o**" \ \ 0jri^ The Music Story Series Edited hy FREDERICK J. CROWEST. The Story of Notation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This Series, in superior leather biiiJiii^s, may he had on application to the Publishers. ^' ,,t- or thf ■ f. , or ■ii i London The Walter Scott Publishing- Co.. Ltd. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons 1903 re LIBRARY DIVERSITY :ALJfORNIA ERKELEY Preface. The roots of our modern musical system lie so deeply embedded in antiquity that it is impossible to trace the early history of its notation without reference to the Greek system from which it has sprung; and this in- volves the use of certain words, found in ancient treatises, which are as unfamiliar to modern musicians and Greek scholars as the technicalities of modern musical structure are to the general public. Those who may be alarmed at the lengthy and strange- looking words used by Greek musicians are recom- mended to omit Chapter II. ; but at the same time it must not be forgotten that the inconvenience of these long words was the very thing that necessitated the in- vention of a musical notation by which sounds could be represented on paper, or parchment, or stone, in a small compass. Story of Notation My thanks arc due to Signer A. Fiordclisi di Manco, of the National Library at Naples; to Cavaliere Pag- liara, Librarian of the Conservatorio in the same city; and to the Rev. F. W. Galpin, for the important works they have placed at my disposal. C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS. Milford-on-Sea, May 1903. VI Contents CHAPTER L OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPRESENTATION OF MUSICAL SOUNDS IN WRITING. PAGE The Greek notation — Other ancient notations — Tables of Greek notation — Greek time-signs — Boethius — Neumes — Latin alpha- betical notation — Beginnings of harmony - - - i CHAPTER n. Origin and development of the ancient Greek notation — The stringed instruments mentioned by Pollux — The growth of the scale — The two Greater Systems — Need for means of indicating the strings to be sounded — Gevaert's di%'ision of notations into "phonetic" and "diastematic" — The con- vention that musical sounds are "high" or " low" is purely arbitrary — The Greeks named their strings high and low with reference to length, not pitch — Names of all the strings — Necessity for inventing some means of avoiding the un- wieldy names — The Phoenician-Greek alphabet applied for this purpose — The two great schools of musical thought — Fixed and movable sounds— Quarter-tones — Indication of newly introduced sounds by a clever device in the notation — Ancient modes and their transpositions — Tropes — The Locrian mode became our A minor scale, and is the key to the ancient notation - - - - - - - 6 Story of Notation CHAPTER III. lAOU The complete scheme of vocal and instrumental notations — Aristoxenus' sarcastic remarks thereon — The conjunct tetra- chord suggests modulation to the subdominant — Equal tem- perament known to the Aristoxenians — Greek notation and equal temperament — Greek rhythmical signs — Some are still in use for teaching Latin — An ancient piece for the aulos, with notation, rhythmical, and accentuation signs, translated into modern notation — The notation of the few existing remnants of Greek music — Greek solmisation — The Christian Church adopted Greek melodies for its hymns, but left off the use of the notations and the instruments — The "Antiphon"of the Roman Church is the successor of the instrumental prelude to Greek songs, the "Alleluia" representing the postlude — Singing schools established — Gregory the Great — Interval between the loss of Greek notation and the invention of a new one — The composition of the gradual and antiphonary — Eoelhius' so-called notation - - - - -33 CHAPTER IV. The development of the neumes out of the Greek accents — An early codex of Virgil's works, with neumes — The neumatic notation — The Romanian signs — P'ree Rhythm — Diflerence between Jiciii/ia, a sign, and pneiima, a breathing — Explana- tion of the means adopted by the Benedictines of Solesmes to decipher the neumes — Mistakes exposed by their researches — The liquescents indicate a nuance, which can be observed in the singing of untrained village choirs of to-day — The modern letter notation derived from the monochord — Gregory the Great could not have invented it — Other attempts to invent a letter notation — The rise of organtim — Early efforts to invent a pictorial notation — Influence of Greek learning on Hucbald — Line and dot notations found in Sicily — Attempts to combine phonetic and pictorial notations - - - 49 CHAPTER V. Guido Aretino — His character — His sarcasms — His method of teaching — The Guidonian hexachords — Solmisation perhaps Contents suggested by the Greek syllables used for this purpose — The Guidonian Hand — ^Origin of the Staffer Slave — Notation h points superposes — Origin of the Clefs — The "hard," " soft," and "natural" hexachords — Coloured lines used for the stave — Guido invited to Rome — Becomes famous — Returns to his monastery and dies a " simple monk " - - - CHAPTER VI. Measured music — Cant us figui-alis, Discantiis, Fauxbounion — Contrapunctus — The neumatic notation adapted to the needs of measured music — The rules given by Franco of Cologne — His five moods — The figures — Notes — The origin of the ternary time division, which was called perfect — Rules for the notes — Division of mood — Point or prick of perfection — The plica and ligatures — Propriety and perfection — Complications of the rules for ligatures — Disappearance of free rhythm — The original measurements of notes were not by ternary but by binary divisions — Instans, tempus, and ckroncs prolos — Hieronymus of Moravia does not give measured values to notes — Johannes de Garlandia's rules — The tripluin - - - - 90 CHAPTER VU. Extracts from the writings of various fourteenth-century authors on measured music — "Sumer is icumen in" — Probably few such "rondels or common songs" were written down — Gymel — Magister de Garlandia — Odington — False music — Tendency of mediaeval music to modulate to the subdominant due to retention of the Greek synnemenon tetrachord in the system — The raising of the leading note by false music produced the modern tendency of modulation to the dominant — Robert de Handlo's dialogue — Hamboys — A complicated time-table — De Muris of Paris and De Muris the Norman — Incompetent singers — Comparison of the old and new methods — Various time-signatures — Ecclesiastical objections to complicated music -------- Story of Notation CHAPTER VIII. lAOE Marchettus of Padua mentions discrepancies between Italian and French teaching — Red notes— Confusion of rules — Philip of Vitry — Rests — I'oinls of division, perfection, addition, and demonstration — Philip of Caserta — Prosdoscinius de Belde- mandis — Prolation — Mood — Time — Holhby — Pietro Aaron revolts against ternary measurement — Decay of the ternary division — Zarlino — Morley — The beating of time called arsis and thesis is derived from the motions of the pulse — Synco- pation — The scale of twelve semitones in the octave re- established on keyboard instruments — Difficulties caused by it — Introduction of written accidentals — Early key signatures — Sharps used to contradict flats and vice versa — Double sharps and flats - - - - - - 130 CHAPTER IX. The tablatures — Reasons for their use — The tablature makers never adopted the ternary division of notes — Medireval orchestras — Different tablatures in different countries — Ex- amples from Virdung and Agricola — The bar-line nearly always found in tablatures — The dot or point of perfection — Dots of repetition — Various clefs — An organ tablature-book which formerly belonged to Seb. Bach — The lute tablatures — Mace — Paulmann — Mersennus — Lute grace notes — Flute tablatures — Italian lute tablatures introduced into Spain by Narbaez — Cerone di Bergamo — ^Judenkunig — Modern revival of the principle of the tablature .... 14^ CHAPTER X. Various forms of stave — Leger lines — Early vocal scores — Origin of the word score — Double use of a single stave in mediccval times and by Brahms — A stave of twenty-four lines — Lines added as required — Gradual adoption of the five-line stave for voices and instruments — Great stave of eleven purely theo- retical, and unknown to mcdia;val writers — The clefs — The bar-line — Explanation of early irregularities in its use — Use of the dot of perfection in early seventeenth century — Syncopa- Contents PAGE tion in English cathedral music — Driven notes, lyes, or holds — Playford's time-signs— Adlung — Repetition signs — German, French, and Italian names of notes — The C, or broken circle, and fractions of a semibreve as time-signs — Disappearance of the square and lozenge notes — Black notes used for augmenta- tion in 1676 — Martini — Rameau's time-signs — Strozzio's time- signs — Leger line difficulties — Figured bass - - - 164 CHAPTER XI. Establishment of the round notes in place of squares and lozenges — Bach's cantata, Gleich wie der Regen — Rise of expression signs — Signs for ornaments — Staccato signs — The notation of the Greek Church — The Greek Church has never lost the chromatic tetrachord — The ancient Greek modes still used by the peasants of Brittany — The Greek alphabetical notation continued to be used in the East for centuries after it had been rejected in the West — Villoteau — Principles of modern Greek notation - 186 CHAPTER XII. ATTEMPTS TO INVENT NEW FORMS OF NOTATION, AND TO REFORM THE OLD. New notations — Improvements come gradually — New notations appeal to the intelligence rather than to the eye — Sebald's pro- posal— T. Salmon— Souhaitty — ^J. J. Rousseau — Demotz de la Salle — ^Jacob — Abbe de Cassagne — Rohleder's keyboard — Labatut — Dr. Natorp — Galin — lue — Claviere — Striby's "Universal System" — Delcamp — L. Danel — Craig's Octave System — Meerens — ^J. Stott — A "new" notation — Notation for the blind— Galin-Paris-Cheve — The Tonic Sol-fa notation 196 Appendix A. — Authorities referred to - - - -223 ,, B. — Glossary ------ 238 ,, C— Chronological Table of Notation - - -248 Index ..------ 257 xi List of Illustrations. St. Cecilia, by Carlo Dolci - Photogravure Frontispiece Trigon, or Three-cornered Ilarp of the Greeks, Persians, Jews, Egyptians ...... 7 Female Dancers tuning and playing Lyres - - - 10 Names of the Strings of Lyres, with their explanation and modern equivalents - - - - - - 12, 14 I'ig. I (a). The notation of the Greek Greater perfect system arranged in alphabetical order, with the Phoenician and Greek names of the notes, and their modern equivalents. The peculiar sequence of sounds given by the alphabetical order is supposed to be connected with the order in which a beginner was taught to tune the strings - - - 16, 24 Examples of Chords said by Plutarch to be used in the instru- mental accompaniments - - - - - 17, 18 Roman Lyres and a Kithara. The Lyres show the tortoise- shaped body and the horns of animals, the Kithara being a more artistically developed form of the same instrument - 21 Greek alphabetical letters inverted and reversed to indicate semitones and quarter-tones - - - • 2}, Fig. I {b). Greek letters mutilated or altered in shape to indicate quarter-tones and semitones - - - - 24 Egyptian Harp without a front pillar. Similar instruments are still in use in Nubia, and are difticult to tune, owing to the absence of a supporting pillar - - - - 25 Roman Lyre and Kitharas of various forms. The Lyre has tuning pegs -.---.. 26 List of Illustrations Greek names of notes, with their modern equivalents, and illustrating the meaning of the word Pycnon - - 28 Fig. I {c), Phcenician-Greek alphabetical notation in scale order - - - - - - - 31 Kithara, very elaborate form, with tuning pegs and a means of raising the pitch of the whole by turning the "yoke." Lyre, without tuning pegs, but with revolving "yoke" for raising the pitch - - - - - 32 Fig. 2. The complete vocal and instrumental notation of the Greeks derived from Alypius. The vocal alphabet, having been invented later than the instrumental, follows the scale order in quarter-tones and semitones, commencing with Alpha on the highest Fd, proceeding downwards, and recommencing at the next Ffl. The letters are mutilated or reversed for the lowest octave. To represent a melody in writing musicians selected the particular letters which belonged to the "Trope" they required, from the scheme here shown, just as modern musicians unconsciously select from their whole chromatic series the notes belonging to the " key" in which they propose to write - - - 34 Kithara with revolving yoke - - - - - 36 Egyptian Harp, still used in Nubia. Examples found in ancient tombs are preserved in the British Museum - - 37 An ancient Roman Flute exercise in Greek notation, showing time and accent signs - - - - - 39 Fig. 2 (a). The music of Pindar's first Pythic Ode, as given by Kircher. Kircher is not a very reliable authority ; but internal evidence seems to point to this being a genuine ancient Greek composition, for Kircher could not possibly have known the rules of Greek compositions which have been evolved from a careful study of the Delphic Hymn and other music discovered within the last ten years : yet this piece obeys these rules. The first sign of the " Chorus instrumentalis " is the cursive form of lambda inverted. Story of Notation PAGE Compare Fig. 2, p. 34, and Fig. i (a), p. 16. The " Chorus instrument.ilis " is supposed to have been accompanied by the Kithara ...... 41 Greek solmisation, example of - - - - - 42 Musicians, from Egyptian slabs, showing several harps without front pillars, and a nefcr, or two-stringed guitar - - 44, 47 Unstaved neume notation of the tenth century, with suggested translation .------ 50 Gothic notation - - - - - - 5' Fig. 3, showing the more important neumes and their gradual development into the square and lozenge notation of Plain- song. The signs shown in this diagram must not be confused with the notation of measured music, though the latter borrowed several of its features from them - - 55 Example of village singing, illustrating the mediaeval use of liquescent notes ...... 60 An early attempt to use the Latin alphabet for notation - 62 Fig. 4 (fl). Notation by various forms of the letter F - - 66 Fig. 4 (i>). The same put into score, with tones and semitones indicated in the signatures - - - - - 66 Fig. 4 {c). Pictorial notation suggested by Hucbald. The up- ward and downward movement of the voice is indicated by strokes ------- 68 Fig. 5 (a). An early Sicilian pictorial notation discovered by Galilei and Kircher, attributed to the tenth century A.D. The Greek letters at the beginning of the stave give no clue to the notes represented, and the figure probably shows one of the many local attempts to invent a notation - 69 Fig. 5 {I')- The Heptachord of Terpander, represented by seven lines containing notes, the spaces not being utilised. This system was never in general use - - - - 70 Fig. 5 {c). A quotation from the Montpellier Gradual of the eleventh century, in which the pictorial and phonetic systems of notation are combined, lines being drawn above the syllables as guides to the letter notation - - 71 xiv List of Illustrations Neume notation on a staff of two lines, a and d, an unusual combination ■'"■■- 73 Guido of Arezzo explaining his use of the Monochord to Bishop Theodaldus -----.. 75 Large Egyptian Harp, from a tomb painting discovered by Bruce (Chappell's Histoj-y) - ■ ■ - - 77 F'g- 5 W) (^)- Nonantolian notation on staves of one and two lines (F and C), with vertical strokes leading from the syllables to the places which would be occupied by the notes in later music ------ 82 Fig. 6. Table of Guidonian Hexachords - - - - 79 Example of unstayed neume notation, with translation - - 84, 85 The Guidonian Hand ...... 87 Lyre of seven strings ------ 88 Specimen of unstaved neume notation - - - - 91 Notation of Spanish Troubadours on four and five-lined staves - 96 Examples of longs and breves from Franco of Cologne, with translations ------ 97-100 Fig. 7. The Plica, Ligatures, and Rests. The Plica was the mediaeval method of representing what is now called "anticipation," when one voice moves to its note in a chord before the others. The Ligatures were the means of representing a phrase on a single syllable ; its modern representative is the legato sign or slur. The original forms of rests now in use are seen here, and "End of song rest" is our double bar - - - - - - 105 Kithara of powerful sound - - - - - no Fig. 8. Table showing the various forms of notes and sharps described by mediaeval writers or found in early music. The modern forms are added for comparison - - 1 18 An Egyptian funeral band, showing a performer clapping his hands in time to the music, as was customary with the ancients ....... 122 Fig. 9. The various Signatures used by mediaeval musicians to indicate Mood, Time, and Prolation - - - 126 Greek performers on the Lyre - - - • - 128 XV Story of Notation PAf.E An Assyrian band of harps, with children clappinjj their hand'^ in time to the music ..... 147 Minstrels' Pillar, St. Mary's Church, Beverley - - 148 Fig. 10. Extract from Virdung's Clavichord Tablalurc, A.D. 1 511, with translation. Part of an organ score by Agricola on slafi'of ten lines, with the same music in Organ Tablature, date 1529 - - ■ - 150 Paulmann's Lute Tablature illustrated ... - 156 Examples of use of staff-lines for two clefs at once in ancient and modern music ------ 166 The " Great stave of eleven " illustrated - - - 169 Fig. II. The development of the modern forms of the three clefs, G, C, and F. The use of clefs by De Muris. An organ composition on two staves of eight and six lines re- spectively, containing all the three clefs - - - 170 The C clef (modern use) - - - - - 172 Eighteenth century methods of representing syncopation - 175 Fig. 12. Virdung's Lute Tablature, with translation. Agricola's Discant Violin and Viol Tablature, with translation. Virdung's Discant Flute Tablature, with translation - 179 Fig. 13. Mace's Lute Tablature, 1676, with translation. Agri- cola's Lute Tablature, 1529, with translation - - 182 Welsh Harp Tablature, from Burney, with translation - - 197 Salmon's proposed new notation, 1673 - - - - 201 Fig. 14. Specimens of various modern efforts to supersede the orthodox notation ------ 205 Miss Glover, showing the Norwich Sol-fa Ladder - - 214 Rev. John Cur wen - - - - - - 215 XVI UNIVERSITY ^s.w./f^.hmv>^ The Story of Notation. CHAPTER I. OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE REPRESENTATION OF MUSICAL SOUNDS IN WRITING. The Greek notation — Other ancient notations — Tables of Greek nota- tion — Greek time-signs — Boethius — Neumes — Latin alphabetical notation — Beginnings of harmony. The representation of musical sounds in writing", called musical notation, or simply notation, from notay a mark or sign, is a thing- so commonplace, so universal, and apparently so simple, that we are apt to overlook the fact that our stave, with its variously shaped "notes" and all that g-oes to convey a composer's thoughts to the world, are the outcome of centuries of experiments and gradual improvements. ' Whether the Egyptians, the Hebrews, Chaldeans, and other Semitic nations, which had arrived at a certain degree of musical culture, noted their music is not known; it may be presumed Story of Notation that they did, but up to the present nothing has been discovered of the nature of a musical semeiography.