ED ITED BY

FREDER ICK J. CROWEST.

THE

STORY O F NOTAT I ON

C . F . ABDY W ILLIAM S

M.A. Mus. Bac.

Lond on

P r e fa c e.

THE roots of our modern musical system lie so deeplyembedded in antiquity that i t is impossible to trace theea rly history of its notation without reference to the

Greek system from which it has sprung ; and this invo lves the u se of certa in words , found in ancienttreatises , which are as unfami l ia r to modern musi ciansand Greek schola rs as the technica l ities of modernmusi ca l structure are to the genera l publi c .Those who maybe a larmed at the lengthy and strangelooking words used by Greek musi cians are recom

mended to omi t Chapter I I . ; but a t the same time i tmust not be forgotten that the inconven ience of theselong words was the very thing that necessi ta ted the invention of a musica l notation by which sounds could berepresented on paper , or parchment , or stone, in a

sma l l compass .

Story of Notation

My thanks are due to S ignor A . Fiordelisi di Mango ,

of the Na tiona l Library at Naples ; to Cava l iere Pagl iara , Libra rian of the Conservatorio in the same city ;and to the Rev . F . W. Ga lpin , for the important worksthey have placed at my disposa l .

C . F . ABDY WILLIAMS .

MILFORD-OH-SEA,

vi

Contents

CHAPTER I .

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPRESENTATION OF

MUS ICAL SOUNDS IN WRITING.PAGE

The Greek notation—O ther ancient notations—Tables of Greeknotation—Greek time-signs—Boethius—Neumes—Latin alphabetical notation—Beginnings of harmony

CHAPTER I I .

Origin and development of the ancient Greek notation—Thestringed instruments mentioned by Pol lux—The growth of

the sca le—The two Greater Systems—Need for means of

indi cating the strings to be sounded—Gevaert’s division Of

nota tions into “phonetic ” and “ diastematic ”—The con

vention that musica l sounds are “ high ” or low” is purelyarbitrary—The Greeks named their strings high and lowwith reference to length , not pitch—N ames Of all the strings—Necessity for inventing some means of avoiding the un

wieldy names—The Phoenician-Greek alphabet appl ied for

this purpose-The two grea t schools of musi cal thoughtFixed and movable sounds—Quarter-tones—Indication of

newly introduced sounds by a clever device in the notationAncien t modes and their transpositions—Tropes—The Locrianmode became our Aminor scale, and is the key to the ancien tnotation

vi i

Story of Notation

CHAPTER I I I .

The complete scheme of vocal and instrumenta l notationsAristoxenus

’ sarcastic remarks thereon—The conjunct tetrachord suggests modulation to the subdominant—Equa l temperament known to the Aristoxenians—Greek notation andequal temperament—Greek rhythmical signs— Some are st i llin use for teaching Latin-An ancient piece for the aulos , wi thnotation , rhythmica l , and accentuation signs, translated intomodern notation—The notation Of the few existing remnantsof Greek music—Greek solmisation—The Christian Churchadopted Greek melodies for i ts hymns , but left off the use ofthe notations and the instruments—The “ Antiphon ” Of the

Roman Church is the successor Of the instrumental preludeto Greek songs , the Alleluia ”

represen ting the post ludeSinging schools established—Gregory the Great—Interva lbetween the loss of Greek notation and the invention Of a

new one—The composi tion of the gradua l and antiphonaryBoethius’ so-called notation

CHAPTER IV .

The development of the neumes out of the Greek accents—Anearly codex of Virgi l’s works , with neumes—The neumaticnotation—The Romanian signs—Free Rhythm—Differencebetween m ama

,a sign , and pneuma , a breathing—Explanation of the means adopted by the Benedictines Of Solesmes

to decipher the neumes—M istakes exposed by their researches—The liquescents indicate a nuance, which can be Observedin the singingof untrained vil lage choirs of to-day—Themodernletter notation derived from the monochord—Gregory theGreat could not have invented it—Other attempts to invent aletter notation—The rise of organum—Early efforts to invent

a pictorial notat ion-Influence Of Greek learning on Hucbald—Line and dot notations found in Sici ly—At tempt s tocombine phonet ic and pictorial notations

CHAPTER V .

Guido Aretino-His character—His sarcasms—His method ofteach ing—The Guidonian hexachords—Solmisation perhapsvi i i

ContentsPAGE

suggested by the Greek syllables used for this purposeThe Guidonian Hand—Origin of the Staff or Stave—N otatzon

c) pawl s superposés—Origin of the Clefs—The “ hard, ” soft , ”and natura l ” hexachords—Coloured l ines used for the stave—Gu ido invited to Rome—Becomes famous—Returns to hismonastery and dies a simple monk

CHAPTER VI .

Measured music—Camus figura lz'

s, D z'

scantus, Faux éaum’on

Contrapuna‘us—The neumatic notat ion adapted to the needs

of measured musi c—The rules given by Franco of CologneHis fivemoods—The figures—Notes—The origin of the ternarytime d ivision , which was cal led perfect—Rules for the notes—D ivision of mood—Point or prick of perfection—The pl ica

and liga tures— Propriety and perfection—Compl ications of therules for l igatures—D isappearance of free rhythm—The originalmeasuremen ts of notes were not by ternary but by binarydivisions—Instam , tempm ,

and cizronos prams—Hieronymusof Moravia does not give measured values to notes—Johannesde Garlandia

’

s rules—The twp/um

CHAPTER VI I .

Extracts from the wri t ings of various fourteenth-century authors onmeasured musi c—“ Sumer is icumen in —Probably few such“rondels or common songs ” were writ ten down—Gymel

Magister de Garlandia—Od ington—Falsemusi c—Tendency ofmediaeva l music to modulate to the subdominan t due to

retent ion of the Greek synnemmon tetrachord in the systemThe raising Of the leading note by fa lse musi c produced the

modern tendency Ofmodu lation to the dominant—Robert deHandlo

’s d ialogue—Hamboys—A comp l icated t ime-table

De Muris of Paris and De Muris the Norman —Incompetents ingers—Comparison of the Old and new methods—Varioust ime signatures— Ecclesiastical object ions to compl icatedmusic

ix

Story of Notat ion

CHAPTER VI I I .PAGE

Marchettus of Padua ment ions discrepancies between I tal ian.

and

French teaching—Red notes—Confusion Of ru les—Phil ip of

Vitry—Rests—Points of division , perfection , addition , and

demonstration—Philip of Caserta—Prosdoscimus de Beldemandis—Prolat ion MOOd—Time Hothby

—Pietro Aaronrevol ts against ternary measurement—Decay of the ternarydivision—ZarlinO—Morley—The beating of time cal led arsz

'

s

and t/zesz’

s i s derived from the motions Of the pulse—Syncopation

—The scale of twelve semitones in the octave re

established ou keyboard instrumen ts—Diffi cu l t ies caused byit— Introduction Of wri tten accidenta ls—Early key signatures-Sharps used to contradict flats and vice ven d—Doublesharps and flats

CHAPTER I X .

The tablatures—Reasons for their use—The tablature makersnever adopted the ternary division of notes— Mediaeva lorchestras—Differen t tablatures in different countries-Examples from Virdung and Agricola—The bar-l ine nearlya lways found in tablatures—The dot or point of perfectionDots Of repeti t ion —Various clefs—An organ tablature-bookwhich formerly belonged to Seb. Bach—The lute tablaturesMace—Paulmann—Mersennus— Lu te grace notes— Flutetablatures—I talian lute tablatures introduced into Spain byNarbaez—Cerone di Bergamo—Judenkunig—Modern reviva lof the principle of the tablature

CHAPTER X .

Various forms Of stave—Leger lines—Early voca l scores—Originof the word score—Double use of a single stave in mediaeva lt imes and by Brahms—A stave Of twenty-four lines— Linesadded as required—Gradua l adoption of the five-l ine stave forvoi ces and instruments—Great s tave of eleven purely theoretical , and unknown to medlaeval writers—The clefs—Thebar-l ine—Explanation of early irregulari ties in its use—Use ofthe dot of perfection in early seventeenth century—Syncopa

X

Contents

tion in English cathedra l music—Driven notes , tyes, or holds—Playford

’

s t ime-signs—Adlung—Repetition signs—German ,French , and I ta l ian names of notes—The C, or broken circle,and fractions of a semibreve as t ime-signs—D isappearance of

the square and lozenge notes—Black notes used for augmentat ion in I 67O—Martin i—Rameau'

5 t ime signs—S troz z io’

5 t imesigns—Leger line difficul ties—Figured bass

CHAPTER XI .

Establishment of the round notes in place of squares and lozengesBach ’s cantata , Glaze/z wze der Regen—Rise of expression signs—Signs for ornaments— Staccato signs—The notation of theGreek Church—The Greek Church has never lost the chromati ctetrachord—The ancien t Greek modes sti l l used by the peasantsOf Bri ttany—The Greek a lphabet ica l notat ion con tinued to beused in the East for centuries after i t had been rejected in theWest—Villoteau—Princip les ofmodern Greek notation

CHAPTER XI I .

PAGE

ATTEMPTS TO INVENT NEW FORMS OF NOTATION , AND

TO REFORM THE OLD .

New notations—Improvemen ts come gradual ly—New notationsappeal to the intel l igence rather than to the eye—Sebald’

s pro

posal—T. Salmon —Souhaitty—J . J . Rousseau—Demotz de la

Sal le—Jacob—Abbe’ de Cassagne—Rohleder’s keyboardLabatut Dr. Natorp Ga lin Iue Claviere S triby’5

Un iversa l System —Delcamp -L. Danel—Craig’s OctaveSys tem—Meerens—J . Stott—A new’ ’ nota tion —Notat ionfor the blind—Ga1in-Paris Cheve—The Tonic Sol fa notat ion

APPEND I X A.-Authori ties referred to

B .—Glossary

C.— Chronologica l Table of Notation

INDEX

List of Illu strations .

PAGESt. Ceci lia, by Carlo Dolci Pfiotogmvure Frontz

'

spz'

ere

Trigon , or Three-cornered Harp of the Greeks , Persians ,Jews, EgyptiansFemale Dancers tuning and playing Lyres

Names of the Strings of Lyres , with their exp lanation and

modern equiva lents 12, 14

Fig. I (a ) . The notation of the Greek Greater perfect systemarranged in a lphabetical order, with the Phoen ician and

Greek names of the notes, and their modern equivalents.The pecul iar sequence of sounds given by the alphabetica lorder is supposed to be connected with the order in whicha beginner was taught to tune the strings

Examples of Chords said by Plutarch to be used in the instrumental accompan iments

Roman Lyres and a Kithara. The Lyres show the tortoiseshaped body and the horns of an imals , the Kithara beinga more artistically developed form of the same instrumen t

Greek alphabetical let ters inverted and reversed to indi catesemi tones and quarter-tones

Fig. I Greek letters muti lated or al tered in shape to indicatequarter-tones and semi tones

Egyptian Harp without a front pi l lar. Simi lar instruments arestill in use in Nubia, and are difficul t to tune, owing to theabsence of a supporting pi llar

Roman Lyre and Ki tharas of various forms . The Lyre hastuning pegs

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Story of NotationPAGE

Compare Fig. 2 , p. 34, and Fig. I (a ) , p . I6 . The Chorusinstrumental is ” is supposed to have been accompan ied bythe Kithara

Greek solmisation , example of

Musicians, from Egyptian slabs, showing several harps wi thoutfront pil lars , and a nefer, or two-stringed gu i tar 44, 47

Unstaved neume notation of the tenth century, with suggestedtranslation

Gothic notationF ig. 3 , showing the more important neumes and their gradua l

developmen t into the square and lozenge notat ion of Plainsong. The signs shown in this d iagram must not beconfused with the notation of measured musi c, though thelatter borrowed several of its features from them

Example of village singing, i l lus trating the mediaeval use of

l iquescent notesAn early attempt to use the Latin alphabet for notationFig. 4 (a ) . Notation by various forms Of the letter FFig. 4 (b). The same put into score, with tones and semi tonesindicated in the signaturesFig. 4 (c). Pictorial notation suggested by Hucbald . The upward and downward movement of the voice is indicated bystrokes

Fig. 5 (a ). An early Sicilian pictorial notation discovered byGal ilei and Kircher, at tributed to the tenth century A.D.

The Greek letters at the beginning of the stave give no clueto the notes represented, and the figure probably showsone of the many local at tempts to invent a notation

Fig. 5 (b) . The Heptachord of Terpander, represented by sevenl ines containing notes, the spaces not being uti lised.This

systemwas never in general useFig. 5(c). A quotation from the Montpel lier Gradual of the

eleventh century, in which the p ictoria l and phoneti csystems of notation are combined,l ines being drawn above

the syllables as gu ides to the letter notat ionxiv

List of Illu strations

Neume notat ion on a staff of two lines, a and (1,an unusual PAGE

combinationGuido of Arezzo explain ing his use Of the Monochord to Bishop

Theodaldus

Large Egyptian Harp , from a tomb painting discovered byBruce (Chappel l ’s Hz’

stofj l )Fig. 5 (d) (e). Nonantolian notat ion on s taves of one and twol ines (F and C ), with vert ical strokes leading from the

syllables to the places which wou ld be occupied by thenotes in later musi c 82

Fig. 6 . Table of Guidon ian Hexachords 79Example of unstaved neume notat ion , with translat ion 84, 85The Guidonian Hand 87

Lyre of seven strings 88

Specimen of unstaved neume notat ion 9 1

Notation of Spanish Troubadours on four and five-l ined staves 96

Examples of longs and breves from Franco of Cologne, withtranslations 97-100

Fig. 7 . The Plica , Ligatures, and Rests . The Plica was themediaeval method of representing what is now cal led“anticipation, when one voice moves to its note in a

chord before the others. The Ligatures were the meansof represent ing a phrase on a single syllable ; i ts modernrepresentat ive is the legato sign or slur. The original formsof rest s now in use are seen here, and End of song res t ”i s our double bar

Ki thara Of powerful soundFig. 8. Table showing the various forms of notes and sharps

described by mediaeva l wri ters or found in early musi c.The modern forms are added for comparison

An Egypt ian funeral band , showing a performer clapping hishands in t ime to the music, as was customary with theancient s

Fig. 9. The various Signatures used by mediaeval musicians toindicate Mood, Time, and Prolat ion

Greek performers on the LyreXV

Story of Notation

An Assyrian band of harps, with children clapping their handsin t ime to the music

M instrels’ Pillar, St. Mary’s Church , BeverleyFig. 10. Extract from Virdung

’s Clavichord Tablature,

A.D. 151 1 , with translation . Part of an organ score byAgricola on staff of ten l ines, with the same music in OrganTablature, date 1529

Paulmann’s Lute Tablature i l lustrated

Examples of use of staff-lines for two clefs at once in ancientand modern music

The Great stave Of eleven i llustratedFig. I I . The development of the modern forms Of the threeclefs, G , C, and F. The use of clefs by De Muris. An

organ composition on two staves of eight and six l ines respectively, containing al l the three clefs

The C clef (modern use)Eighteenth century methods of representing syncopationFig. 12 . Virdung

’s Lute Tablature, with translation. Agricola’s

D iscan t Violin and Viol Tablature, with translation .Virdung

’s Discant Flu te Tablature, with translation

Fig. I 3 . Mace’s Lute Tablature, 1 676 , with translation . Agricola’s Lute Tablature, I529, with translationWelsh Harp Tablature, from Burney, with translat ionSalmon’s proposed new notation , 1673

Fig. 14. Specimens of various modern efforts to supersede theorthodox notation

Miss Glover, showing the Norwich Sol-fa LadderRev . John Curwen

PAGE

The

Story of Notation .

CHAPTER I .

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPRESENTATION OF

MUS ICAL SOUNDS IN WRITING.

The Greek notat ion—Other ancient notations—Tables of Greek notat ion—Greek time-signs— Boethius—Neumes—Lat in alphabet ical

H notat ion—Beginn ings of harmony.I)THE representation of musica l sounds in writing , ca l ledmusi ca l notation , or simply notation , from nota , a markor sign , is a thing so commonplace , so un iversa l , andappa rently so simple , that we are apt to overlook the

fact tha t our stave , with its variously shaped notes ”

and a ll that goes to convey a composer’s thoughts tothe world , are the outcome of centuries of experimentsand gradua l improvements . Whether the Egyptians ,the Hebrews , Cha ldeans , and other Semiti c nations ,which had a rrived at a certa in degree of musica l culture ,noted thei r musi c is not known ; i t may be presumed

T

Story of Notat ion

that they did , but up to the present nothing has beendiscovered of the nature of a musica l semeiography .

1

I t cannot be sa id that these nations were not yet

sufficiently advanced to be able to invent a means of

writing down the va rious sounds of vo ices and in

struments : the fact rema ins that , as far as

The Greek we know at present , the Greeks were theNotati on

only ancient European nation that did so ,

and they made u se of letters of the a lphabet for thispurpose , as did the Hindoos before them ,

and the

Western Europeans after them ; the Persians

2th?” used numbers , and a kind of stave of n inenc’ef’t l ines , between which the numbers wereNotati ons placed , while the Chinese used specia l signs

for thei r pentaton i c sca le.

The history of our present notation begins with thatof the Greeks , who a rranged thei r a lphabet in groups of

three letters to each tone , thus showing the sem itonesand quarter-tones . The knowledge of this a rrangementpassed away unti l rediscovered in the n ineteenth centuryby the labours of Bellermann ,

Fortlage , and others , who1 In early stages of musical development i t seems that certaintradi tiona l melodi c patterns or forms, to which names are given, form

the foundation Of compositions. Such are the Raga : of the Sou thernIndians of tod ay, the N ames of ancient Greece, and in all probabilitythe “ Tunes ” of which the names are preserved in the titles of someof the Psalms , such as N eginoth , Nehiloth , Gittith , etc. As long as

the musicians’ skill was chiefly exercised in making what we shouldcal l “ variations ” on these tradi tiona l forms, a notation would not be

a necessity, since i t would be easy enough to teach by ear variations Ofa wel l-known melody.

2

Introdu ctory Sketch

have expla ined the notation tables given by Alypius,Aristides, N icomachus , Pto lemy , Gaudentius, 1 and laterwriters . The tables , a rranged a ccordingto tropes and modes , show successions of

letters , appa rently taken at haphaza rd,

‘

to

indicate the seven notes of the three kindsof sca le, the diaton i c , chromati c , and enha rmoni c .The Greeks a lso used a system of time-signs ,

two of which have survived to the present day in the

long and short (0 ) signs placed overvowels in Latin grammars , and they had T ‘

Gi eck

ime-srgnsmeans of representIng accent , so tha t the1rnotation was as complete as the mediaeva l tablatures ,of which we sha l l speak later , or the modern toni csol-fa .

The first u se of Latin letters for representing musi ca lsounds is found in the writings of Boe

thins , about A.D . 500 ; though it is a

m istake to speak of the “ Boethian notation , s incehe never used the letters to indicate musi ca l melodies .

2

Boeth ius

1 Greek wri ters on music of the first few centuries of the Christianera. Their treatises are preserved in manuscrip t in various Europeanl ibraries, and were printed by Meibomius and Wal lis in the seventeenthcentury, with Lat in translat ions. They have been translated a lso in toFrench and German , but not as yet into Engl ish .2 Boethius was a poet and philosopher who flourished abou t

A.D. 500. He was the author of a famous Latin treatise on musi c,the study of which was great ly pursued all through the M iddleAges , and which was the chief subject for examinat ions for musi ca ldegrees at Oxford and Cambridge un ti l a comparatively recen tperiod.

Story of Notat ion

After his time there a rose a system of signs ca l ledneumes , from the Greek vei ijaa , a nod or sign , derived

from the Greek a ccents ; and contempora rywith this , the Latin letters began to be used

to represent the degrees of the scale, though not in

any un iform manner unti l systematised byGuido of Arezzo in the eleventh century ;while by the addition of l ines to the neumes

n ine hundred years ago , our stave wasinvented . By this time a new form of musi c had a risen ,

in which the voices sang different melodies , and i tbecame imperatively necessary to find some

system which should absolutely indica teboth the exact pitch and the exact time

value of the sounds to be sung ; and the history of

notation from the eleventh century to the s ixteenth isa story of the efforts made by churchmen who , hamperedby theologica l difficulties , by morbid scruples overthe meanings of words, and a contempt for the morepractica l efforts of the worldly musi cians , pa infullyevolved something like a satisfa ctory system

,upon

which the latter were able eventua l ly to graft thei rown results ; and so the notation , as we know it, wascompleted .The history of notation is a story of human effort

susta ined over many centuries towa rds the atta inmentof one object . To follow all its deta i ls would requirea work of some magn itude and an immense number offacsimi les. Interesting accounts have been written byHugo Riemann in German , and by David and Lussy

4

Neumes

Beginnings

of Harmony

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CHAPTER I I .

Origin and development of the ancient Greek notation—The stringedinstruments mentioned by Pol lux—The growth of the scale—Thetwo Greater Systems—Need for means of indicating the strings tobe sounded—Gevaert’s division of notations into phonet ic and

diastematic -The convention that musical sounds are highor

“ low” is purely arbitrary—The Greeks named their stringshigh and lowwith reference to length not pi tch—Names of al l thestrings—Necessi ty for inventing some means of avoiding the

unwieldy names—The Phoenician-Greek a lphabet appl ied for thispurpose—The two great schools of musical thought—Fixed and

movable sounds—Quarter-tones—Indication of newly introducedsounds by a clever device in the notation—Ancientmodes and theirtransposit ions—Tropes—The Locrian mode became our A minorscale, and is the key to the ancient notation.Ancient musicians invented certa in l i ttle notes oy wlz icfi a melody

cou ld oe lzana’ea

’down toposterity.

”—BOETHIUS.

THE Greeks are known to have used from prehistori ctimes a variety of stringed instruments , plucked l ike

the ha rp with the fingers , afterwa rds withthe fingers or a plectrum of bone , wood ,or meta l , and fina l ly with the fingers of the

left hand and a plectrum in the right hands imultaneously . These instruments were of

many shapes and s izes,but in principle they were a ll

a like : a number of strings of equal or nea rly equa l6

Ancient Stringed Instruments

length were stretched over a sounding-box by means

of a cross bar , supported by two horns , which projectedabove the sounding-boAfter the introduction of

the plectrum , the moreancient method of playing

with the fingers ,was ca l led Psa lmos ; s inging to such playing wasca l led Psa lmodia ; and an

instrument , when thusplayed , wa s ca l led Psa lterion . Hence our wo rdsPsa lm

,Psa lmody , and

Psa ltery .

I t is not to ou r purposeto give a description of

the many shapes , which the i l lustrations suffi cientlyshow , of these l ittle instruments : the l ist of names

given by Po l lux includes the Lyre ,K itha ra , or C itha ra , Ba rbiton , Chelys ,Psa lterion , Trigon , Sambuca , Pectis, Phorm inx , Phen ix , Spadix , Phoen i c ian Lyre ,Clepsiambos , Pariambos , Iambu cus , S cindapsus , and the Epigoneion , which had forty strings .

O ther authors mention the S imikion , which had thirtyfive strings ; the Magadis , an Egyptian instrument of twenty strings , in which the

octave of each string was produced , though whether thiswas done by dividing the string into the proportion of

7

TR IGON , OR THREE-CORNERED HARP.

Magadis

Story Of Notation

2 1 by means of the bridge , Magas, or merely tun ingthe instrument an octave above another instrument ,as our so-ca l led piccolo is tuned an octave abovethe flute, is not known . From this instrument comes

the verb to “ magadise , meaning to sing or play inoctaves. The names that chiefly concern us are the

K ithara or Lyre of seven strings , the Epigoneion , the

S imikion , and the Magadis , s ince Greek notationseems to have been developed in connection withthese instruments.

The principle of stopping a string by the left hand ona finger

-boa rd , as in the guita r , viol in , etc . , thoughpractised by the Egyptians, and known to the Greeks ,does not seem to have been favoured by the latter ; andi t is through instruments of the lyre tribe tha t we knowthe names of the va rious sounds in the Greek sca les,and the s igns used to represent them in writing . At

The Lyre first the Lyre had four , or even only threestr1ngs , and It IS probable, though not

capable of proof, that the four-stringed lyre was tunedto what afterwards became the norma l , or Doriantetrachord , represented by a semitone and two tones ,as our B , C , D , E , and the three-stringed lyre may

have been used for the enharmon i c tetrachord B , C , E ,

before the sem itone B , C was divided into quarter-tones .

O r the four-stringed lyre may have been tuned to a

tetrachorda l scale used by some South S ea Islanders a t

the Pa ris Exhibition of 1 878 , C ,F,G

, C . Tetrachordstook such an important pla ce in the Greek musi ca lsystem that we cannot go far wrong if we assume that

8

The Greek Systems

the earl iest instruments were tuned to some kind of

tetra chorda l sca le.

Terpander1 is sa id by Cleonides (Pseudo

Eucl id) to have increased the number of

strings from four to seven , probably byadding a second tetrachord above the

first , forming a heptachord system

B C D E F G A

The “system

I

or sca le was gradua l ly extended bythe addition of tetrachords unti l i t wasdeveloped into two perfect ” systems ,

which give u s our keyboard and the names

of its keys .

The Greater Perfect System consisted of four tetrachords , or two heptachords , and was completed byProslambanomenos ,

”the added sound . ”

Proslamb‘a

nomenos B CDE FG a b c d e f g a

This system was a lso ca l led D isfunct, owingto the fresh start above the m iddle a ,

wherethe two tetrachords are

“ disjo ined .

”

The

Lesser Perfect System , ca l led the Conj unctSystem, consisted of three tetrachords , withProslambanomenos.

Prosl . B CDE FG a bbc d

A

The reader wil l perceive tha t a new note , B flat , is here

PerfectSystems

1 Flourished B .C. 676.

9

Story of Notation

introduced , in order to bring the conjunct tetra chordinto agreement with the others as to its interva ls ;the tetrachord preva i led over the octave a t this time ,

and a l lowed a B natura l and a B flat to occur in thesame sca le. This B flat played a very important pa rtin musi c a ll through the mediaeva l times .

W e have now got as ou r working basis the po inta t which the history of the sca les in use a t

the present day begins , apa rt from mythsnrng of

and trad1t10ns ; and W i th the complet l onMusrca l

Notat ion of the greater perfect system the history of

musica l notation begins .

The naming and writing down of mus i ca l sounds was

The Begin

FEMALE DANCERS TUN ING AND PLAY ING LYRES.natura l ly used for instruments before being used forvo i ces ; and the interva ls sung take thei r names from the

strings of the instruments . One can easi ly Observe whatI O

Notat ion System s

goes on in childhood a baby of very tender yea rs willsoon learn to sing a tune in im ita tion of its elders butthe same baby fi nds i t far more difficult to pick ou t

the same tune on an instrument . Playing by ear”

is a very much more complicated and diffi cult processthan “

s inging by ear”

; and some sort of guide to

show wha t succession of strings to strike soon becomes

indispensable.

Gevaert 1 po ints ou t that the systems of musi ca lnotation known up to the present daymaybe divided into two classes . The fi rst

,

which is tha t of the Chinese, Hindoos ,Modern Arabs , the Gregorians , the AncientGreeks , and the Ton i c Sol-fa ists , he ca l lsphonetic ”— tha t is to say, the sounds are repre

sented by a lphabeti ca l letters , a rithmeti ca lfigures , or by words. The second class ,in which the upwa rd and downwa rd movement of the vo i ce , or sounds of the instrument , is t e

presented more or less pictoria l ly by higherand lower positions of the s igns whichindicate the sounds , he ca l ls diastemati c ,from a Greek word s ign ifying interva l . I twould not be amiss to ca l l i t a pictoria l system . To thisclass belong the l iturgica l notations of the Jews ,Abyssinians , Byzantines , Armen ians , the neumes of

the ancient Church , and our present system ,which ,

as we sha l l see later , is a combination of the neuma ti cand the phonetic notations. I t is natura l that the

PhoneticNotation

1 H ist. de la Musique a’e Z’Antiqn i lé, vol. i. p. 394.

I I

Story of Notation

phonetic should precede the pictorial method : fortha t the longer or slacker string should produce a

The con

“ low ”sound , and the shorter and tighter

cep tion of string a“ high ”

sound , is entirely an

sounds as arbitra ry conception ; and i t has been withinh igh and our experience that persons destitute of

low is musica l knowledge have been unable to

arbitrary grasp the idea that the treble sounds of

a piano are“ higher ” than the bass .

The conception of high and low as applied to

sound seems to have come to the Greeks but slowly ;and when they were obliged for teaching pur

The Greeks poses to give names to the strings of thei rnamed the lyre, they ca l led the lowest string of thesounds by n

Iength oftetrachord Hypa te, wh 1ch means

“ hIghest ,

String for In Instruments of the ha rp shape , suchas the trigon ,

this string was the highestwhen placed upright , or, as we should say, the longest .S tarting from proslambanomenos, the names of the

strings were as fol lows

Greek N ame of String. Explanation.

A Proslambanomenos “Added ”string.

B Hypate hypaton Highest ” string of the h ighest

” tetrachord (producingthe lowest sound).

C Parhypate hypaton Next to h ighest ” of “h igh"est

” tetrachord.

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aa

Story Of Notation

Greek N ame of String.

Paramesos

Trite diezeugmenon

Lichanos diezeugmenon

N é te diezeugmenon

Trite hyperbolaion

Lichanos hyperbolaion

Nete hyperbolaion

Explanation.

“Lowest ” string of disjuncttetrachord .

Th ird ”string of “

extremetetrachord.Forefinger string of extremetetrachord.

Lowest ” string of extremetetrachord. (To us, the

lziglcest note of the Greeksystem.)

I t is evident from the above l ist of names thatthe early Greek musicians had no idea that a soundcould be higher or lower than another . Hence i twas impossible that they should invent a pictoria lnotation .

Severa l of the strings had a lso other names,with

which it is not necessa ry to trouble the reader. The

nomenclature was very unwieldy : i t is as if we wereI4

Next to middle ” in the

Greater perfect system) .“Th ird ”

string of the“d is

junct tetrachord.Forefinger string of disjuncttetrachord.

Alphabetical Notation

to a lways use the words Ton i c , ’ Dom inant ,Subdominant , ” “ Leading note , ” etc . ,

inThe nu

teaching musi c instead of A , B , C , or the wieldinessFrench method Ut, re, m i . At a very ea rly of the note

period Greek music ians found it necessa ry names

to invent a less clumsy method of indicat necessitated

ing sounds , and some one suggested the a form‘

Of

u se of the a lphabet . I t was not the Greek Notati ona lphabet as we know it , but an ea rly Dorian a lphabet ,showing tra ces of Phoeni cian or Sem iti c origin .

The a lphabet having been suggested as a means of

representing musi ca l sounds in writing , we modernswould imagine tha t nothing was s implerthan to begin at the top of the sca le, or at

the bottom , and merely give letters to the

strings in a lphabetica l order. But the inventors did not do this : by some process of

reason ing which has not yet been expla ined , theyappl ied the first letter of the Phoen i c ian-Greek a lphabetto the string ca l led N e

'

te hyperbola ion (ou r aa) , and

then ca rried on the a lphabet by a remarkable seriesof octaves , suggesting a probable connection betweennotation and the magadis , Fig . I (a ) . I f we momentarily leap over some twenty-five centuries we sha l l finda German a lphabetica l notation with an a lmost equa l lyincomprehensible series of fou rths, of which , however,the explanation is extant (pageI t wil l be seen that the theoretica l sca le of two octaves

is a l ready extended by the addition of a note belowProslambanomenos ; and we sha l l see later that to suit

1 5

Story of Notation

the severa l modes and transposition keys the completenotation gives a compass of rather over three octaves ,which is the l im it especia l ly mentioned by Aristox enus , 1as possible for vo i ces and instruments . The Epigoneionand S imikion could therefore embrace nearly the wholerange of the notation.

F's . (3 ) (Continued on p. 24

‘1

'

C I" "

I E

Ale Beth. Ghlmel Belem. He Vau ~Za1n ChethTeth. lod

Alp t en Gamma Delta EpslIon. DigammaLara. Era era Iota Kappa lambda. mam)Th

The succession of sounds A to aa , together with tritesynnemenon (B flat) , became known as the Locrian , or

ZEolian , or Hypodorian , or Common Trope ;ghe

and , though the po int is sti l l much debated ,Tizi

mn there seems l ittle doubt that its interva lswere used in a kind of ha rmony , so ele

mentary as to seem to u s childish ; but it must not beforgotten that we are speaking of the ea rl iest infancy ofa system of music which in its riper years has produced1 Aristoxenus, who flourished about B .C. 300, was a philosopher and

musician , and the author of the earl iest existingwork on musi c , whichseems to consist of a series of lectures given by him to students atAthens. He was a pupi l of Aristotle, and the author of no less thanfive hundred books on various subjects, of which only fragments of twoor three are extant ; but we are able to gather much of his musicaldoctrine from al lusions to i t by other wri ters.

I 6

Lyre Accompaniments

the symphonies of a Beethoven and the musi c dramas of

a Wagner . At any ra te this ea rly diaton i c style, ca lledby Pluta rch the style of O lympus and Terpander , was

competent to produce s imple chords of two

sounds ; and though the ancient writers S imu ltane

inform us tha t the singing together of boys ous sounds

betweenand men , or of women and men , was a lways Vorce anddone in octaves only , and in no other Instrumentinterva l , yet i t seems , from a passage in

Plato ’

s Republ ic, and from certa in passages in Pluta rch ’sshort work on Musi c , that when the lyre a ccompan iedthe vo i ce, it frequently sounded a note tha t was not

in unison or octave with the vo i ce.

1

1 Thus, Plato Objects to boys being taught to accompany on th e lyrewith a melody different from that of the voice, as is done by professiona lp layers. An anonymous Greek wri ter, to whom we shal l refer later,speaks of the Crousis or accompaniment . Plutarch says : The

Ancients the musicians Of the period of O lympus and Terpander,abou t B .C. 670) would not have appl ied the Tri te as an accompanimen tto Parhypate, if they had not understood i ts use.

Nete-9 -Tri te Paranetefi a

g i g—

gParhypate

The note Nete they used in the accompanimen t as a diaphony(discord) with Paranete lichanos diezeugmenon) , and as a sym

phony (concord) w1th Mese.

“And not only did they apply the sounds Tri te and Paranete thus,but also Nete synnémenOn, for in the a ccompan imen t they used NetesynnémenOn as a diaphony (discord ) with Paranéte, and Parhypate, andas a symphony with Mese and Lichanos . If these words seem strangeto the modern reader, let him imagine a teacher of harmony explain ing

1 7 c

Story of Notation

W e must give a few more deta i ls of the Greekmusi ca l system ,

in order to show the reader wha t thei rnotation was required to express , where i tdiffered from ,

and where i t was s imi la r toours ; and i t may help h im to an under

standing of the so-ca l led “ movable sounds ”of the

Greek tetrachord , if we say that we moderns make use

Movable

Sounds

the matter thus : “ The ancient s used the Tonic to accompany theSubdominant , the Mediant to accompany the Supertoni c and Submediant , the Supertonic to accompany the Tonic , Subdominant , Submediant , and Dominant . ” In a case of this kind names are moreconvenien t than notation . (See R. Westpha l , Mus. a

’es Gr z

’

ec. Alter

t/zumes, 1 883 , p. 62 ; do. , translation of Plutarch’s Music, p.

