary Literature on Music. eral respects: ( 1) it has a metrical basis Two names predominate: Hucbald and and is more strongly rhythmic, ( 2) its Odo. Hucbald, a monk of St. Amand melodies have a wider range and depart (ca. 840-930), is perhaps better known from the strict modal~ty of the chant, for things he did not write than for ( 3) it was doubtless performed with those he did: he was formerly thought improvised instrumental accompaniment to have been author of the "Musica (not in the manuscripts), and ( 4) with Enchiriadis," and Gerbert gives him the exception of the famous Goliard credit for the "Alia Musica" as well (see Latin songs, the texts are usually in the below). He is actually the author of "De vernacular. The German counterpart of Harmonica Institutione," a summary of the troubadour was the Minnesinger of 31 earlier thought.28 Odo, head of the abbey the twelfth-fourteenth centuries. of Cluny (d. 942), is responsible for a Two great schools of sacred composi­ num her of important writings on music, tion highlight these centuries with their chief of which is the "Dialogus."29 achievements in organum. "Organum" A composite work of the tenth cen­ is the name given to a polyphonic com­ tury is "Alia Musica," of great value for position in which the principal melody the study of medieval theory.ao (the tenor) is a liturgical chant. The first of the schools was that of St. Mar­ ELEVENTH THROUGH THIRTEENTH tial (Limoges, early twelfth century). CENTURIES Its specialty was organum duplum, in which each tone of a plainchant melody In this period the manuscripts begin was greatly extended and accompanied to look like music as moderns think of in a second voice by a melodic passage. it, for the staff makes its appearance to The school of Notre Dame (Paris, late revolutionize notation. The number of twelfth century) brought forth two ex­ manuscripts containing music reaches cellent composers, among the first im­ high into the thousands. portant composers we know by name: Characteristics of the Music. This is Leonin and Perotin. The latter added a the earliest period for which we are third and fourth voice to the chant tenor able to recreate secular music. The most (organum triplum and quadruplum), and important body of material comes from devised a method of regulating and no­ the two groups of French minstrels: the tating rhythmic values. Frequently their troubadours (southern France, eleventh­ thirteenth centuries; 2,600 poems and 264 melodies extant) and the trouveres a1 Details on these minstrels and their music may be found in Reese, Middle Ages, chapters 7 and 8 ; (northern France, twelfth- thirteenth Pierre Aubry, Trouveres et Troubadours (Paris: F. Alcan, 1909) ; F. Gennrich, Rondeaux, Virelais und BaUaden (Dresden: Gesellschaft fiir Romanische 27 Davison and Ape], op. cit., ex. 25b, is a tran­ Literatur, 1921-1927) ; H . J. Moser, Geschichte der scription of two examples. Deutschen Musik (Stuttgart und Berlin: J . G. Cotta, 28 Printed in Gerbert, op. cit., I , 103-25. See also 1928-30). An excellent survey, with numerous tran­ Rembert Weakland, "Hucbald as Musician and The­ scriptioDs, is J. A. Westrup's " Medieval Song," orist," Musical Quarterly, XXXXII (January 1956), New Oxford History of Music, II. It may be noted 66-84. that the theories of Gennrich have been the subject 29 Text in Gerbert, op. cit., I, 251-64 ; English trans­ of considerable controversy; for the most recent re­ lation in Strunk, op. cit., pp.103-16. evaluation see Willi Ape], "Rondeaux, Virelais and 80 Text in Gerbert, op. cit., I, 125-52. German trans­ Ballades in French 12th-Century Song," Journal of lation: Wilhelm Miihlmann, Die Alia Musica (Leip­ the American Musicological Society, VII-2 (Summer zig: 0. Brandstetler, 1914). 1954)' 121-130. 