^ It cannot be said that these nations were not yet sufficiently advanced to be able to invent a means of writing down the various sounds of voices and in- struments: the fact remains that, as far as c ree ^^.^ know at present, the Greeks were the only ancient European nation that did so, and they made use of letters of the alphabet for this purpose, as did the Hindoos before them, and the Western Europeans after them; the Persians Uther used numbers, and a kind of stave of nine _T . lines, between which the numbers were Notations , , , ., , ^, . , • , • placed, while the Chmese used special signs for their pentatonic scale. The history of our present notation begins with that of the Greeks, who arranged their alphabet in groups of three letters to each tone, thus showing the semitones and quarter-tones. The knowledge of this arrangement passed away until rediscovered in the nineteenth century by the labours of Bellermann, Fortlage, and others, who ^ In early stages of musical development it seems that certain traditional melodic patterns or forms, to which names are given, form the foundation of compositions. Such are the /\a^as of the Southern Indians of to-day, the Names of ancient Greece, and in all probability the "Tunes" of which the names are preserved in the titles of some of the Psalms, such as Neginoth, Nehiloth, Gittith, etc. .\s long as the musicians' skill was chiefly exercised in making what we should call "variations" on these traditional forms, a notation would not be a necessity, since it would be easy enough to teach by ear variations of a well-known melody. Introductory Sketch have explained the notation tables given by Alypius, Aristides, Nicomachus, Ptolemy, Gaudentius/ and later writers. The tables, arranged according to tropes and modes, show successions of Tables of letters, apparently taken at haphazard, to >, ^^^^^ indicate the seven notes of the three kinds *°" of scale, the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic. The Greeks also used a system of time-signs, two of which have survived to the present day in the long (-) and short (u) signs placed over vowels in Latin grammars, and they had _, ^^^^k means of representing accent, so that their ~ notation was as complete as the mediaeval tablatures, of which we shall speak later, or the modern tonic sol-fa. The first use of Latin letters for representing musical sounds is found in the writings of Boe- „ thius, about a.d. 500; though it is a mistake to speak of the " Boethian notation," since he never used the letters to indicate musical melodies. 2 ^ Greek writers on music of the first few centuries of the Christian era. Their treatises are preserved in manuscript in various European libraries, and were printed by Meibomius and Wallis in the seventeenth century, with Latin translations. They have been translated also into French and German, but not as yet into English. ^ Boethius was a poet and philosopher who flourished about A.D. 500. He was the author of a famous Latin treatise on music, the study of which was greatly pursued all through the Middle Ages, and which was the chief subject for examinations for musical degrees at Oxford and Cambridge until a comparatively recent period. Story of Notation After his time there arose a system of signs called neumes, from the Greek viv/xa, a nod or sign, derived from the Greek accents; and contemporary with this, the Latin letters began to be used to represent the degrees of the scale, though not in any uniform manner until systematised by Latin Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh centur}'; .^__^ ^ ]' while by the addition of lines to the neumes cal Notation . , , , nme hundred years ago, our stave was invented. By this time a new form of music had arisen, in which the voices sang different melodies, and it became imperatively necessary to find some e^nni g system which should absolutely indicate both 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 sixteenth is a story of the efforts made by churchmen who, hampered by theological difiiculties, by morbid scruples over the meanings of words, and a contempt for the more practical efforts of the worldly musicians, painfully evolved something like a satisfactory system, upon which the latter were able eventually to graft their own results ; and so the notation, as we know it, was completed. The history of notation is a story of human effort sustained over many centuries towards the attainment of one object. To follow all its details would require a work of some magnitude and an immense number of facsimiles. Interesting accounts have been written by Hugo Riemann in German, and by David and Lussy Introductory Sketch in French. In the succeeding chapters we propose to follow out, with as much detail as space permits, the story of which we have given an outline, and afterwards, to give short accounts of some of the hundreds of attempts which have been made to supersede the system that has taken so many centuries, and so much painful effort, to perfect. CHAPTER II. Origin and development of the ancient Greek notation — The stringed instruments mentioned by Pollux — The growth of the scale — The two Greater Systems — Need for means of indicating the strings to be sounded — Gevaert's division of notations into "phonetic" and " diastematic " — The convention that musical sounds are "high" or " low " is purely arbitrary — The Greeks named their strings high and low with reference to length not pitch — Names of all the strings — Necessity for inventing some means of avoiding the unwieldy names — The Phoenician-Greek alphabet applied for this purpose — The two great schools of musical thought — Fixed and movable sounds — Quarter-tones — Indication of newly introduced sounds by a clever device in the notation — Ancient modes and their transpositions — Tropes — The Locrian mode became our A minor scale, and is the key to the ancient notation. *' Attcieni musicians invented certain little notes by which a melody could be handed down to posterity.'''' — Boethius. The Greeks are known to have used from prehistoric times a variety of stringed instruments, plucked like the harp with the fingers, afterwards with „ , , the fingers or a plectrum of bone, wood. Stringed '^l , ^ ,. • , , c- r ., Inst u °'" "^^t^'> ^"" finally with the fingers or the mcnts ^^^^ hand and a plectrum in the right hand simultaneously. These instruments were of many shapes and sizes, but in principle they were all alike : a number of strings of equal or nearly equal 6 Ancient Stringed Instruments length were stretched over a sounding-box by means of a cross bar, supported by two horns, which projected above the sounding-box. After the introduction of the plectrum, the more ancient method of playing — i.e., with the fingers, was called Psalmos ; sing- ing to such playing was called Psalmodia ; and an instrument, when thus played, was called Psal- terion. Hence our words Psalm, Psalmody, and Psaltery. It is not to our purpose to give a description of the many shapes, which the illustrations sufficiently show, of these little instruments : the list of names given by Pollux includes the Lyre, Kithara, or Cithara, Barbiton, Chelys, Psalterion, Trigon, Sambuca, Pectis, Phor- minx, Phenix, Spadix, Phoenician Lyre, Clepsiambos, Pariambos, lambucus, Scin- dapsus, and the Epigoneion, which had forty strings. Other authors mention the Simikion, which had thirty- five strings ; the Magadis, an Egyptian in- strument of twenty strings, in which the octave of each string was produced, though whether this was done by dividing the string into the proportion of 7 TRIGON, OR THREE-CORNERED HARP. Varieties of Stringed Instru- ments Magadis Story of Notation 2 : I by means of the bridge, Magas, or merely tuning the instrument an octave above another instrument, as our so-called piccolo is tuned an octave above the flute, is not known. From this instrument comes the verb to " magadise," meaning to sing or play in octaves. The names that chiefly concern us are the Kithara or Lyre of seven strings, the Epigoneion, the Simikion, and the Magadis, since Greek notation seems to have been developed in connection with these instruments. The principle of stopping a string by the left hand on a finger-board, as in the guitar, violin, etc., though practised by the Egyptians, and known to the Greeks, does not seem to have been favoured by the latter ; and it is through instruments of the lyre tribe that we know the names of the various sounds in the Greek scales, and the signs used to represent them in writing. At _, _ first the Lyre had four, or even only three strings, and it is probable, though not capable of proof, that the four-stringed lyre was tuned to what afterwards became the normal, or Dorian tetrachord, represented by a semitone and two tones, as our B, C, D, E, and the three-stringed lyre may have been used for the enharmonic tetrachord B, C, E, before the semitone B, C was divided into quarter-tones. Or the four-stringed lyre may have been tuned to a tetrachordal scale used by some South Sea Islanders at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, C, F, G, C. Tetrachords took such an important place in the Greek musical system that we cannot go far wrong if we assume that 8 The Greek Systems the earliest instruments were tuned to some kind of tetrachordal scale. Terpander^ is said by Cleonides (Pseudo- Euclid) to have increased the number of strings from four to seven, probably by adding a second tetrachord above the first, forming a heptachord system — B C D E F G A First Improve- ment in the Lyre The "system" or scale was gradually extended by the addition of tetrachords until it was developed into two *' perfect" systems, "cnect which give us our keyboard and the names of its keys. The Greater Perfect System consisted of four tetra- chords, or two heptachords, and was completed by " Proslambanomenos," " the added sound." Proslambanomenos A BCDEFGabcdef^a This system was also called Disjunct, owing to the fresh start above the middle a, where the two tetrachords are "disjoined." The Lesser Perfect System, called the Conjunct System, consisted of three tetrachords, with Proslambanomenos. Disjunct and Conjunct Systems Prosl. A BCDEFGabl,cd The reader will perceive that a new note, B flat, is here 1 Flourished B.C. 676. 9 Story of Notation introduced, in order to bring' the conjunct tetrachord into agreement with the others as to its intervals ; the tetrachord prevailed over the octave at this time, and allowed a B natural and a B flat to occur in the same scale. This B flat played a very important part in music all through the mediaeval times. We have now got as our working basis the point ^ at which the history of the scales in use at c 2gin- j.j^g present day begins, apart from myths „ , . and traditions ; and with the completion Notation °^ ^^^ greater perfect system the history of musical notation begins. The naming and writing down of musical sounds was FEMALE DANCERS TUNING AND FLAYING LYRES. naturally used for instruments before being used for voices ; and the intervals sung take their names from the strings of the instruments. One can easily observe what lO Notation Systems goes on in childhood : a baby of very tender years will soon learn to sing a tune in imitation of its elders ; but the same baby finds it far more difficult to pick out the same tune on an instrument. "Playing by ear" is a very much more complicated and difficult process than "singing by ear"; and some sort of guide to show what succession of strings to strike soon becomes indispensable. Gevaert^ points out that the systems of musical notation known up to the present day may be divided into two classes. The first, Classifica- which is that of the Chinese, Hindoos, '°", ° Modern Arabs, the Gregorians, the Ancient c , Greeks, and the Tonic Sol-faists, he calls "phonetic" — that is to say, the sounds are repre- sented by alphabetical letters, arithmetical a L J "-ri J 1 Phonetic figures, or by words. The second class, -kj t i' in which the upward and downward move- ment of the voice, or sounds of the instrument, is re- presented more or less pictorially by higher and lower positions of the signs which ° * *°" indicate the sounds, he calls " diastematic," j , from a Greek word signifying interval. It would not be amiss to call it a pictorial system. To this class belong the liturgical notations of the Jews, Abyssinians, Byzantines, Armenians, the neumes of the ancient Church, and our present system, which, as we shall see later, is a combination of the neumatic and the phonetic notations. It is natural that the ^ Hisf. de la Musique de PAntiquiie, vol. i. p. 394. II Story of Notation phonetic should precede the pictorial method : for that the longer or slacker string- should produce a The con- ception of sounds as high and low is arbitrary "low" sound, and the shorter and tighter string a "high" sound, is entirely an arbitrary conception ; and it has been within our experience that persons destitute of musical knowledge have been unable to 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- Thc Cxrecks poggg to gi^Q names to the strings of their lyre, they called the lowest string of the tQ\.ra.ch.ovd Hy pate, which means "highest," for in instruments of the harp shape, such as the trigon, this string was the " highest" when placed upright, or, as we should say, the longest. Starting from proslambanomenos, the names of the strings were as follows : — named the sounds by length of String Modern Names. Greek Name of String. Explanation. A B C Proslambanomenos Hypate hypaton Parhypate hypaton " Added " string. " Highest " string of the " high- est " tetrachord (producing the lowest sound). "Next to highest" of "high- est " tetrachord. 12 Strings of the Lyre Greek Name of String Explanation. Lichanos hypaton Hypate meson Parhypate meson Lichanos meson Mesa Trite synnemenon Lichanos, or Para- nete synnemenon Nete synnemenon "Forefinger" string of highest tetrachord ; it was plucked with the forefinger. "Highest" string of "middle" tetrachord. " Next to highest " of "middle" tetrachord. "Forefinger" string " middle " tetrachord. of "Middle" string. This is the most important note of the whole Greek system. It was the note that gave the pitch for tuning, and its octave has remained so to this day for stringed instruments. It afterwards became the "Dominant" of the Gre- gorian Chant. "Third" string of the "con- junct " tetrachord. "Forefinger" or "next to lowest" string of "conjunct" tetrachord. "Lowest" of the "conjunct" tetrachord — i.e., the "short- est" string of the Lesser perfect system. Story of Notation Modern Names. Greek Name of Strins. Explanation. b Paramesos "Next to middle" {i.e., in the Greater perfect system). c Trite diezeugmenon "Third" string of the "dis- junct" tetrachord. d Lichanos diezeugme- non "Forefinger" string of disjunct tetrachord. e Nete diezeugmenon "Lowest" string of disjunct tetrachord. f Trite hyperbolaion "Third" string of "extreme" tetrachord. g Lichanos hyperbo- laion " Forefinger " string of extreme tetrachord. aa Nete hyperbolaion "Lowest" string of extreme tetrachord. (To us, the highest note of the Greek system.) It is evident from the above list of names that the early Greek musicians had no idea that a sound could be higher or lower than another. Hence it was impossible that they should invent a pictorial notation. Several of the strings had also other names, with which it is not necessary to trouble the reader. The nomenclature was very unwieldy: it is as if we were 14 i Alphabetical Notation to always use the words "Tonic," "Dominant," " Subdominant," "Leading note," etc., in y, teaching music instead of A, B, C, or the wieidiness French method Ut, re, mi. At a very early of the note period Greek musicians found it necessary names to invent a less clumsy method of indicat- necessitated ing sounds, and some one suggested the ^ form of use of the alphabet. It was not the Greek Notation alphabet as we know it, but an early Dorian alphabet, showing traces of Phoenician or Semitic origin. The alphabet having been suggested as a means of representing musical sounds in writing, we moderns would imagine that nothing was simpler than to begin at the top of the scale, or at ^""ous the bottom, and merely give letters to the ^^^^'^Z'^- ,,, .,, T-. , . ment of the stnngs m alphabetical order. But the m- ATohabct ventors did not do this : by some process of reasoning which has not yet been explained, they applied the first letter of the Phoenician-Greek alphabet to the string called Nete hyperholaion (our aa), and then carried on the alphabet by a remarkable series of octaves, suggesting a probable connection between notation and the magadis. Fig. i {a). If we moment- arily leap over some twenty-five centuries we shall find a German alphabetical notation with an almost equally incomprehensible series oi fourths, of which, however, the explanation is extant (page 156). It will be seen that the theoretical scale of two octaves is already extended by the addition of a note below Proslambanomenos ; and we shall see later that to suit 15 Story of Notation the several modes and transposition keys the complete notation gives a compass of rather over three octaves, which is the limit especially mentioned by Aristoxenus,^ as possible for voices and instruments. The Epigoneion and Simikion could therefore embrace nearly the whole range of the notation. £ -o- Fig. I (a). (Continued on p. 24.) ir jCi_ i 33: 35: Aleph Beth. Ohimel. Oaletti. He Vau. - Zam. ChethTerh. lod. Kaph.. Lamed (Vnorfxr Alpna. Beta O^ijum Delta. Epsilon. Disamipa. Zera. tta Ttwfa^ lota K^pfe LamWi xmlmii The succession of sounds A to aa, together with trite synnemenon (B flat), became known as the Locrian, or .^olian, or Hypodorian, or Common Trope; and, though the point is still much debated, there seems little doubt that its intervals were used in a kind of harmony, so ele- mentary as to seem to us childish ; but it must not be forgotten that we are speaking of the earliest infancy of a system of music which in its riper years has produced ^ Aristoxenus, who flourished about B.C. 300, was a philosopher and musician, and the author of the earliest existing work on music, which seems to consist of a series of lectures given by him to students at Athens. He was a pupil of Aristotle, and the author of no less than five hundred books on various subjects, of which only fragments of two or three are extant ; but we are able to gather much of his musical doctrine from allusions to it by other writers. 