Nete Synnemenon

Paranete Syn. Parhyp . LichanosSymphonies or concords were unisons, fourths , fifths , and octaves

all other intervals were diaphonies or discords. We learn from Aristotle

’s Problem No. 1 9 tha t the accompan iment was always above the

melody.Aristotlespeaks Of this elementary harmony as “Mix is, our word

mixing or mingling, and he says that the M ix is had no effect on the

character of the music, for character is produced by melody a lone(Gevaert , La Mus. de l

’Ant. , i . p. And here we have the very

root of the difference between ancient and modern music, and the

reason of the necessity of a difference in the class of notation used. To

the Greek the melody alone was all in al l : to us a melody suggests aharmonic combination. From our earliest years we are so accustomedto a harmonic accompaniment that a mere “ tune ” by i tself rarelypleases ; we imperatively demand harmony, or if we do not get i t , weimagine i t. The Ancients soon began to require further means Of

1 8

Fixed Sounds

of “ movable sounds in our sca le , for the third may

be major or m inor, and is “ moved by Beethoven inpassages such as those in Sonata op . 3 1 , No. I , wherehe a lters the mode in a lternate pa i rs of bars : moreover ,two “ movable ”

sounds occur in the m inor sca le, thes ixth and seventh being ra ised in ascending and

lowered in descending.

In Greek musi c the highest and lowest sounds of

each tetrachord were tuned to the interva l of a perfectexpression than the p lain diatonic succession of tones and semi tones ;and, not having arrived at the concept ion of singing two or more

melodies together, they began to a l ter the tuning of their instrumen ts Inorder to produce variety Of expression, or, as they wou ld say, to givecharacter to the music ; and unfortunately they discovered at abou t thesame time that strings or pipes, divided according to certain mathematical proportions, produced certain defini te musica l interva ls. Thusa string d ivided by a bridge or the finger in the ratio of pro

duces the octave of the sound given by the whole stringThe rat io 3 2 produces a fifth.

4 : 3 a fourth.9 : 8 a major tone.

a minor tone.

And so on, t il l we arrive atmathemat ica l minut iae tha t are utterly uselessand incomprehensible to the practica l musician. Henceforward Greekmusicians were divided into two schools : the fol lowers of Pythagoras,who occupied themselves with the mathemat ics, to the exclusion of theart of music, and the fol lowers of Aristoxenus, a pupi l of Aristot le,who referred everything connected with the scale sounds to the ear,

and who represented the artist ic side of musi c. Aristides Quintilianusa t tributes a form of notat ion to Pythagoras differing from that describedby other Greek wri ters and as no other wri ter refers to i t , we need dono more than ment ion i t to show that in those days other notationsexisted besides the one in general use, just as they do now.

19

Story of Notation

fourth , and were a lways referred to as the “ FixedSounds .

” Proslambanomenos was a lso a fixed sound ,being tuned an octave below Mese . Butthe two interior sounds of each tetrachordbecame a t va rious times , and by va rious

musicians , subjected to an immense va riety of a lterations ; and hence were known as the “ MovableSounds .

”Any musician practica l ly taught wha t he

l iked about the movable sounds .

N ow, our own experience that equa l temperament , 1

in which every interva l except the octave is sl ightlyV

out of tune , produces no discomfort to u s ,arratrons

in theought to be suffi c i ent to show u s tha t to a

tun ing of na tion which had no conception of ha rmon i cinterva ls combinations , an a ltera tion of the tun ingwou ld not of the melodic interva ls would not appea rOffend ears a very arbitra ry proceeding , but would ,untra ined

and a ctua l ly did,produce a pleasant sen

tosation . To this day the Southern Indian

harmonymus ician a lters the pitch of notes by press

ing the string behind a high fret ; and the singersof South I ta ly use so strong a vibra to tha t i t is1 Equal temperamen t is the term appl ied to the modern system of

tuning organs and pianofortes, by which all the semi tones are made

equal , and al l intervals except the octave are out of tune, but so

slightly as to cause no inconvenience to the ear. Up to the middleof the eighteenth century keyed instruments were genera l ly tuned in“unequa l ” temperament , by which certain keys were perfectly intune, while others were unbearably harsh. The modern system

,which

places every key at the disposal of the composer, is an inevitable resul tof the development of the art of music.

20

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Story of Notation

The next a lteration was the M iddle soft diatoni c ”used by Archytas. In this , both the movable sounds

are flattened . And i t was to this form of

diaton i c tetrachord that the notation was

gigs;Of

applied , for in the diaton i c notation the secondsound of the tetrachord is inva riably shown

by a letter representing an interva l of less than a semitoneabove the first. (Comp . Ex . , p . 39 , with Fig. 2 , p .

W e now come to an a lteration of the tuning whichhas puzzled many lea rned men ; yet there is no reason

why it should . I t has been sa id that noear could ever have tolerated the interva ls of

a quarter of a tone which occurred in the

enharmoni c genus and that they could only have beenThe car can

theoretica l and not pra ctica l . Yet we not

be trained to only have constant reference to th is genus ,appreciate but if we tune an instrument to i t , we find

Quarter

Tones

the En that our ear soon gets accustomed to it , and ,harmonic as long as we u se no harmony , we soon

Genus begin to l ike these strange minute interva ls.

From Plutarch it would appea r that the enharmon i cgenus was invented after the time of O lympus , and

that it at first consisted in omitting the

The l ichanos , thus producing the interva ls sem iearl iest En

h armonic tone and maj or th Ird E FA , AbbD , bc e , etc .

Tetrachord In this case the tetrachord only conta inedthree sounds . But the sem itone soon be

came divided into two quarter-tones cal led d ieses, and

the tetrachord became diesis , diesis , major thi rd , or

E FbFA . And a lthough the Pythagoreans tried to

22

Enharmon ic D ieses

compli cate the sca le by impossible mathematica l distinctions , pra ctica l musi cians held to the qua rter-tones ,which they could easi ly obta in by ear. The EnThe Enharmon i c is ca l led by Aristox enus harmonic

the most beautiful of the genera ; and he th e most

compla ins that his contempora ries have , beautifu l

for the most part , lost the art of perform ing Genus

its intervals , whereas thei r forerunners applied themselves more to this than to any other genus. With thenew genus an addition was necessary to the scheme

of notation ; and i t was very simply made, though not

in the way we should expect . The new effects wereproduced by flatten ing the movable sounds ; and we

should expect , therefore, tha t some new sign , corresponding to ou r flat , would be introduced : but theGreeks had no s ign showing a flatten ing ; thei r notationcould only show a sharpening of the sound .

To indicate the two dieses the inventor of the notation simply la id the letter on its back for the fi rst , andreversed it for the second , thus

E UJ EI, Fu.=i , Kx x, I

-.L—l.

But certa in letters , such as H, could not be Notationreversed , and N could not be la id on its side to indicate

since i t would become Z . In these cases the Enhar

the inventor either added something to the mon ic

letter , or subtracted some portion , so that Dieses

there could be no ambiguity . The letters thus a lteredare shown in Fig . 1

But it will probably strike the reader tha t we haveshown a lterations of “fixed sounds .

” We sha l l expla in23

Story of Notation

later on , that owing to the possibi lity of transposingthe trope to any semitone of an equa l ly tempered octave ,every sound shown in Fig. 1 (a ) was capable of becom ingeither a fixed or movable s ound , a ccording to the trope .

1

The next effort to produce va riety resulted in the

invention of the Chromati c genus , which rema ins in

use in the Greek Church to the presentThe

‘

Ch roday.

2 With Aristox enu s it took three formsmatte

Tetrachord the standa rd chroma ti c,cons i stIng of sem 1

tone , sem itone ,m inor third thesoft chromatic ,

inwhich the two lowest interva ls of the tetrachord were

\ll

fi e ne ge —Z A A H Nat.

of a tone each ; the sesqu ia ltera ch roma tic , in whichthe first two interva ls were 3 8 of a tone . Purists

objected to the introduction of the chromati cgenus , which they sa id had an effem inatecha racter , and was too voluptuous and

enervating to be good for youth for one of

the chief objects of the cultivation of musi c1 To explain the matter by a modern instance, the note E, for

example, is movable in the key of C , since i t i s flat tened to producethe key of C minor ; but i t is “ fixed ” in the key of D , whether thelat ter is major or minor.

2 I t can be heard on most Sundays during the Mass at the GreekChurch in Bayswater.

24

The Pycnon

amongst the Greeks was that of education : boys weretaught mu S IC on account of its human ising influence ,just as they are taught Latin and Greek in modern

schools , on a ccount of the menta ltra in ing which is given by a studyof these languages .

The same method of notationwas used for the chromati c as forthe enharmon i c genus ; TheEnharand It IS Ill fact dlfllCLl lt mon ic

to tel l with certa inty to Notationwhich genus any com was made

position tha t conta ins to serve for

the chroma ti c enhar the ChroF GYPTIAN HARP. ma 1 Genus

momc notatIon belongs .

c

The group of three sounds forming the lower pa rt ofthe chromati c or enharmon i c tetra chord was ca l led“ pycnon ,

”i .e.

“ compa ct , ” and the pycnon of everytetrachord was noted by the three positions of the

letter shown on page 23 and in Fig . 1 (b) ; but thepa rti cula r tun ing used was not shown by the notation .

To a l ively people , eager to express thei r a rtisticfeel ings in musi c , the monotony of a single key wouldsoon become i rksome , in spite of the possibil ity of

tun ing it in a dozen different ways , and of qua rrel l ingover an equa l number of impossible mathemati ca ltun ings . They found other outlets for expression in

mode, and in transposition of the trope.

The modes , or better , the octave-species , ca l led bythe ancients the ha rmon ies , consisted of certa in defini te

Story of Notation

orders of tones and semitones , or, in the chromaticand enharmon i c genus , sem itones and quarter-tones ,

and ditones or m inor th irds , as the casemight be ; and the chara cter of the musi cwas much affected by the harmony usedfor any given composition . Every one is

awa re that there is a considerable difference of chara ctergiven to modern musi c according to whether the majoror the m inor mode is used ; and that a change fromm inor to major “ ha rmony ” will at once attract atten

ROMAN LYRE AND K ITHARAS .

tion. Instead of ou r two modes or harmonies , theGreeks , l ike thei r successors the early church musi cians ,used seven modes or ha rmon ies , to each of which wasassigned a specia l chara cter , and was named after thesupposed country of its origin

, Dorian ,Phrygian ,

Lydian , M ixolydian , Hypodorian , Hypophrygian ,Hypo

lydian . There can be only seven octave-species , saysAristox enus , for there are only seven sounds in an

octave .

The trope corresponded to our key. W e have a l ready26

Tropes and Modes

expla ined on page 1 6 that the trope consisted of two

octaves , conta ining the greater and the lesser perfectsystems : It could commence on any semI

TheTropestone of an equa l ly tempered octave , and

there could be modulation both of trope and octavespecIes In the course of a compos ition ,

j ust as therecan be with u s a change of key and of mode. The

Hymn to Apol lo discovered in 1 893 at Delphi showsexamples of both kinds of change .

1

I t is unfortunate tha t the Greeks gave the names

Dorian , Phrygian , Lydian , etc . , to the transpositionsof thei r tropes ; and a lthough these transpositions were intimately connected with themodes ,yetmuch confusion has arisen throughthe s imi larity of names : for Boethius , who was held forover a thousand years as the greatest authority on ancient

Confusion

of Terms

1 The fol lowing short extract is quoted from the B u lletin de Corre

spondanceHellén igue, 1 894, p . 588, in which the whole of the Hymnto Apol lo, ” found engraved on marble by the French School at Delphi ,is given , with a translation by Professor Theodore Reinach into modernnotat ion . The rhythm of the

music (3 t ime) is shown by themetre of the poetry. Wheretwo or more syllables are to

be sung to the same note, thenote i s not repeated . Wheretwo notes are sung to the samesyllable, i ts vowel sound is repeated—see ro-os, hor-ors. The reader

will notice the chromatic character of the music, a peculiari ty which isstil l observable in the Greek Church music, though it early disappearedfrom that of theWestern (Roman) Church , which retained the D iaton icgenus on ly.

l O l’

O T O M A M O

27

Story of Notation

music , knowing nothing of transpositions , and mixingup mode and trope , ca lled a ll the church modes bywrong names . The word Tropos has been usua l lytranslated Mode, and this has added to the difficulty .

I f we could from the fi rst have had the distinction madebetween trope and octave-species , much useless labourwould have been saved . I t is usua l to refer to the

diaton ic genus only in describing the modes , since thisgenus is the only one now-known to u s ; and the key

board of the organ or piano , which is a rranged inaccordance with the ancient Greek dia toni c tropes ,enables us to easi ly become fam i l ia r with the subject .

Pycnon

Pycnon

Pycnon

We will quote from two ancient Greek wri ters. Cleonides, otherwise cal led Pseudo-Euclid , an Aristoxenian writer, is very clear as to

the so-cal led modes. 1 Now the species of d iapason (i .e. octave) are1 Meibomius, E ucl idis, Introd. Harmon ica, p . 15.

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Story of Notat ion

Dorian Greek E to E Boethius D to DPhrygian D to D E to ELydian C to C F to FMixolydian B to B G to G

I t will be remembered that Bach wrote a Toccata and Fugue in the“ Dorian ” (D to D) mode, and Beethoven a quartet movement inthe Lydian (F to F ) mode.

We will now turn to Aristoxenus, who tel ls us1 that though theoretical ly there is no limi t to the compass of sounds avai lable, yet practica l lythis is l imi ted by voices and instrument s to a li ttle over three octaves.“For from the highest sound of the virginal flutes (auloi parthenioi )to the lowes t sound of the most perfect flutes (auloi hyperteleioi) mayperhaps be a l i tt le more than the said three octaves : as may a lso be theinterva l from the shortest reed of the pan pipe to the lowest note of

the great flute : and l ikewise the highest sound of a boy ’s voice to the

lowest sound of that of a man.

”

Here we have defini te information that the avai lable compass in thetime of Aristoxenus, and probably all through the Roman epoch , wasa l i tt le over three octaves ; and this is borne out by the fifteen tropesofwhich Alypius gives us the complete notation.Aristides Quintilianus says 2 : “ Let us now speak of Tones. Toneis used in three ways : ei ther for pitch, or for a certain interva l produced by the difference between the fourth and the fifth , or for the

system of the trope, as the Lydian or Phrygian. And i t is of tropethat we have to speak here.

“The tones (i .e. tropes) , according to Aristoxenus, are thirteen innumber, and their proslambanomenoi are contained in the diapason(the octave of sounds ). But, according to later musicians , there are

fifteen tones whose proslambanomenoi extend to the compass of an

octave and a tone. And Aristoxenus named them thus : Hypodorius,Hypoiastius, Hypophrygian, Hypoaeol ian , Hypolydian , Dorian , Iastian , Phrygian, l Eolian, Lydian, Hyperdorian , Mixolydian nowHyperiastian, Hypermixolydian or Hyperphrygian. To these the

later musicians add two others. And each of the tones is a semi1 Meibomius, Ar istox . , p . 20.

2 Ibid , p. 22.

30

Vocal Notation

tone above i ts predecessor ifwe begin with the lowest but a semi tonebelow its predecessor ifwe begin with the highes t.

“We cannot go lower than the Hypodorian , because i ts proslambanomenos is the lowes t sound that can be heard.

Fortlage 1 ca l ls ou r sca le of A m inor the key sca le ,for by its nota tion we have a key to the com

p lete notation of the Greeks ; and he madeThe

the important discovery tha t its notation Modern

(see Fig . 1 , c) agrees with the Hypo A Minorlydian notation given by Alypiu s . S ince Sca le hasAristox enu s has told u s that a ll the tropes given the

were a sem i tone apa rt in the above order , KCY to the

we can from the Hypo lydian obta in the And ?“

relative pitch of a ll the other tropes , andNotati on

hence can perfectly wel l translate thei r notation intomodern nota tion .

F IG J .

K C F /“ l‘

l-E

After the Greeks had perfected thei r instrumenta lnota tion , they invented a new one for the voice.

This consisted of thei r ordinary a lphabet , arranged ih groups of three lettersfor the pycna , just as the instrumenta lnotation a rranged its s ingle letters in threepositions . But here aga in they did not start , as we

should expect , at the top or bottom of the sca le : they1 Fortlage, D ieM usik. System o

’er Gr iechen, 1847.

3 1

Story of Notat ion

used Alpha for the sound corresponding to ou r

and proceeded downwa rds . Completing thisa lphabet a t F they started aga in with anew a lpha bet , of which the letters were in

verted or mutilated ; while for the

sounds above G fla t they used a th irda lphabet , some of whose letters wereinverted , while the majority had an

a cute accent.The ancient writers who refer to

notation inva riably give both the

voca l and instrumenta l forms for

ea ch note , and we have a rrangedthe completeseries of the

s i gn s wi t hthei r modern

sign ifica tion in Fig . 2 . I tmust be remembered that everynote represented here could beeither “ fixed ”

or“ movable , ”

and subject to different tunings ,according to mode and genus inwhich it occurred . Fig. 2 re

presents the notation in genera lu se throughout antiquity ; otherforms of notation seem to haveexisted , but as they appear to

K ITHARA.

have had only a loca l and tempora ry vogue, it is not

necessary to discuss them .

3 2

LYRE.

CHAPTER I I I .

The complete scheme of vocal and instrumental nota tions -Aristoxenus’sarcastic remarks thereon—The conjunct tetrachord suggestsmodulat ion to the subdominant—Equa l temperament known to the

Aristoxenians—Greek notat ion and equal temperament—Greekrhythmical signs—Some are sti l l in use for teaching Latin—Anancient piece for the au los , with notation , rhythmical, and

accentuation signs, translated into modern notation—The notat ionof the few existing remnants of Greek music—Greek solmisationThe Christ ian Church adopted Greek melodies for i ts hymns, butleft off the use of the notat ion and the instrumen ts—The “Antiphon ” of the Roman Church is the successor of the instrumentalprelude to Greek songs , the “Al leluia ”

represen ting the postlude—Singing schools established— Gregory the Great— In terva lbetween the loss of Greek notation and the invention of a new

one—The composi tion of the gradual and antiphonary—Boethius’so-cal led notation.

F IGURE 2 , p . 34 , is a complete scheme of the Greek notation ,

extracted from the forty-five tables of Alypius ; butAristides gives a few notes below the lowest ,and mentions another notation . Such a

scheme is ca l led by Aristox enus a“ Ca ta

pycnosis ”a“scheme of pycna and

he scoffs violently at those who pretend totea ch musi c from i t : for, he says , they seemto think that the notation is the end and object of learning musi c . The notation , he says , cannot show the

33

Story of Notation

exa ct position of the sounds (this is evident from Fig .

and even if it could , no one could s ing a series of

twenty-eight pycna . Whether he would object to the

Fl fisg.

Q fl ' l S t u O /W N wv x -m r{

lnsfiumenl’

al. a r r e we H e n t u g

Enharmonic.

u r n-1 1211 n v x tbrr c p n oa r: M AK !O H z en

H I rm

r B A u t t O'

E'

N'

M'

A'

K'

I'

G'

H'

z'

e‘

a'

r B A U

learn ing of some of the separate tables as given byAlypiu s is not known , but he makes i t evident tha tthere were many incompetent teachers as wel l as per

34

O rder of Tropes

formers in h is day. I t is beyond the scope of th is l ittlebook to show how the notation was used for the thirteentropes , each in the three genera . Those readers whowish to go further into the matter , which is a lengthyone , will find the who le of Alypius

’ tables la id ou t in a

pra ctica l and easi ly understood form in the first vo lume

of Gevaert ’s H istozre de la Musigue de l’

Antigu ite’

.

The fi rst and thi rd note of each group , when used as

proslambanomenoi , are an equa l sem itone apa rt . The

conjunct tetra chord a lways adds a flat to its

trope produces, as we should say, a

modulation to the subdom inant . 1 Now, if

we write out a ll the tropes in modern notation we sha l lfind that they are exa ctly expressed by the s ignatures of

our minor sca les . . Beginn ing with the key notation ,

”

the Hypolydian , we sha l l find its interva ls expressed byour (descending) sca le of A m inor . Its con

junct tetra chord introduces B flat , the sigGreek

nature of our sca le of D m inor— and D m inor Tendencygives the trope ca l led Lydian . Here the

tomoan

late to theconj unct tetrachord Introduces E flat aSub

modula tion to G m inor , which gives the

Hyperlydian trope. Here the new flat is

A flat , giving the Phrygian trope (C m inor) . Continuing ,we get Hypophrygian ,

F m inor , and its lower octaveHypodorian (a lso F m inor) , Dorian , B flat m inor , M ixo

dominant

1 I t must not be forgot ten that the Greeks had no sign for a flat ; to

indicate one they were obliged to take the uppermost sign of the

pycnon next below the note required to be flat tened, or in modernlanguage they had to use All to represent Bb.

3S

Story of Notation

lydian ,E flat minor , Hypoaeol ian , A flat or G# minor ,

o lian , Cfl' minor , Hyperaeolian ,

Ff; m inor , Iastian ,B

m inor , Hyperiastian ,G m inor. I t is thus

The C°,

m"

seen that the ancient Greeks made u se of

pée

l

t

c

e

e

C

Qrcle

the circle of twelve keys , which is supposedknowhto to be so modern ; and that the inevitablethe Greeks consequence was either theoreti ca l or prac

tica l equa l temperament , a lso genera l lybel ieved to be a modern invention . W e have , in the

ancient Greek notes of 700 yea rs before the Christianera , a system which is better adapted to thatsupposed modern innovation , equa l temperament , than our own ; for whereas we expressa sem itone in two

different ways , as Cto C# , C to Db, etc . ,

thus clearly distinguishing between different kinds of sem itone, the ancients had a notationwhich used only one sign for

C# and Db, in spite of the fact ,which is proved by the writingsof Ptolemy and Aristides , thatthey had exactly the same re

sources of keyat thei r commandas we have on our pianoforte ,and that thei r mathema ticianswere a lways insisting on the impossibi l ity of dividingthe tone into two equa l semitones .

The relative p itch , or interva l , between the sounds is36

K ITHARA.

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Story of Notation

The short syllable produced a s ingle “ time in the

musi c , or , as we m ight say, a quaver ; and wha teverthe va lue of the “ time

” given by the firstshort syllable , tha t “ time

” rema ined themeasure for the rest of the piece .

Grammarians used the sign 0 to indicate a shortsyllable, and continue to do so to this day; butmusicians used no s ign for it . The time-signs used bymusicians, and given by Anonymus, a re the long , or

two-time short , indicated thus equiva lent to a

crotchet , J The three-time long was indicated thusequiva lent to a dotted The four-time

long , shown thus was equiva lent to a m in im , AThe five-time long , cm, was equiva lent to d

'x-xf

Accent was shown by a dot ca l led ictus , placedabove the note , but the i ctus occurs i rregularly , justas does the modern bar-l ine in the first ha lf of the

seventeenth century .Rests, ca l led empty times , were shown thus

Time

signs

S ingle-time rest , equiva lent to 5

Rests Two-time rest ,“

7T,

Three-time rest , T,

L ]Four-time rest ,The anonymous writer gives the notation of a

number of voca l exercises , sung to the syllables to-a ,ta-e, te-o , pa i rs of slurred notes , the slur being shownby joining the notes thus ,

t

ee / Le

)

38

Ancient Melodies

The sign X between two notes appea rs to haveindicated tha t the fi rst was to be sung staccato.

1

There are a lso in this tra ct severa l instrumenta lexercises , in which the time and a ccent are clea rlymarked over the notes . The fol lowing little piece issupposed to be for the aulos

I-I' L F l—L I'

F l-F I'

L I—I' F L f-L F I'

I—F L I'

The Greek notation had a vogue of about a thousandyears ; the enha rmon i c and chromati c genera fel l ou t ofgenera l u se , though every theorist fel t boundto describe them . Anonymus tel ls u s tha t Dw

ith

]?the players of different instruments made Grief:u se of d i fferent modes and tropes : thus the Notationplayers of hydraulic organs used six of

the tropes , the k itharists four , the flute players seven ,

the musi cians who accompanied the dance seven ; andhe gives l ists of the modes used by ea ch . The va riousexercises for vo ice and flute given by h im ,

and the three wel l-known Hymns to Apol lo ,

Nemesis , and the Muse , are a ll in the Lydian(D m 1nor) trope.

2 The Hymn to Apol lo founda t Delphi in 1 893 begins in the Phrygian(C m inor) and ends in the Hyperphrygian(F m inor) trope . Both pa rts conta in a ccidenta ls borrowed from other tropes . There are fragments of

1 Bellermann, Anonymus, p. 25.

2 Appendix A,Gal ileo.

39

Story of Notat ion

another Delphic hymn in the Lydian trope , and withinstrumenta l nota tion the instrumenta l notation seems

to have been frequently used for vo i ces . A fragmentof a chorus from the Orestes of Euripides , discoveredon a papyrus and published in 1 892 at Vienna , is in theLydian trope , and conta ins an independent instrumenta la ccompaniment ; but it is too mutilated to give any

idea of its effect . Two other fragments are known— a

piece of the musi c of Pindar’s first Pythic ode , given byKi rcher , of doubtful authenticity , though it obeys a ll

the known rules of Greek compos ition .

1 I t is in the

Phrygian trope , and conta ins both voca l and instru

menta l s igns.—A fragment of musi c discovered a t

Tra l les , carved on a pilla r , is in the Iastian (B minor)nota tion. As this musi c is supposed to date from the

second century of our era , i t shows that the Lydiantrope , though most genera l , was not the only one usedat tha t time.

Besides the letter notation ,the Greeks , under the

Roman Empi re , and perhaps ea rl ier , used a system of

so lm isation for singing exercises , consistingof the syllables ‘

rw, m ,7 6

, to the fournotes of the tetrachord ; and Twww, m wa

,

7 77mm) , r em/e. These syllables are given onlyby “Anonymus , ” who quotes a number of examples

1 The notation of part of Pindar’s first Pythic ode is thus given inKircher’s Musu rgia . Kircher says that he found the original MS . inthe monastery of San Salvator at Messina ; but no traces of i t have beendiscovered by the numerous antiquarians who have searched for i t sinceh is day. The modern notation is , of course, not found in Kircher.

40

A Melody by Pindar

FIG. 2A.

Choru s Vocal l s .

xpwe a. dxip n

ywé A v aréA-M vos mu 1

-9 ! M l O l . M l o r e r

o a l oudmay 2111: 8t xov pu n-u a v m i c-vov

u'

r'

o I r e l,e r M« I

ms n-xov-a w'

fiams cn -as ap xc

Chorus lnsfrumehtal is .

Story of Notat ion

with nota tion to show how they are to be usedthus

F C F U F"

I F

To) 7 a n o 7 7) n o To) 7 111 r e

and simi lar exercises , such as a s inging-master wouldu se now.

By the s ixth century A.D . Greek notation was knownonly through the works of theorists , which were no

longer understood , and a new one had not yetDl sappear been invented . The early Christian Church

seems to have adapted the popular Lyrodes(songs with the lyre) to its u se , just as in latertimes Martin Luther adapted secula r tunes

for the purposes of h is Reformation . Arius, the heretic ,in order to a ttra ct the multitude , made use of the tunes

composed by Sotades , an Ion ian poet , whowas notorious for the lasciviousness of h is

songs ; and the orthodox bishops combatedh is heresy by writing hymns in Syriac to thesame tunes .

1 But the greatest musi cianof this early period was S t . Ambrose of M i lan , who was

St.Ambrose accused of fascinating the people with theof Milan

charm of the hymns he composed as an

antidote to heresy . He is known to have beenthe composer and author of at least six hymns at presentin use in the Church , and he was probably the author

Music

1 Gevaert , Hist. de la Mus. dc vol. i ii. pp. 63 , 65, etc.

42

Ambros ian Mu s ic

of four others . He was fol lowed by Prudentius , a

poet whose songs for solo vo ice and lyre were intended for home s inging by the Christiansin place of the hymns addressed to pagandeities . After his time hymn composition fel l into the

hands of priests and monks and inferior poets , whocontinued a ll through the M iddle Ages to composemore or less correct Ambrosian tunes .

1

How were these Ambrosian hymns handed down ?W e hea r and read l ittle of them , for the Roman or

Gregorian Church musi c has overshadowed the Ambrosian , which is practica l ly confined to M i lan . The

musi c appea rs to have been enti rely empiri ca l . The

lyre and flute were rigidly excluded from the basi l i cas ofthe Christians , s ince they were connected with the hatedpagan worship . The place of the introductory prelude ,ca l led Crouma , which was intended to give the pitchand to rem ind the s inger of the tune , was taken by theantiphon , sung by the priest , and the postlude was re

presented by the Alleluia . The instrumenta l nota tionwas not therefore any longer required.Gaudentius , who seems to have l ived towa rds the

end of the fifth century A.D . , says that “ theancients made use of certa in letters intended

1 ) Notationto show mu smal notes . I t appea rs , then ,

referred tothat the use (if the notatIOn had pract i ca lly

as a th ingceased by h 1s t ime , and tha t after Theodosms

had closed the pagan schoo ls , the notationwas .

. no longer taught . The repertoire of Christian

Prudentiu s

Greek

of the p ast

1 Gevaert , vol . i ii . pp. 78 , 79.

43

Story of Notat ion

music was extending , s ingingschools were opened , but as yeteverything was taught by ear.

S ingers went ou t into distantc o un t r i e s from th e s i ng i ngschools to teach , but we hea r

of no kind of notation unti l the beginn ing of the eighthcentury . Christian ity

introduced two new thingsinto its mus i c : the rhyme ,

and the s inging of the prosewords of S cripture . The

rhyme was invented in the

ea rly days , and was used toa ttract the vulga r ; and the

setting of prose words to

musi c was a novelty un

known to the ancient Greeks,who only sang poetry .

I t is related by John the Deaconthat Gregory the Great , who wasPope from A .D . 590 to 604 , col

lected the sacred musi c of the

Church and had it written in

a book ca l led the Antiphonary,

which was cha ined to the a lta rof St. Peter’s as a model of

what the musi c should be ; that44

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S tory of Notation

into two epochs : the first , the epoch of simple or

syllabic chant , in which one note (or at most two)Probable was sung to each syllable, he places

.

du rIng

Date of the last years of the Western Emp i re , and

Composithe Gothic supremacy at Rome. Th IS k1ud

tion of of chant is a direct inheritance from ,or

Gradua l adaptation of, Greek musi c .and Anti The second period is that of the floridF11°nary chant , which was cultivated to a very highdegree of perfection in the s inging schools. Thisepoch he places at the time of the domination of the

Byzantine emperors a t Rome , from A.D . 555 onwa rds ;and during that period the notation by neumes beganto be used .

1

Boethius , l ike Gaudent iu s , refers to the Greek notation as a thing of the past . “The ancient musi cians , inorder to faci l itate reference , and to avoid the necessityof a lways quoting strings by thei r ful l names , inventedcerta in l ittle notes (nata las) by which the names of

the strings were noted and divided into thei r generaand modes , with such brevity that if any one wished todescribe a melody , he could write i t above the verse ;and these notes of sounds were so adm i rably made thatnot only the words , but a lso the melody , could behanded down to posterity , ” etc . I t is evident fromthe above that the Greek notation had fa l len out of

common u se , and Boethius himself, after giving a

description of the Lydian notation , does not use i tfor h is examples , but employs the Latin a lphabet , not

1 Or igi nes du Chant Liturgique, pp. 2 1 , etc .

46

An Unorthodox Notation

in the consecutive order of the

sca le , but , as Eucl id does , merely to indicate points

Boeth ius’

0

Use of to wh 1ch he 15 referLatin ring ; so tha t , for ex

Letters to ample , A refers in one

indicate place to proslambanoSounds menos , in another tohypate , etc. The origin of

the Latin lettering of the

sca le cannot therefore be

referred to Boeth ius , whoneither invented nor usedany kind of notation .

Before concluding th ischapter , we must mentionanother notation referred toby David and Lussy.

1 The

tetrachords are divided intoten qua rter-tones , to whichare applied the first ten letters of

An Un the Greek a lphabet ,orthodox which recommencesGreek with each newascendNotation ing tetrachord , as ou ra lphabet recommences with eachnew octave . This notation has

been found in one MS . only ,1 H istoire de la N otation Musica le,

1882, p. 27 .

47

Story of Notation

connected with the work of Aristides Qu intilianu s .

I t is nowhere else referred to ; it ascends the sca le ,whereas we know that the Greeks pra ctised thei r sca lesfrom the top downwa rds , not as we do from the

bottom upwa rds ; i t is absolutely methodica l and com

plete , each new tetra chord having a second letterattached to each of the ten letters . All this

,in our

opinion ,points to its being either a very late inven

tion which was never adopted , or a mere referencescheme for the u se of the writer and reader , as we

have seen was the case with the so-ca l led Boethiannotation .

CHAPTER IV .

The developmen t of the neumes out of the Greek accen ts—An earlycodex of Virgi l ’s works, with neumes—The neumatic notat ionThe Roman ian signs—Free Rhythm—D ifference between neuma,a sign , and pneuma , a breathing—Explanation of the meansadopted by the Benedictines of Solesmes to decipher the neumesMistakes exposed by their researches—The liquescents indica te a

nuance, which can be observed in the singing Of untrained vil lagechoirs of to-day—The modern letter notation derived from the

monochord—Gregory the Grea t could not have invented it—Otherat tempts to inven t a letter notation-The rise of organum

—Earlyefforts to inven t a pictoria l notation—Influence of Greek learningon Hucbald—Line and dot notations found in Sicily—At temptsto combine phoneti c and pictorial notat ions.

As long as the schools of s inging at Rome were flou rishing, as long a s the teachers were enthusiastic , and themusi c of the Church was young and vigorous ,i t was possible to hand down the melodies by M11 5“

ear from master to pupil, and from genera tion

a

banded

to generation . The possibil ities of correct“c 34

0

transmission by memory , where no systemgenera

g

of e tIng 13 known , are surprIS Ing. Thetions by

Homeri c poemswere recited and handed down Memoryfor generations before they werewritten and ,

to take a more modern instance, the Maories of New

Zea land were some twenty years ago , and possibly arenow

, able to recite from memory thei r genea logica l trees ,49 E

Story of Notation

reaching back for 500 years , the art of writing havingbeen unknown to them ti l l taught by the English missiona ries . But with the spread of the Church , and the increasing demand for teachers , the necessity a rose of some

y 7J ” 7 ‘Vi

‘

fl

Pfl (e ar faf m cof mfe m u t t m, i fN EUME NOTAT ION. (TENTH CENTURY.)

Per fi-cc gres sus me 05 in se mi-tis tu

TRANSLATION OF NEUMES , AFTER SOLESMES.

means of at any rate reminding the s inger of the tunes heh ad lea rned ; and this necessity produced a new form of

indicating melody , which has developed into our staffnota tion .

The keen-witted Greeks had not fa i led to percei vethat in ordinary speaking , and especia l ly in rhetori ca l

utterance, the voi ce rises and fa l ls . Aristox enus ca l ls these inflections “ continuousmelody , ” as opposed to “

systema ti c movement , ” by the fixed interva ls of musi ca l“systems . Now, the gramma rians indi

cated the rise and fa l l of the speaking vo iceby a ccents —accentus from ad cantus, belonging to thesong , ” -not the song of defin ite interva ls , but the melody

50

Accents and Melody

of the speaking vo i ce, ca l led continuous melody. ” The Greek word for

a ccent is proso'd ia , which origina l lymeant an accompanied song ; 1 thusboth the Greek and Latin form of the

word show the intimate connection of“a ccent ” with melody . I t must beborne in m ind tha t only with the decl ineof Greek musi c and l iterature and a rt ,

did the use of a ccents begin— they weres imply intended to rem ind the readerof what he had lea rned with rega rd tothe inflections of h is vo i ce.