14 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1965 voice parts clash in sharp dissonances.32 ern plainchant notation found in the Notation. The manuscripts show sev­ Liber Usualis. Then in the thirteenth eral fruitless attempts to solidify the century a rapid development began, in equivocal neumatic notation or to pro­ which relative lengths or durations came vide a substitute for it.33 But the one to be ascribed to three of the square significant forward step was the devel­ notes. This innovation is regarded as the opment of the staff. Staff notation was beginning of notation's most prolonged an outgrowth of an earlier attempt to phase, one which was perfected by Vitry make de:Snite the intervals represented in the following century, that of "men­ by the neumes, in which dots were sural notation."35 placed in the manuscripts above the text, Principal Manuscripts. There is a rich separated vertically from one another by body of material from this period. All relatively large or small distances, in the manuscripts are in legible notation accordance with the size of the interval. except the well known Winchester Tro­ As a guide to writing the copyist per, a collection of 164 organums in the scratched a line across the page horizon­ eleventh-century neumes, decipherable tally, with a dry pen, and this line was only in general contour. It is nonetheless soon taken to represent a degree of the of value in the study of techniques in scale. The line came to be inked in; and early organum.36 presently another line, representing a From St. Martial the important sur­ higher scale degree, was added above vivals are B.N. Lat. 1139, 3719, 3549; it, and the neumes were grouped on and B.M. Add. MS 36881. between the two lines. Guido of Arezzo From Notre Dame we have Wolfen­ is the person most closely associated biittel 677;37 Bibl. Laurenziana, Codex with the introduction of staff lines; he Pluteus 29,1; Madrid Bibl. Nac. Hh 167; recommends three or four lines. The Wolfenbiittel 1206.38 four line staff was adopted for liturgical Three of the numerous secular song music and remains today the vehicle for collections:_chansonniers, as they are plainsong notation.34 called-may be mentioned as represent­ When at the end of the twelfth cen­ ative: Bibl. de !'Arsenal 5198, "Chan­ tury the neumes began to assume more sonnier de l'Arsenal";39 B.N. 844, "Chan­ definite, square shapes, they began to sonnier du Roy"; 40 B.N. 25566. 41 Other look like the notes and ligatures of mod- collections are cited in Harvard Diction­ ary, page 769. 3:1 Reese, Middle Ages, has an excellent chapter (11) on organum, as does New Oxford History of Music, There are three extremely important II. See, for details, William G. Waite, The Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony (New Haven: Yale Uni­ versity Press, 1954). Examples illustrating the chang­ 35 Harvard Dictionary, pp.494 f. The major study ing style appear in Davison and Apel, op. cit., I, of notation in this period is .Johannes Wolf, Geschichte exx. 25-31. der Mensuralnotation von 1250-1460 . . . (3 vols.; 33 They are discussed in Reese, Middle Ages, pp.136- Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1904). 37. 36 See W. H. Frere, The Winchester Troper (Lon­ u Several standard works on the history of notation don: Bradshaw Society, 1884), for facsimiles and 1Ilay be consulted for details of these and other pale­ commentary. <>graphical developments, as well as plentiful illustra­ 37 Facsimile in .T. H. Baxter, An Old St. Andrews tions: .Johannes Wolf, Handbuch der Notationskunde Music Book (London, 1931). ·(2 vols.; Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1913-19); 38 Facsimiles of the Madrid Hh 167 (or 20486) and Willi Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900- the Wolfenbiittel 1206 (or 1099) by Luther Dittmer 1600 (5th ed. ; Cambridge : Mediaeval Academy of (Brooklyn: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1957). America, 1961) ; Carl Parrish, The !Notation of Medi­ 39 Facsimile and transcription by Pierre Aubry eval Music (New York: Norton, 1957). For a special (Paris: P. Guenther, 1908). study of Guido and the staff see .T. Smits van Waes­ 40 New edition by .T. B. Beck, Les Chansonniers des berghe, "The Musical Notation of Guido of Arezzo," Troubadours et Trouveres (Philadelphia: University Musica Disciplina, V ( 1951), 15-53, which includes of Pennsylvania Press, 1927). facsimiles and lists of MSS utilizing the Guidonian 41 Published in E. de Coussemaker, Oeuvres Com­ system. Other facsimiles : ~'Paleographie Musicale. pletes du Trouvere Adam de la Halle (Paris, 1872). Study of the Music Manuscript Period I 15 codices of varied content which date FouRTEENTH THROUGH FIFTEENTH from the thirteenth century: Montpellier, CENTURIES Fac. des Med., H 196;42 Bamberg Kg. As we near our own time we