16 The Common Trope Lyre Accompaniments the symphonies of a Beethoven and the music dramas of a Wagner. At any rate this early diatonic style, called by Plutarch the style of Olympus and Terpander, was competent to produce simple chords of two sounds; and though the ancient writers Simultanc- inform us that the singing- together of boys °"^ sounds and men, or of women and men, was always ,, ,^ ween , . , , , . , Voice and done in octaves only, and m no other j . interval, yet it seems, from a passage in Plato's Republic, and from certain passages in Plutarch's short work on Music, that when the lyre accompanied the voice, it frequently sounded a note that was not in unison or octave with the voice. ^ ^ Thus, Plato objects to boys being taught to accompany on the lyre with a melody different from that of the voice, as is done by professional players. An anonymous Greek writer, to whom we shall refer later, speaks of the Crousis or accompaniment. Plutarch says : *' The Ancients {i.e., the musicians of the period of Olympus and Terpander, about B.C. 670) would not have applied the Trite as an accompaniment to Parhypate, if they had not understood its use. Nete :^-T"te Pai-anetelgQ. -g ^^^^^ .^fA-: ,^=qParhypate ^i ' ^ " The note Nete they used in the accompaniment as a diaphony (discord) with Paranete {i.e., lichanos diezeugmenon), and as a sym- phony (concord) with Mese. "And not only did they apply the sounds Trite and Paranete thus, but also Nete synnemenon, for in the accompaniment they used Nete synnemenon as a diaphony (discord) with Paranete, and Parhypate, and as a symphony with Mese and Lichanos." If these words seem strange to the modern reader, let him imagine a teacher of harmony explaining 17 C Story of Notation We must give a few more details of the Greek musical system, in order to show the reader what their notation was required to express, where it „ °^^ ^ differed from, and where it was similar to ours ; and it may help him to an under- standing of the so-called "movable sounds" of the Greek tetrachord, if we say that we moderns make use the matter thus: "The ancients used the Tonic to accompany the Subdominant, the Mediant to accompany the Supertonic and Sub- mediant, the Supertonic to accompany the Tonic, Subdominant, Sub- mediant, and Dominant." In a case of this kind names are more convenient than notation. (See R. Westphal, Mus. des Gricc. AUer- thutnes, 1883, p. 62; do., translation of Plutarch's Music, p. 46.) Nete Synnemenon JC2^. jQ. -Q. .£2. il: 32: Paranete Syn. Parhyp. Mese Lichanos Symphonies or concords were unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves : all ot^TTTTtervals were diaphonies or discords. We learn from Aris- totle's Problem No. 19 that the accompaniment was always above the melody. Aristotle speaks of this elementary harmony as "Mixis," our word mixing or mingling, and he says that the Mixis had no effect on the character of the music, for character is produced by melody alone (Gevaert, La Mus. de PAtit., i. p. 336). 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 all : to us a melody suggests a harmonic combination. From our earliest years we are so accustomed to a harmonic accompaniment that a mere "tune" by itself rarely pleases ; we imperatively demand harmony, or if we do not get it, we imagine it. The Ancients soon began to require further means of iS Fixed Sounds of "movable sounds" in our scale, for the third may be major or minor, and is "moved" by Beethoven in passages such as those in Sonata op. 31, No. i, where he alters the mode in alternate pairs of bars : moreover, two "movable" sounds occur in the minor scale, the sixth and seventh being raised in ascending and lowered in descending. In Greek music the highest and lowest sounds of each tetrachord were tuned to the interval of a perfect expression than the plain diatonic succession of tones and semitones ; and, not having arrived at the conception of singing two or more melodies together, they began to alter the tuning of their instruments in order to produce variety of expression, or, as they would say, to give character to the music ; and unfortunately they discovered at about the same time that strings or pipes, divided according to certain mathe- matical proportions, produced certain definite musical intervals. Thus a string divided by a bridge or the finger in the ratio of 2 : i pro- duces the octave of the sound given by the whole string : The ratio 3 : 2 produces a fifth. ,, 4:3 ,, a fourth. ,, 9:8 ,, a major tone. ,, 10:9 ,, a minor tone. And so on, till we arrive at mathematical minutiae that are utterly useless and incomprehensible to the practical musician. Henceforward Greek musicians were divided into two schools : the followers of Pythagoras, who occupied themselves with the mathematics, to the exclusion of the art of music, and the followers of Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle, who referred everything connected with the scale sounds to the ear, and who represented the artistic side of music. Aristides Quintilianus attributes a form of notation to Pythagoras differing from that described by other Greek writers ; and as no other writer refers to it, we need do no more than mention it to show that in those days other notations existed besides the one in general use, just as they do now. 19 Story of Notation fourth, and were always referred to as the " Fixed Sounds." Proslambanomenos was also a fixed sound, being tuned an octave below Mcse. But c, - the two interior sounds of each tetrachord bounds , . . 11- became at various times, and by various musicians, subjected to an immense variety of altera- tions ; and hence were known as the "Movable Sounds." Any musician practically taught what he liked about the movable sounds. Now, our own experience that equal temperament, ^ in which every interval except the octave is slightly ,, , ,, out of tune, produces no discomfort to us. Variations , ' "^ „ . , , in the ought to be suificient to show us that to a tuning of nation which had no conception of harmonic intervals combinations, an alteration of the tuning would not of the melodic intervals would not appear offend cars a very arbitrary proceeding, but would, untrained ^j^^ actually did, produce a pleasant sen- ■° sation. To this day the Southern Indian ^ musician alters the pitch of notes by press- ing the string behind a high fret ; and the singers of South Italy use so strong a vibrato that it is ^ Equal temperament is the term applied to the modern system of tuning organs and pianofortes, by which all the semitones are made equal, and all intervals except the octave are out of tune, but so slightly as to cause no inconvenience to the ear. Up to the middle of the eighteenth century keyed instruments were generally tuned in "unequal" temperament, by which certain keys were perfectly in tune, while others were unbearably harsh. The modern system, which places every key at the disposal of the composer, is an inevitable result of the development of the art of music. 20 Movable Sounds really impossible at times to know whether an Interval of a small semitone, or a repetition of the same note is intended ; and the audience, accustomed to it, is delighted, and applauds an effect that, to the more stolid northern ear, sounds disagreeable and out of tune. ROMAN LYRES AND A KITHARA. The first effort in the direction of altering the tuning of the movable sounds seems to have been made or recorded by Polymnastus, whom Westphal mentions as having possibly been _ the inventor of the notation.^ The diatonic „ , ■Tolym- scale which is obtamed by tuning pure nastus fourths and fifths by ear, as on the modern harp, for example, was altered to the " soft" diatonic of Polymnastus ; in this scale the lichanos of each tetra- chord was flattened by a quarter of a tone : producing the intervals (ascending) semitone, f tone, i;^ tone. ^ Westphal, Ahis. des Gr. Al/eftkiwies, pp. 134, etc. Story of Notation The next alteration was the "Middle soft diatonic" used by Archytas. In this, both the movable sounds are flattened. And it was to this form of Middle Soft jijitonic tetrachord that the notation was Diatonic o ,^pp|jg(j^ f^j. j^ ^^g diatonic notation the second sound of the tetrachord is invariably shown by a letter representing an interval of less than a semitone above the first. (Comp. Ex., p. 39, with Fig. 2, p. 34.) We now come to an alteration of the tuning which has puzzled many learned men ; yet there is no reason why it should. It has been said that no Wuartcr ^^^ could ever have tolerated the intervals of a quarter of a tone which occurred in the enharmonic genus ; and that they could only have been -,, theoretical and not practical. Yet we not The ear can '■ ^gjj.^jjjgjjQ only have constant reference to this genus, appreciate but if we tune an instrument to it, we find the En- that our ear soon gets accustomed to it, and, harmonic as long as we use no harmony, we soon Genus begin to like these strange minute intervals. From Plutarch it would appear that the enharmonic genus was invented after the time of Olympus, and that it at first consisted in omitting the The lichanos, thus producing the intervals semi- earliest En- , . , . , -ri^^. iCTTt^ "T"^ harmonic ^°"^ ^"'^ major third EFA, AbbD, bee, etc. Tetrachord I" ^^^^ ^^^e the tetrachord only contained three sounds. ,^ But the semitone soon be- came divided into two quarter-tones called dieses, and the tetrachord became diesis, diesis, major third, or EFpFA.^ And although the Pythagoreans tried to 22 Enharmonic Dieses complicate the scale by impossible mathematical dis- tinctions, practical musicians held to the quarter-tones, which they could easily obtain by ear. -pj^g g The Enharmonic is called by Aristoxenus harmonic the most beautiful of the genera ; and he the most complains that his contemporaries have, beautiful for the most part, lost the art of performing- Genus its intervals, whereas their forerunners applied them- selves more to this than to any other genus. With the new genus an addition was necessary to the scheme of notation ; and it was very simply made, though not in the way we should expect. The new effects were produced by flattening the movable sounds; and we should expect, therefore, that some new sign, corre- sponding to our flat, would be introduced : but the Greeks had no sign showing a flattening ; their notation could only show a sharpening of the sound. To indicate the two dieses the inventor of the nota- tion simply laid the letter on its back for the first, and reversed it for the second, thus: Add't' ELU3, Fu-q, K:^>i, l-±H. ,'^[Z But certain letters, such as H, could not be Notation reversed, and N could not be laid on its side to indicate since it would become Z. In these cases the Enhar- the inventor either added something to the monic letter, or subtracted some portion, so that Dieses there could be no ambiguity. The letters thus altered are shown in Fig. i (b). But it will probably strike the reader that we have shown alterations of "fixed sounds." We shall explain Story of Notation later on, that owing- to the possibility of transposing the trope to any semitone of an equally tempered octave, every sound shown in Fig. i (a) was capable of becoming' either a fixed or movable sound, according to the trope. ^ The next effort to produce variety resulted in the invention of the Chromatic genus, which remains in use in the Greek Church to the present day." With Aristoxenus it took three forms: tT'^ h d ^'^^ standard chromatic^ consisting of semi- tone, semitone, minor third ; the soft chroma tic, in which the two lowest intervals of the tetrachord were The Chro matic JQ- FIG. I i^ (b) ^ ^^?r?t"gv Mem Nun Soinedi. Mu. Nu Xi 1 X. h j/i of a tone each; the sesquialtcra chromatic, in which the first two intervals were ^ of a tone. Purists objected to the introduction of the chromatic 1 he Chro- gg^^^^ which they said had an eflfeminate matic Genus " , ^ j 4. i <. a . character, and was too voluptuous and considered effeminate ei'^ervating to be good for youth ; for one of the chief objects of the cultivation of music ^ To explain the matter by a modern instance, the note E, for example, is " movable " in the key of C, since it is flattened to produce the key of C minor; but it is "fixed" in the key of D, whether the latter is major or minor. " It can be heard on most Sundays during the Mass at the Greek Church in Bayswater. 24 The Pycnon among-st the Greeks was that of education : boys were taught music on account of its humanising influence, just as they are taught Latin and Greek in modern schools, on account of the mental training which is given by a study of these languages. The same method of notation was used for the chromatic as for the enharmonic genus ; -r^g Enhar- and it is in fact difficult monic to tell with certainty to Notation which genus any com- was made position that contains to serve for the chromatic - enhar- *^^ ^^""O" matic Genus EGYPTIAN HARP. monic notation belongs. The group of three sounds forming the lower part of the chromatic or enharmonic tetrachord was called "pycnon," i.e. "compact," and the pycnon of every tetrachord was noted by the three positions of the letter shown on page 23 and in Fig. i (5) ; but the particular tuning used was not shown by the notation. To a lively people, eager to express their artistic feelings in music, the monotony of a single key would soon become irksome, in spite of the possibility ot tuning it in a dozen different ways, and of quarrelling over an equal number of Impossible mathematical tunings. They found other outlets for expression in mode, and in transposition of the trope. The modes, or better, the octave-species, called by the ancients the harmonies, consisted of certain definite Story of Notation orders of tones and semitones, or, in the chromatic and enharmonic genus, semitones and quarter-tones, and ditones or minor thirds, as the case ., . mi":ht be: and the character of the music Harmonies ° , n- i , , ., , .< or Modes ^^^^ much affected by the "harmony used for any given composition. Every one is aware that there is a considerable difference of character given to modern music according to whether the major or the minor mode is used ; and that a change from minor to major "harmony" will at once attract atten- KOMAN LYRE AND KITHARAS. tion. Instead of our two modes or harmonies, the Greeks, like their successors the early church musicians, used seven modes or harmonies, to each of which was assigned a special character, and was named after the supposed country of its origin, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, Hypo- lydian. There can be only seven octave-species, says Aristoxenus, for there are only seven sounds in an octave. The trope corresponded to our key. We have already 26 Tropes and Modes explained on page i6 that the trope consisted of two octaves, containing the greater and the lesser perfect systems: it could commence on any semi- tone of an equally tempered octave, and ^-^ropcs there could be modulation both of trope and octave- species in the course of a composition, just as there can be with us a change of key and of mode. The Hymn to Apollo discovered in 1893 at Delphi shows examples of both kinds of change.^ It is unfortunate that the Greeks gave the names Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc., to the transpositions of their tropes ; and although these trans- positions were intimately connected with the , ^ 1 . 1 r • , • , .of Terms modes, yet much contusion has arisen through the similarity of names: for Boethius, who was held for over a thousand years as the greatest authority on ancient ^ The following short extract is quoted from the Bulletin de Corre- spondance Helleniqite, 1894, p. 588, in which the whole of the " Hymn to Apollo," found engraved on marble by the French School at Delphi, is given, with a translation by Professor Theodore Reinach into modern notation. The rhythm of the music (I time) is shown by the metre of the poetry. Where two or more syllables are to be sung to the same note, the note is not repeated. Where two notes are sung to the same syllable, its vowel sound is repeated — see to-os, Xot-oty. The reader will notice the chromatic character of the music, a peculiarity which is still observable in the Greek Church music, though it early disappeared from that of the Western (Roman) Church, which retained the Diatonic genus only. 27 I e r TOM A M fcHr ' r l T- Hf JbJ i\ '^r'J .J"l ^ OT-/104 T- r_o xotx, - iTQv a - va MAM . ri L r 1 — , - .I - ■ ■ — J A K A M 1,^, ; f J I ^_\H^r *■ \* T-^^^^ -'^ AL>y*8c<»w -T«-OS ^->4WV a-CL o-Xo.-s» Story of Notation music, knowing nothings of transpositions, and mixing up mode and trope, called all the church modes by wrong names. The word Tropos has been usually translated Mode, and this has added to the difficulty. If we could from the first have had the distinction made between trope and octave-species, much useless labour would have been saved. It is usual to refer to the diatonic genus only in describing the modes, since this genus is the only one now known to us ; and the key- board of the organ or piano, which is arranged in accordance w^ith the ancient Greek diatonic tropes, enables us to easily become familiar with the subject. >i >« >, >1 PLi U* (MH Ch PL, QJ «S>- ~^ m: <^>- 35: -- _£!>. —-S ir;::! -c?- — c C - -ft>- d, o< d. tn c c o tx tJ3 s >. >. >". .c .c A (U m OJ rt h o 4) o -• o .a a, >> PL( rt CJ -■ .— >^ >, ^ — C h-i JS J3 "trl ai I-] rt .-ti -s; PL| We will quote from two ancient Greek writers. Cleonides, other- wise called Pseudo-Euclid, an Aristoxenian writer, is very clear as to the so-called modes.^ "Now the species of diapason (i.e. octave) are ' Meihomius, Euclidis, Introd. Harmonica, p. 15. 