The three a ccents ‘used for this purpose were the a cute , in which the pen

makes a stroke rising fromThe Three left to right , showing tha tAccents

the vo i ce has to rise ; the

iliifiztng grave , in which the pen , by

and fa l lfa l l ing from left to right , in

of the dicates a fa l l of the vo i ce ;voice and the ci rcumflex , indicat

ing a fa l l on a s ingle syllable .

This theory of the Greek accents has

received a remarkable confirmationwithin recent years by the discoveriesat Delphi . The

'

syllables which bea ra cute a ccents are inva riably givenhigher notes than thei r neighbours ,

1 Liddel l Scot t Lexicon , 7 th edit ion .5I

Story of Notation

while the syllables with circumflex a ccents have a

descent of two ,or even three notes .

At some time or other , i t is not known when , the

teachers of Gregorian musi c began to make u se of

the Greek a ccents as memor ize tee/zm'

cz'

for the melody .

But they went further. Having once grasped the ideathat a rising a ccent gave a picture of a rising sound ,a fa l l ing accent of a fa l l ing sound , they elaborated a

complete system of notation ca lled neuma tic . I t isan interesting fact that the earl iest codex of the works

of Virgil , one of the chief treasures of the

The,

Laurentian Libra ry at Florence , and whichdates from the fourth century , is provided

ex i sti ng

MS. ofwith neumes , as

aguide to the reader or

Virgil ’s reciter ; but the d i fferent colour of the inkWorks

shows tha t they are of a later da te than thebook . There is a facs im i le copy of this

codex in the British Museum , but the editor , evidentlynot understanding the neumes, has omitted thema ltogether.At what date the u se of the accents of the gram

marians to remind singers of wha t they had lea rned byear began is not known . I t is supposed to be of

Byzantine o rigin , and there are traces of it in the notation stil l used by the Greek Church , as we sha l l showlater (page W e find the Antiphonary providedwith complete and fully developed neumatic notation ,

dating from the ninth century , in the Libra ry of S t.Ga l l ; and the u se of this notation was known a ll

over Europe at that time . Not only so , but the

, 52

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Story of Notat ion

possible to represent Free Rhythm by means of

modern notation .

The word neuma (a s ign) must not be confoundedwith pneuma (a breathing) , as severa l writers have

done . The la tter , i t is true, is a kind of

a ccent used over a vowel in the placeswhere we should u se the letter H : but inthe neumatic notation pneuma means a long

florid passage , sung on one syllable , or even with no

syllable at a ll ; an outcome of rel igious fervour so

intense tha t it could no longer express itsel f by words ,but by melody a lone . The mean ing and proper ex ecution of the pneuma z

‘a being m isunderstood in the six

teenth century , they were curta i led or suppressed byPa lestrina in his edition of the Gradua l , which is usedat the present day in the Roman Church .

Are the neumes capable of solution ? A few yearsago this question was answered in the negative , in

spite of the labours of many learned men .

the But since the monks of the Benedictinehjv

l

e

m

lizen monastery of Solesmes have ca l led photosolved

graphy to thei r a id , they have succeededin deciphering a ll the more important MS S .

conta in ing the musi c of the Gradua l and Antiphona ry ,except that the interpretation of two of the ornamenta lneumes is stil l somewhat doubtful . Fig. 3 is intended toshow the process by which the solution has been a rrivedat . I t is , of course , by no means exhaustive ; i t givesonly a few of the many combinations of grave and a cutea ccent , and the number of co lumns m ight be extended

54

Story of Notation

indefin itely. S til l,i t wil l answer for purposes of

explanation .

The Vz’

rga or Vz'

rgu la , Angl z'

ce rod , the a cu te accent ,indicates a note higher than its neighbours.

B

lames Of This is strikingly exemplified in the recent

t e discoveries of Greek musi c .Neumes

The Punctum ,point , is undoubtedly equi

va lent to the grave or descending accent , though thisdoes not occur in the neumes .

The Cl z'

vz'

s or Cl imb is a combination of acute and

grave a ccent— it is the ci rcumflex a ccent , indicating a

high fol lowed by a low note .

The Podatus or Pes is named from its shape— a foot .I t is a punctum jo ined to a virga a lower fo l lowedby a higher note .

Scandz'

cus, Sa l z'

cus , Latin words meaning climberan ascent of two or more points and a Vi rga .

Cl z'

macus, l ittle ladder , a high note fol lowed by two or

more lower ones .

Taron lus, twisted— low, high , low.

Powecz‘

us, extended—high,low,high .

The rest of the neumes given in Fig . 3 are merelymodifications of those a lready expla ined , and can be

easi ly understood ; the number of possible combinations was very great , but all can be understood from the

few given .

Thus much was a lways known about the neumes ;

what was not known was how high or how low the

sounds represented by them were with rega rd to one

another . D id a cl ivis represent an interva l of a sem i56

Bened ictine Research

tone, a tone , a third , fourth , and so on and the same

of the podatus . Did the scandicus and climacus re

present success ive sca le sounds or leaps ? and whatwere its interva ls ? These questions , which puzzledthe lea rned men of the present day, a lso troubled theancients , and in course of time they drew lines acrossthe page as a guide . The idea took root , and in a

short time the stave was invented , after which the

interva ls were definitely known .

The Benedictines of Solesmes hit on the happy ideaof making thousands of photographs from the MSS . of

the Gradua l and Antiphona ry in a ll the l ibraries in Europe, and a comparison of these The Pm

photographs revea led a most remarkable “ 8 8 Of

simi la rity in the neumes and in the notes oft

il

ixiav

t

e

liethe various countries of Western Europe.

N egmes

The traditiona l melodies had been preservedwith the most scrupulous care : the notes of later times

and the neumes of ea rl ier times were found to agree ina lmost every parti cular ; and whether a gradua l or an

antiphon was sung in I ta ly or Spa in or England ,whether it was sung in the n inth century or in the

fifteenth , its melody was the same .

1 N ow it is easyenough to read the square or Goth ic notation , columns6 to 9 , Fig. 3 , s ince it is a lways written on a stave ;and by the simple process of compa ring an antiphonwritten in squa re notation ,

with the same antiphon1 The agreemen t amongs t the MSS . is so remarkable that the Bene

dictines are inclined to attribute i t to miraculous interposi tion , and the

melodies themselves to divine inspirat ion.57

Story of Notation

written in neumes , we easi ly a rrive at the interpretationof the neumes for tha t parti cula r antiphon and we can

continue this process til l a whole book is translated .

As a matter of fact , the square notation of Pla insongis a translation of the neumes.

The Benedictines have el im inated severa l old-established errors . In the first place the virga never indicated

a long note, but merely a high note, thoughit is occasiona l ly used for low notes . The

virga of columns 8 and 9 therefore is no

longer or shorter than the punctum of co lumns 6 , 7 ,and 9 . The neumes have nothing to do with the time

va lues of later measured musi c , in which the squareheaded virga was double or three times the va lue of

the lozenge-shaped punctum . Secondly , it is some

times thought that the form of the neumes and of

the Gothi c notation changed at specified periods .

Compa rison of many manuscripts has shown that thiswas not the case. The o lder unstaved neumatic notation continued to be used for centuries after the l ineshad been invented and columns 6 and 7 show tha t theawkwa rd ea rly Goth ic forms were used for centuriesafter the invention of the square notation , as shown in

columns 8 and 9 . The shapes shown in Fig . 3 are

taken at random from amongst the hundreds of

photographs published in the Pa léog mplzie Musica le at

Solesmes.

Column I shows the usua l forms in the earl ierMSS . In column 2 we see the commencement of

the tendency to place a head on the vi rga . The

58

Errors

exposed

Neumatic Notation

origin of the head was in the a ction of the pen in

rapid writing : it was drawn upwards , and a

sl ight involuntary pressure given as i t leftthe parchment , and the resulting sl ight

He

enla rgement afterwa rds took the forms

shown in columns 2 , 3 , 4 , 7 , unti l i tbecame stereotyped in the square head of columns 8

and 9 .

The various shapes of the punctum are a lso due to

the same cause. A broad-n ibbed pen drawn downwards the shortest possible distance from left to right(the grave accent) produced the lozenge of columns6, 7 , 9The clivis throughout preserves its vi rga , fol lowed by

its lower note .

The podatus is simply a lower note joined to a virga .

The scandicus a lters in the Sarum Gradua l (co lumn 8 )to a

,podatus and a virga , but in later MSS . is found in

its o rigina l form (co lumn The porrectus became

the l igature of measured musi c , and as such gavemore trouble to both ancient and modern theorists thanthe whole of the rest of the notation . The oblique l inea lways represents two sounds , namely , those of the

l ines or spaces on which it begins and ends. In the

notation of Pla insong the l iga ture has of course no

time va lue ; but in measured musi c its time va lue isexceedingly difli cu lt to unravel .W e have not space here to give a ful l description of

the neumatic notation , for this interesting subject isvery far reaching, but we must mention some of the

59

The addi

tion of a

ad to the

Virga

Story of Notation

other neumes . They are the Apostropiza the D ir

troplza and the Trzlvi ropka These indicaterepeated sounds .

The S tropizicus and Oriscus and Pressas are sl ightlydifferent forms of the above, with sl ightly differentmean ings .

The Qu i l isma , a sign something like our indication of

a shake, occurs between the lower and upper notes of

an ascending minor third . I t is supposed to have beena kind of tremolo .

The Ep ip/zonus, a kind of shortened podatus, and

the Cepha l icus, a modification of the cl ivis , were“ liquescents.

”The Solesmes photographs show that

these neumes were used in connection with the “ ha l fvowels ”

or l iquescent ” letters L , M , N ,R

,in which

the sound is carried on to the succeeding consonant .The Ancus is a virga or podatus with a roundedhead . I t is a lso ca l led pes cornu tus— horned foot , andsevera l other names . I t has to do with the l iquescentletters . Perhaps the l iquescent notes a rose from a

practice which can be observed in uneducated countrychoi r s ingers of the present day, who sometimes carrya syllable into the succeeding note , thus

All peo-ple that on earth do dwel l.But though the neumes were the ordina ry means of

reminding singers of the rise and fa l l of the melodiesthey had learned by hea rt , there were in existence letter

60

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Story of Notation

a lphabet in musi c has unti l quite recently beena lways ascribed to Gregory the Grea t ;

in

?” but Gevaert points ou t tha t he could not

ii i; ngteat have been its inventor , s ince the first to

invent theu se it systema tica l ly was Guido of Arezzo ,

Modern who did not l ive till some four centuriesLetter later . From the time of Guido it has beenNotation accepted by a ll Western musi cians , and has

rema ined in use to this day, though the

Greek gamma on ly rema ins in the word gamut .Va rious Many other a ttempts were made to applya ttemp ts

the letters of the Latin a lphabet to the

to app ly greater perfect system of the Greeks.

the Latin Gevaert mentions six

Alphabet I . An anonymous writer of a treatisefor p ur ca l led De Ha rmon ica l nsi i iu i ione suggestsP053 3

,

“the fol lowing method , thus recogn isingNotationthe major mode as the fundamenta l sca le

A B C D E F G A B C D E F G &C.

2 . A notation composed of va ri ous forms and positionsof the letter F , to be described below .

3 . A notation in which , sta rting from proslamba

nomenos, which is ca l led A (as in our system) , a ll theinterva ls of the chromatic and enha rmon i c sca les a re

lettered with Latin letters on the plan of the catapycnosis ,

Fig. 2 , the a lphabet proceeding upwa rds instead of down62

Early Experiments

the sca le . This is given by Adelbold , a contempora ryof Hucba ld .

l

4 . S ta rting from proslambanomenos as A , the a lphabet proceeds to L , which is our (1, the end of the lesserperfect system then , sta rting aga in with M , our Efi, itproceeds to S , ou r aa . This is suggested by an

anonymous writer , before Guido Aretino .

5. S tarting from proslambanomenos as A , the a lphabet proceeds as far as P , our aa , taking no noti ce of

Bb. This is derived from Boethius .

6 . Towa rds the end of the eleventh century an anonymous writer suggests the same notation as the Guidon ian

I‘

, A , B , C , etc. , but above G he begins the Greeka lphabet , in no regula r order .I t would seem , then , tha t there were as many

a ttempts made in these ea rly days to improve the

notation as there are at presen t ; for we may be suretha t the six or seven systems which have come downto u s represent many others that have been lost . Nowadays , when there is absolutely no need for i t , we get a

“new and improved ”

nota tion ,which is intended to

supersede the staff nota tion , about once every two or

three years ; and all these a ttempts , a fter being ca refully cata logued , s ink into oblivion on the shelves of the

British Museum .

Ten centuries ago there was a pressing necessity fora new notation . Musi c was advancing , and the old

methods were not adequate to record it : new schoolswere being founded , new compositions made, and i t

1 About A. O . 900.

63

Story of Notation

was necessary to teach at Pa ris what was composed a t

Rome, or to s ing at Madrid the musi c produced a t

Winchester . In the twentieth century we have a uni

versally a ccepted notation , and musi c composed in

Rome can be performed in Pa ris within two days of its

publication , owing to the labours ofmediaeva l mus i cians .

Yet in spite of this , human nature is such , that men are

as anxious now to improve or supersede the staff notation as they were to invent it in the tenth century . The

A Single two systems of indicating the pitch of soundExamp le

were then i n u se concurrently , the phoneti cin wh ich and the pictoria l ; but only in one singlePhonetic manuscript , the famous Montpel l ier Antiand phonary, were they combined . And i f wePictorial come to consider what the neumes meant , i tNotations was perhaps not so strange tha t ou r forea re fathers were a long t ime in seeking a satiscombined factor co b

'

t' Thy m ma i on . e neumes were

signs indicating such del i cate shades of accent and

rhythm , and such flowing and spontaneous melodies ,that it would seem as impossible to represent themby bare and cold-looking letters as i t is to representthem by modern notation , in which the note va lues are

mathematica l ly proportioned to one another . Hence ,though many attempts were made, yet none succeededfor many generations .

‘

1 We were once asked by a naturalis t whether i t was possible torecord in wri ting the song of birds the n ightingale. The onlya t tempt we know of is that made by Kircher in his M usu rgia , bymeans of musica l notation, which , of course, is total ly inadequate for

64

The O rganum

Somewhere about the n inth century men began to

make practica l u se of the “symphon ies ”

and “ d ia

phon ies ”

(concords and discords) of the old

Greek writers they began to s ing inpa rts. I t is true that the pa rts they sang inwere a t fi rst a rigorous adaptation of the“symphon ies ”

only to the pla insong ; in other words ,they sang in nothing but consecutive fifths , and fourths ,and octaves ; but this kind of singing , which , “ i f sungby two or more voi ces, with suitable s lowness , you wil lsee that it produces a sweet concord , ” 1 imperativelydemanded fixation of the interva ls . I t has sometimes

been debated whether such musi c could ever have beentolerated , and some yea rs ago we heard a universityprofessor del iver a lecture , in which he endeavoured toprove that the so-ca l led “

organum never existed inanything but theory . But in an early stage of musi ca lculture these interva ls are just the ones thatcome most natura l ly to the front ; and the The “Or

;word used by Hucbald for concord is con

ganum

centum singing together Many music ians heard m

Londonhea rd in the late ’eighties the “ unemployed ” Streets

of London wa lking about the streets and

singing ; the tenors p itched thei r voices at a fifth abovethe basses , and sang the tune with them quite happily .

This was the ancient organum pure and s imple.

the purpose. If the song of birds is ever capable of being recorded ,i t wil l be by some such system as the neumatic notat ion of the EarlyFathers.1 Hucbald, Em lz ir iadis, in Gerbert, vol . i . p . 166.

6s

Story of Notat ion

Another instance occurred within our own experiencea pa rty of Christmas wa its in Rutland sang “ AdesteFideles with a viol in in unison , while a clarionettist ,

Hucbald ”

f ? 7 7 i J

BelowFinals l'

A 11 C AboveFinals 0.

Hucbald J; 1; Fl’ 1.HighestNotes ej gaa

who could play on ly in one key, played the tune quiteunconcernedly a fourth above the s ingers .

Our chief information on the organum of the ninth66

Hu cbald and Odo

and tenth centuries is derived from the Ma sica En

cli irzaa’i s, ascribed to Hu cba ld , a monk of S t . Amand

in Flanders , a very lea rned man , who died ata grea t age in A.D . 930 or 940 , but now sup

posed to be by Odo , an Abbot of Tomieres .

The writer , whoever he may have been ,was very much wedded to the old Greek lea rning

, as

exhibited in the work of Boethius , and wished to makea ll musi c of h is time conform to i t . Hence he resusci

tated the old long-winded names ,1and gave La tin letters

to them, such as I to Mese , M to Lichanos meson , P to

Parhypate meson , C to Hypate meson , etc . , and wrotethe letters over the words that were to be sung

, as

in the old Greek manner , an idea which he evidentlyderived from B

'

oeth ius’ casua l u se of the Latin letters .

But this system did not succeed , and he tried others .

Taking the fina ls of the four Church modes as h is

basis, he indicated them by the letter F in differentforms—Fig. 4 (a) . He then , in accordancewith Greek precedent , inverted and muti N

zteti

zh

lated the letter for the sounds above and Legal

;below the fina l ; for the sounds above aa

he was not able to invent notes , and Odo of Clugnyca l ls them “ rema in ing ”

(superfluous) sounds . He

gives in his Short Memoir on the S ingi ng of Me Tones

ana7the Psa lms many pages of psa lms adapted to this

notation , and fina l ly a page of neumes connected withit . I t is referred to aga in by Hermann Contractus ,who suggests as an a lternative the letters E for unison ,

1 Vide Ambros Gesclz icnz‘e, Band 2, pp. 1 22 cl seq.

67

Story of Notation

S for semitone, T for tone , TS for minor third (toneand sem itone) , TT major third , D for fourth

,A for

fifth , AS m inor s ixth , AT major s ixth , AD octave. Butboth these clumsy systems a lso fa i led ; in fact , they hadno possible advantage over placing the ordina ry Latinletters above the notes , the objection to which wehave seen .

Fl G. 4 (c ).

Pictorial NotationsuggestedbyHucbald.

The writer of E nclzimadi s now invented a new notation , and th is may possibly have been the parent of ou r

staff . He drew lines , wrote at the beginn ing T for tone and S for sem itone , and

wrote the words between the l ines, adding

the va rious forms of F to show the pitch ,and jo ining the syllables by lines to guide the eye . Fig.

4 (b) , which gives a complete scheme of organum in

four parts , in fourths , fifths , and octaves , is perhapsthe earl iest existing example of a full score . This

68

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Story of Notation

of Terpander (Fig. 5, b) .1 Notice how these ea rly

musi cians could never get away from the Greek teaching. Ga l i lei tries to show tha t the system he

describes was once in genera l u se , but Ambros po intsout that if this had been the case we must have

F IG . 5 .

hea rd more about it . May i t not have been usedin some remote loca l i ty ? The present writer , many

yea rs ago , came across a loca l system of

musi ca l notation which had been used ina vil lage church on Sa l isbury Pla in for the

viol in , flute, and Violoncello , before the advent of theha rmonium ; and we know tha t in early days therewere many such loca l uses .

Fig. 5 (0) shows another of the many attempts to

combine the phoneti c and the pictoria l nota tions , and

Another there will be found 1n Pa le'ograpnie Mnszba le,

Effort to vol . i i . , Plate 1 90 , the photograph of part of thecombine Montpel l ier Gradua l of the eleventh century ,the Pho in which a lphabeti ca l letters (from a to k) arenetic and written over the words , and above the lettersP1ctor1al a re the neumes . This system ,

though withN°1e11°h s

out the neumes , is found in Plate 1 of E a r lyHa rmony , published by the Pla insong and

1 Burney, H istory, vol. 11. p . 38.

70

Early Efforts

Mediaeva l Musi c Society , sa id to date from the tenthcentury .The yea r A.D . 1 000 was , as is wel l known , supposed

to be the one in which the world would end , and whenmen found that the seasons went on just as usua l , thatno break was made in the natura l sequence of events ,

FIG . 5 .

)C

t i ts p ecca a

they took fresh hea rt , built cathedra ls and churches ,undertook C rusades , began to enjoy l ife , and genera l lyto give“

evidence of the rel ief from the long suspense.

The new century saw the birth of our modern notation , and with this important epoch we begin a new

chapter.Translation of Fig. 5 (c)

l is pec

CHAPTER V .

Guido Aretino—His character—His sarcasms—His method of teaching—The Guidonian hexachords—Solmisation perhaps suggested bythe Greek syllables used for this purpose—The Guidon ian Hand—Origin of the Staff or Stave—Notat ion a points superposés

O rigin of the Clefs—The “ hard , ” “ soft , ” and “ natural ” hexachords—Coloured l ines used for the stave—Guido invited to Rome-Becomes famous—Returns to h ismonastery and dies a simplemonk. ”

GUIDO , or Guidone Aretino , or , in English , Guy of

Arezzo , to whom are a ttributed many important improvements in notation , was a Benedictinemonk who l ived in the early pa rt of the

eleventh century. He was an a rdent re

former , a man of grea t gen ius , and a good fighter in thecause tha t he had a t heart . Natura l ly he made manyenem ies , who , jea lous and angry with him , succeededin getting h im ban ished from h i s monastery , a proceeding which had the excel lent effect of spreading h isteaching through Ita ly

, and afterwards through Europe,and now

, after n ine hundred years , we a re stil l benefiting by it . B ea tns Gu ido, inventor Mnsicw,

stands underh is portra it at Arezzo , so much did mediaeva l musiciansappreciate h is gen ius . His principa l work was done at

the monastery of Pomposa , nea r Ravenna . His chiefcha racteristic seems to have been practica l common

7 2

Gu ido ’

s Sarcasms

sense , as opposed to the mystica l dreamings of the

ordina ry writers , or the ignorant rule-ofthumb teaching of the ordina ry singers .

The western world was at this time ful lof highly respected musi c-teachers from

I ta ly , Greece , France , and

Gh id‘

ois Germany , but thei r ignorance

Op lmon Of(according to Guido) was as

Contemtonishing ; for example, he

p orary

Singing says , they CO l l ld not di s

Masters tingu ish between a note and

its fifth : and thei r teachingwas most unsatisfactory , though theyhad the highest possible opinion of themselves . Guido begins h is Rules for

Unknown Song ” Treatise on S ights inging) with the fol lowing sarcasms

“ Of a ll l iving men , singers are the mostfatuous (Temparions nostr is super omnes

homines fatn i snnt cantores) for in everyart we know many things besides thosewhich we have lea rned from our tea cher.Little boys , if they have once a rrived a t

sufli cient knowledge to read through thePsa lter , can read a ll other books ; rusticscan quickly understand the science of agriculture ; he who has once pruned a vine, oronce planted a tree , or once loaded an ass ,

will be able to do the same thing aga in ,

and probably better the second time : but these wonderful7 3

Story of Notation

s inging-masters , and thei r pupils , may s ing every dayfora hundred years , yet they will never be able to s1ng the

sma l lest unknown antiphon without previous instru ction ; so that they waste an amount of time with thei rwretched singing that would suffice for learning a ll the

books in the world , both sacred and secular. ” He refershere , of course, to the use of the neumati c notation ,

which could not possibly show how to sing an unknownchant . How can a man have the face to ca l l himselfa musi cian or s inger , i f he cannot s ing a t once , and

correctly , a newly composed song ?” His M icrologus

conta ins the often-quoted sarcasti c rhymes

M usicorum et Cantornm

M agna est a’istantia

,

Isti a’

icnnt, i l l i sc'

z'

nnt

Qua; componi t M asi’

ra .

N am gu i f a ci t, gnoa’non sapi t

D ifinz’

tnr eestia .

Cwierum tonantis oacis

S i lana’ent acnmz

'

na

S uperaoi tpli i lomelaVel voca lis asi

’

na,

”etc.

Twixt a singer and musicianW ide the distance and condi t ion,

One repeats, the other knowsWhat doth harmony compose.

He who'works wi thou t a plan

Maybe called more beast than man.

If, of loud and t hundering voice,

Or shrill sounds, he makes a choice,Asses can bray louder st ill,N ightingales are far more shrill .

74

GUIDO OF AREZZO EX PLAIN ING HIS USE OF MONOCHORD TO

B ISHOP THEODALDUS .

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Story of Notation

not invented by Guido was confirmed by h im , and has

rema ined to the present day, embraces both the con

junet and disjunct tetrachords of the Greek system , and

by Guido ’

s time the note trite synnemenon was a lmostun iversa l ly indicated by the letter b , ca l led 6rotundum, or b mol le, because i t was round ,and because i t softened ”

the harshness of

the tritone f, b . The note paramesewas given the s ign h,ca l led 6 quadratum, or b du rum ; the Germans ca l l thisnote h , and in the picture it is given as h . Guido ca l ledthe capita l letters graves (low) , the sma l l letters ac utce

(high) , the double letters super acu tce (above the high) .Many blame these terms as superfluous , but wewould rather have superflu ity than deficiency .

”

The soft 6 we mostly use in songs which start fromF orf ; G is the fourth note of the first authenti c tone

U (the octave-species D-d) ; a is the fourthse of

B flatnote of the second authent1c tone (E to e) ;b of the thi rd (F to f) . I f you wish to avo id

the soft 6, you must transpose the neumes in which itoccurs , in such a way tha t you have the notes G , a , h,0, instead of F , G , a , He a lso suggests tha t i t isgood practice to commence a melody on each of the

four fina ls in turn , and s ing it through with the sem itones as given by the letters of the monocho rd . To

make th is pla in by a modern example , i t would be to

sing “ God save the K ing ” fi rst in the key of C ,

beginning on C , then in the same key, but beginningon D

, then in the same key, but beginn ing on E , and

aga in in the same key, but beginn ing on F . I t must76

Two Forms

of b

The Hexachords

be remembered that at that time musi cians , or at any

rate church musi cians , only knew the sounds repre

sented by the monochord ,i .e. , the white keys of our

organ , together with b

rotundum ; the sharps and

the four rema in ing flatswere not yet invented .

Hence , if the pitchwas changed it couldonly be in the ways ugges t ed , o r a

fourth higher , withthe use of b ro

The study ofGreekmusi cwas imperativeon every musi cian inthose days ; and thedivision of the sca leinto tetrachords probably suggested to Guido his

division into hexachords . But it is a remarkablefact , showing the prOphetic nature of h is

PR IEST PLAY ING ON A HARP (EGYPTIAN).

gen ius , tha t instead of using any of the1 11 3

121 160"

church tones or the ancient Greek modes asman

t hi s;the basis of h is hexachords , he boldly struckout a new l ine , and used what is now known as the

major mode , foreseeing that this must be the chiefmode of the future. He was probably influenced bythe secular musicians who were a l ready using this

7 7

Story of Notation

mode ; and we have seen that one at leas t of the inventors of notations endeavoured to adapt the Latina lphabet to it .In addition to a rranging a series of hexachords , he

made u se of a series of sounds for s inging exercises ,perhaps suggested by the 7 a , 7 6, w; of the

Gu ido ssmgmg exercises of Rome under the empire .

Solmisatron(See page Ea ch verse of a hymn to

John the Baptist began on a note corresponding to the

six notes of h is principa l hexachord .

“Whoever , ” sayshe ,

“can ,

through practice , distinguish clearly the

initia l notes of each of these six l ines , so tha t he can

commence with any l ine taken a t random , will be ina position to easi ly s ing these six notes wherever hemeets with them .

”

The hymn in question wasC u t—guceant lax is F fa—mu l i tuorum

D re— sonarefibris.

E mi —ra gestorum A la— bi i reatum

Sancte j ohannes.

Doubt has been ra ised as to whether Guido was or

was not the actua l inventor of solm isation ,

” but thequestion cannot be discussed here. I t is sufli cient for

our purpose that if Guido did not invent it , i t came intouse somewhere about h is time . I t was found thatwhether a hexachord began with G , C , or F , the same

series of four tones , with one sem itone, resulted . Henceeach of these notes could become a t for s inging purposes ; and the system was ana logous to that whichmany centuries afterwards was cal led the “movable do.

7 8

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Story of Notat ion

The syllable u t became afterwa rds changed to do, as

being more easy to sing ; and when ha rmony had suc

ceeded to counterpoint , and the leading note

al

l; had in consequence become prom inent , theFons; syllable si was added , about the end of

Solmisa the seventeenth century , to complete the

tion seven notes of the major sca le , which thenbecame Do, re, mi , fa , sol , la , si , and the

notes are thus named in France and I ta ly to this day.

The cumbrous nomenclature used byB urney,Hawkins ,and others was in force during the who le of mediaeva ltimes , and only disappeared at the end of the eighteenthcentury . This nomenclature , taken from the Guidon ianhexachords , was as fo l lows — G

'

am-u t, A re, B m i , C faa t

,D sol re, E la mi , F fa a t, G sol re u t,

a la mi re, etc . , and every cho i r-boy wascompel led to learn i t by heart . Guido (orsome one about h is time) adapted this

nomenclature to the joints of the fingers of the lefthand , making his boys sing the notes as he po inted tothe va rious parts of h is hand . S tarting from the top

jo int of the thumb , the sca le worked down the thumbin a circle round the outside of the fingers , endinginside , but the highest note of a ll was given to the tipof the longest finger . The figure of the so-ca l led“ Guidonian Hand , on page 87 , shows the order ofnam ing of the jo ints in a more eas i ly understood mannerthan in the old figures , where every jo int is given its

compl icated hex achorda l name : and the a rrow-heads inthe dotted line show the direction fol lowed by the sca le

80

Notation 51 Points Superpo sés

order. The Guidon ian hand must have taken a grea tplace in mediaeva l teaching , for it is described bynea rly a ll writers on notation , and the “gamut ” con

tinned to be a useless worry to choi r-boys for manycenturies.

Amongst the many temptations to inattentionwhichsurrounded the choristers in the seventeenth centurywas thei r right to cla im money from any

person entering the cathedra l with spurson h is boots. This tax was ca l led spurmoney . I t is sa id tha t the man cha l lenged could ca l lupon the chorister to repeat h is gamu t : i f he fa i led todo so the tax was evaded , if he succeeded the moneywas pa id .

” 1

W e must now speak of the invention of the staff or

stave, a thing so fam i l ia r to us and , from its fami l ia rity ,so apparently simple, that few people a

re

Rise of theaware of the 1mmense number of exper1 Staffments continued through many generationswhich were required to bring it to its present form. The

fi rst step towa rds it seems to have been the inventionof a notation which the Benedictines havegiven the name of Notation 82 Points Superpose’s. Grea t care is taken by the scribe to

make the po ints and the parts of the neumes show the

interva ls by thei r distance above the text , and above or

below one another. This was probably done by layingpara l lel rulers on the parchment , and the natura l resultwas that some one hit on the plan of drawing or

1 Bevan and Stainer, Handbook of St. Pau l’

s Cat/zedral .

8 1

SpurMoney

Story of Notation

scratching a l ine a cross the page, as a guide to boththe scribe and the reader. At the commencement

The Staveof this l ine Was placed a letter , genera l lyF , and a ll pomts or portlons of neumes

of Onewh i ch occurred on the l ine were meant toindicate the note F . The sca le-degrees indi

cated by the rest of the neumes depended on the greateror less exactitude with which they were written above

Line

F IG . 5 . (d )

h Tl l j flet mater ecc esia tanli

—l—Ti l l l l

lum i n ls adornat‘a

and below the l ine. Fig . 5 (d and e) show a form of notation of which MS S . have been found in many parts of

FIG . 5 .

I ta ly ; having been invented at Nonantola , the Benedictines have ca l led it the Nonantolian notation . I t will beseen that vertica l l ines are drawn from each syllable

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In course of time, a l ine was drawn ha l f-way betweenF and c , which gave a ; and now by pla cing G and b or

Stave of

Th reeLines

Hbetween the l ines , the sounds F , G , a , b , h,0, could be defin itely fixed . Fina l ly , a fourthl ine was added , either above C or belowF , as was found conven ient , and the stave

of four l ines ,which has beenused for pla inStave song to

of this day,Four was comLines p l e t eF o r m u s i 0o t h e r t h a npla insong extral ines were add

ed above and

below the origina l four , as wesha l l see in duecourse.

T h e l i n e s

were a t firstcoloured , F being genera l lyred , and C yel

low ; and whent h e r e wa s a

third and fourth

S ou s o n '

r va

oof d

O O

V um clocct citt cuJ 4 . J

L0

11 1 51 ? “m am a“

J 0

NEUME NOTAT ION.

Colou red L ines

l ine, these were either scratched on the pa rchment bysome po inted instrument , or drawn with black ink .

There was no regula r rule in the ea rly daysof l ines. Thus the Pa le

’

ograpnie Musica leCol

iured

mesgi ves two examples from Lombardy of the

twelfth century , in which there is one l ine only , that isscratched , and no clef given ,

for i t was supposed to

represent no other note than F . In an eleventhor twelfth century MS . of Arezzo (the home of

Guido) , F is given a s a red l ine, and there are two

others scratched without clefs. Another three-l inestave of the beginn ing of the twelfth century fromMonte Cassino (a famous Benedictine monastery ha lfway between Rome and Naples) has F red , C yel low ,

the thi rd scra tched . A very usua l combination for fourl ines was F red , C yel low ,

the rema in ing two scratched .

A so-l is or-tu us-que ad oc ci-du a Lit-to ra

ma ris planctuspulsat pec-to-t a ; Ul-tra ma ri na

ag-mi na tris-t i t i a Te t i git in-gens cum er to re

ni-mi o. Heu ! me do-lens , plan-goTRANSLATION or NEUME NOTATION. (From Crowest , S tory of B r itisli Music

,

vol. i . p .

85

Story of Notation

This is found in a twelfth-century Gradua l of S t . Peter’sa t Rome , and in many other MSS . The red F was continned in some places ti l l the fourteenth century—thusa Franciscan Breviary of that time in the Va llicellan

Libra ry a t Rome has a three-l ine stave, red and two

blacks , without clefs , while many MSS . of the

thirteenth century have four black l ines. In some

cases , dating from the thirteenth century , we find

four red l ines used , as in the manuscript of S umer isicumen in

”

; and these are not uncommon to this day.

By the fifteenth century the so-ca l led Gregorian staveseems to have settled down enti rely to four l ines of

the same colour , either black or red . But neumes

continued to be written without l ines for severa lgenerations after the invention of the stave . I f i t beasked why the stave should have taken so long to

develop when we have seen tha t it was practica l lyinvented before the time of Guido , according to Ga l i leiand K i rcher

,it may be answered that many inventions

seem to d ie at thei r birth , only to re-appea r in anotherform later. The staves shown on pp . 69 , 70 seem to

have been used only in a remote pa rt of S i ci ly ; theywere probably unknown beyond its immediate loca l ity ,and even i f known

,thei r suitabi lity for u se with neumes

would not be evident .What part did Guido take in the invention of the

Gu'

stave , the most important feature of modernd o and

the Stave notat i on ?.

The med imva l wri ters were.

S O

proud of h im that they attr1bu ted 1ts 1n

vention enti rely to h im , and ca l led the new system86

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Provost of the Cathedra l of Arezzo . The Pope madehim expla in the whole of h is new system , repeatedly

read the explanations given in his De ignotocantu , which formed the prologue of the

Antiphonary , and did not rise from his seatuntil he had sung correctly a versi cle that

was previously unknown to h im . He looked upon theAntiphonary as a marvel of ingenuity , and wishedto reta in Guido in h is service on the most favourableconditions. Guido ’

s hea l th , however , would not standthe Roman climate ; he became very i ll of Roman

fever , as it was a hot summer , and

was obliged to leave. But be pro

mised the Pope to come aga in in thewinter , and instruct the priests in

the newmethod .