find BibI. Ed. IV-6; 43 and Burgos, Spain, more and more details available about "Codex Huelgas."44 musical theory and practice, and more The items mentioned appear to pre­ and more extant manuscripts. It is in­ dominate among a large number of im­ evitable therefore that this, the final portant sources.45 section of the survey, be the most con­ Contemporary Li.terature on Music. densed of them all; and that the inter­ Guido is probably the chief theorist of ested reader will be even more depen­ the time.46 Hermannus Contractus47 and dent than heretofore upon the suggested John Cotton48 are authors of valuable references if he wishes to see beneath treatises. Another work of moment, re­ the surface. lating to mensural notation is the "De Characteristics of the Music. The four­ Musica Mensurabili Positio" of Johannes 49 teenth century has been given the name de Garlandia. "Ars Nova," and indeed there was much 42 Facsimile and transcription in Y. Rokseth, Po­ novelty in the musical picture. For the lyphonies du xiiie Siecle (Paris: Editions de l'Oiseau Lyre, 1935-39). first time secular music predominated ~Facsimile and transcription in Pierre Aubry, and liturgical music was comparatively Cent Motets du xiiie Siecle (Paris: Rouart, Lerolle, 1908). See also Friedrich Blum, "Another Look at neglected; there was new rhythmic free­ the Montpellier Organum Treatise," Musica Dis­ ciplina, XIII ( 1959), 15-24. dom; dissonance was treated boldly. .. Facsimile and transcription in H. Angles, El Principal composers were Guillaume de Codex Musical de las Huelgas (Barcelona: Biblioteca de Catalunya, 1931). Machaut ( 1300-1377) and Francesco 50 45 As guides to other MSS consult the index to Landini ( 1325-1397). Reese, Middle Ages (under "Manuscripts") ; Ape], op. cit., pp.201-03 ; Friedrich Ludwig, Repertorium A reaction against the new art began Organorum R ecentioris ... (Halle: Max Niemeyer, in the early fifteenth century, with the 1910) ; W. H. Frere, Biblioteca Musico-Liturgica ... Handlist of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical MSS so-called Burgundian School, centered of the Middle Ages . . . in the Libraries of Great around Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1400- Britain and Ireland (London: B. Quaritch, 1901-32). See also Lincoln B. Spiess, " An Introduction to the 1474). One accomplishment of this Pre-St. Martial Practical Sources of Early Polyph­ school was the final establishment of the ony," Speculum, XXII (1947), 16-17. For facsimiles the best source is Paleographie third (rather than the fourth or fifth) Musicale. Others are Apel, Notation ; H. M. Bannis­ as the basic interval of harmonic formu­ ter, Monumenti Vaticani di Paleografia Musicale Latina (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1913); E. W. Nichol­ lation. Sacred music returned to favor. son, Early Bodleian Music, III (London: Novello; Succeeding the Burgundians were the New York: H. W . Gray, 1913); Johannes Wolf, Musikalische Schrifttafeln . . . (Biickeburg und Flemish Schools, highlighted by Johan­ Leipzig: F. Kistner & C. Siegel, 1927). nes Ockeghem ( 1430-1495), Jacob 46 Works reprinted in Gerbert, op. cit., II, 2-61; Commentaries and partial translations into French Obrecht ( 1430-1505), and Josquin des in Louis Lambillote, Esthetique, Theorie et Pratique du Chant Gregorien (Paris : A. LeClerc, 1855) . For Prez ( 1450-1521). These men and their two German translations see Reese, Middle Ages, contemporaries preferred four-part writ­ p.127. ing to the three-part texture of the Bur- 4T Definitive text with English translation in Leon­ ard Ellinwood, Musica Hermanni Contracti (Roches­ ter: Eastman School of Music, 1936). Hugo Riemann, Geschichte der Musiktheorie im IX.­ 48 Definitive text of his De Musica, ed. by van XIX. J ahrhundert (Leipzig: Max Hesse, 1898), which Waesberghe (Rome: American Institute of Musicol­ is also the standard study of the other theorists from ogy, 1950). German translation in Utto Kornmiiller, the ninth century on. Riemann has been partly trans­ "Der Traktat des Johannes Cottonius iiber Musik," lated: Raymond Haggh, History of Music Theory ; K irchenmusikalisches J ahrbuch, XIII ( 1888) , I. Books I and II, Polyphonic Theory from the Ninth 49 Text in E . de Coussemaker, Scriptorum de Mu­ to the Sixteenth Century [by] Hugo Riemann ; trans­ sica Medii Aevi Nova Seriem ... (Paris: A. Durand, lated with a preface, commentary and notes (Lin~ 1864-76). Together, Gerbert, op. cit., and this collec­ coin: University of Nebraska Press, 1962). tion by Coussemaker include all the important medi­ 5° For a concise view of the fourteenth century, eval treatises on music. Summary of Garlandia in with bibliography, see Harvard Dictionary, pp.56-58. 