28 The Common Octave seven. The first, which is contained between the lower notes of pycna (see page 25), whose first whole tone is at the top, runs from Hypate hypaton to paramese (B to B). It was called by the ancients Mixolydian. The second, which is contained between the middle sounds of pycna, whose whole tone is in the second place from the top, is from Parhypate hypaton to Trite diezeugmenon (C to C). It was called by the ancients Lydian. The third, which is contained between the upper sounds of pycna, whose whole tone is in the third place from the top, runs from Lichanos hypaton to Paranete diezeugmenon (D to D). It was called Phrygian. The fourth, which again is con- tained between the lower sounds of pycna, whose tone is the fourth from the top, runs from Ilypate meson to Nete diezeugmenon (E to E). It was called Dorian. The fifth, contained between the middle sounds of pycna, whose whole tone is in the fifth place from the top, runs as it were from Parhypate meson to Trite hyperbolaion (F to F), and was called Hypolydian. The sixth, between the upper notes of pycna, whose tone is the sixth from the top, runs from Lichanos meson to Paranete hyperbolaion (G to G). It was called Hypophrygian. The seventh, contained between the lower sounds of pycna, whose whole tone has the lowest place, is from Mese to Nete hyperbolaion (A to A) or from Proslambanomenos to mese. It was called Common, or Locrian, or Hypodorian." The reference to the pycna in each case is intended to show that though the tones and semitones were considerably modified by the change of genera, yet the octave-species remained the Dorian or Phrygian as the case might be, as long as the highest and lowest note of the octave was on its proper place in the tetrachord. The "Common, or Locrian, or Hypodorian" octave (A to A) has given us the starting-point of our modern notation; for, as we shall see later, mediaeval musicians, after many experiments, finally settled on calling this octave by the first seven letters of our alphabet. Boethius, and after him the church musicians for more than 1 200 years, mixed the names as follows : — 29 Story of Notation Dorian - - - Greek E to E Boethius D to D Phrygian - - ,, D to D „ E to E f^yrli^n . ^.. .. - „ C LO C . _ „ F tO F Mixolydian - - „ B to B ,, G to G It will be remembered that Bach wrote a Toccata and Fugue in the "Dorian" (D to D) mode, and Beethoven a quartet movement in the *' Lydian" (F to F) mode. "^ ' We will now turn to Aristoxenus, who tells us^ that though theoreti- cally there is no limit to the compass of sounds available, yet practically this is limited by voices and instruments to a little over three octaves. '* For from the highest sound of the virginal flutes (auloi parthenioi) to the lowest sound of the most perfect flutes (auloi hyperteleioi) may perhaps be a little more than the said three octaves : as may also be the interval from the shortest reed of the pan pipe to the lowest note of the great flute : and likewise the highest sound of a boy's voice to the lowest sound of that of a man." Here we have definite information that the available compass in the time of Aristoxenus, and probably all through the Roman epoch, was a little over three octaves ; and this is borne out by the fifteen tropes of which Alypius gives us the complete notation. Aristides Quintilianus says- : "Let us now speak of Tones. Tone is used in three ways : either for pitch, or for a certain interval pro- duced by the difference between the fourth and the fifth, or for the system of the trope, as the Lydian or Phrygian. And it is of trope that we have to speak here. "The tones (i.e. tropes), according to Aristoxenus, are thirteen in number, 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: Ilypodorius, Hypoiastius, Ilypophrygian, Hypoa:olian, Hypolydian, Dorian, las- tian, Phrygian, /Folian, Lydian, Hyperdorian, Mixolydian now Hyperiastian, Ilypermixolydian or Hyperphrygian. To these the later musicians add two others. . . . And each of the tones is a semi- ^ Meibomius, Arisloj.., p. 20. - Ibid., p. 22. Vocal Notation tone above its predecessor if we bej^in with the lowest ; but a semitone below its predecessor if we begin with the highest. "We cannot go lower than the Ilypodorian, because its proslam- banomenos is the lowest sound that can be heard." Fortlage^ calls our scale of A minor the key scale, for by its notation we have a key to the com- plete notation of the Greeks ; and he made ^, the important discovery that its notation M d ^ (see Fig. I, c) agrees with the Hypo- a Minor lydian notation given by Alypius. Since Scale has Aristoxenus has told us that all the tropes given the were a semitone apart in the above order, Key to the we can from the Hypolydian obtain the Ancient relative pitch of all the other tropes, and Notation hence can perfectly well translate their notation into modern notation. FIG. I. -^o'" m CE *:» Z N c -^ IKC F/^rhE h H After the Greeks had perfected their instrumental notation, they invented a new one for the voice. This consisted of their ordinary alpha- bet, arranged in groups of three letters ^^^ for the pycna, just as the instrumental t^j * 4.- notation arranged its single letters in three positions. But here again they did not start, as we should expect, at the top or bottom of the scale : they ^ Fortlage, Die Musik. Systein der Giiechen, 1 847. Story of Notation used Alpha for the sound corresponding to our and proceeded downwards. Completing- this alphabet at ^; — & — they started again with a new alpha- ~ bet, of which the letters were in- verted or mutilated ; while for the sounds above G flat they used a third alphabet, some of whose letters were inverted, while the majority had an acute accent. The ancient writers who refer to notation invariably give both the vocal and instrumental forms for each note, and we have arranged the complete series of the signs with KITHAKA. , . - their modern signification in Fig. 2. It must be remembered that every note represented here could be either "fixed" or "movable," and subject to different tunings, according to mode and genus in which it occurred. Fig. 2 re- presents the notation in general use throughout antiquity ; other forms of notation seem to have ^^^^ existed, but as they appear to have had only a local and temporary vogue, it is not necessary to discuss them. CHAPTER III. The complete scheme of vocal and instrumental notations — Aristoxenus' sarcastic remarks thereon — The conjunct tetrachord suggests modula- tion to the subdominant — Equal temperament known to the Aristoxenians — Greek notation and equal temperament — Greek rhythmical signs — Some are still in use for teaching Latin — An ancient piece for the aulos, with notation, rhythmical, and accentuation signs, translated into modern notation — The notation of the few existing remnants of Greek music — Greek solmisation — The Christian Church adopted Greek melodies for its hymns, but left off the use of the notation and the instruments — The "Anti- phon" of the Roman Church is the successor of the instrumental prelude to Greek songs, the "Alleluia" representing the posllude — Singing schools established — Gregory the Great — Interval between the loss of Greek notation and the invention of a new one — The composition of the gradual and antiphonary — Eoethius' so-called notation. Figure 2, p. 34, is a complete scheme of the Greek nota- tion, extracted from the forty-five tables of Alypius; but Aristides gives a few notes below the lowest, and mentions another notation. Such a The scheme is called by Aristoxenus a " Cata- Complete - . ,, . it i. r »> J Notation pycnosis — z.e., a "scheme or pycna ; and . he scoffs violently at those who pretend to » . , teach music from it : for, he says, they seem to think that the notation is the end and object of learn- ing music. The notation, he says, cannot show the Story of Notation exact position of the sounds (this is evident from Fig. 2), and even if it could, no one could sing a series of twenty-eight pycna. Whether he would object to the FiQ.a. , Vocal , Enharmonic. j3: Q-TT £-u;3.HbR h Jr H Euj.3 'oofto ■ o , ^|l^iag ^s 'O-ci to: Chromatic, p ^ -^ ==^ L — ^-0 ^ ,0 joy ^ 7fV»lRV/lYXtJ)TTCPnOZNMAK lOHZE^ ^-i^^L^ /•)'AFLLTCoDK^>i'JCACui3 ^go#e ^saao- v-'vj*-^ : / oe >8 o ' °^Q ^^pOO tt O t f ^-^^^ ggts^ e«^ o oSoo'Q^ ^'^ ''•^^ TBA Ut;^-e-JLl O'^N' M'A'K' 10' H' Z'tA' FBA U N/ V z.\/< i A\ x'>,t">' n'-cN i c'cj'3' N'/'\ r M>gg|s [9a^ ^;;;p;:^5tgi y'"'°|°'"''" J5 . learning of some of the separate tables as given by Alypius is not known, but he makes it evident that there were many incompetent teachers as well as per- 34 Order of Tropes formers in his day. It is beyond the scope of this little book to show how the notation was used for the thirteen tropes, each in the three genera. Those readers who wish to go further into the matter, which is a lengthy one, will find the whole of Alypius' tables laid out in a practical and easily understood form in the first volume of QiQX2iQx^s, Histoire .de la Alusiquc dc V Antiquity. The first and third note of each group, when used as proslambanomenoi, are an equal semitone apart. The conjunct tetrachord always adds a flat to its trope — i.e., produces, as we should say, a ^, ,^ modulation to the subdominant.^ Now, if we write out all the tropes in modern notation we shall find that they are exactly expressed by the signatures of our minor scales. Beginning with the " key notation," the Hypolydian, we shall find its intervals expressed by our (descending) scale of A minor. Its con- junct tetrachord introduces B flat, the sig- Greek nature of our scale of D minor — and D minor Tendency gives the trope called Lydian. Here the ° "" conjunct tetrachord introduces E flat — i.e., a ^, , modulation to G minor, which gives the dominant Hyperlydian trope. Here the new flat is A flat, giving the Phrygian trope (C minor). Continuing, we get Hypophrygian, F minor, and its lower octave Hypodorian (also F minor), Dorian, B flat minor, Mixo- ^ It must not be forgotten 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 flattened, or in modern language they had to use Aii to represent BIj. Story of Notation Greek Notation and Equal Tempera- ment lydian, E flat minor, Hypoffiolian, A flat or Gjk minor, /Eolian, C| minor, Hyperaeolian, F| minor, lastian, B minor, Hyperiastian, G minor. It is thus The Com- ^qq^^ ti^^t the ancient Greeks made use of P A5 ^'^'^ ^ the circle of twelve keys, which is supposed , . to be so modern; and that the inevitable known to ' the Greeks consequence was either theoretical or prac- tical equal temperament, also generally believed to be a modern invention. We have, in the ancient Greek notes of 700 years before the Christian era, a system which is better adapted to that supposed modern innovation, equal tempera- ment, than our own ; for whereas we express a semitone in two different ways, as C to Cji, C to Dj,, etc., thus clearly distinguishing be- tween different kinds of semi- tone, the ancients had a notation which used only one sign for CJI and Db, in spite of the fact, which is proved by the writings of Ptolemy and Aristides, that they had exactly the same re- sources of key at their command as we have on our pianoforte, and that their mathematicians were always insisting on the impossibility of dividing the tone into two equal semitones. The relative pitch, or interval, between the sounds is 36 Greek Rules of Composition not the only thing that a notation is required to express; for mere melody without rhythm and accent is formless and meaningless. The ancient Greeks laid even more stress on the theory of rhythm than we do, and Aris- toxenus wrote a whole book about it. Every melody was intimately connected with its words, in ways that we should consider intensely artificial. In the first place, certain syllables were obliged to have higher notes than their neighbours, ,, , , • ,• , , .*?,., Melody and certain diphthongs were provided with two notes ; and in the second place, the rhythm of the melody was note for note dependent on the metre of the words: so that a long syllable vi^as sung to a long note, and a short syllable to a short note ; and a so-called long syllable was really pronounced long, i.e.^ dwelt upon. Some idea may perhaps be got of the effect of such dwelling upon a syllable by observing the somewhat sing- song method in which the modern Italian dwells on those portions of words that precede double consonants, such as morel- la, caval-lo, Giovan-ni, etc. No time-signs were therefore necessary to a musician familiar with the scansion of poetry ; but Egyptian stringed INSTRUMENT. for instrumental music, and for doubtful cases, certain signs were placed over the notes to in- dicate their duration. They are given by an anonymous Greek writer of about a.d. 200, but they were in use long before his time. 37 Story of Notation The short syllable produced a single "time" in the music, or, as we might say, a quaver; and whatever the value of the "time" given by the first short syllable, that "time" remained the signs •' ^ ' measure for the rest of the piece. Grammarians used the sign u to indicate a short syllable, and continue to do so to this day; but musicians used no sign for it. The time-signs used by musicians, and given by Anonymus, are the long, or two-time short, indicated thus — , equivalent to a crotchet, •' The three-time long was indicated thus l, equivalent to a dotted crotchet, •'. The four-time long, shown thus i_i, was equivalent to a minim, ^ The five-time long, lu, was equivalent to ^^^ Accent was shown by a dot called ictus, placed above the note, but the ictus occurs irregularly, just as does the modern bar-line in the first half of the seventeenth century. Rests, called empty times, were shown thus: — Single-time rest. A, equivalent to 3 Rests Two-time rest, ~/\~, ,, E Three-time rest, "-x-, ,, p g Four-time rest, /\ , ,, --- The anonymous writer gives the notation of a number of vocal exercises, sung to the syllables to-a, ta-e, te-o, pairs of slurred notes, the slur being shown by joining the notes thus, c^rj • 38 Ancient Melodies The sign X between two notes appears to have indicated that the first was to be sung staccato.'^ There are also in this tract several instrumental exercises, in which the time and accent are clearly marked over the notes. The following little piece is supposed to be for the aulos : — fi:^1^ r'rp p "^^^^^^^^ SI Duration of the Greek Notation f-r LFhL rPHF r lhtf Lt-LPrhPLr The Greek notation had a vogue of about a thousand years; the enharmonic and chromatic genera fell out ot general use, though every theorist felt bound to describe them. " Anonymus " tells us that the players of different instruments made use of different modes and tropes: thus the players of hydraulic organs used six of the tropes, the kitharists four, the flute players seven, the musicians who accompanied the dance seven ; and he gives lists of the modes used by each. The various exercises for voice and flute given by him, and the three well-known Hymns to Apollo, Nemesis, and the Muse, are all in the Lydian (D minor) trope. ^ The Hymn to Apollo found at Delphi in 1893 begins in the Phrygian (C minor) and ends in the Hyperphrygian (F minor) trope. Both parts contain accidentals bor- rowed from other tropes. There are fragments of Existing Examples in the Ancient Notation ^ Bellermann, Anonymus, p. 25. '•* Appendix A, " Galileo." 39 Story of Notation another Delphic hymn m the Lydian trope, and with instrumental notation : the instrumental notation seems to have been frequently used for voices. A frag'ment of a chorus from the Orestes of Euripides, discovered on a papyrus and published in 1892 at Vienna, is in the Lydian trope, and contains an independent instrumental accompaniment ; but it is too mutilated to give any idea of its effect. Two other fragments are known — a piece of the music of Pindar's first Pythic ode, given by Kircher, of doubtful authenticity, though it obeys all the known rules of Greek composition.^ It is in the Phrygian trope, and contains both vocal and instru- mental signs. — A fragment of music discovered at Tralles, carved on a pillar, is in the lastian (B minor) notation. As this music is supposed to date from the second century of our era, it shows that the Lydian trope, though most general, was not the only one used at that time. Besides the letter notation, the Greeks, under the Roman Empire, and perhaps earlier, used a system of solmisation for singing exercises, consisting Uree ^^ ^j^^ syllables tco, ra, rrj, re, to the four notes of the tetrachord ; and tcdww, ravra, T7;vv7/, T€i've. These syllables are given only by "Anonymus," who quotes a number of examples ^ The notation of part of Pindar's fust Pythic ode is thus given in Kircher's Musurgia. Kircher says that he found the original MS. in the monastery of San Salvator at Messina; but no traces of it have been discovered by the numerous antiquarians who have searched for it since his day. The modern notation is, of course, not found in Kircher. 40 A Melody by Pindar ^ FIG. 2a. Chorus Vocalis. \s XT re Itj ro Tur ■Xpwe . a 6p~p.Lv^ A - «-^A-Aw • vo<: Kat i- eiMi ei.Mi orer o vXoKo. /MOV 2w - 56- KOf f«di -tfai» tcria-vov xj F e I r 1 e r M- I m TttS U' Kov-tt (uv'PatTK ayAat • a$ op— ^a Chorus instrumefitalis. A K N 5 Tcit &x — oi - Sot ira-fta- xriv A ■yijp.. Climacus. torculus. POR RECTUS, PODATUS' SUBPUKCTIS. J J: i o v/: A U-l /• J A «: /T o to o Sc o It a, X ft 5 2i fee 1 ]TI7 K it J* 3^, O Climacus Resupihus. /./ A^ /:? A^ ^t Ar MM scandicus Flexus. /) iT A -71 i\ 2 SCAtSDICUS SUBPUNCTIS /. vr torculus Resupinus ,4/^ POR RECTUS FLEXUS. M m PORRECTUS 5jUBPUHCT.IS. /V n: --('. .♦H rflU''^ ^S^i^ Ji fO V. /v;/it 7V. S 55 Story of Notation indefinitely. Still, it will answer lor purposes of explanation. The Virga or Virg-icla, Anglicc rod, the acute accent, indicates a note higher than its neighbours, o This is striking-ly exemplified in the recent _j discoveries of Greek music. The Piinctiun, point, is undoubtedly equi- valent to the grave or descending accent, though this does not occur in the neumes. The Clivis or Clinis is a combination of acute and grave accent — it is the circumflex accent, indicating a high followed by a low note. The Podatus or Pes is named from its shape — a foot. It is a punctum joined to a virga — i.e., a lower followed by a higher note. ScandiciiSy Salicus, Latin words meaning climber — an ascent of two or more points and a virga. Climaciis, little ladder, a high note followed by two or more lower ones. Torculiis, twisted — low, high, low. Porrectus, extended — high, low, high. The rest of the neumes given in Fig. 3 are merely modifications of those already explained, and can be easily understood ; the number of possible combina- tions was very great, but all can be understood from the few given. Thus much was always known about the neumes ; what was not known was how high or how low the sounds represented by them were with regard to one another. Did a clivis represent an interval of a semi- 56 Benedictine Research tone, a tone, a third, fourth, and so on? and the same of the podatus. Did the scandicus and climacus re- present successive scale sounds or leaps ? and what were its intervals ? These questions, which puzzled the learned men of the present day, also troubled the ancients, and in course of time they drew lines across the page as a guide. The idea took root, and in a short time the stave was invented, after which the intervals were definitely known. The Benedictines of Solesmes hit on the happy idea of making thousands of photographs from the MSS. of the Gradual and Antiphonary in all the libra- ries in Europe, and a comparison of these "^^^ P*'°" photographs revealed a most remarkable ^'^^^ °' similarity in the neumes and in the notes of ,,'^*^^ ' 1 • J • r ITT T- Img the the various countries of Western Europe. »t The traditional melodies had been preserved with the most scrupulous care: the notes of later times and the neumes of earlier times were found to agree in almost every particular ; and whether a gradual or an antiphon was sung in Italy or Spain or England, whether it was sung in the ninth century or in the fifteenth, its melody was the same.^ Now it is easy enough to read the square or Gothic notation, columns 6 to 9, Fig. 3, since it is always written on a stave ; and by the simple process of comparing an antiphon written in square notation, with the same antiphon ^ The agreement amongst the MSS. is so remarkable that the Bene- dictines are inclined to attribute it to miraculous interposition, and the melodies themselves to divine inspiration. 