His work being recogn ised and

appreciated by the Pope and the highofli cials a t Rome, he returned to

Pomposa and showed h isAntiphonary to the abbot . Recewed

The result was that the favourablyat h i s

abbot was now convmcedMonasterythat 1t was a good work ,

and expressed h is sorrow that hehad l istened to Guido ’

s enemies and

forced h im to leave the monastery.Guido was offered a bishopric , but

he preferred to rema in a“s imple monk amongst

monks , and to bring honour to h is monastery by88

LYRE.

A True Reformer

h is work ; and it is probable that he ended h is daysat Pomposa .

Unl ike the writer of Enclzim'

adis and his own con

temporaries , Guido did not seek to bend the art of

musi c to the obsolete rules of the Greek theorists ,which were only appli cable to a different , and , in its

best days , far more highly developed form of art thanh is own . Taking musi c as he found it , he s implysought what was suitable for the time he l ived in

,

and for getting the best results from the existing(not the past) conditions. This is what every reformerhas done , and i t is perhaps one of the strangest tra itsin the nature of man , that every one in every age and

every country who works for the improvement of art ,

science , rel igion ,knowledge, incurs jea lousy , suspicion ,

and disl ike ; and , as Guido himsel f says , may be com

pared to the glassworker , who , having invented an

unbreakable glass , is rewa rded with death at the handsof the hangman .

CHAPTER VI .

Measured music—Camusfigu ral is, D iscantus, Faux bourdon—Contra

pund i ts—The neumatic notat ion adapted to the needs of measured

music—The rules given by Franco of Cologne—His five moodsThe figures

—Notes—The origin of the ternary time division ,which was ca l led perfect—Ru les for the notes—D ivision of mood-P0in t or prick of perfection—The pli ca and ligatures—Pro

priety and perfection—Compl ications of the rules for ligaturesD isappearance of free rhythm—The original measurements of

notes were not by ternary but by binary d ivisions— Instans,tempus, and c/zronos p rams—Hieronymus of Moravia does notgive measured values to notes—Johannes de Garlandia’s rulesThe triplum.

W E now come to the period at which modern Europeanmusi c may be sa id to begin . W e have seen tha t men

had been making experiments with the

ffeg

léll

rdi

eti“symphonies ”

of the Greek musi cians , byMusic

singing in fourths and fifths and octaves.

Further efforts were only natura l , and freshresults were obta ined by accident . Thus i t was foundthat the occasiona l u se of diaphon ieswas not unpleasant ;that thi rds and s ixths

,though classed as discords by

the Pythagoreans— for the Pythagorean teaching had

now completely superseded that of Aristox enu s— couldperfectly wel l be used as long as men trusted to the ear ,

and not to mathematics. This had been observed many90

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va lue “cantus compositus, in which many notes

in one pa rt a re sung in due relation to the notesof the other ” ; “

cantus per medium, in which two

notes a re measured aga inst one of the pla insong .

” 1

To these must be added Gymel , or Gemellum , a kind oftwin song used in England , for two voi ces , s ingingfor the most part in thi rds and s ixths .

I t soon became evident that i t was impossible forsingers to sing cantusfigu ra l i s un less there was some

defin ite regulation of the number of notes to be sungaga inst the susta ined note of the cantusfi rmus, the fixed

song ; and hence a rose a form of Notationca l led musica mensu rabi l i s, or mensu ra ta

i .e. , measured musi c ; but not for centuriesdid musi cians come to a complete understanding as

to the deta i ls of the notation of the cantus figu ratu s ,

and in the end they were obliged to combine the musica

mensurata of the learned Church musi c ians with the

tablatures of the despised worldly instrumenta l ists ,before they a rrived at a satisfa ctory and easi ly understood notation . It is probable that many experimentswere made in various places. The clearest informationwe have is that given by Franco of Co logne , who

flourished a t the beginn ing of the thirteenthcentury. He was preceded and fol lowed bya number of writers on musiea mensu rabil is ,

who continued for the next three centuries workinga t the matter , and gradua l ly evolving a satisfactorysystem.

Measured

Music

1 Tmctor, Proportiona le, in Coussemaker, vol. iv.9 2

Measu red Mu s ic

The idea of representing the interva ls by means of the

l ines and spaces of the stave , to which was added one

or more of the claves C , F , G , had taken root and spreadover Europe, and i t rema ined to invent a method of

showing the relative time measurement of the noteswhich were placed on the stave. The virga had become

the squa re-headed note H, and the punctum either a

squa re or a lozenge o ; and these forms were takenas the basis of the new nota tion ,

in explanation of

which we wil l a l low some of these old writers to speakfor themselves , beginn ing , not with the

earl iest , but with Franco , since he is the

clea rest . i ll usioa mensurabi l i s is song ,measured by longs and shorts . I say

mensu rabi l i s, because in pla insong there is no measure.

A ‘ Time’is a measure of sound or of silence, which

is commonly ca l led a rest . 1 I say that the rest ismeasured by time , because otherwise, two voi ce parts ,of which one conta ins rests , while the other doesnot , could not be kept in thei r p roper proportions.

”

“ Measured musi c is divided into whol ly and partlymeasured . Whol ly measured is discant , of whichevery portion is regulated by time . Partly measuredis ca l led o rganum , which is only occasiona l ly measured .The organum was no longer strictly note aga instnote.

“And you must know that the organum is used1 We translate the Lat in word pausa as rest , ” since this is

familiar to Engl ish musicians, who use“pause ”

for the Lat in

93

Story of Notat ion

in two ways . The organum proper is the pure or

ganum ,but the genera l organum is when the pla in

song is measured .

” Here we are reminded that , as

long as pla insong was only sung in un isonPlainsong or octaves , its notes were not measured , butMi s

t

i ; fol lowed the natura l pronunciation of the

words . This fa ct has been too often losts ight of by writers on pla insong , who have endeavouredto give time-va lue to the neumes , and to the ordinarynotation of pla insong.

“ D iscant is the consonance of severa l differentmelodies .

”Our author then proceeds to divide discant

into severa l kinds after the manner of a ll early writersand some moderns , who seem unable to avo id classifying everything . The method of teach ing counterpo intstil l in vogue in England , and , we bel ieve , in some

parts of the Continent , in which everything is classifiedinto five “

species , ” is a direct outcome of mediaeva lmethods .

Franco now classifies time measurement into modes,or moods .

“ Some say there are six moods , some seven . W e

reduce them to five.

All the notes long , oru u u A long note fol lowed by a short note.

0 u u A short note fol lowed by a long.

u u u u A long fol lowed by two shorts .

u u u u Two shorts fol lowed by a long .

u u u u All shorts .

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doctrine of the Trinity. The a rgument taken is thatpra ctica l men would not acquiesce in an absurdity .Though there is much to be sa id for this V iew , we

cannot agree with it ; for the frequent discussions and

ha i rsplitting over mere words show tha t the Churchmusic ians were not practica l . The practica l men were

ozen queueasNOTAT ION OF SPAN ISH TROUBADOURS.

the d espised “ practitioners of musi c— the lay instru

menta l ists , who had no connection with the Church ,and who never caused confus ion by making triplemeasure the basis of thei r notation .

“ ‘The Double Long ’

has the form of two longswhich are joined together in one body , so that thetenor of the pla insong may not be broken.

” That isto say, the double long was used chiefly in the pla in.

96

Longs and Shorts

song , which was the “ tenor or holding part , in orderthat the other s ingers m ight have plenty of time for

florid ornamentation of thei r parts .

“The breve is either recta or otherwise. I t is a

square without a ta i l“The semibreve is either major or minor , and is

formed l ike a lozenge 0 .

E lsewhere we lea rn that the recta brews 1s dividedinto three semibreves , the “

other ” breve into two .

The major sem ibreve is terna ry , the m inor b inary .

“A long is fol lowed by a long or a breve, and thisis a lso the case with breves and semibreves . I f a

long fol lows a long , whether the second long is a restor a note , the fi rst wil l be measured by three Times ,

and is ca l led a perfect long.

”

But if a long is fol lowed by one or more breves, i twil l be a two-time long , and is ca l led imperfect ; exceptwhen between the long and the breve thereis placed a l ittle upright l ine ca l led a s ignof perfection , or divis ion of mood , in whichcase the first long is perfect , while the brevemakes the long which fol lows i t imperfect ; thus

Su pe-rans om-u i-a,

which would be represented thus in modern notation

pe rans om

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Story of Notation

I t will be seen then that the l ittle upright l ine ca l ledthe division of the mood is practica l ly ou r bar l ine ,though not til l many centuries later was i t used at

regula r interva ls , as with u s .

“But if two or th ree or four'

or more breves fol lowthe long , then the long is perfect ; unless i t is precededby a s ingle breve .

”The whole diffi culty arises from

there being as yet no means of showing the regula rmeasures , for the ful l significance of the d ivisiomodi

was not yet understood .

“Of two breves , the first is recta (ternary) , the

second binary . The brevis recta conta ins one wholetime : the brevis a ltera is ana logous to the imperfectlong in va lue , for both , though represented by differentfigures , are measured by two times , but what is ca l leda single time of the breve is the m in imum time tha t thevoice is capable of uttering distinctly .

” Here we havethe origin of our word “m in im ”

; and when i t became

necessa ry to u se notes of less va lue than the minima ,

the theorists objected that one could not have any

thing less than the least . “But if between two

longs there occur two breves , and between the two

breves there is a divis ion of mood , then the two

longs are imperfect , and of the two breves , eitheryou l ike will be recta ; but this very rarely occurs .

”

Franco gives the fol lowing example

Da ri , tra-d1, ca-p1 ,

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Story of Notation

rema ining , then the last must be considered as

brevis , thus

Litera l ly

but natura l instinct would probably lead the singerthus

for which apparently the long fol lowed by a brevewould not do , because the s inger would consider i t asaffected by the previous breve, and syncopate i t , as inthe fi rst bar. The rules the unfortunate singer wasobliged to learn were terribly complex , owing to the

want of a simple expedient of indicating the measureswith exactness .

But if there is only one breve left , i t wil l make thelast long imperfect . ”

Now concern ing semibreves, the rules are the same

as for breves ; but more than three semibreves cannot beconta ined in a brevis recta . Of these three sem ibreveseach is ca l led m inor ; it is the least part of a recta brevis.

And if the breve conta ins two sem ibreves , the fi rst iscal led minor , the second major, for it conta ins two

minors.

”

100

Influence of Neumes

The a ccentuation of the m inor and major semibreves depended on thei r position with rega rd to the

longer note that preceded or fo l lowed them .

I t is unnecessa ry to quote the rules for semibreves , as they a rrive at the same result a sthose for breves , everything being a rranged so as to

produce triple measure.

In the sixth chapter Franco treats of the Pli ca (Fig . 7 ,

p . which is the epiplionus and cepha l icus of the

neumes.

1 He and h is contempo ra ries had not a rriveda t the idea that a syllable which begins on a highand ends on a low sound , or vice verse, is sung to

two or more notes ; under the influence of the neumati cnotation , they considered that the sound was all one ,

that i t began low and ended high , or that i t movedup and down , and must therefore be represented by onefigure, . or, as theysa id , by one note. Hence a rose a ll

the troublesome compli cations of the l igatures, the

proper translation of which is exceedingly puzzl ing .

Franco begins h is chapter on this subject thus“ The pl ica is a note in which the same sound is

u

I

(

31v1ded 1nto h 1gh and low.

0

The pl1ca mayThe Pl ica

e a long , a breve , or a sem1breve i t

is not two short notes , but one single note proceedingupwards or downwards.

The semibreve pl i ca cannot occur in simple figures ,but it is poss ible in l igatures , as will appear later .Plicas are ascending or descending. The long pl ica isa square figure having an ascending line on its right ,

1 See p . 60.

1 0 1

Story of Notation

with a shorter one on its left ; and from these two

l ines comes its name plica ”— folded together . (SeeFig . 7 , p .

The descending long plica has two l ines , the rightbeing longer than the left . In the a scending shortplica the left-hand l ine is the longer , and in the descending short , the left is a lso the longer. And note tha tthe pli cas have the same powers and va lues as the

simple notes described above .

”

W e now come to the Ligatures (Fig. whicha rose directly from the porrectus, the torcu lus, the

cl imacus, and sa l icas of the neumes , as shownin Fig. 3 , p . 55. The reader will remember

tha t a thick oblique l ine in a l igature merely representstwo notes , which , as Morley says , l stand at the

beginning and the end of the l ine .

Let u s now see wha t Franco has to say about l igatures ; and we must observe that from here he uses theword punctus, po int , ” to indicate wha t we should ca l lthe notes , for nota andfigu ra mean the complete l igature

a continuous sound runn ing over two or moredegrees of the sca le .

An ascending l igature is one in which the secondpo int is higher than the first . ” Here we meet with oneof the most compl icated and strange pa rts of the teaching, so involved that i t is a marvel that any one coulds ing at sight in those days .

Ligatures are either with propriety , without pro

Ligatures

1 Pla in and E asy Introduction to Pract ica l M usic,1597. Page 10

of reprint , 1 77 1 .1 02

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Story of Notation

whi ch bears a l ine rising from its first point , is withopposed propriety ’ — tha t is , its two first notes afesemibreves .

“ But there is no essentia l d 1fference,1n

the m iddle of the l iga ture , a ll the notes of which are

short . ”The rules for the fina l note of the l igature now

fol low , and for the sake of brevity they may be epito

mised : when the last note is long , the l igature is sa idto be /

“ with perfection ”

; when short , it is “withoutperfection The last note is long if it stands imme

d iately over its predecessor , or if i t stands under it andseparated from i t . I t is short if it stands obliquelyover or under its predecessor , and joined to it . Witha rising or fa l l ing line jo ined to the right-hand sideof the last note of the l igature , i t is sa id to be plicated ,

”

and if, being plicated , the last note is not joinedto its predecessor , it is a long ; if pl icated and joined , i tis a breve .

Gu ilielmus , the monk, give

i

s

ii

a table of l igatures(Cou ssemaker , Scr iptores, vol . . p . 276) marked withthe letters L for long

,b for breve , m for maxima ,

s for semibrevis, which , a l lowing for probable sl ips of

the pen , agrees fa i rly wel l with the above rules .

Rests (Fig . 7 ) have now to be considered . A perfectlong rest , of the va lue of three times , is an upright l ine

covering three spaces . An imperfect longrest covers two spaces. A breve rest , con

ta in ing only one time , covers one space . A majorsem ibreve rest covers the upper ha lf of a space. The

m inor sem ibreve rest (minima) covers the lower ha lf of

Rests

1 04

Plica,Ligatures , and Rests

F i t! . 7

Pl i ca .

Ascendi fllzong“8ii Short

Descending

DescendingLigatures.

Rests .

perfecl‘

l ong. Imperfect Brcve.MajorSemlbMinor.

Semimini'

ma. Croma. Semicroma.. Endwl’etiod

105

Story of Notation

a space. The end of the period is indica ted by an

unmeasured rest , extending above and below the

stave.

And note , says Franco ,

“ tha t rests have a mar

vel lons power ; for by them the moods are interchangedamong themselves .

Thus far Franco . W e have quoted from him first ,because he is clea rer than others ; the whole matter

had probably become fa i rly settled by h isChanges Of time W e will now see what his preTempo decessors have to say. The author ofwere u sed

Encni rzadis, Hu cba ld or Odo , in whosebefore

Measuredclay. measured mu5 1c had not yet a ri sen ,

Music was nor the necess ity for i t , is quite a l ive to the

invented importance of s low and rapid tempo : for heremarks tha t not only the pitch but a lso

the rapidity of the song must be va ried according to

the season ; but tha t the singers must a lways a ttendto the enunciation of the neumes , which must be sunga t a suitable pace , and neither with tedious slowness ,nor with such irreverent haste as to sound like the ba rkof a dog. But at this time the rhythm ,

which consistedof groups of syllables and of neumes , was unmeasured :i t was l ike the prose rhythm of the Psa lms and otherpoetry in the Bible .

R iemann supposes tha t the old free rhythm began to

give way to the measured musi c described by Francoin the eleventh and twelfth centuries

, and tha t the“ moods ” formed the sta rting-po int of the new teaching. The o ldest writers on measured musi c are

1 06

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Story of Notation

have measurable musi c is that which is measured bythe measure of one or many Ul tra mensu ram

is sa id of notes which are of less va lue than one, or of

more va lue than two “ times ,”

such as a succession of

three semibreves ; and i t must be observed that everynote of pla insong is long and u ltra mensu ram , s ince i tconta ins the measure of three “ times ,

” that is to say

when it is joined to discant : for i t was stil l unmeasuredif sung a lone.

Johannes de Garlandia mentions six moods , dividingthat described by Franco (page 94) as No . 1 into two , and

giving different numbers from Franco . He

says that other tea chers add other moods .

He speaks of a recta brevis as conta iningone time , a recta longa as conta in ing two

rectw breves, an oblique long , which is

greater than a recta longa , a double long , which con

ta ins severa l longs in itself, and a long which turnsi tself towards higher and lower sounds a l igature ,or, in modern parlance , a legato passage. He dividesthe moods into perfect and imperfect; describes the

l igatures , with propriety , without propriety , and withopposed propriety

,with and without perfection ; the

plicated ligatures , etc . The chapter on Ligatures iswith a ll these writers long and obscure : if only theycould have foreseen the s imple modern use of the legatos ign , how much trouble they would have saved themselves and us

The Rest , he tel ls u s , is a division of the sound , madein due proportion . Rests are s imple and compound .

1 08

Johannes de Garlandia

S imple rests are those which cause a cessation of

sound a ccording to the va lue of some mood or manner ,and they may be perfect or imperfect . The

perfect rest does not change the mood , butthe imperfect changes i t (from trocha i c to iambic ,A compound rest is double or triple or quadruple ,etc. W e should say that there were rests during twoor three or four ba rs , etc . He gives the same forms

for rests as Franco (pageThe division of the moods is a l ittle perpendi cular

stroke placed below any l ine ; i t is sup D‘

fposed to be shorter than the rest for the “1 18 1

1811

2321D ivision of the syllables is the same— it occurs a lso

in man la inson MS S . in s uare notationy p g qDiv ision of

to show the musi ca l , not the verba l syllables, Syl lablefor groups of notes were ca l led syllables.

A suspiratio he describes as an“appa rent and non

existent rest , shorter than a recta brews.

”

Having expla ined the notation , he shows how i t isused for discant . The tenor is , he says , ca l led the firstpart , the discant the second part . The

fi rst part has to be considered in threeways : as to melody , as to the number of points 1 i t conta ins , and as to the mood or disposition of long and

short notes . As to the second pa rt, the discant , wehave to consider in three ways a lso : as to the numbe r ofnotes, which , though differing in quantity , must be together of equa l value to those in the tenor as to mood ,

1 l .c. , single notes.

IO9

Discant

Story of Notation

which must agree with that of the tenor ; and as to con

cordance, that the two pa rts sound wel l together . And

to obta in colour when two po ints are taken with oneof the tenor , either may be a discord . All authorsa l low this l i cence, which often occurs in the organum ,

K ITHARA. a , ITS PLECTRUM.

and especia l ly in motets . The

Tr zplum1 is a third pa rt added

to the discant . He describesthe recta longa as a squa re witha ta il , the dupla or superabundanslonga as double the length of

the first , and the plica , whichdiffers in severa l respects fromthe pli ca of Franco .

W e occasiona l ly read of the

sums pa i d to priests who couldorgan ise and s ing in triplum

and quadruplum . Du Cangequotes a passage from the

N ecrologium , or buria l registerof Pa ris of the th i rteenthcentury , an order for the clerks

who sha l l s ing the Al lelu ia in organum ,triplum

, or

quadruplum, to receive s ixpence ; and another passageorders that the four organ isers of the Alleluia receivetwopence each .

2

1 Angl ice, treble, tribble, quatrible.2 Burney, vol . i i . p. 1 36.

1 1 0

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Story of Notation

of destruction, a very great number must have been

written ; and we know that the composers , especia l lyNumbers Englishmen , were numerous and held in

of Mu sical great esteem at th i s t ime. There i s an

Treatises old and exploded tradition that countermu st have po int began in England . There is this muchbeen foundation for it that part s inging was

p roduced strenuously cultivated in England , and , at avery early epoch , reached a high degree of perfection .

The famous canon ,

“ Sumer is icumen in ,

” composed byJohn of Reading in 1 250 , cannot be a single

i seffort ; i t must have been preceded by hundreds of s im i la r compos itions , or it couldnot have reached so high a standa rd of de

velopment . I t is one of the “ rondels and common

songs ” referred to byJohannes of Garlandia , who , speaking of the “ colour produced by florification of the

notes , says , “Repetition of the same note is a co lour bywhich the hea ring is pleased ; and we u se th is kindThe

of ornament in rondels and common songs .

CommonS tudents of modern counterpoint wil l reca l l

Songs were the prohibition of repetition of a note, an

p robably outcome of mediaeva l teach ing . I t is probnot often able that few of the rondels were writtenwritten down . The priests , who were busy inventdOW h ing a notation on theologica l l ines , wouldnot be very eager to make u se of it for what theyregarded as worldly mus i c

,and as such , opposed to the

Church ; and the common musi cians , the Troubadours ,M innesingers , Meistersingers , etc . , mostly sang thei r

1 1 2

Sumer

icumen

in n

Magister de Garlandia

songs by hea rt , and appear to have extemporised , inEngland , at a ll events , a kind of pa rt-singing in thirdsca l led Gymel , and in thirds and sixths ca l led Fauxbou rdon . R iemann derives the curious word Gymelfrom Gemellum— twin-song .

A second Magister de Garlandia , who l ived a centurylater than Johannes , uses the word “ propriety ” withregard to the position of the song on the

gamut . “There are in every song three pro The ThreePi tches at

pri eti es , lq or 6 square, 6 mol le, and natura l .wh ich a

W e know the h because i t begins on F , orsong cou ld

gamma-a t, and ends with E , or i t begins be sungwith G sol re a t and ends with e . B mol le

we know because i t begins with F and ends with d .

The natura l p ropriety we know because i t begins withC

n

In pla insong four l ines are drawn because thereare only seven notes ; but in cantus mensu rabil is five

l ines are drawn because n ine notes are re

quired for the cantus organ icus in motetsand elsewhere .

” Although pla insong usesnow, and from the time of Guido has used ,four l ines , the added parts have used three ,four , five , six , or any number that the composer hasthought fit .Wa lter Odington , monk of Evesham , wronglydescribed as Archbishop of Canterbury,flourished in 1 275. His treatise ca l led De

Wa lter

OdingtonSpecu lati one Muszcce i s mostly mathemati ca l ,and he gives the ancient Greek notation . He describes

1 1 3

Story of Notation

the claves , our clefs , as s igns which inform u s of the

names of the notes , for without them we should not

know the notes. He seems to be the first to divide thesemibreve into three parts, the new note being cal ledM inima .

The first Garlandia and an anonymous writer cal l inghimself Aristotle , whom Coussemaker places as about

contempora ry with Franco of Cologne, are

among the first who speak of Musica fa lsa .

Aristotle says, “ Now the question a rises ,Wha t necessity is there to make rules about fa lse musi cor fa lse mutation ? For wha t is fa lse ought not tobe regulated , but what is true : fa lse musi c and fa lsemutation are , however , not without thei r use , butare, on the contra ry , necessary to produce good con

sonances.

W e say that musi c becomes fa lse when we changea tone to a semitone, or a semitone to a tone. I t isnot , however , rea l ly fa lse, but changed , and i t is doneby placing the sign t; quadra tum, or b rotundum, in the

place that is to be changed .

”

But Garlandia is more explicit : Fa lse mus i c , whichis very necessa ry for instruments , especia l ly for the

organ , occurs when we use a sem itone for a tone and

the reverse. Every tone may be divided into two sem itones , therefore the number of signs which indicate thesemitone may be increased in a ll the modes.

”

Wa lter Odington says , “ The two b’

s belong to

the monochord ; the other a lterations are ca l led bymusicians fa lsa musica , not because they conta in any

1 14

False

Music

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Story of Notation

the dominant , a fifth above\

the key ; for instead of

destroying our leading note , we introduce a new

one , the upper tetrachord of the first keybecoming the lower of the new key.

The tendency to modulate to the sub

dominant before the dom inant is noticeablethroughout the compos itions of the fifteenth and six

teenth centuries. The predom inance of the leadingnote in ha rmony during the ea rly seventeenth centurycaused the change to the modern tendency towa rds thedom inant. Perhaps an example will make th is clea rer.Example of transposition of the sca le of C major onthe monochord .

Modu lation

to the

Dominant

The tetrachord A becomes the upper ha lf of the

transposed scale ; the b rotundum of the monochordpractica lly enforces transpos ition to the subdominant ,and suggests modulation thereto .

Modern use

Here the tetrachord A becomes the lower ha lf of the

new sca le ; and the “ fa lse music , F sharp , which wasnot conta ined on the monochord , a l lows of upwardinstead of downward transpos ition and modulation.

1 1 6

Ru les of False Mu sic

After the b rotundum had been used for the note E ,

the b quadratum was used to contradict it ; and whena fa lse note was required between C and D ,

F and G , etc . , the b quadra tum was used forthis purpose, and cal led diesis. I t afterwa rdsbecame a double cross (see Fig . 8 , p .

ca l led crux , and fina l ly took the shape fami l ia r to us .

The modern German name for sharp is Kreue , mean inga cross , while the French ca l l i t diese. Both na tionsa lso preserve the ancient expression quadratum— ln

French , becarre’

, squa re, German , quadrat for ou r

natura l .Fa lse musi c was not usua l ly written for some

centuries , because i t was not on the monochord ; and

the singers had to lea rn by rule how to

introduce it . The rules were fa i rly simple.

At first it was used to correct an aug

mented fourth or dim in ished fifth ; later ,as ha rmony developed , i t was introducedto form a perfect or complete clausu la ,

our close, the note below the keynote being ra ised a

semitone if necessary ; or , in the mediaeva l expression ,

i t introduced the interva l m i fa into the

perfect close i f it was not there a l ready .

But supposing for any reason , by an ex

ception to the rule , an F or C or any othernote were not to be sung sha rp

, a flat was

written before or over them ; while if Bor E or other note were not to be flattened in the

singing , a sharp was placed before them . An unwritten1 1 7

Story of Notation

sharp or flat was to be sung ; a written one di d,

not

a lter the note . These rules hold good for continenta l

Fi n . 8 .

{has

i a a

lEl

rt: l=l not

7Semihrevis 0 D

Minim'

a

Cracheta

Semimlrfima

Diesis surnamesDoubleSham't x

'

x as x

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Story of Notation

The same treatise shows a“ pli cated semibreve

when three sem ibreves are used with one syllable .

This is a lso given by Petrus de Cruce and otherwriters. Its form is this : 0 J . A new term occurs

in De Handlo’

s treatise, the semilonga ,whose figure , however , is the same as

that of the long. The duplex lo nga is of the va lueof six times if standing a lone, but of fivetimes if preceded or fol lowed by a breve.

Handlo gives Franco’

s rules in the form of a

dia logue between himself and Franco and others , andadds rules of h is own ,

and of h is contempora ries. He

speaks of minora tw semibreves, diminishedsem ibreves , which are formed like min imas ,

that is , with a ta i l In this treatisewe find

, as we should expect , all the

complicated rules about l igatures .

The next author in Coussemaker’

s col lection is

another Englishman ,Johannes Hanboys or Hambois

or Hamboys , whom Hol inshed describes as

“an excel lent musi cian, and for h is notablecunn ing therein made Doctor of Musi c . ”

He compla ins that Franco has not given enoughexplanations. He invents two new notes ,

The

Crotchetthe crocbeta

,l i ke a m in ima ,

. but havmga shorter ta i l , and the larga , l ike a duplex

longa , but having two ta ils (see Fig . 8 , p .

The LargaThe larga conta ined n ine longa

sif stand

i ng by i tself, but longas stand ing beforeor after it were subtracted from its va lue. Thus ,

Semi longa

Dup lex

longa

1 20

De Muri s the Norman

says Hamboys , i f a larga is perfect , i t conta ins3 double longs , 9 longs , 27 breves , 8 1semibreves , 243 m inor semibreves , 7 29semiminors , m inimas. What a com

pli cated time-table for cho i r-boys to learn !There seem to have been two writers of the name

of De Muris ; one , ca l led Johannes or

Julianus , was made Rector of Pa ris Uni De Muris

versity in 1 350 , and the other , Johannesde Muris , ca l led the Norman , seems to have studiedin Paris , but l ived and taught at Oxford .

Johannes the Norman wrote a wo rk cal led Spec ulumMusicw in 1 3 2 1 , treating , amongst other things , of

the whole system of Greek musi c with its notation ,

and of the notation of h is own time , and herehis treatise is of great va lue . He mentions a kindof notation in which a s tave of four l ines is drawnover the words , and instead of notes a lphabetica l letters are placed on the l ines and Combina

spaces . He says that this is preferable to

the old Greek notation which he has just Na

,

"otati ondescribed , but that it has the disadvantage with Stave

of not showmg the t ime va lue of the a lphabetical letters , therefore i t can on ly be used for pla insong . For mensurable musi c he says the squa re notationis necessa ry , and proceeds to describe it , saying thatGuido invented it , which , however , he did not , for Guidoknew noth ing of measured music . Johannes devotesChapter I X . of his seventh book to an interesting description of the incompetent singers of his day. W e

1 2 1

Story of Notation

1 2 2

h a v e s een t h a tGuido had muchto say on thismatter ; and it isan everrecurrings u b je c to f c o m p l a i n t .“ There a re s ingers , De Murissays , “ who havethe impudence to

s ing , and to com

pose discant , whenthey know abso

lu tely nothing of

the nature of con

son a n c e s ; wh o

cannot distinguishbetween major andm ino r concords ,who are ignoranto f m a ny o t h e rthings necessary toknow , who sing a

discant in such a

manner above the

tenor , that if bychance they suc

ceed in making it

Mediaeva l

Singers

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Story of Notation

they make too much use of imperfect semibreves , whichthey ca l l minims , and instead of the old organised

songs, the conductus, the motets, the double ,contra , double and triple hokets , they insertin thei r motets things that are subtle and

d ifli cu lt to sing . I t is evident that De

Muris was laudator tempor is acti,and was

much troubled , l ike many a one before and after him ,

by the innovations which were being brought into the

growing art of discant .He objects to the division of the sem ibreve.

“ The

ancients say i t is indivisible , while the moderns say i t isnot , and they ca l l its divisions m in imas .

”

ConfuswnConcern ing the figure of the semibreve , he

if! h' says there is great dissension some out it

eac ingin ha lf, others ha lf fi l l it , others place a ta i l

above or below it , others make i t l ike a dragma .

1

Those who u se semiminims or semiminores bend theta i l to the right ; ” and he gives a most confusing listof the various names used by different writers to ln

dicate the same th ings , showing that the notation wasfar from being settled as yet .He devotes a long chapter to the discussion of

whether the pli cated sem ibreve should have its ta i lattached to the obtuse or the a cute angle , and he objectsto

“ the modem s, who u se single sem ibreves , which isrepugnant to nature ; for semi is ha lf, and i t requirestwo ha lves to make a whole. He , l ike many a modernmusician , compa res the old s imple music with the more

1 See Fig. 8, p . 1 18. The Dragma is a lozenge with four tai ls.1 24

Mediaeval Time S ignatu res

d ifli cu lt and subtle mus i c of his day to the disadvantageof the latter ; and his writings Show tha t mus i c wasadvancing .

“ Some moderns , he says , “ considerthose who do not cultivate the new art to be un

cultured , uneducated , unlea rned , and ignorant ; and

they look upon the old art as ba rbarous , i rra tiona l ,but the new as exquisite and ra tiona l . Ought tha t tobe ca l led exquisite in which the effect of good con

cordance is lost , the measure is confounded , the wordsare not hea rd

“ The old mensurable art was sl ight and clea r compa red with modern . For the moderns u se many rulesfor thei r longs and breves and sem ibreves :and because there are many moods in thei rs inging , some of them pla ce a round circle V

iifs

oiiito show perfect time , because the ci rcle is a

and N ewperfect form . Thus Styles

But others place three upright strokes to showperfect time . Thus

And these strokes must cover l ines and part of thespaces to distinguish them from those which representrests . And he who uses this teaching excla ims loudlyaga inst those who do not , ca l l ing them ignorant anduncultured .

“ And to show Perfect Mood they use three l inesenclosed in a quadrangle (see Fig . 9 , p .

And for Imperfect Mood two l ines in a quadrangle(Fis

1 25

Story of Notation

But others use two ha lf-circles for Imperfect Mood(Fig .

H Q . 9 .

Time S ignatu res.

M0 0 Ci Va lué ofMeasurePerfect Major Minor

fi flfllP"

Maj or Minor

Time

Prolaf ion.

IFPP

IPP IAnd by such signs they denote Time and Mood ,

and they cannot denote one without the other .1 26

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Story of Notation

to suppress the innovations under severe pena l ties .

“ Some disciples of the new school , ” i t was sa id ,while they apply themselves to measured times ,

introduce new notes, prefer thei r own toObjections the ancient chant the Church musi c is sungto the 0 0 0 0 o o

in sem ibreves and m inims , and 18 k i l led wi thN ew Art l ittle notes . They intersect the melodieswith hoquets , sl ide about in discant , and sometimes

even load and crowd the chants with trsZa and common

motets.

”

But John of

Sa l isbury , a cen

tury and a ha lfpreviously , hadcompla ined thatthe rites of re

ligion were profaned by mus i c ,a n d t h a t th e

s t u p i d crowd ,del ighted withall these vagaries , imaginedtha t they hearda c on c e r t o f

PERFORMERS on LYRES (GREEK) . S i rens , in W hichthe performers

strive to imitate the notes of n ightinga les and parrots ,not those of men .

1

1 Burney, vol. 11. p. 149.

1 28

Scandalou s S inging

The times were ba rba rous , and there is no doubt tha twhile the more ea rnest musi cians were striving to

improve the new a rt , many of the singers were doingthei r best to bring obloquy upon it by thei r scandaloussinging .

1 29

CHAPTER VI I I .

Marchettus of Padua mentions d iscrepancies between I tal ian and Frenchteaching—Red notes—Confusion of rules—Philip of Vitry—Rest s-Points of d ivision , perfection , addi t ion , and demonstrationPhilip of Caserta—Prosdoscimus de Beldemandis —ProlationMood— Time -Hothby

—Pietro Aaron revol ts against ternarymeasurement—Decay of the ternary division—Zarl ino—MorleyThe beating of t ime ca l led arsz

'

s and t/zesz'

s is derived from the

motions of the pulse— Syncopation—The scale of twelve semitonesin the octave t e-established on keyboard instruments—D iffi cul tiescaused by it— Introduction of wri t ten accidentals—Early keysignatures — Sharps used to contradict flats and vice ven d

Double sharps and flat s.

MARCHETTUS of Padua distinguishes between mus i c andmathematics thus : “ I f it is asked wha t is the most

perfect in numbers , two or three, we shouldsay two ; but if it is asked which is the mostperfect in musi c , two or three , we should

say three , for three conta ins two .