16 I College & Research Libraries • January, 1965 gundians, and made numerous other de­ and renaissance musicians to do so. 54 In partures of a technical nature. 51 the fifteenth century, choir bc;>ok ar­ Notation. Phillipe de Vitry, considered rangement was gradually abandoned in by one authority to be the "father of favor of the part-book method, in which modern notation,"52 expounded in the each voice is notated on a separate page, treatise "Ars Nova" (from which the so that it is possible to bind together a century has been named; ca. 1320) a set of tenor parts or bass parts for a new approach to notation. It became number of compositions; a system cor­ possible to write in duple ( 2/4, 2/2, etc.) responding to present practice in orches­ as well as in triple ( 3/4, 3/2, etc.) time, tral and sometimes on choral arranging. and each note value could be subdivided Score arrangement was revived toward into two or three of the next smallest the end of the sixteenth century, and value. This system, the mensural nota­ has persisted since then. It should also tion previously mentioned, remained the be noted that bar lines as we know them norm until ca. 1600 with one principal are not found in the manuscript period. modification: the transition from black We find toward the end of this period to white notes prior to the midfifteenth the introduction of another kind of nota­ century.53 tion-tablature. Its function was to serve One aspect of notation not yet men­ as vehicle for instrumental music. Lute tioned deserves some attention: the tablatures are of particular interest, for method of arranging the various voice they serve as a guide to finger placement parts in the manuscripts. Prior to 1225, on the instrument, rather than to actual the standard practice was to align si­ pitches. This system reproduces graph­ multaneous tones vertically, as in a mod­ ically the fingerboard of the lute, and ern score. Subsequent to that time, as indicates by signs which strings are ~o some voice parts came to have many be depressed and where. The technique more notes than other parts, this ar­ has certain advantages, and has been rangement was found to waste consid­ revived recently for the notation of gui­ erable space and writing material; and tar and ukulele music. 55 for it there was substituted the so-called Principal Manuscripts. As there is a choir book arrangement. In this plan plethora of source material, and the im­ there is no attempt at vertical align­ portant representatives are given in the ment: each part is written separately, Harvard Dictionary, pages 702-03, only from start to finish, then the next part four codices will be mentioned here. is written in the same way, etc. The Those chosen are certainly of very great, usual arrangement was for two voice if not the greatest, value. parts to occupy one page of the manu­ For Landini and other fourteenth­ script, with the other one or two voices century Italians: Bibl. Laur. Pal. 87, on the opposite page of the open book. "Codex Squarcialupi."56 A modern conductor or keyboard player finds this type of distribution exceed­ (Continued on page 48) ingly difficult 'to read, and doubt has been cast upon the ability of medieval 54 Pros and cons, with an interesting conclusion, in Edward Lowinsky, "On the Use of Scores by ~1 For a thorough study of the period beginning Sixteenth-Century Musicians," Journal of the Amer­ with 1400: Reese, Renaissance, pp.3-287. Brief treat­ ican Musicological Society, I (Spring 1948), 17-22. ments in Harvard Dictionary, articles on the Bur­ 55 For a brief article with illustrations see Harvard gundian and Flemish Schools. Dictionary, pp.728-30. There is a long discussion in 52 Ape! in Harvard Dictionary, p.495. See also Ape!, Notation, pp.21-81. note 57. 58 Modern edition by Johannes Wolf (Lipstadt: 58 Details and facsimiles in Ape], Notation. Kistner and Siegel, 1955).