57 Story of Notation written in neumes, we easily arrive at the interpretation of the neumes for that particular antiphon ; and we can continue this process till a whole book is translated. As a matter of fact, the square notation of Plainsong is a translation of the neumes. The Benedictines have eliminated several old-estab- lished errors. In the first place the virg^a never indicated a long- note, but merely a high note, though J it is occasionally used for low notes. The exposed . virga of columns 8 and g therefore is no long^er or shorter than the punctum of columns 6, 7, and 9. The neumes have nothing to do with the time values of later measured music, in which the square- headed virga was double or three times the value of the lozenge-shaped punctum. Secondly, it is some- times thought that the form of the neumes and of the Gothic notation changed at specified periods. Comparison of many manuscripts has shown that this was not the case. The older unstaved neumatic nota- tion continued to be used for centuries after the lines had been invented ; and columns 6 and 7 show that the awkward early Gothic forms were used for centuries after the invention of the square notation, as shown in columns 8 and 9. The shapes shown in Fig. 3 are taken at random from among-st the hundreds of photographs published in the Paldographie Mtisicale at Solesmes. Column I shows the usual forms in the earlier MSS. In column 2 we see the commencement of the tendency to place a head on the virga. The Neumatic Notation origin of the head was in the action of the pen in rapid writing: it was drawn upwards, and a shght involuntary pressure given as it left . addi- the parchment, and the resulting slight „ *T" , * enlargement afterwards took the forms -it- shown in columns 2, 3, 4, 7, until it became stereotyped in the square head of columns 8 and 9. The various shapes of the punctum are also due to the same cause. A broad-nibbed pen drawn down- wards the shortest possible distance from left to right (the grave accent) produced the lozenge of columns 6, 7> 9- The clivis throughout preserves its virga, followed by its lower note. The podatus is simply a lower note joined to a virga. The scandicus alters in the Sarum Gradual (column 8) to a podatus and a virga, but in later MSS. is found in its original form (column 9). The porrectus became the ligature of measured music, and as such gave more trouble to both ancient and modern theorists than the whole of the rest of the notation. The oblique line always represents two sounds, namely, those of the lines or spaces on which it begins and ends. In the notation of Plainsong the ligature has of course no time value; but in measured music its time value is exceedingly difficult to unravel. We have not space here to give a full description of the neumatic notation, for this interesting subject is very far reaching, but we must mention some of the 59 Story of Notation other neumes. They are the Apostropha (*), the Dis- tropha (* '), and the Tristropha (* ' *). These indicate repeated sounds. The Strophicus and Oriscns and Pressiis are sHghtly different forms of the above, with slightly different meaning's. The Quilisina, a sign something like our indication of a shake, occurs between the lower and upper notes of an ascending minor third. It is supposed to have been a kind of tremolo. The Epiphonns^ a kind of shortened podatus, and the Ccphaliais, a modification of the clivis, were " liquescents." The Solesmes photographs show that these neumes were used in connection with the "half vowels" or "liquescent" letters L, M, N, R, in which the sound is carried on to the succeeding consonant. The Anciis is a virga or podatus with a rounded head. It is also caWed pes cornutus — horned foot, and several other names. It has to do with the liquescent letters. Perhaps the liquescent notes arose from a practice which can be observed in uneducated country choir singers of the present day, who sometimes carry a syllable into the succeeding note, thus: — i ^iu^.^. p ^;m All peo - pie that on earth do dwell. But though the neumes were the ordinary means of reminding singers of the rise and fall of the melodies they had learned by heart, there were in existence letter 60 The Monochord notations as well, though they were not much used for singing at sight. They were derived from the mono- chord, an instrument of one long string, j . which was measured off by a movable Alpha- bridge, the bridge being placed at certain betical points called A, B, C, D, etc., to pro- Notations duce the various notes. The old enhar- coeval monic and chromatic scales, and the various ^^^^ t^^ tunings of the diatonic scale had long dis- Neumcs appeared, as well as the whole of the system of transposi- tion of tropes. One trope only remained, the original shown in Fig. i (c), and this was made the foundation of the divisions of the monochord. These divisions were very early indicated by the letters of the Latin alphabet. It was found that by taking away the bridge alto- gether the whole string gave a sound lower than A; and as both forms of the Latin G had been taken for sounds above A, the Greek ,. ,, °* , , . ., • added below letter gamma was taken to represent this p q^i^^Ij^_ low sound : hence our word gamut, ^ and the nomcnos French word ganinie, meaning scale. Here, then, was a definite fixing of the intervals for teaching purposes at any rate, and though many attempts were made to utilise the letter notation for reading ^ttg^pts to music at sight, yet, fortunately for us, none ^.g^j j^usic of them succeeded, or the staff notation by Phonetic might perhaps never have been invented. Notation The use of the first seven letters of the fail 1 "The gamut is the ground and foundation of music."— Playford, Rules for Song, 1658. 61 Story of Notation alphabet in music has until quite recently been always ascribed to Gregory the Great; but Gevaert points out that he could not have been its inventor, since the first to use it systematically was Guido of Arezzo, who did not live till some four centuries later. From the time of Guido it has been accepted by all Western musicians, and has remained in use to this day, though the Greek gamma only remains in the word gamut. y . Many other attempts were made to apply the letters of the Latin alphabet to the greater perfect system of the Greeks. Gevaert mentions six : — I. An anonymous writer of a treatise called De Harmonica Institutionc suggests the following method, thus recognising the major mode as the fundamental scale : — Gregory the Great did not invent the Modern Letter Notation attempts to apply the Latin Alphabet for pur- poses of Notation =^-=^2:=^=-^ i 1 321:^ -ry-^ A B C D E F G A*" B C D E F G&c. 2. A notation composed of various forms and positions of the letter F, to be described below. 3. A notation in which, starting from proslamba- nomenos, which is called A (as in our system), all the intervals of the chromatic and enharmonic scales are lettered with Latin letters on the plan of the catapycnosis. Fig. 2, the alphabet proceeding upwards instead of down 62 Early Experiments the scale. This is given by Adelbold, a contemporary of Hucbald.i 4. Starting- from proslambanomenos as A, the alpha- bet proceeds to L, which is our d, the end of the lesser perfect system ; then, starting again with M, our Bil!, it proceeds to S, our aa. This is suggested by an anonymous writer, before Guido Aretino. 5. Starting from proslambanomenos as A, the alpha- bet proceeds as far as P, our aa, taking no notice of Bjy. This is derived from Boethius. 6. Towards the end of the eleventh century an anony- mous writer suggests the same notation as the Guidonian — i.e., r, A, B, C, etc., but above G he begins the Greek alphabet, in no regular order. It would seem, then, that there were as many attempts made in these early days to improve the notation as there are at present; for we may be sure that the six or seven systems which have come down to us represent many others that have been lost. Nowa- days, when there is absolutely no need for it, we get a "new and improved" notation, which is intended to supersede the staff notation, about once every two or three years ; and all these attempts, after being care- fully catalogued, sink into oblivion on the shelves of the British Museum. Ten centuries ago there was a pressing necessity for a new notation. Music was advancing, and the old methods were not adequate to record it: new schools were being founded, new compositions made, and it ^ About A.D. 900. 6-. Story of Notation was necessary to teach at Paris what was composed at Rome, or to sing at Madrid the music produced at Winchester. In the twentieth century we have a uni- versally accepted notation, and music composed in Rome can be performed in Paris within two days of its publication, owing to the labours of mediaeval musicians. Yet in spite of this, human nature is such, that men are as anxious now to improve or supersede the staff nota- tion as they were to invent it in the tenth century. The A q. , two systems of indicating the pitch of sound Example were then in use concurrently, the phonetic in which ^'^'^ ^^^ pictorial ; but only in one single Phonetic manuscript, the famous Montpellier Anti- and phonary, were they combined. And if we Pictorial come to consider what the neumes meant, it Notations ^v^g perhaps not so strange that our fore- ^^"^ ^ fathers were a long time in seeking a satis- combincd factory combination. The neumes were signs indicating such delicate shades of accent and rhythm, and such flowing and spontaneous melodies, that it would seem as impossible to represent them by bare and cold-looking letters as it is to represent them by modern notation, in which the note values are mathematically proportioned to one another. Hence, though many attempts were made, yet none succeeded for many generations.^ ^ We were once asked by a naturalist whether it was possible to record in writing the song of birds — e.g., the nightingale. The only attempt we know of is that made by Kircher in his Mitstir<;ia, by means of musical notation, which, of course, is totally inadccjuate for 64 The Organum Somewhere about the nhith century men beg-an to make practical use of the "symphonies" and " dia- phonies" (concords and discords) of the old Greek writers — i.e., they began to sing- in , ^^ parts. It is true that the parts they sang in . '"I''"^ were at first a rigorous adaptation of the "symphonies" only to the plainsong; in other words, they sang in nothing but consecutive fifths, and fourths, and octaves; but this kind of singing, which, " if sung by two or more voices, with suitable slowness, you will see that it produces a sweet concord,"^ imperatively demanded fixation of the intervals. It has sometimes been debated whether such music could ever have been tolerated, and some years ago we heard a university professor deliver a lecture, in which he endeavoured to prove that the so-called "organum" never existed in anything but theory. But in an early stage of musical culture these intervals are just the ones that come most naturally to the front; and the ■'•"^ ^^~ word used by Hucbald for concord is con- S^*^"^ • . .1 HT • • heard in ceiitinn, smgmg together. Many musicians ^ , heard in the late 'eighties the "unemployed" Streets of London walking about the streets and singing ; the tenors pitched their voices at a fifth above the basses, and sang the tune with them quite happily. This was the ancient organum pure and simple. the purpose. If the song of birds is ever capable of being recorded, it will be by some such system as the neumatic notation of the Early Fathers. ^ Hucbald, Eiichinadis, in Gerbert, vol. i. p. i66. 65 F Story of Notation Another instance occurred within our own experience: a party of Christmas waits in Rutland sang- " Adeste Fideles " with a violin in unison, while a clarionettist, FiG.4. Hucbald Tfir^ Finals D E F G Hucbaid -T? yr -iJ ^> Below Finals T A l^ C Above Finals a t) c d Hucbaid -il^K HighesrNofese/g cxa X do ^b) t X / ^minl^ J 1 1 sit; ,oria in. ,cula . biturdo minus" 1 S* W d o \^' \ta/ 1 tv\ sit, /Oria^ ia .cula b irur dominus SJ i\d W \ta/ X A do. 'Q^ ■ ^ ■ t T / mini biiur do minus t V sin^ ona/ iRx .cula ta/ s r gw doy soef \|ce^ t r / mInK t^ sit;^ pria/ ln^ cula bitur dominu s S N gicf -soe \ ra/ ' t 9 loe/ who could play only in one key, played the tune quite unconcernedly a fourth above the singers. Our chief information on the org-anum of the ninth 66 Hucbald and Odo and tenth centuries is derived from the Musica En- chiriadis, ascribed to Hucbald, a monk of St. Amand in Flanders, a very learned man, who died at a great age in a.d. 930 or 940, but now sup- Musica posed to be by Odo, an Abbot of Tomi^res. , . . "," The writer, whoever he may have been, was very much wedded to the old Greek learning, as exhibited in the work of Boethius, and wished to make all music of his time conform to it. Hence he resusci- tated the old long-winded names, ^ and gave Latin letters to them, such as I to Mese, M to Lichanos meson, P to Parhypate meson, C to Hypate meson, etc., and wrote the letters over the words that were to be sung, as in the old Greek manner, an idea which he evidently derived from Boethius' casual use of the Latin letters. But this system did not succeed, and he tried others. Taking the finals of the four Church modes as his basis, he indicated them by the letter F in different forms — Fig. 4 {a). He then, in accordance with Greek precedent, inverted and muti- dotation lated the letter for the sounds above and ^ ^ ^ below the final ; for the sounds above aa he was not able to invent notes, and Odo of Clugny calls them "remaining" (superfluous) sounds. He gives in his Short Memoir on the Singing of the Tones and the Psalms many pages of psalms adapted to this notation, and finally a page of neumes connected with it. It is referred to again by Hermann Contractus, who suggests as an alternative the letters E for unison, ^ Vide Amhros Geschichte, Band 2, pp. 122 et seq. 67 Story of Notation S for semitone, T for tone, TS for minor third (tone and semitone), TT major third, D for fourth, A for fifth, AS minor sixth, AT major sixth, AD octave. But both these clumsy systems also failed; in fact, they had no possible advantage over placing the ordinary Latin letters above the notes, the objection to which we have seen. FIG. 4 (cl PicforiaT Nol-ation suggested by Hucbald. J 3 I f '"K w ^/i . ^'fl \f] f^llir'^ 1 A / V ^ ■^ ? J \)6rm ^^z^^>i^ -© — (^- LC2. :^o rYi\no ;jjg8^^^g^| -^ £-i — ^ ■-~\ ^° 1 1 The writer of Enchiriadis now invented a new nota- tion, and this may possibly have been the parent of our staff. He drew lines, wrote at the besfin- ine rirst ning T for tone and S for semitone, and ^ wrote the words between the lines, adding the various forms of F to show the pitch, and joining the syllables by lines to guide the eye. Fig. 4 (6), which gives a complete scheme of organum in four parts, in fourths, fifths, and octaves, is perhaps the earliest existing example of a full score. This 68 A Sicilian Notation system also failed, and men continued to use the neater and more familiar neumes. Many other attempts were made to invent a practi- cable notation. Galilei and Kircher refer to a system of which they found traces, wherein points were placed on lines ; and Kircher says he Another found it in a MS. of the tenth century. If .. ^!"^ he is rig-ht, it dates from the time of Hucbald. He gives in vol. i., p. 213, the example shown in Fig-. 5 (a), and says that he found many hymns written with music in this way in the library of the monastery of San FIG. 5. (a) ^m a.: • ; ^.i » « . nftpeicL n fii, \a. Xapi 0wo6oii6 fiwTopt a wv ^T/Tf^anojaooyv^s, Salvator at Messina, the same library, by the way, in which he discovered the Greek music of Pindar's first Pythic Ode. The lines only are used, and the notes are shown by "black points, or rather little circles." The spaces are unoccupied, and at the beginning of the eight lines are eight Greek letters which are quite in- comprehensible, for, as Ambros points out, they accom- modate themselves to no known system of notation. But Galilei is more explicit. He says that before the time of Guido the points were placed' on seven lines, which were lettered according to the Greek heptachord ii 69 Story of Notation of Terpander {Fig. 5, d)."^ Notice how these early musicians could never get away from the Greek teach- ing. GaHIci tries to show that the system he describes was once in general use, but Ambros points out that if this had been the case we must have a FIG. 5. (b) r b S c — ^ ^ C — ^. ■ ■ m Local Notations heard more about it. May it not have been used in some remote locality? The present writer, many years ago, came across a local system of musical notation which had been used in a village church on Salisbury Plain for the violin, flute, and violoncello, before the advent of the harmonium ; and we know that in early days there were many such local uses. Fig"- 5 (0 shows another of the many attempts to combine the phonetic and the pictorial notations, and there will be found in Palcogmphie Mustcale, vol. ii., Plate 190, the photograph of part of the Montpellier Gradual of the eleventh century, in which alphabetical letters (from a to k) are written over .the words, and above the letters are the neumes. This system, though with- out the neumes, is found in Plate i of Early English Harmony, published by the Plainsong and ' Burney, His/cry, vol. ii. p. 3S. 70 Another Effort to combine the Pho- netic and Pictorial Notations Early Efforts Mediaeval Music Society, said to date from the tenth century. The year a.d. igoo was, as is well known, supposed to be the one in which the world would end, and when men found that the seasons went on just as usual, that no break was made in the natural sequence of events, FIG. 5. (C) toL Us peccdta they took fresh heart, built cathedrals and churches, undertook Crusades, began to enjoy life, and generally to give evidence of the relief from the long suspense. The new century saw the birth of our modern nota- tion, and with this important epoch we begin a new chapter. Translation of Fig. 5 {c)\ — lis pec 71 CHAPTER V. Guido Aretino — His character — His sarcasms — His method of teaching — The Guidonian hexachords — Solmisalion perhaps suggested by the Greek syllables used for this purpose — The Guidonian Hand — Origin of the Staff or Stave — Notation h points superposes — Origin of the Clefs— The "hard," "soft," and "natural" hexa- chords — Coloured lines used for the stave — Guido invited to Rome — Becomes famous — Returns to his monastery and dies a " simple monk." Guido, or Guidone Aretino, or, In English, Guy of Arezzo, to whom are attributed many important im- provements in notation, was a Benedictine , _, ,j monk who lived in the early part of the eleventh century. He was an ardent re- former, a man of great genius, and a good fighter in the cause that he had at heart. Naturally he made many enemies, who, jealous and angry with him, succeeded in getting him banished from his monastery, a pro- ceeding which had the excellent effect of spreading his teaching through Italy, and afterwards through Europe, and now, after nine hundred years, we are still benefit- ing by it. Beatiis Guido, inveyitor MtisiccE, stands under his portrait at Arezzo, so much did mediaeval musicians appreciate his genius. His principal work was done at the monastery of Pomposa, near Ravenna. His chief characteristic seems to have been practical common- 72 Guide's Sarcasms -U' Guide's opinion of Contem- porary Singing Masters »~~^ ^ N ir> S^ Ok sense, as opposed to the mystical dreamings of the ordinary writers, or the ignorant rulc-of- thumb teaching of the ordinary singers. The western world was at this time full of highly respected music-teachers from Italy, Greece, France, and Germany, but their ignorance (according to Guido) was as- tonishing ; for example, he says, they could not dis- tinguish between a note and its fifth : and their teaching was most unsatisfactory, though they had the highest possible opinion of them- selves. Guido begins his "Rules for Unknown Song" {i.e.