” He distinguishesDiscre_

between French and I ta l ian teaching

p anciesif of two notes one is ta i led , then ,

a ccordbetween ing to the I ta l ians the ta i led note , whetherFrench and it is the first or the second , conta ins threeIta l ian times , the unta i led only one ; thus 7 0 is

SChOOIS equiva lent not to Fr but Fr Accord1 30

Marchettus

of Padua

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Phil ip of Caserta says that if a man has not the

wherewitha l to write red notes , he may leave themempty . Syncope , says Vitry , is the divisionNotes to be of any figure into sepa rate pa rts

, as a perfectleft an long into three breves , an imperfect long intocoloured i f

the writertwo breves .

h as noRests are of different va lues , according

paintto the number of spaces they cover : thusa rest covering one space is of the va lue of

one time , two spaces two times , and so on ; but if arest covers four spaces i t is unmeasurable . A rest

descending from a l ine and covering half aspace is worth a semibreve , and that which

rises from a l ine and covers ha lf a space is a m1n1m

rest : the last two are of course ou r semibreve and

m in im rests.

He describes four points. I t wil l be remembered tha tformerly notes were ca l led po ints , but the po int here

a l luded to is what we now ca l l a dot . The

four po ints are of division , of perfection , ofaddition , and of demonstration . W e have

a l ready described on page 97 the sign which afterwa rdsbecame the po int of division , and whose modern repre

sentative is the bar-l ine , and on page 99 the po int of perfection ,

which made perfect threefold) tha t whichwould otherwise be twofold , and is ou r dot after a note .

“ The point of demonstration is placed above a m in imin major prolation , 1 and it is doubled , so that the m in imstands under two dots , and after that minim one or

1 Major prolat ion is equivalent to our three minims in a bar.1 3 2

Points orDots

Double-tailed Notes

more sem ibreves must fo l low ,and after the semibreves

two more m in ims, and i t is necessa ry that e ither thefirst or the last m in im must have the po ints of demon

stration , the object of which is to show that thesem ibreves must be sung slowly I t seems to be an

elementa ry method of showing a n'

tczrdana’

o.

“ The

point of addition is placed behind a semibreve in majorprolation , and such semibreve must be fol lowed by a

m in im and s ince the po int causes a m1n1m to be addedto the semibreve , i t is ca l led the po int of addition .

This aga in results in our“ dot after a note ”

; the

semibreve without a po int , fol lowed by a m inim , would ,according to rule, be duple , but the point of additioncauses i t to keep its threefold va lue.

Phil ip of Caserta doubles the ta i ls of m in ims to makethem equa l to an imperfect semibreve ; he doubles theta i ls and leaves the notes empty to make

M inimsthree m inims equa l to four (a tri plet) ; and W i th Twowhen the lower ta i l has a hook , four minims Ta ilsare equa l to six .

1 The reader wil l reca l lmany instances of simi la r temporary changes in moderninstrumenta l musi c . But Phil ip of Caserta goes on to

introduce considerable compl ications. Thus , he addsan

“empty circle ”

to a note and makes four m in ims

equa l in va l ue to n ine ; he introduces a ha lf-empty anddouble-ta i led m in im equa l to a m inim and a ha lf, whilethree empty min ims with s ingle ta i ls are equa l to two.

2

In Prosdoscimu s de Beldemandis we find the

D i rect ” at the end of each stave , to show the

1 See Fig. 8 , p. 1 18.

2 Fig. 8 .

I 3 3

S tory of Notation

reader the first note of the next stave , and in mediaeva lt imes this was very necessa ry , since the clefs were

The Directever changing thei r lines . I t was a lmostun iversa l unt i l recent t imes , and was requ i red

so late as 1 896 in the exercises for degrees at Oxford ;a curious surviva l of a practice the use for which haddisappea red .Prosdoscimus compla ins that , whereas the I ta l ianshave given up using all “ po ints ”

except that of divis ion ,

the Ga l l i c music ians stil l u se many , and i tConfu si on

is difficult to know a t first sight wha t effectm use

the po int has . He a lso compla ins tha t theyof Dots have a great number of d i fferent ways of

showing mood and time,whereas the I ta l ians use

s impler methods .

Prolation was afterwa rds added to mood and time.

As mood meant one long or its va lue in a bar, and time

meant the breve or its va lue in a bar , pro

lation meant the semibreve or its va lue in a

bar, and i t must be understood tha t we use the word

bar merely to make the matter clea r to the reader froma modern point of view. The u se of bar-l ines beganabout 1 600 , and was an outcome of the tablatures , tobe described later. The mood was divided into majorand m inor, so that there were

Prolation

Major perfect mood in a bar

M inor perfect moodMajor imperfect moodM inor

three longsthree brevestwo longstwo breves

1 34

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In Pietro Aaron ’s l ucida rio, 1 545, we find a revol t

aga inst the old threefoldmeasurements underThe m ”

“Ex l t' f h 1 11 d

wieldy 01d p anao

ion o t e mnswa t ime ca e

Teach ingnatura l , ” in W t h he brings a rguments to

begins to show that musi cians are right in ca l l inggive way binary time natura l , “ in which opinion the

before lea rned John Spada ro agrees . The bookmore en was part of a dispute with Gafori , a

l ightened representative of the old teaching.

i deasThe rules are col lected by Zarlino in h is

[ stzta tzbni armonzc/ze, 1558 , lest they should be lost , andby Thomas Morley in h is P la in ana

7E asy Introduction

to P ractica l Music, 1 597 . Z arlino says that pla insongis made without any va riation of time, whence it isca l led fixed song , canto fermo, as distinguished frommeasured mus i c . 1He speaks of metri ca l musi c , which is measured inverse-metre , and which can be instrumenta l as wel l as

voca l . He says tha t each note , beginningB inarY with the maxima , is double the va lue oftakes the the next below it . This is a great stepp lace Of

in advance of the old writers , who a lwaysNote began with describing the threefold va lue,

ca l led Perfection , and treated the twofo ldva lues as of seconda ry consideration , being

Imperfect . ” Z arlino says that they are a lso of otherva lues in perfect time .

Div ision

1 In England a distinct ion was made between Plainsongand Pricksong, ” the latter referring to the notes, which were pricked on the

parchment .1 36

Decline of Mediaeval Teaching

He considers that the Breve is the motherand beginn ing of a ll the other notes , s ince the

Maxima and Longa were invented after it . Herewe aga in have the old Greek theory of a

“ Prima rytime.

”

Of the three expressions Mood , Time, Prolation , he

says that he intended to om i t them when he began towrite, as being unnecessa ry ; but s ince some

modern musi cians might l ike to read someThe 9 ”

Learn ingancrent Canti lena , he expla ins them . HIS

diswords show. that they had gone out of

appearingpra ct i ca l use i n h i s day in favour of the twofo ld note va lues as we know them .

“ I f, he says ,the modern composer should not number his canti lena

a ccording to the Moods, he could real ly say that thema tter was of l ittle account , and that he had no knowledge of such things .

”

The time and prolation signs, he says , were ancientlycut by a perpendicula r l ine to make the pace double , sothat a breve became a sem ibreve and so on ; or , as he

says , cutting the signature was the same a s makingthe open notes black

,which reminds u s that i t had

been discovered in the s ixteenth century that both time

and ink were saved by leaving the maxima , long , breve ,and sem ibreve open (see Fig. 8 , p .He gives a long description of the beat , which isderived from the pulse , and is shown by ra ising and

lowering the hand : leva tio, up-beat ; positio,

The Beatdown-beat ; or in Greek , a rsis and thesis.

Time was indicated by the ra ising and lowering of the

I 37

Story of Notation

foot by the Greeks , hence the word foot for a

poetica l measure. Of syncopation , Zarlino says i t cannot be recogn ised without a knowledge of the beat , andhe proceeds to describe it in the form i t is known to u s ;

thus , for instance, he says a note is syncopated whichcommences on an up

-bea t and is a lso subjectto the down-beat ; i t consciously breaks thetime and measure , and many songs become

confused by too much syncopation . Morley ca l ls the

bea t a“stroke , ” which he says is a motion of the

hand . The more stroke comprehendeth

the time of a Briefe , the lesse, the time of a

S em ibriefe .

” He describes the nota tionunder the name of the La rge, the Long ,the Briefe , the S emibriefe, M in im , C rotchet ,

Quaver , Semiquaver , and expla ins the l igatures , Moods ,Time , and Prolation at considerable length , though hesays that thei r knowledge is pra ctica l ly lost . Those

who within these three hundreth yeares haveMOt IeY

hwritten the Arte of Musicke , have set downe

t ethe Moodes otherwise than they have been

the Oldor are taught now in England . Al

though it be hard to assigne the cause, yetmaywe conjecture that a lthough the greate

Musicke Ma isters who excelled in fore time , no doubtwere wonderful ly seene in the knowledge thereof, as

wel l in speculation as practice ; yet s ince thei r deaththe knowledge of the a rte is decayed , and a more s l ightor superficiall knowledge come in steede thereof : so thatit is come nowadayes to that , that if they know the

Teach ing

1 38

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Story of Notation

The keyboard instruments had by this time twelve notesto the octave , and the tablatures used on ly one s ign for aflat and a sha rp ; but musi c ians were much exercisedover the necessity of making one sound do for two .

W e have seen that the crux was placed betweenany two notes , and was looked upon as a sort of conjunction the b rotundum could a lso be placed betweenany two notes , and the b guaa’rum, ou r natura l , wasused to contradict b rotundum ,

while 6 rotundum itselfcontradicted the sha rp . But unfortunately they wereseldom written , s ince the singers were expected to knowthe rules of thei r appli cation .

“ Fa lse musi c ought not to be indicated , sa id an

anonymous writer. In Pla insong the sha rp wasnever lawfully adm itted , though in some

The Sharp ra re cases i t ma b e and i t was noty e se n ,

was notrequ ired

requ i red as long as Pla insong was sungin Plain in un ison . E flat was admitted for pursong

poses of transpos ition only ; the other flatswere not a l lowed . But an occasiona l sha rp

crept into the Pla insong : one finds i t very sl ightlyindicated in the form of an elongated natura l insome MSS .

With rega rd to the measured musi c , we find thatwhile the German and Netherland music ians werevery chary of writing an a ccidenta l sha rp or flat ,

the I ta l ians and French , on the contra ry , whenonce they began , used them far more freely ; and i tappears that they were governed not so much bythe effect of the chords produced , as by the melodic

1 40

Eitner’

s Ru les for False Mu s ic

effect of the single parts. This is quite in keepingwith the origina l sense of counterpo int ,which is melody aga inst melody , rather French and

It 1‘

than a successi on of pleasant sound ing“jig?

chords . Herr E itner has gathered the were more

fol lowing rules in addition to those we l iberal in

have mentioned on p . 1 1 7 , from an ana lys is of wri tinglater music z l—What are ca l led changing Fa lse

notes , i .a. , a note standing a S ingle degree Mu SiC than

above or below and between two notes of their

the same name , are genera l ly to be made northern

semitones ; that where a note is undoubtedly contemporari es

a leading note , it must be ra ised by a sharpor natura l ; where the dominant in the bass is preceded by the note next above it (the sixth) ,this note must be lowered by a flat ; everyha lf or ful l close ends with a major chord ;the answer of a fugue or imitation pre

serves the same interva ls as the subject ,so long as the tona l ity is not disturbed .

The sharps and flats gradua l ly found a place at the

beginning of the stave , with the time signature. In

ea rly days both 5 rotundum and b quadratum had been used a s clefs . When key

s ignatures began to be used in the end of

the s ixteenth and beginn ing of the seventeenth century ,they were natura l ly not so methodica l ly applied as now.

For example, if there were two F’

s or two C’

s in a

1 Robert E i tner in Monatsbqfte o’er Musik Gesc/zicfite, vol. xx.

p . 76.

14 1

Story of Notat ion

stave, each would be provided with a sha rp , so that

the key of G had this signature that of

of D and so on . Another

peculiarity of early key signatures which we sometimes

find in the beginn ing of the eighteenth century is theomission of the last sha rp or flat , so thatthe key of E flat would be provided with a

s ignature of two flats only , that of A withtwo sharps , the last flat or sha rp being

indicated where necessa ry by an accidenta l . Thispractice probably a rose at a time when the importanceof key relationships was not yet recogn ised , and was

continued in some remote pa rts as a time-honouredcustom .

With regard to accidenta ls , there is not even to-dayun iversa l consensus of Opin ion , and severa l d is

crepancies of usage may be discovered bythose who are interested in the matter. As

long as present-day musi cians understandpresent-day usage , these discrepancies do

not matter ; and s ince no one can make rules that wil lbe accepted un iversa l ly , we must leave posterity to makeou t ou r musi c as best they can .

Accidenta ls were formerly written before every notethat was affected by them , and this practice continuedto be used by some composers , even after bars wereintroduced . W e find in Cerone di Bergamo a Sogetto

1 42

Omissions

from

Signature

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leading note in keys of many flats ; and the doubleflat , as known a t present , came into use about the

same time as the double sha rp , and , in spiteDouble

of severa l a lternat1ve proposa ls , has reFlats

ma 1ned m u se. The convent1onal contradiction of these signs by Hi) , hill, is at present beingdiscussed as unsatisfactory , and it is probable that some

new sign for this purpose will be invented in the nea rfuture ; though as long as musi cians experience no

confusion or m isunderstanding it is ha rdly l ikely thatany change will be universal ly adopted .

144

CHAPTER IX .

The tablatures Reasons for their use—The tablature makers neveradopted the ternary division of notes—Mediaeval orchestrasD ifferent tablatures in differen t countries Examples fromVirdung and Agricola — The bar-l ine nearly a lways found intablatures—The dot or point of perfection—Dot s of repetitionVarious clefs—An organ tablature book which formerly belongedto Seb. Bach— The lute tablatures fl Mace—Paulmann— Mer

sennus -Lute grace notes—Flute tablatures—I ta lian lute tablatures introduced into Spain by Narbaez—Cerone di BergamoJudenkunig—Modern revival of the principle of the tablature.

WHILE the Church musi cians were working ou t a notation for voi ces derived from the neumes , and hamperingthemselves by connecting it with the Trinity , by splittingha i rs over words ,— such as tha t s ince mzm‘

m means

sma l lest , no note could be introduced sma l ler than theminima , or tha t fa lse musi c must not be written down ,

or tha t since Pythagoras and Boeth ius saynothing aboutsha rps, they must not be a llowed , however much theyimprove the musi c , and a number of other childish re

stri ctions , —the luten ists , virgina l players , viol ists , or

ganists , and others were working ou t and making u se

of tablatures , I ta l ian Tavala tu ra ,Tabolatu ra , from the

wax tabu la or tablet used for writing. This was a

system , based on the same principle as the instrumenta l1 45 1.

Story of Notation

nota tion of the Greeks , of showing by letters or

numbers or other means the string or fret or o rgankey tha t was to be touched , rather than the

sound to be produced . W e can imaginetha t the Church notation , with its numberless rules about perfection , imperfection , its

l iga tures, and other machinery , was far tooclumsy for indica ting instrumenta l musi c ; for howeverwel l a man might be able to read a s ingle voi ce part , i tis scarcely possible that he could take in the time va luesof severa l parts together, as he would require to do forthe o rgan ,

or lute, or Clavichord . The tabla ture makersborrowed what suited them from the Church notation and

adapted it to thei r needs ; and an important feature inthei r notation is that never did they make

The notes worth three of the next in va lue, butTa l

l

ulaturea lways two , as in the ea rl iest days of voca l

R“ es weremeasured musi c . They therefore had a

a lwa ysbased on

sounder bas1s for t1me measurement to sta rtfrom ; and i t is possible that the Church

Measuremusi cians were led back to the origina lduple significations by noticing how much

more convenient the tabla ture method was than thei rown. The troubadours and minstrels of the thirteenth century , when they wrote thei r songs ,

‘ used thesquare notation of the Church , and large col

lections of them exist in this notation ; theyprobably extemporised the a ccompan iments

when s ingle instruments were used . Wha t they didwith bands of instruments , such as one sees represented

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letters were occasiona l ly used together with the neumes

to show the exact interva ls ; this was the ea rliest formof mediaeva l instrumenta l nota tion ; and we find lettersused in the organ tablatures in Germany .As was natura l in the days when intercommunica tion

was slow and diffi cult , the tabla tures were not a l ikeeverywhere ; each country , more or less ,

Different developed its own notation . Tha t the

aablatures

Church nota tion was practica l ly the same

differentthroughout Western Europe is due to the

countries fact of its emanating from one founta inhead , Rome.

The C lavichord was a descendant of the Monochord ,and was in real ity merely a col lection of monochords in

Thone frame, each of which served to produce

e

Clav ichordthree or four notes ; while in its later andimproved form each key had l ts own string .

Virdung and Agricola show a clavichord and organkeyboa rd provided with the letters used in tablaturefor these instruments , starting from F below Gamu t,

which is shown by double f ; i t omits the low f sha rp ,and is lettered thus z—g , g

°

, a , b, a pecul ia r form of

h , C, 06 , d , de, e, f! fe, g , ge, a , I) , It , 0, cc, d, de, e,

f , fe, g , ge, b, 12, cc , dd, etc .

Time-signs standing on short l ines s ign ify rests ;Time

standing over letters they signify notes.

signsThey are

A Breve or whole time , a lozenge.

A Semibreve or half time, a perpendicular stroke.

1 48

MINSTRELs’PILLAR , MARY

’S CHURCH,

BEVERLEY.

P/zoto. Messrs. Fr z tk 59° Co. ,

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F l G . IO.

Virdung’

ClavichordTablature, ]fill A.D.

Agricola Organ Score, 1529.

The same inTablature .

150

Tablatu res

dots above the double bar to indicate repetition ; and

we sha l l see that dots under notes were used later foranother object .Observe the double clef in the stave, G and dd .

This was very common , and in Agricola ’

s tablaturei t wi l l be noti ced that there are three clefs ,dd , G , and C ; while in h is “

score ”he

D

ab

?gives a clef to nearly every l ine. I t wil l 6 S

be noti ced that in the tablature he does not use the

same lettering as V irdung,but the old Guidon ian

lettering , the lowest octave being in capita ls , the

m iddle octave sma l l letters , and the highest notesdouble letters .

Grace notes are shown in the discant part of the

tablature by a stroke through the lower ta i l of notes ,as in bars four and five of Agricola ’

s organtablature ; and , though he does not say so ,

i t is probable tha t the ti lted signs in the

other parts indicate grace notes . W e sha l l see tha tMace expla ins how these grace notes are to be playedon the lute.

Agricola gives a s imi lar tablature for “ s ingle-vo i cedinstruments , such as the va rious kinds of viol and

viol in ; but in them he uses the same lettering as Virdung does for the organ ,

viz . thelowest octave underl ined , the highest overl ined , which must have gone far towards preventing an

o rgan ist from adding the vio l in or V iol to h is accom

plishments (Fig . 1 2 , p . And there was a purpose inthis , for these ancient practitioners were jea lous of the

I SI

Story of Notation

encroachment of those of other trades on thei r own ,

and,l ike the British workman of to-day, insisted that

ea ch man should sti ck to h is own instrument , and not

ea rn extra pay by pra ctising another in his leisurehours .

“The French , ” says Morley , “whowere genera l ly accounted grea t masters ,seldom or never would prick thei r lessons a s

they played them ,much less revea l anything

to the thorough understanding of the instrument .W e give examples taken from a few tablatures on ly ,with thei r translations . Hundreds of tablature-books

exist in the museums and l ibraries of

Europe , but those for stringed instrumentsare not a ll easi ly translated , as the writersra rely give the tun ing to which they refer.Severa l of these books are usua l ly exhibited

to the public in the mus ic-case of the K ing’s Libra ry inthe British Museum , amongst them being a copy of thetablature-book of Amerbach , a predecessor of SebastianBach as organ ist of S t . Thomas

’

s , Leipzig. This copybelonged to Ba ch

, and conta ins his autograph .

As the organ ist represented in tablature not the

interva ls he caused to sound , but the organ keys bepressed , so the luten ist represented the

strings and frets on which he had to placeh is fingers to produce the required effects ;

and this gave rise to certa in theoretica l diffi cultieswhich were overcome in practice on the unfrettedviol in and on the lute by playing only in a few keys .

V irdung, in expla in ing h is lute tablature , is obliged1 52

A BachAu tographin a Tabla

ta re-book

LuteTablatures

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hand , and the tabla ture is a rranged after the pictoria lhand , which has two signs to each joint.As there were severa l ways of tun ing the six upper

strings , i t was necessa ry for the player to know firstwhat tuning was intended for any parti cula r

Difficulties tablature , and added to this was a twofo ldOf the letterin —some ca l led the 0 en strin a theTablature g p g

first fret b, the second c, and so on ; othersca l led the open ing string 0, the first fret a , the second6, the third c, and so on . O thers aga in , as Mace, 1ca l l the 0pen string a , the first fret b, the second bya peculia rly shaped c, and so on toy and k ; he expla instha t he usesy instead of i .The most extraordina ry lettering is tha t of Virdung(Fig. 1 2

,p . who expla ins that he learned it from a

blind man,though he does not say how the

it!1313116 blind man wrote i t down , or read it when

an S written . This bl ind man’

s name was ConradTablaturePau lmann or Paumann . He was very cele

brated in h is day, and h is gravestone in the church ofO ur Lady at Mun ich bears the fol lowing inscription :In the yea r 1 47 3 , on the eve of the conversion of S t.Paul

,there died , and was buried here, the most a rtisti c of

1 Musick’sMonument or a Remembrancer of tlceoest Practica l Music,

bot/z D ivine and Civi l , l /zat lzas ever been known to lzave eeen in til e

Wor ld , published in 1676. Thomas Mace was a clerk of TrinityCol lege, Cambridge , who had remarkable views as to the power of

music he considers that the contemplation of concord and

discord, and the nature of the octave and un ison , wil l so strengthena man ’s fai th “ that he shal l never after degenerate into that grosssub-beastical sin of atheism.

”

1 54

Pau lmann’

s Tablatu re

a ll masters of instruments and of musi c , Master ConradPau lmann , of noble descent , of Nuremberg , and bornblind , on whom may God have mercy . ” 1Agrico la (whose work is in verse) mocks at the

idea of a blind man tea ching the tablature ; h is l inesmay be thus paraphrased I f a blind master teachesapprentices who can see , and , by leading them astray ,makes them a lso blind , they must not be aston ished ifthey get laughed a t .

” W e have copied Pau lmann’

s

tablature with exactness from the example given byVirdung (Fig . and it wil l be observed that thetranslation gives the same result as that of his exampleof clavichord tablature (p . S trings are usua llynumbered , ei ther from highest to lowest , or from lowestto highest ; but Con rad Pau lmann uses another system .

He ca l ls the lowest string the “ Grea t Brummer , ” i .e.

Grea t Growler (Virdung ca l ls i t Grea t Prummer in his

loca l dia lect) , and numbers the others from one to five.

The open “ Grea t B rummer ” is marked by the figure1 with two dots above i t , the other open strings beingshown by the figures 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. In the tablaturethe figure 2 takes the form of Z ,

and 5 is incomplete.

Now comes wha t Virdung considers a very clevera rrangement , but which results in themost hopeless compl ication . Instead of the usua l method of lettering thestr ings, the blind man letters thef rets, the first fret havinga , b, c, d , e, for the five strings respectively , beginningwith the lowest the second fret is lettered j ; g , k , i , k ;

the thi rd I, m ,n , o, p , and so on through the a lphabet .

1 Ambros, Gesc/z icbte, vol . i ii. p . 436.

I SS

Story of Notation

When he comes to a he begins aga in with aa , 66, cc,

etc . The Grea t Brummer frets are named by capita lletters , corresponding with the sma l l letters of the

string above it— thus , A ,F,L , Q ,

X,AA

, etc . The

tuning used is

Great Brummer 1

and the notes , taken a lphabetica l ly,instead of producing

a series of sem itones , as in other tablatures , have the

fol lowing extraordinary result,rem inding one of the

curious order found in the earl iest Greek instrumenta lnotation (Fig . 1 , p . 1 6)

a b c d e f g h i k

or, ifwe take the semitones successively from the openD string , they produce the fol lowing a rrangements of

letters and figures

l q 2 b g m 3

a confusion which , without lengthy explanation , i twould be hopeless to endeavour to unravel .

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gra ces ca l led the slur , the sl ide , the spinger , the sting ,the double and s ingle rel ish ; the last grace he men

tions is the soft and loud play , ” indica ted by so lo

equiva lent to the I ta l ian expressions f and p. He

ca l ls i t as great and good a grace as any other . ”The French players used ba ttefnents, ports de voix ,

passages, tremblements, ma rtelenzents, addouczssements,

fl a ttements, graces, cka rmes, ravissements,

grem b

etc . , and Pretorius gives a

N22: s imi la r l ist of I ta l ian gra ces “ which givevariety to the concert and pleasure and

del ight to the hea rers .

”The l ute was undoubtedly

cultiva ted to a high pitch of perfection , and those whohave hea rd i t played can wel l understand the cha rm i tpossessed in the days when few keys were used , and

the powerful orchestra and o rgan and modern pianofortehad not yet asserted thei r pre-em inence.

The vio ls were usua l ly in six pa rts , and a chest ofviols conta ined two basses , two tenors , and two trebles ,

the uppermost viol or viol in part beingV‘OIS ca l led the discant Thei r tablature in

England and France is on the same principle as thatof the lute ; a number of l ines are drawn equiva lent tothe number of strings , and letters placed on themto indicate the frets of the viol , or the sem itones of the

viol in . For the viol in this was simple enough as longas only the “ first position was made u se of : i t musthave had its inconven iences when the player wished toobta in a different effect by shifting . The vio l in tablature soon gave way to the u se of the “ French vio l in

1 58

W ind-Instrument Tablatures

clef, ” in which the G was placed on the middle l ine of a

five-l ine stave , while the lower instruments used thea l to ,tenor , and bass clefs . The English viol inists used

the ordina ry treble clef, as a t present .The wind instruments a lso had thei r tablatures , ofwhich we give an example (Fig. 1 2 , p . They weredivided into discant , a lto ,

tenor , bass , and thetablature , founded on the holes to be Opened(not on the sounds emitted) , wa s the same for

a ll , though its translation natura l ly va rieswith the pitch of the various instruments .

Thus , i f a ll the holes were closed on a discantflute , a s described by Virdung , the resulting sound wasthe low G in the example (Fig. while if a ll theholes of a tenor flute were closed , the result was D ;

and the same in a bass flute would result in gamutG . The Open ing of the lowest ho le was indicated bythe figure 1 ; i t resulted in A on the discant , E on the

tenor , and low A on the bass. There were no keys on

the flute , and the fingering was compl i cated . Thus thehighest f required the thumb hole ha lf open , the 6th ,

4th , 3 rd , 2nd , and I st fully open ; and the sca le is givenby lengthy numberings , such as 8 6 4 3 2 1 , 8 5 3 2 1 ,

8 5 4 3 2 1 , etc . These are contra cted into the strangeforms shown in the diagram . I t will be seen that hereaga in there is no regula r sca le order , such as one wouldexpect ; the numbers and figures proceed a ccording tothe ho les , not a ccording to the interva ls.

The I ta l ian lute tablature was made on the principleof exhibiting the strings and frets by l ines and numbers ,

I S9

Story of Notation

but it compli cated matters by , as it were , turn ingthe strings ups ide down— tha t is , the lowest l ine of

the tablature represented the highest stringof the lute ; the open strings were shownby O , the frets by the figures 1

,2, 3 , 4 , etc.

The tabla tures published in one country hadto be translated for publication in another , as if theywere books in different languages .

O rgan musi c , whether written on staves or in tablature , was cal led organ tabla ture . Thus a book recently

exhibited in the K ing ’

s Libra ry , published atOrgan

Mu sic Ven1ce m 1 549 by Anton10 Gardano , con

ca l led s isting of a five-l ine French viol in and six

Organ l ine bass stave , is ca l led Intabolatu ra

Tablature d’

O rgano ,’

and the word “ Tablatur” was

even when used in the same way in Germany .wr itten in The I ta l ian lute tablature , by numbers ,Staff was introduced into Spa in in 1 53 8 by NarNotati on baez for the Vihuela , or guita r. I t is fullydescribed in Span ish by Cerone di Bergamo , a priestand musi cian of the Roya l Chapel at Naples in 1 6 1 3 , who

expla ins that mus ic was flourishing verylittle in Spa in owing to the dea rth of

teachers and writers ; and that , havingtravel led much in that country , he foundmany young men (Mancebos) anxious to

learn , who could not do so for want of masters , thepractitioners being unable to tea ch . His book is a

complete treatise on measured musi c , and of tablatureshe says To-dav there are two sorts of tablature in

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double stops, and m isunderstand the measures, and

mix th ings up so that i t is impossible tha t any goodshould result from thei r bad fingering : if any one shouldpractise day and night , h is labour is lost , unless bethoroughly knows each letter in the tablature .

”

Mace , writing of the lute in 1 676—viz . , a century and

a ha l f after Judenkunig— seems to be reviving what wasa lmost a lost art ; the organ tablatures had long beforethis given way to staves of from five to ten l ines , whilevirgina l musi c was usua l ly written on two staves of six

l ines each .

The tablatures had the disadvantage of not showingthe interva ls , and they necessari ly differed for different

instruments . By not showing the exact interva ls , they were a very imperfect guide to

viol in ists , trombonists , etc . , even when few

keys were used ; while for distant modulations they would be impossible. Aga in

,i t

was a grea t drawback that the notation of each instrument had to be learned sepa rately ; for no man can

confine himself to one instrument .The fact tha t a tablature was useless unless the in

strument was tuned in a way to suit it , while manydifferent methods of tuning were in vogue, was a l l

aga inst its continuing in favour ; for i t is wel l knownthat to disturb the tuning to which an instrument isa ccustomed throws it ou t of gea r for a considerabletime. What was required was a un iversa l notation

,

suitable to a ll instruments , which should show the

interva ls , not the frets and strings ; and this was found1 62

A Voice Tablature

in the rapidly developing vocal staff notation. I t isrema rkable that the principle of the tablature has beenrevived and much cultivated in the n ineteenth centuryfor vo i ces , not instruments , under the name of the

Ton i c Sol-fa notation , of which we sha l l speak in a

later chapter.

1 63

CHAPTER x .

Various forms of stave—Leger lines—Early vocal scores—Origin of

the word score—Double use of a single stave in mediaeval t imesand by Brahms—A stave of twenty-four l ines—Lines added as

required—Gradua l adopt ion of the five-l ine stave for voices andinstrument s—Great s tave of eleven purely theoretical, and un

known to mediaeval writers—The clefs—The bar-l ine—Explanat ion of early irregulari ties in i ts use-Use of the dot of perfectionin early seventeenth century-Syncopation in Engl ish cathedralmusic—Driven notes, tyes, or holds—Playford’

s time-signsAdlung—Repet it ion signs-German , French , and I talian namesof notes—The C, or broken circle, and fractions of a. semibreve as

time-signs—D isappearance of the square and lozenge notesBlack notes used for augmentation in 1 676—Martini—Ramean’stime-signs—Stroz z io’

s t ime-signs-Leger l ine difficulties—Figuredbass.

W E have seen the single l ine scratched on the parchment grow into two coloured lines , then into a four

l ined stave ; and such it has rema ined forEnlarge Gregorian musi c to this day. But forment of

measured musrc , the number of l1nes wasthe Stave

only l imited by the compass of the musi cto be performed . Ledger or leger l ines are of com

paratively late invention . When first used they hada somewhat awkwa rd appearance owing to its beingthought necessa ry to use them both above and below

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and eighth l ines , so that here (and in many othermediaeva l scores) the l ines change thei r names with

the part that is written on them . Thus , inEight the eight-l ined stave we are referring to

,l i ned

Staves the four lowest l ines W 111 be respectivelyD

, F , A , C , and the four upper the same ;

but if the lower vo ice occasiona l ly overflows into the

upper four lines of the stave , they are temporari ly treatedas belonging to the lower C , so that the fifth and sixthl ines become E and G instead of D and A . While ifthe upper vo i ce overflows into the lower ha lf of thestave , the thi rd and fourth l ines become b and ginstead of a and c . As this pra ctice is very common

in the large staves used by mediaeva l writers , we givean example in modern notation to show our mean ing :

B C A

Or, to take a modern example, Brahms, Op. 10 ,

No .

Ped. D DHere the lower part must be read as in the bass clef, theupper pa rt in the treble . This use of the stave musthave led to considerable inconvenience when the parts

1 66

Staves of Many Lines

crossed , or when more than two vo i ces were em

ployed ; and we find very early tha t the stave wasdivided into two or more portions of genera l ly five

l ines , though it must be remembered that , as we sa idin Chapter IV . , p . 58 , such changes cannot be attri

buted to defin ite da tes , the newer methods being usedconcurrently with the o lder for centuries .

Plates XX . and XXI . of E arlyE ngl ish Harmony showthree-part scores of the thi rteenth century of no less thanfifteen lines , the fourth ofwhich has the F clef,the eighth and thi rteenth having the C Clef.The number of l ines va ries from fifteen to

fourteen and thi rteen , and the position of the

clefs is often changed . The stave is not“scored ,

but short vertica l l ines are placed a t interva ls within it to show the correspondence of the musi c withthe rhymes . Vo l . xxi i . of the Mona tshefte f ilr M usick

gesch ichte conta ins a facsim i le of a five-pa rt composition on a stave of twenty-four red and blue l ines , and

without any verti ca l l ines .

Leger l ines being as yet unknown , the composeradded a new l ine right a cross the pagewhenever he required to write a note abovethe stave he began with . One sees evi

dences of th is in Plate XXIV. of E arlyE ngl ish Harmony, where extra l ines have been crowdedin after the copy was begun .

Sometimes the composer or copyist did not even takethe trouble to use a ruler or to “

score the stave as in

Plates XXIX . and XXX . of the above work , showing1 67

A Stave of

Twentyfour Lines

Story of Notation

extracts from a thirteenth-century three-pa rt com

position in the University Libra ry of Cambridge, inwhich the fourteen l ines are very i rregularly drawn byhand .

The genera l rule in these early English scores seems

to be to u se eight l ines for a two-vo i ce and thirteen to

fifteen l ines for a three-vo i ce composition .

The fourteenth and fifteenth century MSS . show an

increasing tendency to diminish the number of l ines tofive or six , and to give each voi ce its sepa rate

The Five" stave , Changing the clef whenever necessary .knee Stave By the s ixteenth century we may considerconfi rmed

for Voca l the five-l1ned stave as pract1ca lly confirmedMusic

for voca l parts , though here and there otherstaves were used ; and a s composers made

a ll kinds of extraordinary canons , so they played trickswith the stave , writing whole movements on two l inesor even one only , to show thei r skill .But though the five-l ined stave gradua l ly became con

firmed for voi ces , the same cannot be sa id for instruments , especia l ly for those with keys . Two

staves of six l ines were frequently used forthe ha rpsi chord in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; and for the organ a stave

of six l ines for the right hand and of eight l ines for theleft . That this was common in I ta ly is shown by a

MS . book of organ pieces by divers composers in the

l ibra ry of the Roya l Conservato i re of Musi c at Naples(see p . in which the six and eight-l ine staves a re

printed , the musi c being written by hand . The precise1 68

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Story of Notation

progressions from De Muris , shown in Fig . 1 1 . I t cons ists of the two five-l ined staves of the piano or organ ,

FIG. l l .

TheClaves orClefs .

UseofClefs inArsDiscantusbyDeMuris

MS.OrganBookNaples.about 1600.

braced together , the m iddle l ine, C ,being omitted .

