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Regarding Meter and Rhythm in the "Ars Antiqua"

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Regarding Meter and Rhythm in the RegardingMeter and Rhythm in the Ars Antiqua LEO TREITLER SHE rhythmicimpulse in music is a quality directlyappre- hended,and its projectionis a mainaspect of theperformer's art. But when we conceptualizeabout rhythm,we tend to thinkof it as a functionof timewhich we expressmainly in termsof duration and succession.Explaining rhythm through temporal concepts, plac- ing it under control in that sense as a compositionalfactor, and devisinga notationto signifyit are all achievementsof the practice and theoryof musicin the twelfthand thirteenthcenturies. During that period,duration came to be apprehendedthrough a systemof proportionalmeasurement, and the successionof notes assumed patternsthat depended on two kinds of configuration at the same time: (1) groupsoriented with respectto accents,and (2) the backgroundarticulation of time in equal intervals;in short, the configurationsof rhythmand meter.It is a historyof the trans- formationof a performancepractice into a compositionalone, with the attendantprovision of a notationalsystem as the medium of transmissionfrom composer to performer;and of the ultimately successfulexplanation of thesethings in the preceptsof a theory. The control of rhythmand meterentailed their coordination withother compositional factors, particularly melodic phrasingand harmonicand contrapuntalorganization. The historyof rhythmand meterin that time is thereforeonly an aspect of musical develop- mentsin generaland it can be well understoodonly in thatlight. This essay was completed while I was a fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University.I should like to express my gratitude to the Centre and its director,Professor Ian Donaldson, for the opportunityof working there. 524 This content downloaded from 159.149.103.9 on Sat, 6 Apr 2013 18:42:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Meter and Rhythmin the Ars Antiqua 525 The coordination of time- and pitch-elementsproduced a new level of complexity, and the development of an explicit rhythmic notation served the consequent need for an invariable transmission. This outlines a simultaneous and fundamental change in the nature of the music and the relations of its transmission: a change toward the production of complex and fixed musical entities, signified by notated scores that provided performerswith relatively unambiguous instructions. It was one of the major revolutions in the history of Western music. The basic claim here, made against two prevailing views in the modern literature, is that the music of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was accentual. It directly opposes the view - developed most fullyby William Waite - that ars antiqua rhythmwas derived from the quantitative meters of classical prosody;1 and it contradicts indirectly the view of Carl Dahlhaus that the modern rhythmicsys- tem based upon meter and accent emerged only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a result of transformationsin mensural rhythm. He characterizes mensural rhythm as "Zeitmessend" in that rhythmicconfigurations are determined most prominently by the measure and proportion of durations and less so by their group- ing with respect to accents.2I would put it, rather,that the accentual basis of rhythmwas established in the ars antiqua, but receded into the background with the development of the more subtle time-meas- uring rhythmfrom the fourteenthcentury on. How that occurred, and what the shiftingrelations were between accent and duration during the ars nova and Renaissance, are questions for furtherstudy. My task here will be to argue for the claim regarding the nature of rhythmin the twelfthand thirteenthcenturies. In both practice and theory, the rhythmic conception of that time was manifestedmost prominentlyas a set of stereotypedrhyth- mic patterns called "modes," hence the system itself is referred to in the modern literature as "modal rhythm." It was expounded in manuals writtenabout the second half of the thirteenthcentury and transmittedin practice through repertorycollections of which the earliest surviving ones were written down during the same half century- some fiftyto seventy-fiveyears after the practice had been 1 The Rhythm of Twelfth CenturyPolyphony (New Haven, 1954). 