^ Treatise on Sight- singing) with the following sarcasms : — " Of all living men, singers are the most fatuous {Temporibus nostris super omnes /wjnines fatui sunt cantores) ; for in every art we know many things besides those which we have learned from our teacher. Little boys, if they have once arrived at sufficient knowledge to read through the Psalter, can read all other books; rustics can quickly understand the science of agri- culture ; he who has once pruned a vine, or once planted a tree, or once loaded an ass, will be able to do the same thing again, and probably better the second time : but these wonderful 73 Ml <-•♦ n <- i < Story of Notation singing-masters, and their pupils, may singevery day for a hundred years, yet they will never be able to sing the smallest unknown antiphon without previous instruc- tion ; so that they waste an amount of time with their wretched singing that would suffice for learning all the books in the world, both sacred and secular." He refers here, of course, to the use of the neumatic notation, which could not possibly show how to sing an unknown chant. *' How can a man have the face to call himself a musician or singer, if he cannot sing at once, and correctly, a newly composed song?" His Micrologiis contains the often-quoted sarcastic rhymes : — " Musicorum et Caniorum Magna est distantia, Isti dicutit, nil scmnt Quce coinponit Musica, Nam gidfacit, quod non sap it Diffinitur bcstia. Cceterum ionantis vocis Si latcdent actanina Super abit philoviela Vel vocalis asina" etc. " 'Twixt a singer and musician Wide the distance and condition, One repeats, the other knows What doth harmony compose. He who works without a plan May be called more beast than man. If, of loud and thundering voice, Or shrill sounds, he makes a choice, Asses can bray louder still, Nightingales are far more shrill." 74 Guido and Notation " It often sounds during the Mass, not as if we were singing the praise of God, but as if we were quarrelling amongst ourselves. "The way of the philosophers is not my way; I concern myself only with what is useful to the Church, and can bring our youngsters on." By these and similar sayings Guido did not fail to provoke hostility. Like all reformers, he had hosts of enemies, whose efforts to Hostility suppress him merely resulted in getting against him more widely known. Let us now see Guido what he did for musical notation. He tells us that he made his pupils become familiar with the lettering of the monochord. Gerbert, in his second volume, reproduces an ancient picture taken from a MS. at Vienna, representing " Guido Monachus " exhibiting his monochord to Bishop Theodaldus of Arezzo. He is plucking the string with the quill end of a feather, held in his left hand, while his right holds a kind of blunt knife, wherewith to stop the string at the points shown by the lettering. Gamma, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, a, h, h, c, d, e, f, g, on the body of the instrument. The designer of the picture evidently knew little about music, for his lettering would not produce anything like the proper intervals, and he omits the upper notes, designated by Guido, aa, bb, fcjfc!, cc, dd, ee.^ This lettering, which if ^ These letters, called excellenles, were often placed one above the 75 , , a b c, other — thus, , etc, a b c, Story of Notation not invented by Guido was confirmed by him, and has remained to the present day, embraces both the con- junct and disjunct tetrachords of the Greek system, and by Guido's time the note trite syyinevienon was almost universally indicated by the letter b, called b . , rotiindiun, or b tnollc, because it was round, and because it *' softened" the harshness of the tritone f, b. The note parmncsc was given the sign k], called b quadratum, or b diirujii; the Germans call this note h, and in the picture it is given as h. Guido called the capital letters graves (low), the small letters acictce (high), the double letters super acutce (above the high). " Many blame these terms as superfluous, but we would rather have superfluity than deficiency." '* The soft b we mostly use in songs which start from F or f; G is the fourth note of the first authentic tone (the octave-species D-d) ; a is the fourth „ „ note of the second authentic tone (E to e) ; b of the third (F to f). If you wish to avoid the soft b, you must transpose the neumes in which it occurs, in such a way that you have the notes G, a, jj, c, instead of F, G, a, b." He also suggests that it is good practice to commence a melody on each of the four finals in turn, and sing it through with the semi- tones as given by the letters of the monochord. To make this plain by a modern example, it would be to sing "God save the King" first in the key of C, beginning on C, then in the same key, but beginning on D, then in the same key, but beginning on E, and again in the same key, but beginning on F. It must 76 The Hexachords be remembered that at that time musicians, or at any rate church musicians, only knew the sounds repre- sented by the monochord, i.e., the white keys of our organ, together with b rotundiini; the sharps and the four remaining flats were not yet invented. Hence, if the pitch was changed it could only be in the way suggested, or a fourth higher, with the use of b ro- tundum. The study of Greek music was imperative on every musician in those days; and the division of the scale into tetrachords probably suggested to Guido his division into hexachords. But it is a remarkable fact, showing the prophetic nature of his genius, that instead of using any of the church tones or the ancient Greek modes as the basis of his hexachords, he boldly struck out a new line, and used what is now known as the major mode, foreseeing that this must be the chief mode of the future. He was probably influenced by the secular musicians who were already using this 77 J'RIEST PLAYING ON A HARP (EGYPTIAN). The Guido- nian Hexa- chords Story of Notation mode; and we have seen that one at least of the in- ventors of notations endeavoured to adapt the Latin alphabet to it. In addition to arranging- a series of hexachords, he made use of a series of sounds for singing exercises, perhaps suggested by the tw, ra, re, rrj of the „ "' ? ^ . singfing: exercises of Rome under the empire. Solmisation .^ \Tru c u ^ (See page 40.) bach verse or a hymn to John the Baptist began on a note corresponding to the six notes of his principal hexachord. " Whoever," says he, "can, through practice, distinguish clearly the initial notes of each of these six lines, so that he can commence with any line taken at random, will be in a position to easily sing these six notes wherever he meets with them." The hymn in question was : — C ui — quceant laxis F fa — muU tiioriivi D re — sonar e fibr is. G sol — ve polluti E mi — ra gestoriitn A la — hii reatum Sancte Johannes. Doubt has been raised as to whether Guido was or was not the actual inventor of "solmisation," but the question cannot be discussed here. It is sufficient for our purpose that if Guido did not invent it, it came into use somewhere about his time. It was found that whether a hexachord began with G, C, or F, the same series of four tones, with one semitone, resulted. Hence each of these notes could become ut for singing pur- poses; and the system was analogous to that which many centuries afterwards was called the "movable do." 78 Table of Hexachords - - - - - - -^ ^- c ti_ - - - - •5.S 0) - - - '"Si •a ^- ^ ^ ^ - - - fa sol Ut re « ^ (U 6 XI — ^ 55 fe O - <-3 ^ S ig on Hexach In cou fe - ^S w -5 '•SJ '5 o G o p o ' 2 s > O H fc S 79 Story of Notation The syllable ut became afterwards changed to do, as being more easy to sing ; and when harmony had suc- ceeded to counterpoint, and the leading note ■L^ had in consequence become prominent, the „ r syllable si was added, about the end of Form of Z , , , Solmisa- ^ seventeenth century, to complete the tion seven notes of the major scale, which then became Do^ re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, and the notes are thus named in France and Italy to this day. The cumbrous nomenclature used by Burney, Hawkins, and others was in force during the whole of mediaeval times, and only disappeared at the end of the eighteenth century. This nomenclature, taken from the Guidonian hexachords, was as follows: — Gavi-Jit, A re, B 7ni, Cfa ut, D sol re, E la mi, F fa ut, G sol re ut, ■'•"f , a la mi re, etc., and every choir-boy was „ - compelled to learn it by heart. Guido (or some one about his time) adapted this nomenclature to the joints of the fingers of the left hand, making his boys sing the notes as he pointed to the various parts of his hand. Starting from the top joint of the thumb, the scale worked down the thumb in a circle round the outside of the fingers, ending inside, but the highest note of all was given to the tip of the longest finger. The figure of the so-called "Guidonian Hand," on page 87, shows the order of naming of the joints in a more easily understood manner than in the old figures, where every joint is given its complicated hexachordal name: and the arrow-heads in the dotted line show the direction followed by the scale So Notation a Points Superposes order. The Guidonian hand must have taken a great place in medieval teaching, for it is described by nearly all writers on notation, and the "gamut" con- tinued to be a useless worry to choir-boys for many centuries. "Amongst the many temptations to inattention which surrounded the choristers in the seventeenth century was their right to claim money from any person entering the cathedral with spurs m^"*^" on his boots. This tax was called spur- money. It is said that the man challenged could call upon the chorister to repeat his gamut: if he failed to do so the tax was evaded, if he succeeded the money was paid." ^ We must now speak of the invention of the staff or stave, a thing so familiar to us and, from its familiarity, so apparently simple, that few people are aware of the immense number of experi- *^^ ° ^ ments continued through many generations which were required to bring it to its present form. The first step towards it seems to have been the invention of a notation which the Benedictines have given the name of Notation a Points Super- ^"P^^°^^ , r^ . • . 1 11 •, Pomts poses. Great care is taken by the scribe to make the points and the parts of the neumes show the intervals by their distance above the text, and above or below one another. This was probably done by laying parallel rulers on the parchment, and the natural result was that some one hit on the plan of drawing or ^ Eevan and Stainer, Handbook of St. Faufs Cathedral. 8l G Story of Notation The Stave of One Line scratching^ a line across the page, as a guide to both the scribe and the reader. At the commencement of this Hne was placed a letter, generally F, and all points or portions of neumes which occurred on the line were meant to indicate the note F. The scale-degrees indi- cated by the rest of the neumes depended on the greater or less exactitude with which they were written above FIG. 5. (d) et mater ecclesia tanri iuminis adornara 9^ T-i^ f ^ < *■ 1-ztf ^ r r r r^ ^B and below the line. Fig. 5 (^and e) show a form of nota- tion of which MSS. have been found in many parts of FIG. 5. (C) c -1 F luncdescendir spintus sanctus super eum m ^ J-r r r r>rrr^ Italy; having been invented at Nonantola, the Benedic- tines have called it the Nonantolian notation. It will be seen that vertical lines are drawn from each syllable 82 Clefs and Lines to the horizontal Hne called F or a little above or below it. This line is not continuous, and is inked over a scratched line, without the aid of a ruler. A possible solution is given in modern notation. The next step was the addition of another line, above F, which was intended to represent C ; this fixed two notes definitely, and facilitated the placing- of the neumes representing sounds between _ *^f C and F. The letters F and C, when applied to the lines in this manner, were called Clavcs, or in French, Clefs, that is keys, for, as Zarlino and others explain, they "unlock the door, and give access to the knowledge of the notes." Sometimes, though rarely, other letters, especially G, a, b, t], d, were used as claves. G, having been less used than C and F, has retained its shape better in the modern Treble Clef than the other two letters. (See Fig. ii, page 170.) The preference for F and C is not far to seek. F was the beginning of a hexachord ; it was the lowest convenient note for reciting on ; and C was the beginning of another hexachord at a con- venient distance from F ; and these two clefs were sufficient for plainsong. With s CI f- the advent of measured music a third clavis, G, was added, so that the three claves represented the three kinds of hexachord, the mollc, the naiurale, and the durum?- ^ Ambros gives another reason. F and C are both represented by the syllable fa ; and mi fa, the only semitone in the hexachord, is thus clearly shown by coloured lines. Story of Notation In course of time, a line was drawn half-way between F and c, which gave a; and now by placing- G and b or ^ between the lines, the sounds F, G, a, b, tj, c, could be definitely fixed. Finally, a fourth line was added, either above C or below F, as was found convenient, and the stave lines, Stave of Three Lines of four which has been used for plain- Stave song to of this day, Four was corn- Lines p 1 e t c . For music other than plainsong extra lines were add- ed above and below the orig- inal four, as we shall see in due course. The lines were at first coloured, F be- ing generally red, and C yel- A Sous V L V \c\\xexx>clocc\atva^ 1 amc ruip xilfiKxpectc^^ ^ ^ •* •* ^ • • • * /^ / • . • ' - - C timer ^oxc mrmo 9 rea, ana u yei- -* .>^. • ^.jM ^ ^ .*fh , low; and when ** eu;«^ Wl'C;i/7» lUr/u'ri's Sc>i/>io>t A True Reformer his work;" and it is probable that he ended his days at Pomposa. UnHke the writer of Enchiriadis and his own con- temporaries, Guido did not seek to bend the art of music to the obsolete rules of the Greek theorists, which were only applicable to a different, and, in its best days, far more highly developed form of art than his own. Taking music as he found it, he simply sought what was suitable for the time he lived in, and for getting the best results from the existing (not the past) conditions. This is what every reformer has done, and it is perhaps one of the strangest traits in the nature of man, that every one in every age and every country who works for the improvement of art, science, religion, knowledge, incurs jealousy, suspicion, and dislike ; and, as Guido himself says, may be com- pared to the glassworker, who, having invented an unbreakable glass, is rewarded with death at the hands of the hanerman. 89 CHAPTER VI. Measured music — Canliis Ji,^uraHs, Discanlns^ FauxboiirJon — Contra- punctus — The neumalic notation adapted to the needs of measured music — The rules given by Franco of Cologne — His five moods — The figures— Notes — The origin of the ternary time division, which was called perfect — Rules for the notes — Division of mood — Point or prick of perfection — The plica and ligatures — Pro- priety and perfection — Complications of the rules for ligatures — Disappearance of free rhythm — The original measurements of notes were not by ternar)' but by binary divisions — Inslans, tempus, and chronos protos — Hieronymus of Moravia does not give measured values to notes — Johannes de Garlandia's rules — The triphirii. We now come to the period at which modern European music may be said to begin. We have seen that men had been making experiments with the ^l^m'^r^ "symphonies" of the Greek musicians, by __ , sinofinof in fourths and fifths and octaves. Music Further efforts were only natural, and fresh results were obtained by accident. Thus it was found that the occasional use of diaphonies was not unpleasant ; that thirds and sixths, though classed as discords by the Pythagoreans — for the Pythagorean teaching had now completely superseded that of Aristoxenus — could perfectly well be used as long as men trusted to the ear, and not to mathematics. This had been observed many 90 Free Rhythm Disappears centuries before by the Greek writer Gaudentius, but seems to have been forgotten until rediscovered and noticed by Franco of Colog-ne. But a further development took ^ place. Instead of the /, * ^ " • • old "note against-^ rCCTlC 1 rOmcCTli note," a new form of • • * .' art began, in which A- TC^UCCtm CClcrlclalv one or more singers ^ ' ^ ♦ sang several notes ^ UCrup Vin^nri'ltr- agamst each or the t O ~- notes of the plain- *-*' • . f#/i ■• song, Theplamsong ** «'^^/*fcvf.»w ►wii^t-ww now lost all its •* p • »^ >• • -^ rhythm, and was J, • rt^pmCCf TCTl cT called cantus planus, \*^ ^ ^ musica plana, cantus Q lOZlOfjpr^inClp^/' firmns, tenor, while «» • r the accompanying ^ a^z\ct.riCnxO%.V\f voice or voices were ^ ^ called musica men- w «/•« * "* f^^*/* ..J. , n ccr'tmenxumH^cix stir aoilis or viensurata, ** *^ ^ cantus figuralis, can- *a " ■ tusfloridus.discantus, rieamictlWlferO V rauXOOUraon, raOUV- part of a hymn, neume notation. den, contrapunctus; and the old writers divide Church music into '"'' cayitus sim.plex planus, which is in simple notes of uncertain value, whose mode is Gregorian"; "cantus. Simplex figuratus, that in which simple notes have a certain 91 Story of Notation value"; " cantus compositus, in which many notes in one part are sung in due relation to the notes of the other"; "cantus per medium, in which two notes are measured ag'ainst one of the plainsong-."