I t wil l be found that by drawing two ord inary staves1 70

C lef Form s

two spaces apart , and then fi l l ing 1n the missingm iddle l ine , we have a theoretica l stave of elevenl ines conta in ing the three clefs in thei r p roper places ;and by using the fourth to the eighth , or

the fifth to the n inth , or the s ixth to the The Great

tenth , with the C clef a lways on the s ixth Stave Of

H n uEleven

we Obta1n respect1vely the tenor , a lto ,

as pu relyand “

S Oprano“ clefs ”— the clef is the

Thesame in all , and on the same l ine , but it hasbecome customa ry to name i t a ccording to the vo icesi t is used for . This theory was , however , not knownto the inventors of the stave ; they , l ike Guido , merelyplaced the clefs where they found it conven ient , and didnot consider that the C clef was a lways on the m iddlel ine of a stave of eleven , ou t of which other l ines weretaken as required .

The clefs have , as seen in Fig . 1 1 , taken many forms ,

and , except the G clef, have quite lost any resemblanceto the letter they represent . In the ea rlyMSS . we ra rely find the G clef used ; the

Var i ousC and F were by far the most usua l , though Form

élo

iwe find other letters used as clefs , such as

e

a , or the round or squa re b , or d or dd . G was not

a favourite for some reason , and ha rdly appears til l wecome to the instrumenta l staff notation in

Thethe s1x teenth century. In the five-l ined stave

G Clefi t was a t one time frequently placed on the

m iddle l ine , and was then ca l led by English mus iciansthe French vio l in clef ; in fact , the G clef was on the

Continent associated with the viol in , and is ca l led by1 7 1

oretica l

Story of Notation

the Germans the Viol in-Schl ilssel , and by the I ta l iansCh iave d i viol ino.

Except by English cathedra l composers , i t has beenrarely used for the treble vo i ce in choruses , the“soprano ” clef, C on the first l ine , being used for thispurpose in German scores to th is day; but for solos i twas frequently used for the tenor , soprano , and a ltovoi ces . Yet it has on the Continent a lways been con

sidered more as an instrumenta l than as a voca l clef.The C clef may occur on any of four lower l ines ,thus :Soprano. Mezzo-Soprano. Tenor.

I t is used for Soprano , a l to , and tenor vo i ces ; forvio la , Violoncel lo , trombones , and bassoons in the

The Corchestra . I t frequently occurs in old-keyed

Clefinstrument musi c , such as Handel ’s con

certos , Bach ’s organ works , and the wholeof the right-hand stave of the forty-eight Preludes and

fugues was origina l ly written with the soprano clef,while the C lavier-Uebung was printed with the “

a lto ”

and treble clefs .

English cathedra l composers gave up the use of the

soprano ”in favour of the “ treble ” clef about the

end of the eighteenth century . I t is used in Boyce’

s

cathedra l musi c for example , but in Arnold ’scontinuation of the work , published in 1 790 ,

the G Clefis used for the treble vo ice .

1 7 2

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Story of Notation

sists in occasiona l ly p lacing a bar-l ine so as to producea measure of the va lue of a bar and a ha lf— the resultbeing much the same as when a composer commenceshis fugue with a whole duple bar , and makes the

answer enter at the ha lf bar. S o that there was a

method in the i rregula rity of the origina l barring , andi t is possible that the composers had a finer feel ing forrhythm i ca l va riety than we have, and that they , l ikethei r successors of the present day, purposely displacedthe principa l a ccent , not by introducing a single bar of

less than the norma l measure, but by lengthening thenorma l bar. Although the bar is found regula rly usedthroughout some early seventeenth-century compositions , notably , for example , in Ca ccin i ’s operaE u ryd ice, published in 1 600 , yet it was not establ isheduniversa l ly til l the eighteenth century . Thus in a

book of Duos for solfeggi by ChristoforiGraduaI Ca resana , published a t Naples in 1 693 , no

zfqitxon

bar-l ines are found : even in an educationalBar 1; e work , entitled E lementorum Musicce P rax is,

by Gregorio S troz z io , Naples, 1 683 , they areabsent , though in the same author’s Capr iccios, fororgan or cemba lo , after the subject is given out withoutbars , the rest of the piece is barred regula rly . I t would

appea r tha t ba rs were used in North I talyPecu l iar before they penetrated to the south : theu se of

the Dotcompos1t1ons of Ca rlo Gesua ldo PrinC1pe

di Venosa , publ ished at Geneva in 1 6 1 3 ,

are barred . And here we may notice a peculiarity tha tis found in much music of this and the next century , in

1 74

Syncopation

the use of the dot after the last note of a bar, thuslengthening the note into the next bar. The modernand more practica l method is to tie the last note of the

bar to the fi rst note of the next bar. Thus

Modern method(5)

The method (a ) will be found in much old cathedra lmusi c , and is a l ittle puzzling to those unaccustomed toi t ; and there is yet another ancient way of tying a note ,when the first is equa l to the second , by placing a whitenote on the bar-l ine , thus

equiva lent to

Playford , in 1 658 , ca l ls syncopated notes, such as

these, “ D riven notes , ” and the dot , the Driven“ Prick of perfection and addition He Notes,a lso describes “ tyes or holds ”

to show Prick of

that one syllable is to be sung to two or Perfectionmore notes ; or in viol in and viol musi c to show that

I 7S

Story of Notat ion

severa l notes are to be played with one bow. His

full close is indicated by the s ign 0, ca l led by u s a

pause . In the n ineteenth edition of h is book , publ ishedin 1 7 30 , the editor speaks of “

the new tyed note ,referring to the modern forms given in the

two forego ing examples ; and he a lso men

tions as a novelty the tying of quaversthus Il l, instead of .

l. “fIn 1 658 the c i rcle was sti l l used as a time

s ign , but Playford gives each time-s ign a figure.

Thus :Perfect of the more mood , 03 ;Perfect of the less mood ,Imperfect of the more mood , Ge;Imperfect of the less , 412.

The word mood is here used in the sense of prolation ,

referring to the min ims,not the breves in a measure.

His sign for repetition is the letter S with dots ,thusAdlung , in 1 758 , speaks of the ci rcle with a dot andci rcle with a l ine as rapidly disappearing , being un

necessary now that bars were universa l ; but the greatC he says is stil l used for a sem ibreve or its va lue in a

bar , the other time s ignatures being fra ctions of a sem ibreve 5(equiva lent to C) , 37 , etc . He says that thelower figure indicates the kind , the upper the numberof notes in a bar. Pretorius had in 1 6 1 8 proposed littlestrokes , answering to the bar-l ine.

The so-ca l led double bar has been in use from the

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Story of Notation

minima , croma , semicroma . Attempts have been madein Ameri ca and England of late to u se the German

method of nomenclature, on the ground that i t isi l logica l to ca l l the chief note a ha lf short (semibreve) ,when no whole short or long are in use ; but so far theattempts have not met with any great success .

The influence of the tabla tures produced a confl i ctbetween theory and practice in perfection and imper

fection of measures , which ended in theThe gradua l disappearance of the ci rcle as a

Broken 0 O

hO

I h b k0

1Circle

t1me s1gnature , w 1 e t e ro en c1rc e , useda t va rious times to indica te Imperfect Mood ,

Imperfect Time , and Imperfect Pro la tion ,now became

the s ign for the measure of the sem ibreve , the bar of onesem ibreve or two m in ims or four crotchets in va lue ;and the shape of the broken circle , in conj unctionwith the fact that duple is the most frequent kindof time , gave rise to the name Common Time in

England .

Thus gsign ifies that the bar is to the semibreve as

three is to two ; in other words , i t is to be three ha lvesof a semibreve three m in ims : that i tis to be as 3 is to 4 , or three-qua rters of a

sem ibreve three crotchets : 3 that it isto be six-eighths of a sem ibreve six

quavers ; and though in a rithmeti c 9; 2, thereis a complete difference in the accentuation

of bars thus represented , as a ll music ians know. Butthe differences of accentuation were not shown so

s imply in the seventeenth century , and we find 521 placed1 78

Tablatures

F l G IE .

Vi rdungLute Tablature .

l l

41 50 11 I c 3 codo b d nudate

l l‘ PFPIZPI C cmgm

Discant Viol in

VirdungDiscant FluteTablai ure.

fi > s 4 3 x z o 7 51 6 3 5 5 4 6 52 21

I 79

Story of Notation

where the sense of the musi c requires g, instead of g,and so on : for these composers , though they felt thea ccent , had not yet a rrived at indica ting it , and werestil l more or less under the influence of the moods and

prolations . K i rcher , in 1 650 ,gives on ly two time

signs , saying , “ Musica l time is noth ing else than a

certa in determ ined quantity of lesser notes conta inedin a breve or a sem ibreve . I t is double perfect andimperfect ; perfect‘ time is shown by a circle , and indicates that each breve is equa l to three sem ibreves ,thus Oe ; but when this sign GEis placed at the be

ginning of the song , i t indicates that the breve is

imperfect and equa l to two semibreves .

”

The squa re and lozenge notation died hard . In a

book of motets by Ca rlo Guiseppe S an Romano , printeda t M i lan in 1 670 , we find open square breves ,Square lozenge semibreves , and m in ims. The sig

ifii n nature C g indicates that the measure con

N ot

e

es

ges ists of two dotted breves of two

breves (imperfect measure) , each of which ,being dotted , conta ins three sem ibreves , and this is

borne ou t by the ba rring . I f such a measure existednow, we should indica te it by i . In the Passion ” byJ . M . Trabercus , chapel-master a t Naples in 1 635, we

find squa re notes and no ba rs ; the words of Jesus are

given black notation ,which was obsolete at that time

except for pla insong , and the l igatures that occur areconfined to two notes . As late as 1 676 , in a book ofcantatas and canzonettas by Legrenz i , we find the old

black notation used to show syncopation , the three1 80

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Story of Notation

minims , the la rge 3 ought to refer to three minims.

However , as long as the player understands what he

F IG . I3 .

Mace LureTablature , ]676 A.D.

1951 1231 £ 111 3s

Agricola Lu l‘eTablature 1529 A.D.

has to count , the matter does not seem very important .Gregorio S troz z io , in h is E lementorumMusicce P rax i s,

1 8 2

Leger Lines

after describing the moods and times and prolationswith thei r medimval s igns , gives a long list of “

pro

portions , ” including not only the time

Strozn o sS ignatures i n u se at present , but a number4 s 7 7 s 8

Proporo i 1mp03 3 1ble ones , such as 4

5 , a"

, 3 , g , 7 , g ; tions ”

apparently he thought it h is duty to completea ll the possible combinations of figures without referenceto thei r sense rega rding musi c ; for he makes 4, indicatefour min ims , 4, six semibreves ; four semibreves ; 3 ,two breves and a ha lf. He had not found the right wayof expressing musi ca l p roportion .

One of the pecul iarities in early leger-l ine notes isthat they frequently had l ines above as wel l as belowthem see 1 6 and anotheris , that 2 2 ivith ptwo 4itaves a long E

arlyeger

way a pa rt, the m 1ddle C , m i ddle Lines

d , and m iddle b were sometimes placedm idway between the two staves , looking as if theywere meant for other notes , with some of the legerl ines om itted by a printer’s error. They are not easyto read , since i t is diffi cult to know to which stavethey belong.

About 1 600 there arose a new form of tablature ca l ledin I ta l ian B asso continua, in English , Thorough bass,

F igu red bass, in German , Genera l-bass, and inFrench

,B asse ch if ree, which was intended

to indicate chords by means of figures placedover the bass notes ; for the new art of harmony wasnow beginning to be cultivated a longside , or to the

exclusion of counterpo int . Caccin i ’s Euryd ice is

1 83

Figured

Bass

Story of Notation

figured throughout , and i t soon became the fashionto accompany everything , voca l or instrumenta l , on theha rpsi chord from a figured bass ; even if there was a

harps i chord or organ pa rt in the score fully written out,

a second ha rpsi chord or second organ would fi l l in the

chords from figures ; and if in performance we find some

seventeenth-century compositions thin , i t is often probably because we have om itted to fi l l in the thoroughbass chords on a keyed instrument . The idea rapidlyspread a ll over western Europe : from the early partof the seventeenth century a ll full scores conta ined a

“ figured bass pa rt a s a matter of course , and solosfor vo i ces and instruments were provided with a basswith figures , from which the a ccompan ist was expectedto fi l l in the ha rmon ies a ccording to rule .

Its decl ine was as rapid as its rise . By the latterpa rt of the eighteenth century we find l ittle musi c

published with figured bass in northern

£18 Cl in

e,Of

Europe , though it stil l l ingered in I ta ly .

Big” By the m iddle of the n ineteenth century the

art of figured bass playing was lost exceptamongst cathedra l organists , who are obliged to accom

pany from old scores ; and the system is only now

reta ined for purposes of teaching the elements of har

mony . I t had this inherent defect— that no one who

had not hea rd a composer play from h is own figuredbass pa rts could know the precise effects he producedor intended , and when the composer was a Bach or aHandel , the ordinary performer could hardly be expectedto treat the harmonies with adequate skill . Moreover ,

1 84

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CHAPTER XI .

Establishment of the round notes in place of squares and lozengesBach ’s cantata , Gleich wie der Regen—Rise of expression signsSigns for ornaments—Staccato signs—The notat ion of the Greek

Church—The Greek Church has never lost the chromatic tetrachord—The ancient Greek modes stil l used by the peasants ofBri ttany—The Greek a lphabetica l notat ion continued to be usedin the East for centuries after i t had been rejected in the WestVilloteau—Principles ofmodern Greek notation.

BY the beginn ing of the eighteenth century the tablatures were rapidly fa l l ing ou t of u se, and in the ordinary

notation the round and ova l-headed notesThe EStah' had taken the place of the lozenges andIishment

squares , though there were exceptiona l sur

glot

til

ei‘n v ivals of the la tter , as in Martin i ’s counterForms of

po int . The rests had taken the shapes thatNotes are fam i l iar to us , and the sharp and flat

and natura l were used in the modern way,though composers still sometimes om itted the lastsharp or flat in a signature , using two flats for the keyof Eb, no flat for the key of D m inor , and so on ; thereis an example in Bach ’s cantata , Gleich wie der Regen ,

the a ria “Mein S eelenschatz ist Gottes Wort ” beingin the key of Eb, while the signature shows only Bband Eb.

1 86

Bach ’s u se of the G C lef

In this cantata , and elsewhere , there is an unusua luse of the G clef, pecul iar to Bach , which a t fi rst s ightappea rs extremely unscientific , but a closerexamination revea ls its ingenuity. The two A pec

Fl

c

i

gr

u se 0 eflute parts are wr1tten on a stave prOV1ded G Clef bywith the G clef on the fi rst l ine. There isI. S. Bach

no signature,and they play in octaves with

the fi rst and second viola throughout the canta ta whenever they are employed . But thei r musi c is written on

the same l ines and spaces as that of the V iolas ; and

wherever the V iolas have a natura l the flutes have a

sha rp,though the a ccidenta l flats are a l ike in a ll four

parts . I t looks as if the G was not used in the sense

of a clef at a ll, and tha t the flutes are to read as from

the a lto clef, but an octave higher . This is not , how

ever , the case ; by an exception Bach here writes fora fl au to traverso in Bb, instead of a finte-ci-bec in F ,as was his usua l custom ,

though the pa rts are onlyma rked flau to in the score , and the performer is left todiscover by the notation which instrument is to be

used .

W e have a l ready referred (p . 53 ) to the Roman ianletters found in some of the very earl iest neumati cgradua ls . After them there seems to havebeen no a ttempt to introduce expressionsigns for many centuries ; composers weretoo much occupied with the notation to think of m inordeta i ls . I t was difficult enough to establish a systemwhich would enable s ingers to read the notes quicklyand easi ly . Moreover , the learned writers of the

1 87

Signs of

Ex p ression

Story of Notation

Middle Ages were occupied with discussing the old

Greek and the Church modes , the writings of Boethius ,the never-settled question of whether the interva l mi fawas a semitone or something less , and were building upa lasting system of counterpoint and notation , so thatthey had no thought for the refinements of musi c , evenif they did not , as was probable , consider expression to

be the means used by the profane worldly mus icians toattract the multitude .

That the words of expression in use at present came

from I ta ly is clear from thei r being in the I ta l ianlanguage. I t is evident tha t with the ln

Modern.

vention of musi c which was intended toEX p ressmn

express dramatic and emotiona l effects , muchXi

o

gifis

ateddepended from the first on the manner of its

in Italy performance ; and from hints written downat the moment of teaching it to the per

former, the step was easy to the printing of thesehints on the publ ished pages . And the more dramati cthe musi c became with the new ha rmon i c and o rchestra leffects , the greater the number of expression directionsthat would be used .

The madriga l writers left the tempo to the taste of

the performer ; l ight and shade, forte and piano, cres

cendo and diminuendo not only were unknown to them,

but are not an advantage i f introduced into thei r works .

W e have seen that Morley mentions the expressionsso, lo, for soft

,loud . The I ta l ians began about the

m iddle of the seventeenth century to freely u se the

words piano and forte for this purpose, and gradual ly1 88

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Story of Notation

customary to write the turn in full , and the s ign usedfor i t wil l probably soon be obsolete. The o lderschool of English organists , who constantly introduced unwritten ornaments , has sca rcely yet diedou t .

The stacca to s ign first appeared in the works of

Couperin , Sebastian Bach , and Rameau , in the formof dots over notes . By J . C . Bach it is usedas a dot or an upright stroke , a ccording tothe degree of staccato required , but at thetime of its appea rance no explanations as to

its use were given . The lega to s ign was used ea rly inthe eighteenth century , and the stacca to and legato in

combination first appea r in Moza rt’s works .

Jomelli was the fi rst who used crescendoand diminuendo in other than lute musi c .Express ion s igns enormously increased in

number during the course of the n ineteenth century ,owing to the rapid development of the emotiona l s ideof instrumenta l mus i c , and the improvement of instruments , especia lly of the pianoforte. Not a ll the s igns of

expression used by eighteenth-century composers havebecome universa l . For instance, Couperin introduceda kind of inverted pause, A , to indicate tha t the playerwas to sl ightly delay before striking the note, whichhas disappeared from use.

Amongst the la test n ineteenth-century s igns are the

underl ined staccato , and the vertica l l ine used by Westpha l to indicate the phrasing ; but these have not yet

come into genera l u se .

1 90

Byz ant ine Mu sm

W e must now go back for a moment to the M iddleAges to refer to a form of notation which seems cer

ta inly to be derived from the same originas ours , but has developed in an enti rely Notation Of

different direction , and which is sti l l in u sethe

cgreek

urch1n Europe, though dest1ned to succumbsome day before the more pra ctica l and universa l staffnotation . I t will have been noti ced that we have frequently used the expression “Western Europe in

connection with notation . The musi c of the GreekChurch did not develop on the same l ines as that ofthe Western Church ; on the contra ry , i t never lost thechromati c tetrachord , which is sti ll one of its mostimportant features , and is regula rly used in the

Mass.

1

The Rev . S . G . Hatherley , in his Treatise on Byz an

tine Music says “ The musi c , sacred and

profane, of the Eastern nations , Christian Easternand non-Christian , within and adjo in ing the Europ eano ld Byzantine Empire , is based prima ri ly Mu sic

upon the chromatic genus , conta in ing two based on

semitones in the tetra chord .

2 The diaton i c the Old

genus , conta in ing one sem itone on ly in the Greek

tetra chord , is a lso in u se , but is seldom Chromatic

susta ined exclusively for any length of timeSca le

in pra ctice , being blended , sooner or later , to a greateror lesser extent , with the chromati c genus . The

1 E .g. , in the Liturgy of St. Basi l.2 That i s to say the chromat ic tetrachord described in Chapter I

not the succession of semi tones cal led by us a chromat ic scale.

19 1

Story of Notation

musi c of the Eastern Church is a lways sung unaccom

panied , and i t is therefore not bound to the twelvesounds in the octave given by the organ ; on the con

trary it is free as to intonation , and therefore i t is onlycapable of being represented by the staff notation on

the understanding that the thirty-one signs used inour notation in an octave rea l ly represent thirty-onedifferent sounds , and not the twelve equa l ly temperedsounds of the organ : or perhaps it wil l be clearer if wesay tha t some of the va rieties of tuning described inChapter I I . are stil l in u se in the Greek Church , and inEastern Europe genera l ly ; and not only these features ,but the modes of ancient Greek mus i c can be hea rd ,both in Greece and , strange to say, among the peasantsof Brittany. 1I t will be seen therefore that the musi c of Europedeveloped not in one direction but two : the Western

musi cians , rejecting a ll but the one diaton i cEuropean sca le , applied to i t the combinations deM11 5“ has

scribed by ancient Greek writers , and builtdeveloped up a system first of organum then of discant ,i n two

directionswh 1ch led to counterpomt and harmony , forwhich a s imple pictoria l notation was a

practica l necessity ; the Eastern musicians adhered tothe old sca les , and only compa ratively recently introduced harmony under the influence of the Westerns ,1 The writer, on firs t hearing the Breton peasants using the modes

in dance musi c, thought they were influenced by the Church modes ;but M. Bourgaul t-Ducoudray finds that their music is older than theChurch , and goes back to pre-Christian t imes.

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Story of Notat ion

musi cian , but it seems able to express the variations of

tuning better than our own notation .

V illoteau , one of the savants sent to Egypt byNapoleon I. , has given a complete a ccount of the

notation of the Greek Church , h is knowledge being pa rtly derived from observation ,

and partly from lessons given him by a Greek musician .

1

The subject is too complicated to be entered into here ;but the genera l p rinciples seem to be founded on thoseof the neumes , and the nota tion is the same as thatgiven in facsim ile by Hawkins , vol . i . page 390 , of a

Greek mus ica l MS . of the eleventh century , and on

pages 394, 395, which could probably be translatedwith the help of V illoteau ’

s explanations .

At the beginning of every composition , and at everychange of key, the sign c. ca l led ison, un ison ,

is placed ,and it is fol lowed by very compli cated

Vi l loteau

The

1figures , each of which has its own name.

Princip es A major second above ison is shown by aof Modern

Greekhorizonta l l ine probably the vi rga of the

Notation neumes ; a major thi rd by the same signsl ightly incl ined upwa rds ; aga in ,

probablythe virga . The apostropha , N , indicates a descent of onedegree , and a double apostropha , 2, a descent of twodegrees . Here we have a direct outcome of the principleof the grave a ccent showing a descent . The signs a ll

refer to i son, which may be any note of the sca le ; andthey indicate interva ls , but not with the exactness of

Western notation . There are s igns for rests and for

1 Villoteau, De l’Etat actuel de l ’Art musicale en Egypte, 1 8 12.

194

Eastern and W estern Notation

time, but the latter do not show relative times as withu s : merely that a sound is to be shorter or longer thanits predecessor.But Western civil isation has now overshadowed

Eastern Europe , and a ll popular mus i c publ ished a t

Athens is written in ou r nota tion . Hatherley , in h isexhaustive book on the modern Byzantine sca les , neveruses any other ; but his signatures look strange to theWestern eye , owing to the fact that they indicateChromatic tetrachords, rather than key, in the Westernsense.

195

CHAPTER XI I .

ATTEMPTS TO INVENT NEW FORMS OF NOTATION , AND

TO REFORM THE OLD .

New notations—Improvements come gradual ly—New notations appealto the intel ligence rather than to the eye

—Sebald’s proposa lT. Sa lmon—Souhaitty—J . J. Rousseau—Demotz de la Sal le—Jacob—Abbé de Cassagne—Rohleder’s keyboard—Labatut—Dr. NatorpGalin—Iue— Claviere—S triby’s Un iversal System —DelcampL. Danel—Craig’s Octave System—Meerens—J . Stot t—Anew notation—Notation for the blind—Galin-Paris-Cheve—TheToni c Sol-fa notation .

THE reader wil l remember that we referred on p . 5 to

the efforts of those who W 1sh to improve or supplant

N ewthe ex isti

ngnotation . I f the shelves of

“

the

Notations var1ou s l 1brar1es of Europe were searched ,it would probably be found that for some

centuries a new notation has appea red about everythree or four years , each of which is ca l led by its author“ The

”new notation , for he fondly thinks that it wil l

become un iversa l .A notation is l ike a language ; it does not suddenly

appea r , as the result of the efforts of some m ightygenius . I t is the result of the united efforts of generations of musi cians endeavouring to express thei rmelodies in such a way as to make them understood

1 96

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Story of Notation

by thei r fel low-musi cians . A composer is natura l lyanxious tha t others besides himself should have the

benefit of the offspring of his m ind . He does not makeuse of a means of expressing it tha t can on ly be knownto h is pupils or h is immedia te a cqua intance : he wishesi t to be spread abroad , and therefore writes i t in the

way tha t he thinks will be understood by the grea testnumber of mus ic ians ; or , if he does not , h is adm i rersdo i t for him . Any improvements in a un iversa l ly

a ccepted notation come very slowly , not as

the result of one man’

s inspiration ,but by

a consensus of opin ion tha t such and such adeta i l requi res to be , and can be , improved .The change from squa re and lozenge notes ,

for instance , to round ones took some centuries to

complete ; i t was not the result of some one’

s sugges

t ion , but a requirement of rapid writing ; the jo ining of

quavers was found conven ient in the tabla tures a s a

means of dividing the va rious pa rts of the bar , and was

gradua l ly adopted in the staff notation . The shapes of

notes were frequently a ltered by individua l teachers inthe M iddle Ages , yet the genera l consensus of opiniona rrived at certa in genera l ly accepted forms , and rejectedindividua l suggestions .

Notation is an a lphabet , and a far more un iversa la lphabet than that which represents speech ; for

musi c ians in a ll parts of Europe can perform eachother ’s compositions at first s ight , when they certa inlywould not in every case understand each other ’slanguage. Hence a ll efforts at providing “

new ”

1 98

New Notat ions

notations are bound to meet with the same fate as

the “ un iversa l ” language ca l led Volapi lk, which no

body has ever spoken . But no h istory of nota tionwould be complete without some reference to the effortsof individua ls to invent new ones , or to make radica lchanges in the O ld . To mention all would require a

whole book on the subject .Two things are genera l ly a imed a t : either the

abol ition of the clefs , or of the s igns of sha rps , flats ,and natura ls ; and i t is a rema rkable factthat nearly a ll the new notations require a N ew

constant appea l to the intell igence ra ther N°tat1°h s

than to the eye , showing tha t they resultt ti

pp

l

eal

from the fa i lure of grown persons to lea rn o e n

tel l igencethe old nota t1on for the grown person finds

ratheri t easier to apply h is intel l igence than to than to the

learn a mechan i ca l operation ,while with a Eye

ch ild the reverse is the case . The readingof the ordinary nota tion being an a lmost purelymechani ca l operation ,

presents no difli cu lty if a cquiredin ea rly childhood , and leaves the m ind free to a ttendto expression ,

which it could not do if hampered withthe effort of merely reading the notes ; and none of the

new notations present an instantaneous picture of the

position of the notes with rega rd to the sca le.

In 1 529 Seba ld Heyden ,rector of S t . Sebaldus a t

Nuremberg , publ ished in Latin and German

8 b lcl'

a work ca l led Musicw S tichozlsis, in which heP

C a S

roposalproposed to abol i sh the Clefs , u smg a stavewithout them ,

with figures or words for the notes .

I99

Story of Notation

In 1 67 3 , T. Sa lmon , a Master of Arts of Oxford,

endeavoured to do away with the old clefs by making

T Salmon new ones : B for bass , M for mean , T fortreble. The notes were to be the same on

each stave, but the mean stave was to be an octave ,

above the bass stave , and the treble an octave above‘

the mean ; and the stave was to be of four lines only .This is of course on the same princip le as using the Gclef for the tenor vo i ce , on the understanding that thenotes sound an octave lower than they are written.

The constant change of the posi tion of the C clef wasthe thing tha t troubled Sa lmon . W e have reduced thechanges of clef to a m inimum by the use of leger l ines ,and some countries have a lmost abol ished the use of

the C clef for vo i ces . But Sa lmon’

s abol i tion of the old

clefs produced terrible confusion and far more changeof clef than before , besides making a topsy-turvy pictureof the tune. Matthew Locke is very sarcasti c , saying ,“ Nor doth the transposition of the C cliff create any

confusion to a beginner , as you va inly a l lege ; for voca lmusi c is seldom lea rned by men of forty or fifty yearsold , but by those tha t a re young , whose vo i ces are

proper to the treble , and by that cl iff only a re taught ;nor is the C sol , fa , u t cl iff now much used , unless incathedra l musi c . As to my Psa lms

,in four parts , I

could have printed them as wel l in three treble cliffs ,had I thought a ll had been so ignorant in the use of

cl iffs as I am assured you are. I t being usua l andcommon for men to s ing those songs which a re prickedin a treble an octave lower.

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Story of Notation

a lways have the defect tha t thei r s impl icity and uni

form ity a lone make them impracticable ; for they donot place the musi ca l forms instantaneously before the

eyes , and appea l at the same time to the intel l igence ,an advantage which the o rdinary notation enjoys bymeans of that very divers ity of which its detractorscompla in .

Ea rly in the eighteenth century Abbe Demotz de la

Sa l le proposed to suppress the stave , and to use one

form of note only , which showed the pitchof the sound by its position ; how be pro

posed to indicate time measure is not known ,

but h is suggestion ,if ca rried ou t , would take us back

to the da rk days of the neumes , before the use of l ineswas known .

In 1 769 Jacob , a French vio l in ist , a pupi l of Gaviniés ,proposed a stave without clefs , and figures for notes , in

h is Méthode deM usique su r un nouveau Plan .

Jacob A flu te-player proposed using the vowelsa , e, i , o, u , an , en as notes for the major sca le , thoughwhere they had the advantage over u t, re, mi , etc . ,

i tis hard to see.

In 1 7 76 the Abbé de Cassagne proposed to reducea ll the clefs to one only— namely , G on the second l ine

(the treble clef) , and this idea being takenAbbe deCassagne

up aga in about 1 8 1 5, a good dea l of.

musmfor p 1ano was pubhshed i n the “Umclef,

”

but i t had the effect of making its users lose the powerof reading ordinary musi c .In 1 792 a German priest named Rohleder invented

Demotz de

la Sa l le

202

N ew Notations

a new keyboa rd , in which white and black keys wereplaced a lternately a t the same level , the black keysbeing equa l in number with the white , and

no distinction being made between E,F

,

and B , C . By this means be abo l ishedthe naming of the notes , for a ll were a l ike ; and he

invented a new notation to suit the keyboard , in whichthe bla ck keys were shown by black notes , the whiteby white notes , and va lues by s izes . I t looks a verymechani ca l and s imple plan , but it had so l ittle successtha t i t caused the ruin and death of its author. Futilea ttempts were afterwa rds made in Ge rmany to revivei t : one of its chief objections being the imposs ibil ity ofseeing the interva ls with suffi cient rapidity on an un

broken row of black and white keys and notes .

The nineteenth century seems to have been moreprol ific of new notations than the eighteenth ; thoughperhaps this appears to be the case because i t is nea rerto ou r own times , and books are better cata logued . Amost rema rka ble effort is that of Labatut , Labatutwho not on ly proposed to suppress the

staves and clefs , but to make a complete notation out

of a l ine and a ci rcle (p . W e have a l ready seena complete notation made in the tenth century out of

the letter F (p . Labatut makes h is notation run

in octaves above and below m iddle G , which is h is

centre . All G ’

s are represented by a semi ci rcle, and

al l F’

s by the reverse of the G semici rcle , the rema inderof the notes by lines either s ingle or in combination

203

Roh leder’s

Keyboard

Story o f Notation

Time va lues are to be shown by attaching circlesto these s igns : a semibreve by the a ttachment of

a ci rcle with a l ine through it to the required note ,a m inim by a s imple ci rcle , a crotchet by a ci rclewith a dot in the centre , a quaver by a sem i ci rcle ,semiquaver by two circles jo ined making a figure 8 .

The va rious octaves a re shown by the addition of

horizonta l l ines above the signs for the higher ,below the s igns for the lower , notes than m iddleG . The sha rp is to be the Greek gamma reversed ,the flat to be the same inverted , the natura l S t .Andrew’

s cross . The strange shapes a rrived at bythese combinations are shown in Fig. 1 4 . This notation has not obta ined any la rge number of adherentsas yet .

In 1 8 1 3 a Doctor of Theology named Natorp , of

Essen , used figures for the degrees of the sca le , placingthem above and below a single l ine , and

diversi fying thei r s izes to show the octaves.

For va lues he combined the figures with the ordina rynotation , and h is book was successful enough to run

through five editions .

In 1 8 1 8 Pierre Ga l in , a Professor of Mathemati cs a t

the Lyceum of Bordeaux , and a t the blind school in the

Gal insame town

,published h is Exposition d

’

une

N ouvel le Méthode pou r l ’Ensezgnement de la

Musique, which Fetis criti cises thus : “There is in th iswork a very rema rkable phi losophica l spirit ; and the

clea rness of the ideas , the order of thei r connection ,

and the style , make this work a distinguished pro204

Dr . Natorp

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Story of Notation

duction ,whatever Opin ion may be held of the util ity of

its method .

”

Ga l in reduces the divers ity of signs , and abol ishesthe clefs. With this object he gives a stave withouta clef, provided with numbers or notes to which the

teacher po ints with a stick while s inging some wel lknown a ir. This stave is ca l led by its inventor a

“meloplast , and is used on something of the same

principle as the Guidon ian hand , the fingers and jointsof which were po inted to by the teacher.I t wil l be noticed that the clefless stave had beeninvented severa l times before . Ga l in was so convincedof the effectiveness of h is method as to assert tha t achild of seven to n ine years of age would learn to s inganything by it in eight months , or a child of twelvein five months ; on which Fetis says , “Ga l in was an

honest man , but a mediocre musi cian , and was ful l ofi l lusions as to the appa rent success of his school . In

rea l ity , for more than forty years , not a single musi cianof any va lue has been formed on the method of the

meloplast , though the schools in which they teach itare very numerous.

In 1 824 Edwa rd Iue modified the system of Ga l in ,

reducing all the scales to one , a ltering the shape of

the notes , but he confesses tha t it is a lwaysnecessary to refer to the ordinary notation

in connection with h is system .

About 1 848 I . C laviere , a Frenchman ,published a

Me’

thode e’

lémenta ire, ou P r incipes me'thodiques‘

de la

Musique en Chifl'

res arabes, d l’

Usage du Chant popu

206

N ew Notations

Za ire. This is merely another attempt to substitutefigures for notes on one l ine ; higher and lower octavesto be indicated by dots ; on ly one keyto be employed , and the major and m1normodes , and only two kinds of time . Rests a re to be

expressed by O . The method is intended for unedu

cated people . After working for many years at his

system , Claviere died at Pavia in 1 851 .

In 1 857 William S triby, an Englishman l iving in

Pa ris , publ ished a Un iversa l System ”

(Fig. in

which two staves of six l ines each conta innotes of the same names , but two octavesapart . The fourth l ine , on which the clefstands , is thicker than the others ; thereare two clefs , treble and bass. This system does not

appea r to have been known beyond its author’s imme

diate circle of friends.

Three years later , in 1 860 , Maurice Del camp , in con

junction with a colonel in the French a rmy , inventeda new notation , derived from the squa renotation of pla insong , but with notes of

various shapes (Fig. His stave is of three l inesonly . Sharps are shown by an upward ta i l , and flatsby a downwa rd ta i l , added to the notes . Va lues a re

shown by Arabic figures under the notes , a semibrevebeing 3 2 , a m1m1m 1 6 , and so on. Is it necessary tosay that this extraordinary notation went to the tombat the same time as its author ?”