2 "Zur Taktlehre des Michael Praetorius," Die Musikforschung,XVII (1964), 162 ff. This content downloaded from 159.149.103.9 on Sat, 6 Apr 2013 18:42:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 526 The Musical Quarterly established.The repertoriesinvolved are the polyphonicsettings of liturgicalchant (organum) and the polyphonicconductus and motet compositionsof the School of Notre Dame in Paris. I The basic notionin modal rhythmis the measuringout of musi- cal timethrough the regulation of long and shortdurations ("longa" and "brevis,"to be identifiedas L and B). In the earliestexplana- tion (De musicamensurabili by Johnof Garland,ca. 1250)3the ratio of L to B is normallyas two time units to one. Those basic dura- tions were paced out in repeatingpatterns according to a number of standardmodels or modes of rhythmicmovement. Usually, six rhythmicmodes are identifiedin the treatisesin the followingorder (the descriptionis takenfrom the treatiseof John of Garland): The firstmode proceedsby an L, a B, and anotherL, and continuesthus indefinitely. The second,conversely, by a B, an L, and anotherB. The thirdby an L and twoB's and anotherL. The fourthby twoB's, an L, and twoB's. The fifthentirely by L's. The sixthentirely by B's. The basic configurationin each patternis the foot (L-B in the firstmode, B-L in the second, L-B-B in the third,B-B-L in the fourth,L-L in the fifth,B-B-B in the sixth).Modes 1, 2, and 6 are called "measurable"because theyinvolve only the "correct"dura- tions (B of one time unit and L of two time units). These are the building blocksof the systemin the earliestconceptions. Modes 3, 4, and 5 are "beyondmeasure" because theyinvolve durations that are beyondthe measureof the "correct"values of the B and L (a B of two time units,an L of three).John describes the L of three time units as the sum of a correctL and B, whereasin the later explanationsby Franco of Cologne (ca. 1280), it is a "perfect"L and the durationalstandard for all the modes (therewill be more to sayabout thisdifference later).4 8Ed. Erich Reimer as Vols. X and XI of the Beihefte zum Archiv fiir Musik- wissenschaft(Wiesbaden, 1972). 4 Ars cantus mensurabilis,ed. G. Reany and A. Gilles, Corpus scriptorummusica, XVIII (1974), American Institute of Musicology. Trans. Oliver Strunk in Source This content downloaded from 159.149.103.9 on Sat, 6 Apr 2013 18:42:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Meterand Rhythmin theArs Antiqua 527 That the descriptionof modes 1-4carries through in each case to the firstelement of the followingfoot reflects the concept of ordo. An ordo is a melodicsegment or phrasein one voice comprisingone or moresuccessive feet of a mode uninterruptedby rests.The theo- ristsdistinguished between perfect and imperfectordines, according to whetherthe phraseends with the firstelement of the footor not, respectively.To speak of the second perfectordo of the firstmode, for example,would be to speak of a phrasecomprising two feetof the first-modepattern, ending with the long of a thirdfoot followed by a rest.Since "perfect"is synonymouswith "complete"and "im- perfect"with "incomplete," we learn fromthis classification scheme thatthere was a normfor ending phrases on the beginningof a foot - that is that melodywas understoodnormally to move fromthe beginningof one foot to the beginningof another. In Franco's terminology,that would be fromthe beginningof one perfectionto the beginningof another.When this conceptionis consideredto- getherwith otherssoon to be discussed,it will be seen that under- lyingthe concept of ordo is a conceptionof melodymoving from downbeatto downbeatin a triplemeter. The conceptsof the footand the ordo are twofundamental char- acteristicsof the modal systemthat were for a time in opposition, a situationthat created much difficulty.On the one hand, therewas the idea thatall rhythmicpatterns were built up of the basic dura- tionsL and B; on the other,that the perfection,whatever its dura- tional patterns,was the basis of rhythmicorganization, and that musicmoved from the beginningof one perfectionto the beginning of another.Musical timeis measuredin one conceptionby sequences of the basic durationalelements laid end to end, in the other by higher-orderdurations articulated in patternsof lower-orderones. The term"mode" fora standardrhythmic pattern denotes quite literallyboth the sense of manner(a termthat occursregularly in the treatises)and that of norm.Manner reflectsthe qualitative as- pect of the conception;the modes are distinguishedas qualities of rhythmicmovement. Readings in Music History (New York, 1950). In Chap. V, Franco writes: "The per- fect long is called first and principal, for in it all the others are included, to it also all the others are reducible." The time span of three beats Franco calls a "per- fection." "Three tempora, whether under one accent or under several, constitute a perfection" (Chap. V). This content downloaded from 159.149.103.9 on Sat, 6 Apr 2013 18:42:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 528 The Musical Quarterly As fornorm, it was not intendedthat the six modes should liter- ally exhaust all rhythmicpossibilities but ratherthat, as concrete modelswith several possibilities for variation and substitution,they would sufficeto providethe basis forthe
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