^ To these must be added Gymel, or Gemellum, a kind of twi7i song used in England, for two voices, singing for the most part in thirds and sixths. It soon became evident that it was impossible for singers to sing cantus fjguralis unless there was some definite regulation of the number of notes to be sung against the sustained note of the cantus firmus, the fixed song; and hence arose a form of Notation Measured ,, , . ,., • ^ „_ . called vinsica mensuraoilis , or menstirata — Music . ... _ I.e., measured music; but not tor centuries did musicians come to a complete understanding as to the details of the notation of the cantus Jiguratus ; and in the end they were obliged to combine the musica vienstirata of the learned Church musicians with the tablatures of the despised worldly instrumentalists, before they arrived at a satisfactory and easily under- stood notation. It is probable that many experiments were made in various places. The clearest information we have is that given by Franco of Cologne, who flourished at the beginning of the thirteenth -, . century. He was preceded and followed by a number of writers on musica mcnsurahilis^ who continued for the next three centuries working at the matter, and gradually evolving a satisfactory system. ^ Tinctor, ProporHovah, in Coussemaker, vol. iv. 92 Measured Music The idea of representing- the intervals by means of tlic lines and spaces of the stave, to which was added one or more of the claves C, F, G, had taken root and spread over Europe, and it remained to invent a method of showing the relative time measurement of the notes which were placed on the stave. The virg-a had become the square-headed note 1, and the punctum either a square ■ or a lozenge ♦; and these forms were taken as the basis of the new notation, in explanation of which we will allow some of these old writers to speak for themselves, beginning, not with the earliest, but with Franco, since he is the r^-nco s clearest. " Musica vieiistirahilis is songf, ^. tions measured by longs and shorts. I say mensurahilis , because in plainsong there is no measure. A 'Time' is a measure of sound or of silence, which is commonly called a rest.^ I say that the rest is measured by time, because otherwise, two voice parts, of which one contains rests, while the other does not, could not be kept in their proper proportions." *' Measured music is divided into wholly and partly measured. Wholly measured is discant, of which every portion is regulated by time. Partly measured is called organum, which is only occasionally measured." The organum was no longer strictly note against note. "And you must know that the organum is used ^ We translate the Latin word pausa as " rest," since this is familiar to English musicians, who use "pause" for the Latin fermata. 93 Story of Notation in two ways. The org-anum proper is the pure or- ganum, but the general organum is when the plain- song is measured." Here we are reminded that, as long as plainsong was only sung in unison riainsong ^^ octaves, its notes were not measured, but __ J followed the natural pronunciation of the words. This fact has been too often lost sight of by writers on plainsong, who have endeavoured to give time-value to the neumes, and to the ordinary notation of plainsong. "Discant is the consonance of several different melodies." Our author then proceeds to divide discant into several kinds after the manner of all early writers and some moderns, who seem unable to avoid classify- ing everything. The method of teaching counterpoint still in vogue in England, and, we believe, in some parts of the Continent, in which everything is classified into five "species," is a direct outcome of mediaeval methods. Franco now classifies time measurement into modes, or moods. "Some say there are six moods, some seven. We reduce them to five." I. All the notes long, or — u — u — u A long note followed by a short note. II. vj — u — u — A short note followed by a long. III. — uu — uu A long followed by two shorts. IV. uu — oo — Two shorts followed by a long. V. u u u u All shorts. 94 Perfection and Imperfection "Concerning the Figures. "Of figures, some are simple, others are compound. The compound figures are the ligatures. Of simple figures there are three kinds — the longa, the brevis, and the semibrevis : and the longa has three values — perfect, imperfect, and double. "The long is called perfect when it is measured in three 'Times.' "The Ternary is the most perfect of numbers, for it takes its name from the Trinity, which is pure per- fection. The figure of the long is square, with a tail descending from its right side, T "The imperfect long is represented by the same figure. It contains two Times, and those are wrong who call it a longa recta,^ "An imperfect long can never stand by itself: it must always have a breve before or after it, and it is called imperfect for this reason." The confusion of theo- logical doctrines with music was very great in these times: the number three must be preserved at all costs, therefore a two-time long must be completed by a breve to bring it to the ternary condition. It has been en- deavoured to show in a recent historical work that the giving of ternary value to notes was not due to theo- logical influence, but that the writers merely pointed out the similarity of "three notes in one" to the ^ The original value of the long was two times, and the perfect or three-time long is of later invention. Hence perhaps the expression longa recta for two-time long. 95 Story of Notation doctrine of the Trinity. The argument taken is that practical men would not acquiesce in an absurdity. Though there is much to be said for this view, we cannot agree with it; for the frequent discussions and hairspHtting over mere words show that the Church musicians were not practical. The practical men were ;:?J;Xc^^=^ tz ^ nq iwl^af ecotta^^ia? t ^ i^:4Y[iiDiM^vxct^yoicx\ quenp ^ NOTATION OF SPANISH TROUBADOURS. the despised "practitioners" of music — the lay instru- mentalists, who had no connection with the Church, and who never caused confusion by making triple measure the basis of their notation. '"The Double Long' has the form of two longs which are joined together in one body, so that the tenor of the plainsong may not be broken." That is to say, the double long was used chiefly in the plain- 96' Longs and Shorts song, which was the "tenor" or holding part, in order that the other singers might have plenty of time for florid ornamentation of their parts. "The breve is either recta or otherwise. It is a square without a tail ■. "The semibreve is either major or minor, and is formed like a lozenge ♦." Elsewhere we learn that the recta brevis is divided into three semibreves, the "other" breve into two. The major semibreve is ternary, the minor binary. "A long is followed by a long or a breve, and this Is also the case with breves and semibreves. If a long follows a long, whether the second long is a rest or a note, the first will be measured by three Times, and is called a perfect long." "But if a long is followed by one or more breves, it will be a two-time long, and is called imperfect; except when between the long and the breve there is placed a little upright line called a sign of perfection, or division of mood, in which case the first long is perfect, while the breve makes the long which follows it imperfect ; thus — Sign or Point of Perfection i3^^3§; Su - pe-rans om-ni-a, which would be represented thus in modern notation- Su - pe - rans om 97 Story of Notation It will be seen then that the little upright line called the division of the mood is practically our bar line, though not till many centuries later was it used at regular intervals, as with us. "But if two or three or four or more breves follow the long, then the long is perfect; unless it is preceded by a single breve." The whole difficulty arises from there being as yet no means of showing the regular measures, for the full significance of the divisio modi was not yet understood. "Of two breves, the first is recta (ternary), the second binary. The brevis recta contains one whole time: the brevis altera is analogous to the imperfect long in value, for both, though represented by different figures, are measured by two times, but what is called a single time of the breve is the minimum time that the voice is capable of uttering distinctly." Here we have the origin of our word "minim"; and when it became necessary to use notes of less value than the mininia, 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 division of mood, then the two longs are imperfect, and of the two breves, either you like will be recta; but this very rarely occurs." Franco gives the following example: — Da ri, tra-di, capi, 98 Point of Perfection equivalent to in which there seems no object in considering^ the breves as of three or two-time value in themselves; for they are simply the complement of the imperfect longs. "But if three breves occur between two long-s they will each be recta, unless influenced by the division of mood between the first two of the three breves, in which case the first long- is imperfect, the middle breve is recta. And whatever contains three times, whether uttered with one accent or more, constitutes perfec- tion." We now come to the origin of our "dotted note." " If several breves follow a long, the long is always imperfect unless the sign of perfection is added to it." The sign of perfection with Franco is a little bar, similar to the division of "^^^ Dotted mood; it afterwards became the "Point of °^ Perfection," or in England the " Prick of Perfection," namely, our dot after a note. "Of the breves which follow, any must be made recta that may be necessary in order to produce the ternary number, which constitutes perfection." That is to say, three time must be adhered to throughout. " But if at the end of a group of breves there are two 99 Story of Notation remaining, then the last must be considered as altera brevis, thus: — Literally : — -eDr=L'^_ r- i-" but natural instinct would probably lead the singer thus: — 4c — o- ^g=p^^-4^=F 'm^^ for which apparently the long followed by a breve would not do, because the singer would consider it as affected by the previous breve, and syncopate it, as in the first bar. The rules the unfortunate singer was obliged to learn were terribly complex, owing to the want of a simple expedient of indicating the measures with exactness. '* But if there is only one breve left, it will make the last long imperfect." " Now concerning semibreves, the rules are the same as for breves ; but more than three semibreves cannot be contained in a brevis recta. Of these three semibreves each is called minor ; it is the least part of a recta brevis. And if the breve contains two semibreves, the first is called minor, the second major, for it contains two minors." lOO Influence of Neumes The accentuation of the minor and major semi- breves depended on their position with regard to the longer note that preceded or followed them. It is unnecessary to quote the rules for semi- '^ccentua- breves, as they arrive at the same result as '°** those for breves, everything being arranged so as to produce triple measure. In the sixth chapter Franco treats of the Plica (Fig. 7, p. 105), which is the cpiphoniis and cephalicits of the neumes.^ He and his contemporaries had not arrived at the idea that a syllable which begins on a high and ends on a low sound, or vice versd, is sung to two or more notes; under the influence of the neumatic notation, they considered that the sound was all one, that it began low and ended high, or that it moved up and down, and must therefore be represented by one figure, or, as they said, by one note. Hence arose all the troublesome complications of the ligatures, the proper translation of which is exceedingly puzzling. Franco begins his chapter on this subject thus : — "The plica is a note in which the same sound is divided into high and low." " The plica may be a long, a breve, or a semibreve" — i.e.^ it is not two short notes, but one single note proceeding upwards or downwards. "The semibreve plica cannot occur in simple figures, but it is possible in ligatures, as will appear later. Plicas are ascending or descending. The long plica is a square figure having an ascending line on its right, ^ See p. 60. Story of Notation with a shorter one on its left ; and from these two lines comes its name plica " — folded together. (See Fig. 7, p. 105.) "The descending long plica has two lines, the right being longer than the left. In the ascending short plica the left-hand line is the longer, and in the descend- ing short, the left is also the longer. And note that the plicas have the same powers and values as the simple notes described above." We now come to the Ligatures (Fig. 7), which arose directly from the porrecttis^ the torculus, the _. , climacus, and salicus of the neumes, as shown in Fig. 3, p. 55. The reader will remember that a thick oblique line in a ligature merely represents two notes, which, as Morley says,^ stand at the beginning and the end of the line. Let us now see what Franco has to say about liga- tures; and we must observe that from here he uses the 'word punctus, "point," to indicate what we should call the notes, for iiota ^.nd /igiira mean the complete ligature — i.e.^ a continuous sound running over two or more degrees of the scale. "An ascending ligature is one in which the second point is higher than the first." Here we meet with one of the most complicated and strange parts of the teach- ing, so involved that it is a marvel that any one could sing at sight in those days. " Ligatures are either with propriety, without pro- ' Plain and Easy Inlyoditction to Praclical Music, 1597. Page 10 of reprint, 1771. 102 Propriety and Ligatures priety, or with opposed propriety. And this is with regard to the beginning- of the ligature, for the hitter part is either with perfection or without: and note that these differences are essential to the ligatures ; for a ligature with propriety differs from one that is with- out, as a rational animal differs from an irrational one." '* Propriety is the chief note in the construction of the ligature, and occurs in its beginning: while perfection is the chief note at its end." Elsewhere we read, "Every propriety is short, impropriety long; opposed propriety produces two semibreves, since one alone is not used in a ligature, nor are more than two. Whence, if several notes come into a ligature, they are as follows : each perfect note is long, each imperfect note is a breve except those that are made semibreves by opposed propriety." The meaning of the foregoing sentences becomes clear by further quotations. *' Every descending ligature having a line descending from its left side is said to be with propriety" — i.e., its first note is short (see Fig. 7, p. 105). "But if it has no line at all it is without propriety " — i.e., its first note is long. " Every ascending figure is with propriety if it has no stroke at all." " But if it has a stroke on the left or right of the first note, it is without propriety" — i.e., the first note of an ascending ligature is short if there is no tail, long if it has a tail on its left side. •'Every ligature, whether ascending or descending, Story of Notation which bears a line rising from its first point, is with opposed propriety " — that is, its two first notes are semibreves. " But there is no essential difference in the middle of the ligature, all the notes of which are short." The rules for the final note of the ligature now follow, and for the sake of brevity they may be epito- mised: when the last note is long, the ligature is said to be "with perfection"; when short, it is "without perfection." The last note is long if it stands imme- diately over its predecessor, or if it stands under it and separated from it. It is short if it stands obliquely over or under its predecessor, and joined to it. With a rising or falling line joined to the right-hand side of the last note of the ligature, it is said to be " pli- cated," and if, being plicated, the last note is not joined to its predecessor, it is a long; if plicated and joined, it is a breve. Guilielmus, the monk, gives a table of ligatures (Coussemaker, Scriptores, vol. iii. p. 276) marked with the letters L for long, b for breve, m for maxima, s for semibrevis, which, allowing for probable slips of the pen, agrees fairly well with the above rules. Rests (Fig. 7) have now to be considered. A perfect long rest, of the value of three times, is an upright line covering three spaces. An imperfect long ^^ ^ rest covers two spaces. A breve rest, con- taining only one time, covers one space. A major semibreve rest covers the upper half of a space. The minor semibreve rest (minima) covers the lower half of 104 Plica, Ligatures, and Rests Asccncliag FiC. 7. Plica. J Long , ^. Descending IHJ bho^^ Descending Ligatures. Wi \h PmprleTv Wil-liout Propriety Wi rh Opposed PropneN flLong- ■ Shorf M Ascending Ligatures. Rests. Perfect- Long'. ImperFed. Breve. Major SemiK Minor. EndofSon^. Semiminima. Croma Semicroma. End of Period zz: JJ_3_ 331 105 Story of Notation a space. The end of the period is indicated by an unmeasured rest, extending- above and below the stave. "And note," says Franco, "that rests have a mar- vellous power; for by them the moods are interchanged among themselves." Thus far Franco. We have quoted from him first, because he is clearer than others ; the whole matter had probably become fairly settled by his Changes of time. We will now see what his pre- Tcmpo decessors have to say. Th^ author of , - Enchiriadis, Hucbald or Odo, in whose Measured '^^^ measured music had not yet arisen, Music was "°'' ^^^^ necessity for it, is quite alive to the invented importance of slow and rapid tempo: for he remarks that not only the pitch but also the rapidity of the song must be varied according to the season; but that the singers must always attend to the enunciation of the neumes, which must be sung at a suitable pace, and neither with tedious slowness, nor with such irreverent haste as to sound like the bark of a dog. But at this time the rhythm, which consisted of groups of syllables and of neumes, was unmeasured: it was like the prose rhythm of the Psalms and other poetry in the Bible. Riemann supposes that the old free rhythm began to give way to the measured music described by Franco in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and that the "moods" formed the starting-point of the new teach- ing. The oldest writers on measured music are 106 Early Theory of Time Mensural Music Hieronymus de Moravia, " Anonymus No. 7" of Coussemaker, and Johannes de Garlandia, -t-l an English musician who Hved and taught earliest at Paris. These inform us that in the Writers on earliest times the long was equal to two breves, not three; and it is unfortunate that they mixed music with theology and thus pro- duced inextricable confusion. Hieronymus de Moravia calls the smallest and indi- visible tone which can be heard clearly and distinctly instans, "an instant," and says that this is ^, . The what the ancients called a Tempus. a Time. t. . . . ^ ' earliest Here we have a distnict outcome of Greek ideas of theory ; for Aristoxenus builds the whole Time Divi- system of Greek musical rhythm on com- sion seem binations of the chronos protos — i.e., primary to have time, which, he says, is the shortest time value ^^^^^ based in a given composition, and is indivisible. °" Urcek "Some notes," Hieronymus says, "are long, ^^^ '"^ some short, some very long, others very short." He gives the forms of the long, the breve, and the semibreve, as Franco does, and then describes a nota longior, nota longissima, nota brevior, nota brevissinia. The first note of any chant is long, and if any syllable has more than one note, the second note is long. He then describes the plica and ligatures, and among rests he describes the siispirumi, "an apparent rest which only exists for one instant." We should say a breathing place. It is striking how much place the single "Time" took in early theory. Under the heading "Discantus" we 107 Story of Notation have "measurable music is that which is measured by the measure of one or many 'Times.'" Ultra mensiiram is said of notes which are of less value than one, or of more value than two "times," such as a succession of three semibreves; and it must be observed that every note of plainsong- is long and ultra mensuram, since it contains the measure of three "times," that is to say when it is joined to discant: for it was still unmeasured if sung alone. Johannes de Garlandia mentions six moods, dividing that described by Franco (page 94) as No. i into two, and giving different numbers from Franco. He ^4 *^f ^^y^ Xhsit other teachers add other moods. T , , He speaks of a recta brevis as containing Johannes de f . . Garlandia ^^^ time, a recta longa as containmg two rectcB breves^ an oblique long, which is greater than a recta longa, a double long, which con- tains several longs in itself, and a long which turns itself towards higher and lower sounds — i.e., a ligature, or, in modern parlance, a legato passage. He divides the moods into perfect and imperfect, describes the ligatures, with propriety, without propriety, and with opposed propriety, with and without perfection ; the plicated ligatures, etc. The chapter on Ligatures is with all these writers long and obscure : if only they could have foreseen the simple modern use of the legato sign, how much trouble they would have saved them- selves and us ! The Rest, he tells us, is a division of the sound, made in due proportion. Rests are simple and compound. 