(David and Lussy).Fig . 14 shows an example , quoted from David and

Lussy’

s book ,

Clav iere

Delcamp

207

Story of Notation

In 1 867 a phi lanth ropist , L . Dane] , proposed to do

away with clefs , staves , and a ll other impedimenta by

L Danelthe substitution of the letters D

,R

, M ,F

,

S , L , B , for the notes Do, re, mi , etc . (anidea which was previously adopted in England by theTon i c Sol-faists) , sharps and natura ls being indicatedby z , flats by 1

,va lues by a , e , i , o , u ; rests by inverted

letters .

During the last few decades English inventors havenot been idle. W e have M itcherd ’

s“ Easy System of

Musi c . Musi c revolution ised . No flats or sharps .

”

This is a system of five black lines a rranged in twosand threes to show the black notes , the spaces betweenshowing the white notes . The places on the keyboardwhich have no black notes , BC , EF , are shown bydotted lines , dividing the groups of two from those of

three black l ines. One clef only , the G , is placed on

the l ine that represents Di), though no clef is real lyrequired . This system is rea l ly a tablature , with thedefect of the tablature that it does not indicate key

relationship . I t is therefore useless for voca l , and for

most other musi c .The “ Broad Line S taff , invented by W. Lundie,consists of three l ines and four spaces , enclosed between two thicker l ines , which complete a stave of five

l ines. The m iddle l ine is a lways C , the lowest spacea lways G , the highest F . No note is placed on the

broad l ines , since a new octave commences with the

fi rst space above or below them . The G and F clefsare used on the C l ine to show treble and bass ; and

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Story of Notation

thick l ine showed no note, so here severa l of the spacesshow no note. Hence the same defects appear in bothsystems .

In 1 87 3 Meerens proposed a S impl ified notation.

The lowest l ine of a five-l ine stave a lways representsC . Roman figures representing the va riousoctaves are substituted for the clefs , 1 and as

the inventor expects future pianos to extend to elevenoctaves , he numbers them from I . to X I. He proposesto reform the time signature by giving as the lowerfigure the required metronome number , the upper figureshowing the number of beats in a bar.

J . S tott , about 1 885, invented an“ Improved S taff

Notation ”

(page on somewhat the same l ines , h islowest l ine a lways representing G . Onlyone sca le is to be used , for which seven

symbols are provided , each showing by its form its

relation to the keynote. Accidenta l sha rps and flats ,but no contradictory signs , are to be used .

Instead of a figure over a metronome figure , as

given by Meerens , the inventor gives a figure over a

crotchet , a quaver , or a m in im as h is time s ignature .

Like Sa lmon in 1 67 3 , he proposes to abol ish the clefs ,and to introduce others , namely—S for soprano , C forcontra lto , T for tenor , B for bass . Va lues of notes to

be shown by the number of crooks added to the stemof the note ,2 the semibreve being shown by four stems .

Sharps and flats are to be shown by ci rcles enclosing

Meerens

I. Stott

1 Compare the “ Chromatic Stave, p. 209.

‘

1 Compare Tablatures, p. 149.

2 1 0

New Notations

va rious interna l features , as l ines and dots. Rests are

a s in the o ld system. Key to be indicated by words , asin the Ton i c S ol-fa system .

The system is to be used for instrumenta l musi c withcerta in modifications , though however useful i t mightbe for voca l musi c , if adopted , it is diffi cult to see whatadvantage i t has for instruments over the ordinarynota tion .

In the LondonMusica l Cou rier of Janua ry 14th , 1 897 ,a new nota tion was announced as about to appear , thechief advantage of which was to be the

absenceof a ll a ccidenta ls and key s ignatures.

A

N

N ew

otat1onOn May 26th , 1 898 , the same j ourna l gavesome pa rti culars of the new notation ,

which was invented by Mr. W. H. Thelwa l l , an engineer. He

proposed a seven-l ine stave , the m iddle l ine beingthicker than the rest , and representing the note C .

The a lterna te l ines and spaces are to represent semitones , and Arabic figures placed in a ci rcle on the thickl ine are to be substituted for clefs ; the treble octavebeing indicated by the figure 6 , tenor by 5, bass by 4 ,and so on ;

1and as there are to be no leger l ines there

must be changes of figure whenever the musi c goesbeyond the stave on which it commences . I t will beseen at once that this notation must result in the con

fusion caused by constant change of clef shown on

p . 20 1 in Sa lmon’

s notation ; and the sem iton i c arrangement of the l ines and spaces is a modification of those1 Compare Meerens, p. 2 10 ; Chromatic Stave, p. 209 Broad Line,

2 1 1

Story of Notation

of Mitcherd , page 208 , and the “ Chromati c S tave ,page 209 . The representation of the octaves by figureshad been proposed by Meerens in 1 87 3 , and s ince thefigures in these cases rea l ly take the place of clefs , theinventor , so far from abol ishing the clefs , introducesseven or eight in place of the two in ordinary use forpiano and organ musi c , to which a lone his system couldposs ibly apply .

The latest innovation , as far as we can learn , is thatof Mr. A . H. Castle , who proposes to u se five differents izes of type to represent to the eye the relative dynami cva lues of the notes , and to indicate features of form and

phras ing. As this involves no fundamenta l a ltera tionof the ordina ry notation , and may be of u se , especia l lyfor teaching purposes , i t has a better chance of successthan those notations we have descr1bed .

W e have reserved for the last the description of threeother new nota tions. One of these has fi l led a rea lneed to the most unfortunate of mankind . The othertwo being founded on practicable principles , have hadcons iderable numbers of adherents .

The first of the three is that used by the blind , whohave invented for themselves a notation inwhich groups of ra ised dots , differing in

number and a rrangement , show both sca ledegree and va lue, accidenta l sharps , flats ,

natura ls , and rests .

The second is tha t of Gal in-Pa ris-Cheve, which ,though it has been offi cia l ly repressed , is sti ll taught tosome extent in the communa l schools in Pa ris and

2 1 2

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Norwich Sol-fa Method

REV. JOHN CURWEN .

children to sing s imple tunes at sight . Her system ,

which she ca l led the “ Norwich Sol-fa Method , ” wasenlarged and improved by the Rev . John Curwen ,

a

2 1 5

Story of Notation

Nonconformist min ister , and i t is now very widespread ,and is used for important musi ca l work . The name

“ Toni c Sol-fa ” was given to the improved method byJohn Curwen .

Like the French system , i t is a kind of voca l tablature,in the sense that no attempt is made to indicate the riseand fa l l of the melody ; but it has the advantage overthe tablatures of recogn ising the complete series of

signs used in the staff notation ; in other words, it doesnot force the tone i nto a division of two equa l sem itones , as was the case with the old tablatures .

No system of notation with only twelve s igns for theoctave can have a chance of success for reading voca lmus i c : an instrumental ist has a mechan i ca l means at

hand by which his C# and Db are forced to be repre

sented by the same sound ; a voca l ist could not makethe same sound do for both notes , however hard hem ight try .Another advantage of the Toni c S ol-fa notation is thatit refers a ll interva ls to a toni c , on the same principle as

that of the mediaeva l and modern Greek notation , whichrefers all interva ls to the sta rting note z

'

son (p . The

toni c is impressed on the s inger’s m ind before starting ,and provision is made for the new ton i c m case of

modulation ,on the principle made u se of by Guido for

change of hexachord— namely , ca l l ing a note by twoor more names . In the case of the modern Greeknotation, the new ison is sounded by a singer appointedfor the purpose . The Ton i c Sol-fa consists of the

Guidonian syllables Do (a t) , re, mz’

, etc . , reduced to

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Story of Notation

more. There is reason to think that it is destined tohave a considerable vogue for some time before i tfina l ly disappea rs from genera l u se ; and i t wil l certa inlybe looked upon by future genera tions as one of the

most rema rkable mus i ca l man ifestations of the n ineteenth century.

Musi ca l notation , however perfect , can never entirelyrepresent the composer ’s mean ing . Much must be leftto the imagination of the performer , and only ' deepand prolonged study and experience can enable him

to render the printed or written notes satisfa ctori ly.This appl ies more especial ly to the highest class of

composition ; for common musi c , in which no a rtisti cintel l igence finds a place , will sound a lmost as wel lon a machine as when performed by a human being .

The more emotion and a rtistic power felt by the

composer , the less satisfa ctory is a mechan i ca l and un

intel lectua l performance . A machine , or a wel l-drilledperformer , can certa inly play the most compl icatedwritten notes , often with more perfection than the moreintel l igent but more excitable a rtist ; but the latterwil l represent the composer ’s mean ing , while the formerwil l not , however note perfect the performance .

“ Perhaps , says Schumann ,

“ it is only gen ius thatunderstands gen ius ’ certa inly more is required thana mere singing or playing of the written notes ; and

no notation wil l ever supply the place of musica l intelligence . Hence the source of the va rious “ readings ”

of classi ca l works ; for , as in the drama ,so in

musi c , every highly skilled and intel lectua l performer2 1 8

Conclu s ion

has h is own idea of what the composer intends to

convey. Modern musi c has reached an extraordina rydegree of development , and there are not wantingsigns that i t wil l become stil l mo re complex ; and the

more i t p rogresses , the grea ter the demands made on

the executant .Burney , in his S ta te of M usic in F rance and I taly,tel ls the fo l lowing anecdote. The Emperor Leopoldthe First ordered h is ambassador a t Rome to entreatthe Pope to send h im a copy of the famous M z

'

serere

of Allegri , which had never been performed outside theS istine Chapel . A copy was a ccordingly made by thePope’

s chapel-master and sent to Vienna ; but its effectwhen performed there was so disappointing that theEmperor concluded that the Pope’

s chapel-master , inorder to keep it a mystery , had played h im fa lse and

sent some other composition . Thereupon in greatwrath he sent a message to this effect to the Pope,who immediately dism issed h is unfortuna te chapelmaster without hea ring a word in h is defence . Aftera time the poor man got one of the cardinals to pleadh is cause, and to expla in to the Pope that the styleof singing in the S istine Chapel , and especial ly inperforming the M z

'

serere, was such as could not be

expressed by notes , nor taught , nor transm itted to any

other place , except by example : for which reason the

piece in question must fa i l in its effect when performedelsewhere . The Pope , who did not understand music ,could not comprehend how the same notes could soundso differently in different places ; but he ordered the

2 19

Story of Notation

maestro to write down h is defence, in order to send itto Vienna . The Emperor , on receiving the explanation , induced the Pope to send some of his musiciansto Vienna to instruct the imperia l s ingers in the properway of rendering it .W e quote this story to show tha t the mere mechani ca lreading of notes is not a ll that is required in order tog1ve the proper “ rendering of a composition ; in thisparticula r case something more than ta lent and intelligence was necessa ry— namely , the traditiona l style of

performance , which the notes could not express .

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Appendix A .

Authorities referred to .

Aaron , Peter, born at Florence in the second half of the fifteenthcentury , died about 1 562. Canon of the Cathedral atRimini. Published m 1 525, Tra ttate a

'el la fl atura et a

’

el la

cogm”

z zone a’

z ta ttz gl z taom net cantofigura to, and in 1 545h is Laot

'

a'

arzo m M an t a,in wh ich he sustained a lively

contest wi th Gafurius on the proper div ision of the tetrachords in the t hree genera—d iatonic, chromatic, and en

harmonic. In h is Toscanel la he gives important informationon the rules of counterpoint.

Adelbold, born in the tent h century, d ied 1 027 . He was B ishopof Utrecht, and chancellor to Henry I I . of Germany. He

made war against the Count of Holland in order to forceh im to y ield up possession of the island of Merwe butbeingunsuccessful he returned to h is d iocese, built churches,cul t iva ted science, and became one of themost learned menof h is t ime. His treat ise on music is contained in Gerbert’sSmptores E colesz

'

astz'

oz'

deMm i ca .

Agricola , Mart in, director of music in the Reformed Church atMagdeburg ; born in S ilesia

0

1486, died 1 556. Author ofmany important works onmusi c, from one of wh ich , in verse,entitled, M an ta z

u

nstramenta lzs we give examplesof tabla ture.

Alyp ius. A soph ist of the school of Alexandria, who lived inthe second cen tury of our era. No th ing is known of his

life, and h is [m‘roa

’

uctzon to M an o has perished except thefift h of its seven parts, wh ich gives the whole of the Greek

2 23

Story of Notation

notation, with a verbal description of each S ign in order toavoid the mistakes of copyists. The MSS . of t h is fragmentare numerous

, and are found in many of the ancient librariesof Europe.

Anonymus. Many important anonymous mediaeval treatisesare edited by Gerbert and Coussemaker, and are referred toby numbers. The single Greek anonymous treat ise onmusicwas first edi ted by F . Bellermann in 1 841 , with copiousLat in notes, and six years afterwards a French translationwas published by Vincen t , from MSS . in the Paris RoyalLibrary. It is supposed to date from the first or secondcentury of the Christian era it gives important informat ionas to the time-signs and rests used 1n Greek musi c, singingexercises, the modes used byvarious instruments, the com

pass of various kinds of voi ce, modula t ions, together witha good many short musical examples in the Lydian trope,of wh ich i t describes the nota t ion.

Archytas. A Pythagorean, born at Tarentum in South Italy, acontemporary of P la to and of D ionysius, the t yran t of S yracuse. He is known to have wri t ten a work on harmonics,and another on flu tes, both of wh ich are lost. His teach ingis referred to by Boeth ius, Ptolemy, and others.

Aristides, Quintilianus. Probably contemporary wi th Augustus,B.C. 63 to A.D. 14. Author of an important trea t ise on musicin t hree parts, the first of wh ich contains several examplesof Greek notat1on.

Aristox enus. Born at Tarentum about B . .C 354, a pupil ofAristot le, whose successor he hoped to become. He wasthe aut hor of several trea tises on music, of wh ich parts of

two only have survived, that on Harmonics and t ha t onRhythm. He asserted, in opposi t ion to the Pythagoreanschool , t hat the tone could be d iv ided by ear into two equalsemi tones, thus an t icipating by more t han 2000 years themodern system of tuning the organ and p iano Althoughhe gi ves no musical examples, h is treatise on Harmonics 1simportant in the h istory of notation, owing to several references to its use.

224

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Story of Notation

of Cleonides,of whom noth ing seems to be known. Both

are ed i ted by Meibomius,under the name of Euclid ; but

the second has many editions under the name of Cleonides, who is often referred to as Pseudo-Euclid . Bot htrea t ises were transla ted i n to English by C. Davy, London,1 787 . 2 vols.

Coussemaker, C . E . H. de, born at Bailleul 1 805, d ied 1 876, a

learned musician, Member of the French Inst itute, Cheval ierof the Legion of Honour, etc. B e

,was the au t hor of fl ir

toi re de l’Harmonie an M oyen Age, 1 852, of many other

musical memoirs and pamph lets, and the edi tor of S criptormn de M asi ea M edi z

'

E m“

,in 4 volumes, 1 864

-76, a

con t inuat ion of Gerbert’s S cr z

’

fitores.

Fort lage, Charles, Doctor of Ph ilosophy , and professor at the

Universi t y of Jena, publ ished in 1 847 , Das M asié a tisc/ze

Systenz der Gr z’

eofien in seiner Urgesta lt, dealing with thescales of Alypius, in wh ich he d iscovered the key

-scale(Hypolydian) , t hat gave the key to the deciphering of the

rest, and helped to prepare the ground for Westphal,Gevaert, and others.

Franco of Cologne. Of the life of th is important writer wehave so lit tle informat ion that i t is not even known wh ichof three of the same name is the author of A r : Canta s

M ensuraoi l is, though Fet is a t tribu tes it to a philosopher,mathema t ician ,

astronomer, and musician, who was born at

Cologne in the elevent h cen tury, of whose l ife he givessome particulars. The a t tribu t ion of an Arr Can ine M en

sa raoi tis,found at M i lan ,

to Franco of Paris,is by Fetis

considered as a mistake of the copyist . Riemann, however(Goren. der M axie. Tizeor z

'

e), speaks of Franco of Paris andFranco of Cologne as two persons ; and by Hieronymus deMorav ia the trea t ise is a t tribu ted to Johannes de Bur

gundia . A Franco who was Prior of the BenedictineAbbey of Cologne in 1 190, is perhaps the author.

Fa x , John Joseph , composer and author of Gradas ad P ar

nassam,a very importan t work on coun terpoin t , was born

in 1660, d ied 1 74 1 . He was Chapel Master to the Courtof Vienna for fort y years, under Leopold, Joseph I.

, and

2 26

Appendix A

Charles VI . His first works were for the Church, but he

afterwards added instrumental music and opera to h is rangeof composi t ion. Charles V I . insisted on h imself accom

panying one of Fux’s operas on the harpsichord (the place

of the Capellmeister was in t hose days a t the harpsichord ),and Fux

,turning over the pages for h im, exclaimed, on

seeing how well he p layed , “Wha t a pi t y your Majest y isnot a Capellmeister !” “ I t is not so bad

,

”said Charles,

“being wha t I am.

” Besides being a learned writer, Fuxwas a prolific composer. Fet is gives a list of h is works.

Gafuriu s, or Gafori, or Gaforio, a learned writer on music, wasborn at Todi 1451 , d ied 1 522. He was the son of a sold ier,and was dest ined for the Church ; after being ordained hestud ied music, and after many vicissi tudes of war and

povert y, became a singer in the Ca thedral of M ilan. Hiswri t ings exercised a powerful influence on the musica lstudies of his day, and most of h is successors quote hisopinions as authori tat ive.

” —Fetis. He was a ttacked bySpa taro, or Spadaro, and Aaron, on account of some of h is

proport ions of intervals, and a long and b i tterly contestedstrife ensued, in wh ich many joined, and in wh ich h is sidewas supposed to have the v ictory.

Gal ileo, Galilei, the father of the astronomer, was a F lorentinegentleman, born about 1555. He was an amateur performer on the lute and v iol, had an unusual knowledge of

the science and h istory ofmusic, and was a friend of Bardi ,in whose house origina ted I talian opera. In h is Dz

’

scorso

delta M ari ta antioa e delta moderna , 1 58 1 , he published thethree Grmco-Roman h ymns, wi th Greek notat ion, men

tioned on p. 39, from MSS . found in several libraries.

These were republished wit h notes by Bellermann in 1 841 ,and are described in every important h istory ofmusic.

Gaudentius,“The Ph ilosopher,” an Aristoxenian, has left us a

small but in terest ing work, ent i tled Harmonie Introduc

tion, in wh ich the major th ird is reckoned among the con

cords, it being a d iscord with the Pythagoreans, on accountof its ma t hema tical tuning. N oth ing is known of the time

or place of h is b irth ; but h is work was translated from227

Story of Notation

Greek into Latin, as early as the fifth century of our era, byMutianus, who a lso transla ted the Homilies of S t . Chrysostom. Gaudentius probably lived some time in the th irdor fifth centuries A.D.

Gerbert , Abbe, born in 1 720, d ied 1 793 , was a learned Benedict ine of the Monastery of S t. B la ise in the B lack Forest .He travelled much , was in correspondence with manylearned societ ies, was a friend of Martini the h istorian at

Bologna, and the author of an important h istory of churchmusic. In 1 784 he publ ished h is S cnptores E colesz

’

asticz’

de M usica S acra Potz'

ssinznm in t hree volumes, being a

collection of the ancient wri ters on church music,which

eighty years later was continued by Coussemaker.Gerle, Hans, a lute-maker and player of Nuremberg, publishedimportant works on Tablature between 1 530 and 1 552, wh ich

have now become rare. There were two lute-makers of

th is name contemporaries at Nuremberg, but what relation,if any, they were is not known ; and there is confusion as to

the dates of their death.

Gevaert, F. A. ,D irector of the Brussels Conservatoire, is one of

the most learned of l iv ing wri ters on ancient music. Of

the t hree volumes of h is La M usique de t’Antigu i te

’

, vol. i .(1 875) treats exhaust ively of the sources of informat ion, themodes, tropes, nuances, and notat ion of the Greeks ; vol. i i.,1 88 1 , is occupied w ith the rhythm,

the instrumen ts, and thedrama of ant iquit y ; vol. iii . 1 895, deals wi th the transitionfrom Greek to Christ ian music, analyses the early hymnsand antiphons, throwing much new light on t heir origin.

Gu ido, Aret ino, was born at Arezzo, not far from Rome, towardsthe end of the tenth century , though he has been at varioustimes claimed as having been born in Normandy, in Germany, and at Canterbury ; wh ile Spanish h istorians claimthat he attained h is musical knowledge in Catalonia. He

became a monk in the Benedict ine Abbey of Pomposa nearFerrara, where he obtained a repu tat ion for h is teach ingpowers, wh ich soon spread t hrough I taly. D riven out

of h is abbey by the jealousy of h is fellow-monks, who228

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Story of Notation

nota t ion by Greek and La tin let ters, used in h is day to

decipher the neumes. Both works are publ ished byGerbert.

Hothby, Hothbus, Ottobus, Hothobus, O tteby, John, an EnglishCarmelite, produced in 147 1 a work ent itled, Hot/coy,

Angl ici , P roportiones M nsi ca . I t is published by Coussemaker in three parts ; the t h ird, ent i tled Regu ta superContrafianctam, gives the rules of a mode of singing, called“ visible discan t ,” used in England.

Hucbald, Hugbald, a monk of St. Amand in Tournay, bornabout 840, d ied about 932 ; was ei ther a Frenchman or

Belgian by b irth . He was a pup il of h is uncle at S t .Amand

,who, in a fi t of jealousy caused by h is brillian t

composit ions, drove h im from the monastery and forcedh im to ret ire to Nevers, where he opened a school ofsinging. After the dea t h of h is uncle he succeeded him as

d irector of the monast ic school of S t . Amand . His successwas grea t , and he was called upon to d irect or found o therschools ; in h is old age he ret ired to S t. Amand, where hedied . He is men t ioned as the author of several treatises,wh ich are published by Gerbert, but Hans M il ller and

Riemann (Gesctz. der M asié . Tneor ic, p . 4) contest h is righ t

to M a sica enctziri adzs and Harmoni ca institu tio, wh ichhave been a t tributed to h is authorsh ip.

Kircher, Athanasius, a learned Jesui t, was born in 1 602 at

Geysen, near Fu lda , d ied 1 680 ; au thor of an enormouswork on music, ent i tled M asa rgia Unz

’

versa tis. Fétis says,“Th is learned man shows in h is writ ings a oi z arre con

junct ion of deep knowledge in ma themat ics, physics,na tural h istory , ph ilology, and a credulous mind, greedy ofthe marvellous, and devoid of judgment . In h is immenseworks the false and the true are mixed together pell-mell ,but t here are plen ty of good and interest ing th ings for thosewho take the troub le to seek them.

” The Th irty Years’War

drove h im from Germany to Av ignon, and t hen Rome,where he spent the rest of h is life in gigant ic works on

nearly every branch of human knowledge, and where hefounded a famous museum,

wh ich is st ill in existence. The

230

Appendix A

M usurgia conta ins the G reek nota t ion of the first of ‘

P indar’s Pyth ic odes.

Mace, Thomas, born 16 19, died 1 709. Li t t le is known of h is

life,and the only work he appears to have publ ished is

M usica’s M onument (see page 1 54, note), wh ich trea ts of

Psalm-singing in parish churches, and of the lute and v iol,published in 1 67 6.

Marchettus of Padua flourished at the end of the t h irteenthand beginning of the fourteent h centuries. N oth ing is

known of h is life, or of whether he was a monk or a priest .His Drew

'

s Conzfiz’

la tz'

o zn Arte M usi ca is published inCoussemaker’s th ird volume.

Martini , G iambat t ista , born at Bologna 1 706, d ied 1 784, a

learned composer and theorist, and a famous teacher, wasthe possessor of one of the most complete musical librariesof h is day, est ima ted by Burney at volumes. Histwo most importan t works, frequent ly referred to byBurney and Hawkins

,are a H istory of M usi c, and h is

work on counterpoint . A list of h is composi tions is givenin Grove’s D i ctionary.

Meibom ia s, Meybaum, or Meibom,Mark, born at Tonningen

1626, d ied at U trech t 1 7 1 1 , a learned Du tch ph ilologist,

was a professor at the Un iversi ty of Upsal , and librarianto Frederick I I I . of D enmark . He published in 1652,Antigua musi cce Auctores septem, a wonderfully corrected it ion of trea t ises by Aristoxenus, Euclid (see C leonides) ,Alyp ius, N icomachus, Gaudentius, Bacch ius Senior, and

Arist ides Quintilianus, w ith La t in translat ions and c0p ious

notes. His v isionary temperamen t led h im into severalunfortunate enterprises. G iv ing up h is chair at Upsal, heendeavoured to persuade Du tch and French mariners toadop t the ancient triremes ; failing in th is

,he came to

England and endeavoured to publish a Hebrew edi tionof the O ld Testament

,corrected by h imself ; th is also

failing of success, he ret ired to Holland and died inpovert y.

23 1

Story of Notat ion

Morley , Thomas,Mus. Bac . born abou t the middle of the

sixteenth century,died about 1604. A pupil of Byrd, and aGent leman of the Chapel Royal, was the author of a quaintwork ent i t led A Pta ine and E asze Introduction to Practi ca tl

M usi cke,1 597 , containing much va luable informat ion on

the old nota t ion and the tabla tures. He was the composerof many madriga ls, anthems

,services, lessons for the

V irginals, a list of wh ich is given in Grove’s Dictiona ry.

Ma ris, Johannes de. According to Dr. Hugo Riemann, Gesclz.der .Musie. Ttzeorie, im z

'

x .-x ix . j atzrttundert, 1 898, page 235,

etc. , there were in the fourteent h cen tury two musicians of

th is name, the Norman and the Parisian. The Norman

Muris studied at Paris, but l ived and taugh t at Oxford,whence he 15 a lso called the English De Muris. He con

tributed noth ing new to the development of nota tion. The

Parisian De Muris was a friend of Ph il ip of V itry , and the

au thor of important works, among them M uszca Specu lati 'z/a

,1 3 23 . The works of bot h are published by Gerbert

and Coussemaker.

Narbaez , Louis de, a Spanish musician, who published at Val

ladolid,in 1 538 si x books of tablature for the v iol or

v ihuela, together wi t h instruct ions for the use of the tablature in Spanish .

Odo, or Oddo of Clugny, a monk of nob le family, who, afterstudying under Remi d ’Auxerre, became Canon and Pre

centor of S t . Mart in de Tours in 899, and in 927 Abbot ofClugny, where he d ied in 942. His D ia logas dc M usica,

pub l ished by Gerbert, is an i nstruct ion book for the use of

the monochord, the modes and t heir transposit ions and

formulas, to wh ich the Latin let ters, toget her wit h theGreek gamma,are arranged for the scale in the modern

way, a method formerly a t tributed to Guido. His claim to

the au thorsh ip of the D i a logas has, however, been con

tested of late in Germany—wide Riemann, Gescli . der

M usik Ttzeorze, p . 55

Olympu s, who lived before the Trojan war, was a pupil ofMarsyas, and the composer of three names or songs , wh ich

23

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Story of Notat ion

one of the most importan t epochs in musical h istory. The

da tes of h is b irt h and dea th and part iculars seem to be

unknown.

Ptolemy, Claudius, the celebra ted Greek astronomer, the eventsof whose life are unknown

, excep t t hat h is last recordedastronomical observat ion can be traced to the 22nd of

March A.D . 14 1 . He was the au thor of a trea t ise on musicin three parts, of wh ich MSS . are found in most grea tEuropean libraries ; the work was pub lished w i th a La tintransla t ion and notes in 1680

,by Wallis, an Oxford ma the

matician, together w i t h a mas s of ma thema t ical (Pytha

gorean) calculat ions of interva ls. Th is work gives a clearexposi t ion of the transposi t ion of the trope, our descendingminor scale, to all the keys possible to the modern keyboard, toge ther wi th other details of G reek music not

ment ioned elsewhere.

Pyth agoras was born at Samos abou t B .C. 580. He studiedph ilosophy in Phoenicia and Egyp t , returned to Greece,where he studied at Sparta ; finally went to I taly and

estab lished a cul t of ph ilosoph y at Crotona, where he hadmany d isciples. Persecut ion of the new sec t arose ; theP ythagoreans were slain or driven into exile, and the

founder was martyred at Metapontus. Pythagoras, likeSocrates, wrote noth ing ; and h is musical doctrines appear

to have suffered mod ifica t ion at the hands of ancientwri ters. He taugh t tha t numbers were the soul of theuniverse ; that the planets in t heir courses made a“ celest ial concert ” of consonances analogous to the

musical intervals of the octave, fifth , fourth , etc. ; and t ha t ,therefore, the musical scale must be regula ted by mathematical proport ions. Th is resul ted in the impossibili t y ofmodula t ion, wh ile i t made the major th ird (called by thePythagoreans a di tone) one of the harshest of discords.

The Aristoxenian school was probab ly the resul t of the

protests of pract ical mu s icians against such a crampingdoctrine. Aristides Quintilianus a t tribu tes a certain form of

no tat ion to Pythagoras ; i t is possible t hat the Pythagoreansused i t for t heir own purposes.

234

Appendix A

Stroz z io or Stroz z i , Gregory, an abbé , doctor of canon law, andapostolic protonotary ; born at Naples, where he was liv ingin the second half of the seventeen t h century. In 1 683 he

published E lementorum M usicce P rax is,in wh ich he trea ts

of the music of his day, and gives a number of strangeproportions for t ime (see page perhaps the resul t of hisnot being a pract ical musician. He also pub lished a bookof organ and harpsichord music, of good quali ty, in 1 687 .

Terpander , called the Lesbian. It is not known when he lived,but all ancient wri ters are agreed as to h is meri ts as a

musician. He ga ined many prizes for music in the games,

and is said to have calmed a sedi tion at Sparta by thecharm of h is songs wi t h the ki thara . His composi tions,called names, were very famous t hroughou t Greece, and

were used as opening p ieces for the public games. He is

said to have introduced the hep tachord scale for the lyre(see page and some wri ters assert tha t he wrote innota t ion the lyric intonations for the whole of the Homericpoems.

Tinctor, John, the date of whose b irt h is variously given, diedat Naples in 1476 ; was a na t ive of F landers. Besidesbeing a learned writer, he was one of the first professors, ifnot the founder, of the public music school at Naples, saidto be the first of its kind in I taly. Amongst h is works arethe earliest known musical dictionary, TerminorumM usicce

d ifiini tor ium, published wi th a German transla t ion byB ellermann in the j atzroitcaer der M us. Wissenscli af t,vol. i. , and by Coussemaker ; and a P roportiona le M usi ces

in t hree books, treat ing of the proportions of notes in thenotat ion of h is t ime.

Vincent , A. J . H.,born in 1 797 , a member of the French

Academy , and Librarian to the M in istry of Public Instruct ion, was the au thor of many pamph lets and wri tingson the music of the ancients and of the early Church , andthe publisher of several ancien t MSS . He sustained a

length y controversy wit h Fétis on the quest ion of whetherthe ancients made use of harmonic comb inations of sounds ;

235

Story of Notation

the question was practically settled by Westphal , whoseopinion is now generally accepted, t hat the ancients used

no harmony of voices (excep t t ha t of the octave), but t hatthe lyre occasionally sounded single notes above the voice,wh ich were not in octaves with i t.

Virdung, a Bavarian priest and organist, who lived at Basleduring the first decades of the six teenth century. He wasthe au thor of M usica Getu tsctzt and Ausgez ogen in qua intBavarian d ialect , intended as the prelimmary to a muchlarger work, wh ich , however, was never wri t ten. It describes the instruments in use, and gives examples of

tablatures for them (see pages 1 50,

Vitry, Ph ilip of, l ived between 1 290 and 1 36 1 , was B ishop of

Meaux, and a famous composer of motets, lays, and

rondos ; au thor of a trea t ise on the Ars N ova of h is day,called Liter M usi catium

,t hough Riemann considers that

the Ars N ova , in wh ich the rules for counterpoint becamemore strict, was in use before h is t ime (Gesc/i i ctzte derM usik. Ttzeorie, chap . Burney (History, vol. ii. p . 209)shows that several ancient wri ters attributed to h im the

invent ion of the minim.

Westphal , Rudolph , a professor at the Universi ty of Moscow(died abou t was amongst themost learned ofmodern

invest iga tors of ancien t music, especially wi th regard to its

rhythm. He showed t hat the principles of rhythmical construct ion of phrases, and even of complete works of art, areessent ially the same in the dramas of the ancients and thecomposi t ions ofmodern classicalmusicians, from Sebast ianBach onwards. He was also a strong advoca te of the v iewthat the Aristoxenians made use of equal temperament , inwh ich he is followed by Gevaert, Riemann, and mostmodern authori t ies on ancien t music.

Zarl ino, Joseph , born in 1 519 at Ch ioggia (though Burney sayshe was born in d ied 1 599, was organist of S t . Mark’sat Venice, and one of the most famous theorists of h is day.

Il quale nella theoria e nella composizione é senza pari ”236

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Appendix B .

Glo s sary.

Alto Clef, the name given to the C clef when i tthe middle line of the stave.

Arsis, the weak portion of a bar or measure.

B ,German for B flat, from the mediaeval o rotundum

, as

opposed to b guadrum, wh ich in Germany is called hor H.

Bar. The perpendicular lines across the stave to mark themeasures began to come into use at the beginning of the

seventeenth century in the staff notat ion ; but they hadbeen used for more than a century previously in the

tablatures. Morley, who d ied in 1 604, is probably oneof the first to use the word “bar ” in its modern sense

of “measure.

”

Baritone Clef, the name given to the F clef when it is placedon the middle line of the stave.

Bass, the vocal part called oassus lying below the P lainsong,or Tenor, was of later invention than the D iscant andTreble.

Bass Clef, the name given to the F clef when, as in all modernmusi c

,i t is placed on the fourth l ine of the stave.

Be'

mol , the French for flat, as si beinot, etc.

B quadrum ,Lat in for B natural.

Brevis, our Breve, a note of double, and in mediaeval musicthree t imes, the value of the Semibreve ; i t is nowalmostobsolete.

B rotundum, Latin for B fiat.238

Appendix B

Cantu s figu ral is, the figurated counterpoint that accompanied the melody of the P la insong.

Cantus firmu s, F ixed song, P lainsong, the Gregorian melodyon wh ich early contrapuntal music was based.

Cantu s.p lanus, P lainsong, generally known as Gregorian

mus1c.Chromatic, coloured,” a Greek form of scale in wh ich certain

degrees were al tered in p i tch . The word is used in modernmusic for a series of semi tones, or for harmonies in wh ichmany accidentals occur.

Clav ichord,“keyed string, an instrument derived from the

monochord, in wh ich keys, instead of a plectrum,caused

strings to sound . S ince its strings were struck,it must not

be confused wi t h the harpsichord, of later invent ion,in

wh ich the strings were plucked.

Clef, the“Key

” let ter placed at the beginning of every stave tounlock the secre ts of its notes

,according to old writers.

Conjunct System , a series of seven scale degrees, containingtwo similar tetrachords having a sound in common

, thusE F G A

B C D E

Croch eta , the Crotchet , of one-th ird or one-half the value of the

M inima it seems to have been invented by the EnglishmanHamboys, abou t A.D. 1470. Purists objected tha t a notesmaller than the smallest (minima ) could not ex ist.

Diaton ic, a scale proceeding ch iefly by tones.

Diaphony, D iscord , i .e. all interva ls excep t the octave, fifth ,and fourth . Owing to the peculiari t y of Pythagoreantuning, themajor and minor t h irds and sixths were reckonedamong the d iaphonies.

Die'

se, the French for sharp , as C dzese, etc.

Diesis, an interval smaller t han a semi tone.

Direct, a sign formerly used at the end of a stave to indicatethe posit ion of the first note on the stave nex t below.

Dis, properly speaking, the German for D sharp ; but under theinfluence of the tab la tures, in wh ich each sound had only asingle sign, D is was used for E flat. In 1 805 Beethoven’

s

239

Story of Notation

Eroica symphony was announced on the programmes of twoconcerts at V ienna as“ S infonie in D is.

”

Discantus, the part added above the P lainsong in the earlydays of Counterpoint . The soprano part i s st ill calledD iskant ln Germany .

Disjunct System. A series of eigh t scale degrees, having no

sound m common, and embracing two similar tetrachords ;

ourmajor scale furnish es an ew a disjunct systemC D E F , G A B C

Dorian Octave, the sounds given b y the wh ite keys of the

p ianoforte from E to e. Boeth ius, however, and after h imall the Church musicians, applied the name Dorian to thescale from D to d.

Double Bar, the ancient rest placed at the end of a composition,or the end of an important section.

Dragma , a lozenge-shaped note wi th tails at each angle, somet imes used for a semibreve in mediaeval times.

Driven Notes, a term used by P layford and others for synco

patiou.

Enharmonic, a Greek form of tetrachord,in wh ich the semi

tone was d iv ided in to quarter-tones.

Expression Words were used in the tenth century by Romanusand o thers. They then ent irely d isappeared unt il theseventeen th century, since wh ich period they have beenconstantly 1ncreasing in number.

False Music, Feigned Music, Musica Ficta, Musica Iuusi

tata ,music in wh ich certain intervals were raised or loweredby a semi tone to sui t the harmonic combinat ions. Asthese altera tions produced sounds t ha t were not given b ythe monochord, t hey were at first not written. False musicembraces al l fla ts except B flat, and all sharps.

Fermata , see Pause.

Fixed Sounds, in the Greek scale, those sounds wh ich remainedfixed in all the three genera— tha t is to say, the h ighest andlowest sounds of tetrachords, together with Proslambanomenos.

Flat, the sign wh ich shows that a note is to be lowered by a

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Story of Notat ion

Imperfect Mood, Time, Prolation , the div ision of the longernotes into two of the nex t in value Duple measure.

Kithara , an elabora te form of the lyre.

Krouma , the accompanimen t to a song, played by the lyre.

Larga , a note con taining nine longas, apparently invented byJohn Hamboys. I t does not appear to have been muchused.

Lega to. The slur, or lega to S ign took the place of the oldliga tures early m the eigh teenth century.

Lichanos, the th ird string of the tetrachord, plucked with the

forefinger.

Ligature, a sign indicating t ha t two or more scale degrees wereto be sung to the same syllab le. I t has been replaced 1n

modern notat ion by the “ B ind ”or S lur

,

” called 1n I talianLega to, from L iga tura .

Locrian or Common Octave, represented by the notes A to a

of the pianoforte.

Longa , a no te of three t imes (or doub le) the value of the Breve.

Lydian Octave is represented by the modern C maj or scale.

Boeth ius 1s responsible for miscalling the octave F tof the

Lydian mode.

Max ima , a note of the value of three or two “ longs.

Measured Mu sic, music measured accord ing to the laws of

metre and rhythm, as opposed to Gregorian music or

P lainsong, in wh ich the notes showed no measure. Of

late years a t temp ts have been made to give t ime-valuesto pure Gregorian nota tion

,the varying forms of wh ich are

derived from the neumes, and not from measured music.Mese, the

“middle ”sound of the Greek musical system, the A

to wh ich we tune the v ioloncello. Mese was also used 1n

the sense of the Gregorian Dominan t , the note most usedin melody, according to Aristotle. Some wri ters have seen

in i t a “ keynote ” in the modern sense ; but the keynoteshould be more properly sough t in Hypate.

Memo-sop rano C lef, the name given to the C clef when i t isplaced on the second line of the stave.

242

Appendix B

Minima , our M inim,a note of one-th ird or of half the value of

the S emibreve. I t came into use in the th irteenth century,being men t ioned by Wal ter Odington about 1 275.Mix olydian Octave, the notes B to e. Boeth ius and the Church

musicians, however, call G to g the M ixolydian mode.

Monochord, an instrumen t in wh ich a string was stretchedover a sca le of alphabetical let ters. By placing a movablebridge, or a rod

,under the string at the points indicated by

the let ters, the required sound could be produced. The

monochord was for centuries used in teach ing P lainsongand sight-singing.

Mood, or Mode, t ime measurement of wh ich the longa formedthe basis. Mode is also used for Octave-system and Trope,as the Dorian mode

Motet, a form of compos1t1on whose modem English representat ive is the Ca thedral anthem.

Movable Sounds, in the Greek scale t hose sounds wh ich wereal tered to sui t the d ifferen t genera , as our “ th ird ” is al teredto sui t the major or minor mode. The second and t h irdsounds of each tetrachord were movable (and are still inthe Greek church ) , the first and fourth being fixed.

Natura l , the sign wh ich originally stood for B na tural , i .e. a

square-shaped o; afterwards used to restore a note that hasbeen affected by a sharp or flat. The hexachord beginningon C was called na tura le, hence our C major key is calledthe

“na tural key.

” The natural is called in German

guadrat, in French becarre' (o squared). Duple Rhythmbegan to be called “Na tural Time ” in the beginning of the

sixteent h cen tury.Netc, the h ighest sound of tetrachords lying above Mese.

Neume, or N euma , a sign, equivalent to the La t in N ota .

Notation , the art of represent ing musical sounds in wr1t1ng,from N ota , a sign.

0Note properly signifies a wri t ten sign, ind1cat1ng a sound ; buti t is used of the sound itself, and hence of the key of an

instrument, wh ich produces the sound.

Organ isers, priests who travelled from church to church to singthe organum.

243

Story of Notation

Organum, the earliest form of part-singing, in wh ich the melodywas sung by two or more voices at the interval of a fourthor fift h as well as an octave.

Parhypate, next to the h ighest ,” the lowest sound but one of

the Greek tetrachord. S ee Hypa te.

Pause. In Lat in, German, I talian, th is word means a Rest . In

English it is used for the S ign called in I talian Ferma ta,

indica t ing tha t a note is to be held beyond its norma lvalue. The Fermata sign is used by P layford on a fullclose, and is thus found in some music of the eighteent hcentury.

Perfect Mood, Time, Prolation , t ime measurement by thed ivision of the longer notes into t hree of the nex t in value,i . .e Triple measure.

Phonetic Notation , any notat ion in wh ich sounds are repre

sented b y alphabet ical letters, figures, or words.

Pricksong, an English expression for measured music, wh ichwas pricked ”

on the parchment by its composer.Proport ion , an old term for t ime signature, referring to the

arit hmet ical fract ions placed at the beginning of the stave.

Thus, the fraction 2means that the measure or bar is to the

semibreve in the proport ion of t hree to four ; or, in otherwords, the value of the bar is th ree-quarters that of thesemibreve.

Phrygian Octave, the octave from D to d of the p ianofortewit hou t b lack keys ; but Boeth ius and h is successorsappl ied the term Phrygian mode ”

to the octave E to e.

Pictorial Notation , any nota t ion in wh ich the rise and fall ofmelody is depicted by the h igher or lower posi t ion of

wri t ten signs, and t ime value i s represented by varyingthe shapes of the signs.

Pla insong, a name for Gregorian music.Plectrum, an instrument uSed by the ancients to pluck the

strings of the lyre, etc. In the harpsichord i t is calleda

“Jack,” and consists of a wooden uprigh t to wh icha quill is a t tached, wh ich acts on the string in the sameway as the ancien t p .lectrum

Pl ica , a kind of ligature used wi t h the liquid ” let ters of thealphabet , the sound of wh ich was carried into that of the

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Story of Notation

Quaver was called in the old tablatures a semiminim, andfigured by an uprigh t stroke with two crooks.

Rep et ition Dots first appeared in the tablatures, whence theywere imported into the staff nota t ion.

Rest. The rests have scarcely varied their shape from the

earliest t imes, but they are larger now than formerly. The

modern “Doub le Bar ” was originally a rest, showing the

conclusion of a p iece or a section.

Semiminim , a name used in tablatures for the quaver.Score. Vertica l lines were “scored ”

at various intervalst hrough the grea t staves of twelve .to twent y l ines in the

M iddle Ages, to guide the eye ; and in more modern t imes,when a large number of vocal or instrumental parts beganto be writ ten on the same page, the bar

-lines were scored ”

t hrough all the staves for the same purpose, the music thuswri tten being called a

“ Score.

”

Sharp , the sign which shows tha t a note is to be raised by asemitone. In Lat in it is called Crux , a cross ; in German,K reuz ; in French , D iese, from Diesis. I t was originally amodification of the square e, and gradually arrived at the

shape familiar to us.

Signatu re, signs placed at the beginning of the stave to indica te the rhythmical form

,and the key. T ime signatures

appeared at a very early period in the form of circles,semicircles, etc.

,wh ich in the sixteenth and seventeent h

centuries gave way to numerals, the“broken circle

being however reta ined for Duple rhy thm. Key signatures began to appear in the sixteenth century, and

were for a t ime somewhat amb iguous in their meanmg.

Sop rano Clef, the name given to the C clef when i t is placedon the lowest line of the stave.

Species of Octave or Tetrachord refers to the distribu t ion of

tones and semitones t herein. In ecclesiast ical music thespecies of octave is called the mode.

Staccato Signs first appeared in the works of J . S . Bach ,Couperin, and Rameau.

246

Appendix B

Staff or Stave, the series of horizontal l ines on wh ich musicalnotes are wri t ten. At the present day the stave of fivel ines is universal in all music excep t Gregorian ; but forsome cen turies any number of lines from one to twent yfour were used, the wri ter frequently adding a new linewhen the melody overstepped t hose he had a lready drawn.

Susp ir ium ,

“an apparen t rest ,” according to Hieronymus de

Moravia ; in reali t y,a breath ing place.

Symp hony, a concord, i .e. the intervals of the octave, fifth , andfourth . In modern music the word Symphony is appliedto the most importan t form of orchestral music.

Tablatu re, a form of instrumental notat ion used in the sixteenthand seventeen th centuries. See Chap ter IX .

Tenor , the holding part, P lainsong or Gregorian melody, whenused as a basis for contrapuntal composi t ions.

Tenor Clef, the name given to the C clef when i t is placed on

the fourth line of the stave.

Tetrachord, a scale or succession of four sounds embracing twotones and a semi tone. Our major scale consists of twotetrachords superposed ; our minor descend ing scale alsoconsists of two tetrachords, hav ing a note in commonand a note “

added ” below the lower tetrachord. See

Proslambanomenos,Hep tachordThesis, the down bea t , or strong port ion of a measure.

Time or Tempu s, t ime measurement of wh ich the semibreveformed the basi s .

Trip lum ,Treble, the th ird part, sung above the Discantus,which was above the P la insong or Tenor.

Trite, the th ird string of the tetrachord, coun t ing downwards;only applied to tetrachords lying above Mese.

Trop e, the series of sounds of two octaves from A to a’

, including a flat. The trope could be transposed to any pi tch ,and practically corresponded to our Key.

”

247

Appendix C .

Chronological Table of Notation .

Abou t B.C. 67 1 Terpander adds a second tetrachord to the

one already ex isting on the lyre, thus producing a heptachord ; and each string has aspecial name.

Between B .C. The hep tachord is extended by the addition67 1 and 600 of tetrachords, to a compass of two octaves,

called the Greater Perfect System,and to a

compass of eleven sounds,called the Lesser

Perfect S ystem.

1 The instrumental notat ioninvented (probably by Polymnastus of Colophon) ,2 by adap t ing part of the old Atticalphabet to the musical scale.

B .C. 408 Composition of the drama Orestes,” by Euri

p ides,'

of whose music a few bars have beenaccidentally preserved, from a copy made in

the t ime ofAugustus.

B .C. 403 The neo-Ionic alphabet becomes legally establ ished for official use at At hens ; and probab ly abou t the same t ime its let ters are

applied to the musical scale as a vocal notat ion, the old At t ic let ters being retained forinstruments.

3

1 Gevaert, La Musique de t’Antigu ite

'

, vol . i . p . 1 25.

2 R . Westphal , D ieMus. des Gr . Attert/i ums, p . 1 1 7 .

3 Westphal , toc. cit. p. 1 74.

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Story of Notation

At unknown Bacch ius Senior writes a ca tech ism of music,dates, during using nota t ion

,bot h vocal and instrumental ,

the first few to explain the intervals.

centuries of Arist ides Quintilianus, in a long treat ise on

the Christ ian music, gives several examples of the notationera. of Alyp ius, and another notat ion wh ich he

ascribes to the Pythagoreans.

An unknown wri ter, usually referred to as

Anonymus,” quotesmany examples of vocalexercises in notat ion, and gives signs for rests,accents

,long and short notes

, stacca to,lega to, etc. Th is treat ise is t herefore veryimportan t .

Gaudentius, a ph ilosopher, writes an“ Intro

duct ion,

”at the end of wh ich he gives the

notat ion of the Hypolydian, Hyperlydian,E olian

,and Hypoaeolian tropes, in the D iatonic Genus only, agreeing wi th the tables of

Alypius.

Abou t A.D. Boet h ius, a ph ilosopher and Roman Consul ,wri tes a treatise on music,in wh ich he

quotes some of the Greek nota t ion,but

shows t ha t i t had gone out of use in his

day. As noth ing had yet been invented totake its place, he uses La t in let ters for

reference, but in no regular order ; hencea

“ Boeth ian notation ” has been wronglyat tributed to h im.

About AHD 555 The N eumat ic notat ion, in wh ich Greekaccents were used to show the rise and

fall of the voice pictorially, appears to havebegun about th is t ime, under Byzantine

influence.

About A.D. 850 The Ant iphonary of S t . Gall was wri t ten, wi thcomplete N eumat ic notation and expressionsigns.

250

Appendix C

A.D. 900 t0 1000 Attempts were made by Hucbald, Odo ofTom1éres

,.

Hermann Contractus, and manyothers, to 1nvent a more sat isfactory notat iont han t ha t of the neumes

,by means of alpha

betical letters.

About A.D. 990 B irth of Guido ofArezzo.

A. D . 1000 to The Montpellier Antiphonary was prov ided1 100 w ith alphabetical letters from a to is above

the neumes . A manuscript, nowin the Bodleian Library, was prov ided with alphabet icallet ters, a to a above the words

, and wi thoutneumes.

A local system of seven lines, representing theseven sounds of Terpander

’s heptachord ,

and bearing dots for notes,seems to have

been used abou t t h is t ime in S icily. I t ,however, led to noth ing.

In the first decades of th is century, Guido of

Arezzo adopted the naming of sounds by thefirst seven let ters of the La tin alphabet ,wh ich system has cont inued to the presentday. As Proslambanomenos was the lowestsound of the Greek system,

he called it A,but a st ill lower sound, he called by the Greeklet ter Gamma. Hence the word Gamut forscale.

He also drew parallel lines through the neumes,wh ich l ines became the staff of modernmusic ; and on each line he wrote a letter,called a clavis or clef. For teach ing singinghe used the well-known syllables, Ui , Re, M i ,F a , S ol , La , arranging them in hexachords,accord ing to tha t order of sounds wh ich wasafterwards known as the major scale. The

first half of the eleventh century, therefore,maybe said to have seen the birt h ofmodernnotat ion as regards its representat ion of

intervals.

251

About 1 250

Abou t 1 275

Story of Notation

Owing to the development of O rganum intoDiscan t

, the necessi t y arose for measuringthe rela t ive length of sounds, as well as decid ing t heir intervals. The Punctum of the

neumes became bot h a square note, called a

breve, and a lozenge, called a semibreve the

v irga was given a square head, and becamea“ long,” equal to two breves.

A notat ion for Triple Measure was inventedby making the long contain t hree breves,and the breve three semibreves ; and the

new valua t ion was called Perfect Measure,the older duple valua t ion being called Imperfect . Rests were invented. False musicbegan to be used.

Sumer is icumen in,composed by John

of Reading.

The date of“Ars Cantus Mensurabilis,

” byFranco of Cologne, is unknown ; i t wasperhaps between 1 230 and 1 250.

Marchettus of Padua describes red notes as

showing change of mood, or altera t ion of the

normal value of the notes.

The sharp, as well as chromatic passages are

used by the same author.

The minim invented by Wal ter Odington,monk of E vesham.

A.D. 1 300 to A great number of treat ises on Measured1400 Music are wri tten, of wh ich Coussemaker

prints fort y.252

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A.D. 1538

About 1590

About 1600

Story of Notation

Introduct ion of I talian lu te tablature intoSpa in by Narbaez .

P ietro Aaron, in h is Lucidario,leads the

revol t aga inst the threefold value of notes.

Zarlino finds a knowledge of the old measurements called Mood, T ime, Prolation, no

longer necessary to the musician.

Key signatures began to be used.Morley explains the old teach ing regardingthreefold note value, but says tha t the knowledge of i t is lost .

The same author uses the expressions so,

for“soft ” and “ loud ” in lute music.

The bar-line began to come into use in the

staff notat ion, after having been used in thetablatures for more than a century .Rise of figured bass.Lu te books begin to Show words of express ion,as p iano, forte, presto, a dagio, toget her wi ththe signs used for diminuendo and crescendo

at the present day.

Thomas Salmon, of Oxford, proposes to abolishthe clefs.

Souhaitty, of Paris, proposes to abolish notesin favour of numerals on the stave.

Loulié teaches the modern use of the naturalto contradict sharps and flats. Previously asharp had been used to contradict a flat, anda flat to contradict a sharp, the natural beingonly used for B quadrant.

254

AboutA.D.

1 720 30

Appendix C

The square and lozenge notation was rapidlygivmg way to the oval and round-headednotes of the presen t day.

Appearance of the staccato sign in the worksof Couperin, J . S . Bach , and others.

The nineteenth edi t ion of Playford’s“ Intro

duct ion ”refers to the running together of

the crooks of a succession of quavers (in themodern method) as “

the new t yed note.

”

Mattheson proposes the modern form of the

doub le sharp.

J . J . Rousseau endeavours to carry out Souhaitty

’s proposal to abolish notes.

Adlung says tha t the circle w ith a dot,indica t ing triple measure, is rapidly disappearing.

Jacob , a Frenchman, proposes to abolish theclefs, and to use figures for notes.

The treat ise on Counterpoint, of Martini, published , wi th the old square nota t ion, and

liga tures ; probably their last use, except inplainsong.

C . P . E . Bach gives a doubled G clef in the

flu te part in h is oratorio Die [ sraeti ten in derWilsie, to show tha t two flutes are to playfrom the same stave.

The Abbé de Cassagne proposes to abolish allclefs excep t G .

Story of Notation

AboutA.D. 1 79o The soprano clef began to be given up infavour of the G clef

,for the treble part ofEngl ish anthems.

Roh leder, a German, endeavours to abolish thenames of notes for piano music by givingblack notes to b lack keys, and wh i te notes towh i te keys ; a new keyboard being inventedto sui t the notat ion.

Galin,of Bordeaux, invents a method of teach

ing the nota t ion by numerals, the systemnow used in the elementary schools of

France.

M iss Sarah G lover publishes her invention of

the Tonic Sol-fa nota t ion.

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Story of Notation

Black notes to indicate diminution ,1 39 ; syncopation , 1 80Blind , notation for the, 2 12Boethian notation , 3 , 47 , 63 , 67Boethius , 3 and note, 27 , 29 , 46Breton peasants , music of, 1 92 , noteBrevis or breve, 95, 97 , 1 38 “

the

mother of al l other notes," 1 37in tablature, 148Brevis al tera, 98 ; erecta,recta , 97 , 100, 108

Bryennius, 193Bul l against innovat ions , 1 27Byzantines , 1 1

1 19 ;

C CLEF‘

, 165C used as a time signature, 1 76Caccin i ’ s E u rydice, 1 74 , 1 8 1 , 183Canto fermo , unmeasured , 1 36Cantus compositus, 92 firmus,

planus, figuralis, floridus, 9 1 ,1 6 1 organicus, 1 1 3 ; mensurabilis

, 1 1 3 per medium, 92

Caresana’

s musi c unbarred , 1 74Caserta, Philip of, 1 32 , 1 33Cassagne, Abbé of, proposes to re

duce the number of clefs , 202Castle’s notation , 2 1 2Catapycnosis, a table of notation ,33 ; revived , 62Cephalicus, 60 ; becomes the pl ica,101

Chaldeans , 1Chest of viols , 1 58Chiave di viol ino , 1 72Chinese, 2 , 1 1Chords used by the Greeks , 1 7 ,18 note

Chromat ic genus , 3 three kinds ,24 ; fal ls out of use , 39Chromatic stave, 209Chronos profos and mediaevalrhythm, 1 07

Circle, empty, 1 33 ; of keys, 143 ;as t ime signature , 1 76Clausula or close, 1 1 7Clavichord , 148Claviere’s notation

,206

C lefs , 83 , 93 ; in tablatures, 151 ;modern names of, 1 7 1 variousforms of, 1 7 1 ; proposed abol 1tion of, 199

Cle

gnides, 9 ; description ofmodes ,

2

Climacus ,ture, 1 02Clivis or clinis, 56, 59Colour

,1 10, 1 1 2

Coloured l ines, 84 ; notes , 1 3 1Common t ime, 1 78Conductus , 1 24Confusion of tropes and modes ,Conjunct system, 9 ; tetrachord, 35Contrapunctusor counterpoint , 9 1much cul tivated in England,1 1 2

Couperin’

s inverted pause sign ,I 90

Coussemaker, 1 1 1 , 1 20Craig’s notation , 209Crocheta , crotchet , invented byHamboys, 1 20, 1 38Croma, 1 78

Crouma , an instrumental prelude,43

Crousis, the ancien t accompanimen t , 1 7 , note

Cruce, Petrus de, 1 20Crux , 1 1 7 , 1 19, 140Curwen , John , 2 16

56 ; becomes a liga

DANEL’

S notation , 208David and Lussy, 4 , 47 , 207DeHarmon ica dc l nstztu tione, 62

Delcamp’

s notation , 207258

Index

Delphic Hymn to Apol lo, 27 and E arly E ngtislz Harmony,

”Off , 39Demotz , Abbé, proposes to suppress the staff, 202D iaphony, the ancien t term for

discord, 1 8 note, 65D iastematic or pictorial notation ,I I

D iaton ic, 3 ; of Polymnastus, 2 1

middle soft , 22D iese, 1 1 7D iesis, 22 notation of, 23 ; a

mediaeval term for the sharp, 1 1 7D irect , 1 33 , 1 39D iscantus, d iscant , 9 1 , 94 , 107 ,109 ; extempore, 146 ; term for

soprano voice-part , 1 39 appliedto viol , 158 ; to flute, 159D isjunct system, 9

Distropha, 60D ivision of mood , 97 is the

origin of thebar-l ine, 98Dorian alphabet used for notation ,ISDorian tetrachord, 8 harmony,26: 29 ; trope, 35

Dot after a note, 1 33 of per

fection, 149 ; of repetit ion , 151

pecu l iar use of, 1 74Dots or point s used to indicatefingering, 157 , 16 1Double bar, 1 76Double fiat, 144Double long, 96Double sharp , 143Double-tai led notes, 1 33Dragma, 1 24, and note

Driven notes, 1 75Dufay uses open notes to save t1me,1 8 1

Dutch Reformed Church , 18 1E FLAT, mollis, 1 15, 140

165,167Early l ine notation , 69Eastern Church , and scale of twelvesemitones, 1 39 ; music of, 192Egyptians, 1

Eitner’s rules for fa lse music , 1 4 1Enharmoni c genus , 3 , 22 ; fal ls

out of use, 39 ; notation of,23-25Epigoneion , 8 , 16

Epiphonus, 60 ; becomes the pl ica,101

Equal temperament , 20, and note ;known to the Greeks , 36Expression signs , 53 , 187 , 189 ;in tablatures , 158Extempore discan t, 147F NOTATION , 62, 67False music , feigned music.

Musica falsaFauxbourdon , Faburden , 9 1Fermata, 1 7 7Fétis

’

s cri ticism ofGalin’s notation ,

206Figures, an ancient term for notes,95Figured bass , 183Fixed sounds, 20, 23 , 32Flat used to contradict a sharp, 1 1 7Florid chant , 46Flute prohibited in early church ,43Foot, m poetry, 1 38Franco of Cologne, 9 1-106, 1 14,

1 19Free rhythm, 53 , 106French and I talian notation , disagreements between , 1 3 1 , 134French names of notes , 1 7 7Fusa, in tablature, 149

Pux , Gradus ad Parnassum, 18 1

See

259

Story of Notat ion

G CLEF used for tenor voices, 1 73G clefdoubled, 1 73Galin

’s notation , 204, 2 1 3Galin-Paris-Cheve, 2 1 2, 2 1 3Gamut , 6 1 , 8 1

Gar

gl

gno, Antonio, organ tablature

I

Garlandia, Job. de, 1 07 , 108, 1 14Magister de, 1 1 3

Gaudentius, 43 , 9 1General-bass , 1 83Gerle’s tablature , 153German nomenclature, pecul iari t iesof, 153Glover, M iss , 21 3Gothic notation , 57 , 58Grace notes in tablatures, 151Gradual , composi tion of, 45Greek Church , notation of, 19 1 ,193 1 I94Greek instruments, 6 et namesof strings, 1 2-14, and 1 7 note ;voca l notation , 3 1 ; music and

character, 25 ; time-signs, 36 ;solmisation, 40Greek musi c adap ted to use of

early church , 42Greek notat ion , unorthodox kindof, 47Greeks, 2 , 1 1 on ly sang in octavesor unison, 1 7 used chords inaccompanying voices , 1 7 ; had

no sign indicating the flat, 23and 35 used circle of twelvekeys , 36 practised scales downwards, 48Gregorian music, 1 1 , 43 ; composit ion of, 45Gregory the Great , 44 ; did not

favour music, 45, 63Guido of Arezzo , 4, 62, 72 , 89 ;rules for unknown song, 73 , 1 1 3 ,I93

Guidonian hand , 80, 87 principleapplied to tablature, 154

Guilielmus, the monk, explains theliga tures , 104Gymel , 92 , 1 1 3HAMBOYS , Hanboys, 1 20, 1 2 1

Handlo , Robert de, 1 19 , 1 20Harmony, the ancient term for

mode, 25, 26Hatherley, 1 9 1 , 195Hebrews , 1Hermann , Contractus , 67Hexachords, Guidonian , 77-79 ;principles of, revived , 2 16eyden

’

s suggestion to abol ishclefs, 1 99

Hieronymus de Moravia , 107Hindoos, 2 , 1 1Hoketus or hoket , 1 23 , 1 24, 1 28Hothby, John , 1 35Hucbald, 65, 67 , 106Hypate, 1 2Hyperaeolian, 36Hyperiastian trope, 36Hyperlydian trope, 35Hyperphrygian trope in Delphichymn , 39Hypoaeol ian trope, 36Hypodorian harmony, 26, 29trope, 35Hypolydian harmony, 26, 29 ;trope, 3 1 , 35Hypophrygian harmony, 26, 29trope, 35IASTIAN trOpe, 36, 40Imperfect measure, 95 mood,

Incompetent singers , 73 , 1 22Intervals, notation by, 68Instans, 107I son , 194, 2 16

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Story of Notation

Muris, Johannes de, the Norman,1 2 !

Muris , Johannes de, of Paris, 1 2 1M usica E nc/z i r iad is, 67 , 106

Musica falsa , ficta , inusi tata, 1 14,“S, 1 1 7 1 1 19, 1 3 1 , 1401 I45 ;fracta, 1 23 note ; mensurabilis,

9 1 1 93 ; Planar 9 IMusicvé

’s Monument, 154

NATORP’

S notation , 204Na tural propriety, 1 1 3Nete. See Greek names of stringsNeumes, 4, 46N eumes, 1 1 , 53 , 54 ; in a VirgilMS .

, 52New notat ions , 196 et seq.

N icomachus, 3Nomes , 2 , note

Nonantolian notat ion, 82

Norwich Sol-fa, 2 15Nota, 1 brevior, brevissima ,longior, longissima, 107Notation 53. Points superpose's , 8 1Notation , Greek, 39 ; absence of,in early church , 44 enharmon ic

and chromatic , 25 of GreekChurch , 52 ofmixed Latin andGreek alphabets , 63

OCTAVE species, 25Odington, Wal ter, 1 1 3 , 1 14Odo ofTomieres, 67 , 106

O lympus , 1 7 , 22Open notes in troduced , 1 37Orestes, fragment ofmusic of, 40O rgan isers, 1 10Organ musi c on

tablature, 160Organum, 65, 93 , 94, 1 10Oriscus, 60

Ornamen tal signs, 1 89

staves cal led

PACHYMERE , 193Padua, Marchettus of, 1 30, 1 3 1

Patéograplz ie Musica/e, 58, 70,35Paramese becomes B natural , 76Paranete. S ee Greek names of

s tringsPaulmann, Conrad, 154 ; his tablature, 155Pause, sign of, 1 76Perfect measure, 95Perfect mood , 1 25, 127Perfection , Franco’s defini t ion of,Perfection , with and withou t, 104Persians , 2Pes or podatus , 56, 59Pes cornutus , 60Philip of Vitry. See VitryPhonetic notat ion , 1 1Phrygian harmony, 26, 29 trope,35 ; used in Delphic hymn , 39 ;in Pindar’s ode, 40Pictorial or dias tematic notation,1 1

Pindar, music of, 40Plainsong and Mediaeva l MusicSociety, 7 1 , 1 65Plato’s references to music , 1 7 ,note

Playford, 1 75Plica , 101 , 102 , 1 10Plicated semibreve, 1 20, 124Plutarch’s description of chords ,1 7 , and notePneuma, 53 , 54Podatus , 56Point , of addition , of demonstrat ion , of division , 1 32 ; of per

fection, 97 , 99 , 1 32Points simplified by I tal ians , 1 34Pol lux , l ist of instruments , 7Polymnastus, 21

262

Index

Porrectus, 56, 59 ; becomes a Repetit ion signs ,l igature, 102 Rests , 104, 1 05, 108 , 109 , 1 32Posi tio, 1 37 Rhyme introduced by earlyPower, Lionel , 1 85, note Christians, 44Pressus, 60 Rhythm, Greek, 37Pretorius

,1 76 Riemann

,H. , 4, 1 06, 1 1 3Prick, a name for note, 157 ; of Rohleder invents new keyboard

perfection , 99, 1 75 and notation, 203Prolation, 1 27 , 1 33 ; described, Romanian let ters , 53 , 1871 34, 1 35 ; abolished , 1 37 ; Rondels, 1 1 2, 1 3 1major and minor, 1 39 Rousseau, J . J . , 201Proportion , 1 7 7 , 1 82 Russian ritual books, 193Propriety, 1 02 , 103 , 1 1 3Prose words sung by earlyChrist ians, 44Proslambanomenos , 9, 15, 20, 35Prudentiu s, 43

Psalmos, Psalmody, Psal terion ,Psa lm, Psal tery, 7Psalms , 2 , notePtolemy, Claudius , 3 , 36Punctum, 56, 59, 93 , 149Pycnon, 25, 3 1 , 34Pythagoras , 19, note

Pythagoreans, 22, 90Pythagorean notation , 19, note

QUADRAT, 1 1 7Quadruplum, 1 10

Quarter-tones, 22Quaver, 1 38Quavers , tied together, 1 76Quil isma, 60

RAGAs, 2 , noteRameau , Pie‘ces de Clavecin, 18 1

Ratios , 1 9, note

Raymond , exposes faults of proposed innovations , 201Recitat ive, dry and accompanied,1 85

Red notes, 1 3 1

ST. AMBROSE , 42St. Gal l , 52Salicus, 56 ; becomes a l igature,102

Sal isbury , John of, 1 28Salmon invents new clefs, 200,

2 10

Sarum Gradual , 165Scandicus , 56, 59Schlick, Arnold, 149Score, vocal , at first wri tten on a

single large staff, 165Semibreves or semibreve, 95, 100,

1 28, 1 38 ; division of, 1 24 ; intablature, 1 48Semibreves minoratae, 120, 1 2 1Semicroma, 1 78Semilonga , 1 20Semiminim, in tablature, 149Semiquaver, I 38Semitones , twelve in the octave,te-established, 1 39Senza cembalo, 185Shake, 157Sharp used to contradict a fiat,1 1 7 , 143 ; not admi tted in plainsong, 14oSign of perfection , 97Signa ture (of key) , 14 1 ; pecu

liarities of, 142, 186

Story of Notation

Simikion, 7S ineminis, De, a mediaeval term forsharps , 1 1 9Solesmes , monks Of, 54 , 57 , 58Solr

gisation, Greek, 40 ; modern ,

7Soprano clef, fal ls out of use inEngland , 1 72

Sotades, 42

Souhaitty uses numerals for notes ,201

Sou thern Indians , 20Sou thern I taly, vibrato Of singersi n, 20Spadaro, John , 1 36

Specu latione M usica, De, 1 1 3

Specu lum M usica , 1 2 1Spur-money, 8 1Square notation , 57 , 58, 1 2 1 ,

1 80

Staccato sign , 190Staff, invention of, 83 of four

l ines, 1 64 ; of five, six , seven ,eight , thirteen , and fifteen l ines,1 68 ; of twenty-four l ines , 167Staff (Great ) of eleven l ines, 169Stot t ’s notation , 2 10

S triby’

s universa l notat ion , 207Stroke or beat , 1 38S trophicus, 60

Stroz z io’

s music unbarred, 1 74 ;

proportions , 183Sumer is icumen in , 86, 1 1 2

Suspirium, suspiratio, 1 07 , 109Symphony, the ancien t term for

perfect concord , 1 8 note, 65Syncope, syncopation , 1 32 , 1 38Systems (Greek ) , 9TABLATURE , description

of, 145 et sea ; for stringedinstruments , 158 ; I ta lian lute,

159 ; introduced into Spain ,264

160, 16 1 for wind instrumen ts ,159 ; decay of, 162 ; disadvantages of, 1 62Tai led notes , 1 30, 1 3 1Tasto solo, 1 85Tavolatura

,tabolatura.

TablatureTempo , ru les for, in the ten th century, 106Tenor, 9 1 , 1 09, 1 39Terpander, 9 , 1 7 , 70Tetrachord , 1 8, 19 ; modern compared to ancient , 1 16 of

modern Greek musi c , 19 1Thelwal l ’s notation , 2 1 1Theodosius closes pagan schools ,43Thorough bass , 183Time, 93 , 107 , 1 26

,1 34, 1 35 ;

abol ished , 1 37Time signatures, inconsistenciesin , 18 1Time-signs , Greek , 38Time tables, mediaeval , 1 35, 1 39Tone, a term appl ied in variousways , 30 ; tones of Aristoxenus,30 ; indivisible, 153Tonic Sol-fa , I I , 1 63Tonic Sol-fa notation , 1 1

,1 63 ,

2 16, 2 1 7Torculus , 56 becomes a l igature,102

Trabercus, Passion music, 1 1 1 ,

1 80

Transp051t10n,27Treble, origin of term, 1 10, note ;clef

,I59Trin ity, doctrine of, appl ied to

notation , 145Triplum , 1 10, 1 28

Tristropha, 60Tri te. See Greek names of strings ;also p . 1 15

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