108 Johannes de Garlandia Simple rests are those which cause a cessation of sound according- to the vakie of some mood or manner, and they may be perfect or imperfect. The perfect rest does not chang-e the mood, but Kcsts the imperfect changes it (from trochaic to iambic, etc.). A compound rest is double or triple or quadruple, etc. We should say that there were rests during two or three or four bars, etc. He gives the same forms for rests as Franco (page 104). The division of the moods is a little perpendicular stroke placed below any line ; it is sup- posed to be shorter than the rest for the ^*^'^l°" °^ , r • Mood recta brevis. Division of the syllables is the same — it occurs also in many plainsong- MSS. in square notation to show the musical, not the verbal syllables, '^^^"1,? for groups of notes were called syllables. A suspiratio he describes as an ' ' apparent and non- existent rest, shorter than a recta brevis." Having explained the notation, he shows how it is used for discant. The tenor is, he says, called the first part, the discant the second part. The first part has to be considered in three ways: as to melody, as to the number of points^ it con- tains, and as to the mood or disposition of long and short notes. As to the second part, the discant, we have to consider in three ways also: as to the number of notes, which, though differing in quantity, must be to- gether of equal value to those in the tenor ; as to mood, ^ I.e., single notes. 109 Story of Notation which must agree with that of the tenor; and as to con- cordance, that the two parts sound well together. And to obtain " colour" when two points are taken with one of the tenor, either may be a discord. All authors allow this licence, which often occurs in the organum, and especially in motets. The Triplum^ is a third part added to the discant. He describes the recta longa as a square with a tail, the diipla ox siiperahnndans longa as double the length of the first, and the plica, which differs in several respects from the plica of Franco. We occasionally read of the urns paid to priests who could " organise" and sing" in triplum and quadruplum. Du Cange quotes a passag'e from the Necrologium, or burial register of Paris of the thirteenth century, an order for the clerks who shall sing the Alleluia in organum, triplum, or quadruplum, to receive sixpence; and another passage orders that the four organisers of the Alleluia receive twopence each.- ^ Anglice, treble, tribble, quatrible. '•^ Burney, vol. ii. p. 136. KITHARA. a, ITS PLECTRUM. no CHAPTER VII. Extracts from the writings of various fourteenth-century authors on measured music — "Sumer is icumen in" — Probably few such "ron- dels or common songs " were written down — Gymel — Magister de Garlandia — Odington — False music — Tendency of mediceval music to modulate to the subdominant due to retention of the Greek synnemenon tetrachord in the system — The raising of the leading note by false music produced the modern tendency of modu- lation to the dominant — Robert de Handle's dialogue — Hamboys — A complicated time-table — De Muris of Paris and De Muris the Norman — Incompetent singers — Comparison of the old and new methods — Various time-signatures — Ecclesiastical objections to complicated music. Such was the teaching, with slight variations, from about the middle of the twelfth century ; and the liga- tures held their place, though becoming more and more rare, until the eighteenth century. They are described in English by Morley, 1597, in Spanish by Cerone di Bergamo, 161 3, are found in Trabercus's Passion Music, printed in Naples in 1635, and even in the examples of Martini's book on Counterpoint, printed at Bologna as late as 1774. Coussemaker prints no less than forty tracts on measured music belonging to the fourteenth century alone ; and it is evident that if forty have survived the continental wars, accidental fires, and other forms Story of Notation of destruction, a very great number must have been written ; and we know that the composers, especially Numbers Eng^lishmen, were numerous and held in of Musical §■''6^^ esteem at this time. There is an Treatises old and exploded tradition that counter- must have point began in England. There is this much been foundation for it that part singing- was produced strenuously cultivated in England, and, at a very early epoch, reached a high degree of perfection. The famous canon, "Sumer is icumen in," composed by John of Reading- in 1250, cannot be a single bumer is ^f^^^^ . [^ must have been preceded by hun- . „ dreds of similar compositions, or it could not have reached so high a standard of de- velopment. It is one of the "rondels and common songs" referred to by Johannes of Garlandia, who, speak- ing of the " colour " produced by '* florification " of the notes, says, "Repetition of the same note is a colour by which the hearing is pleased ; and we use this kind -,. of ornament in rondels and common songs." The . . *=> Common Students of modern counterpomt will recall Songs were the prohibition of repetition of a note, an probably outcome of mediaeval teaching. It is prob- not often able that few of the rondels were written written down. The priests, who were busy invent- down ij^igr r^ notation on theological lines, would not be very eager to make use of it for what they regarded as worldly music, and as such, opposed to the Church ; and the common musicians, the Troubadours, Minnesingers, Meistersingers, etc., mostly sang their 112 Maglster de Garlandia songs by heart, and appear to have extemporised, in England, at all events, a kind of part-singing in thirds called Gymel, and in thirds and sixths called Faux- bourdon. Riemann derives the curious word Gymel from Gemellum — twin-song. A second Magister de Garlandia, who lived a century later than Johannes, uses the word "propriety" with regard to the position of the song on the gamut. "There are in every song three pro- , Ihree prieties, b or 5 square, b niolle, and natural. , . , TTT t 1 I , • , • 1-1 which a We know the q because it begms on 1 , or . . gamma-iit, and ends with E, or it begins ^^ sune with G sol re ut and ends with e. B inolle we know because it begins with F and ends with d. The natural propriety we know because it begins with C." " In plainsong four lines are drawn because there are only seven notes ; but in cantus inensiirabilis five lines are drawn because nine notes are re- quired for the canitis organicns in motets and elsewhere." Although plainsong uses , . . now, and from the time of Guido has used. Staves four lines, the added parts have used three, four, five, six, or any number that the composer has thought fit. Walter Odington, monk of Evesham, wrongly described as Archbishop of Canterbury, flourished in 127:;. His treatise called De „,. Speculatione MusiccB is mostly mathematical, and he gives the ancient Greek notation. He describes 113 I Story of Notation the claves, our clefs, as signs which inform us of the names of the notes, for without them we should not know the notes. He seems to be the first to divide the semibreve into three parts, the new note being called Minima. The first Garlandia and an anonymous writer calling himself Aristotle, whom Coussemaker places as about contemporary with Franco of Cologne, are * ^f among the first who speak of Musica falsa. Aristotle says, "Now the question arises, What necessity is there to make rules about false music or false mutation ? For what is false ought not to be regulated, but what is true : false music and false mutation are, however, not without their use, but are, on the contrary, necessary to produce good con- sonances. "We say that music becomes false when we change a tone to a semitone, or a semitone to a tone. It is not, however, really false, but changed, and it is done by placing the sign bj quadratum, or b roiundnm, in the place that is to be changed." But Garlandia is more explicit: " False music, which is very necessary for instruments, especially for the organ, occurs when we use a semitone for a tone and the reverse. Every tone may be divided into two semi- tones, therefore the number of signs which indicate the semitone may be increased in all the modes." Walter Odington says, "The two b's belong to the monochord; the other alterations are called by musicians falsa musica^ not because they contain any- 114 False Music thing- dissonant, but because they are outside the disposition of the monochord, and were not used by the ancients." Here we have the origin of the term false music, afterwards called mitsica ficta, feigned music, and viusica inusitata, unusual music. It arose simply from the fact that the monochord, the instrument used in teaching, and in proving the correctness of singing, contained no means of producing the semitones be- tween the sounds called A, B, C, etc. Therefore any sound occurring between these degrees of the mono- chord was called a false sound, for it answered to no true note of the monochord. B rottindum was not a false sound, for it always had a place on the mono- chord, as had b quadratitm, both of these notes belong- ing to the Greek systems. Some of the early writers disHke the use of a thing that is false ; hence perhaps the change of name to ficta. The first false note that was used was occasioned by the transposi- tion from the key of F to the key of Bi,, Infod^c- necessitating a new note below E which in <. • ^ was called E b mollis (in French now called .-^ Scale E bemot). This transposition to the sub- dominant rather than to other degrees was suggested by the trite syjinenienon, the B rotiindiim; for as we have shown in Chapter II., the Greek trope contained within itself the suggestion of this transposition, its synnemenon tetrachord being identical with the middle tetrachord of the key a fourth above it. In modern music the most natural modulation is to "5 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 key Modulation becoming the lower of the new key. _ , The tendency to modulate to the sub- Dominant , . . r 1 1 • • -11 dommant before the dommant is noticeable throughout the compositions of the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries. The predominance of the leading note in harmony during the early seventeenth century caused the change to the modern tendency towards the dominant. Perhaps an example will make this clearer. Example of transposition of the scale of C major on the monochord. i -r^ -^-Q= — - , ^ rj -f^-— - ^< y j^-c?--^-^^ ^ " A A The tetrachord A becomes the upper half of the transposed scale ; the b rotiindnm of the monochord practically enforces transposition to the subdominant, and suggests modulation thereto. Modern use — i^g^gg^ ^^ A A Here the tetrachord A becomes the lower half of the new scale ; and the "false music," F sharp, which was not contained on the monochord, allows of upward instead of downward transposition and modulation. ii6 Rules of False Music After the b rotundmn had been used for the note E the b qiiadratum was used to contradict it; and when a false note was required between C and D, F and G, etc., the b qiiadratum was used for "^^^ this purpose, and called diesis. It afterwards Natur*' became a double cross (see Fig. 8, p. ii8), *" ^^ called crux, and finally took the shape familiar to us. The modern German name for sharp is Krcus, meaning a cross, while the French call it diese. Both nations also preserve the ancient expression quadratum — in French, becarre, square, German, quadrat for our '•natural." False music was not usually written for some centuries, because it was not on the monochord; and the singers had to learn by rule how to introduce it. The rules were fairly simple. False At first it was used to correct an aug- Mustc mented fourth or diminished fifth; later, written as harmony developed, it was introduced ^ £. ^ to form a perfect or complete claiisula, our close, the note below the keynote being raised a semitone if necessary; or, in the mediaeval expression, it introduced the interval mi fa into the perfect close if it was not there already. Written r, . • c u Flats and But supposmg for any reason, by an ex- ception to the rule, an F or C or any other ♦ t b note were not to be sung sharp, a flat was %\xtiv written before or over them ; while if B or E or other note were not to be flattened in the singing, a sharp was placed before them. An unwritten 117 Story of Notation sharp or flat was to be sung; a written one did not alter the note. These rules hold good for continental Fig. 8. Majcima "j ■■ cq ** ii|, m Duplex LongaJ I I 1 i I Larga aj longa 1^ CI Brevis ■ ■ a t=j |lo| Semibrevis ♦ r ♦ o d Semibrevis Minor | 1 i 1 ^ p Minima T I J i Crocheta 5cmiininim3' Fusa Chroma Quaver Semichroma Semiquaver Diesis tlHifPfftl^^^^tf Double Sharp + x >: ^ X ii8 The Sharp music. English composers have always been more careful than their continental contemporaries to indicate the so-called "accidentals," and the first five forms of the diesis (Fig. 8) are copied from a fourteenth-century English MS., which abounds in accidentals. They were placed indifferently before, above, or below the notes they affected. A curious little chapter added at the end of one of the anonymous treatises speaks about the sharp under the title De Sinemenis, a hybrid word, evi- dently taken from the Greek synnemenon , ^''^ ^"°" conjunct, and referring to the sharp as a nymous conjunction between the tones. The writer , speaks of the crux, cross, occurring between Sharp b rotundiini and c, but in this case it is represented by the sign tj. The crux also occurs between F and G, C and D, G and A, A and B, D and E. Here we have a complete chromatic scale. "And according to the vulgar, such music is called false music." In an imaginary dialogue dated 1326, between Robert de Handle, an Englishman, and Franco of Cologne, a rising tail is placed on the right hand Tailed side of the longa, and the left of the hrevis, Notes re- when they represent semitones from the presenting previous note, thus — Semitones Erecta Longa J, Erecta Brevis t, which must have caused confusion. 119 Story of Notation The same treatise shows a "plicated" semibreve when three semibreves are used with one syllable. This is also given by Petrus de Cruce and other writers. Its form is this: ♦♦W. A new term occurs _ ,, in De Handlo's treatise, the seviiloTigay Semilonga , ^ . • ^i whose figure, however, is the same as that of the long. The duplex longa is of the value of six times if standing alone, but of five , times if preceded or followed by a breve, longa ' "^ Handlo gives Franco's rules in the form of a dialogue between himself and Franco and others, and adds rules of his own, and of his contemporaries. He speaks of mmorntce semibreves, diminished o , semibreves, which are formed like minimas, t that IS, with a tail T. In this treatise we find, as we should expect, all the complicated rules about ligatures. The next author in Coussemaker's collection is another Englishman, Johannes Hanboys or Hambois or Hamboys, whom Holinshed describes as TT * t . "an excellent musician, and for his notable rlambois , , . , t-. r »* • .1 cunning therein made Doctor ot Music. He complains that Franco has not given enough explanations. He invents two new notes, -. ^ , the crocheta, like a viinima, but having a shorter tail, and the larga, like a duplex longa, but having two tails (see Fig, 8, p. 118). The larga contained nine longas if stand- e arga .^^ ^^^ itself, but longas standing before or after it were subtracted from its value. Thus, 120 ( VNIV 'v De Muris the Norman says Hamboys, if a larga is perfect, it contains 3 double longs, 9 longs, 27 breves. Si semibreves, 243 minor semibreves, 729 Compli- semiminors, 2,187 minimas. What a com- '^^^^ 'm" plicated time-table for choir-boys to learn ! There seem to have been two writers of the name of De Muris ; one, called Johannes or Julianus, was made Rector of Paris Uni- De Muris versity in 1350, and the other, Johannes de Muris, called the Norman, seems to have studied in Paris, but lived and taught at Oxford. Johannes the Norman wrote a work called Speciihim MusiccB in 1 32 1, treating, amongst other things, of the whole system of Greek music with its notation, and of the notation of his own time, and here his treatise is of great value. He mentions a kind of notation in which a stave of four lines is drawn over the words, and instead of notes alpha- betical letters are placed on the lines and Combina- spaces. He says that this is preferable to '°" ° the old Greek notation which he has just j, . described, but that it has the disadvantage ^j^j^ Stave of not showing the time value of the alpha- betical letters, therefore it can only be used for plain- song. For mensurable music he says the square notation is necessary, and proceeds to describe it, saying that Guido invented it, which, however, he did not, for Guido knew nothing of measured music. Johannes devotes Chapter IX. of his seventh book to an interesting de- scription of the incompetent singers of his day. We 121 Story of Notation Mediaaval Singers have seen that Guido had much to say on this matter; and it is an ever- recurring^ ^ s u b je c t < of complaint. 7. "There are sing- F ers," De Muris 2 says, "who have 5 the impudence to g sing, and to com- ^ pose discant, when they know abso- B lutely nothing- of J the nature of con- 1 sonances ; who £ cannot distinguish ° between major and a minor concords, § who are ignorant w of many other things necessary to know, who sing a discant in such a manner above the tenor, that if by chance they suc- ceed in making it 122 Complaints against Innovations concordant, it is no more than if a stone thrown by chance should hit a mark. . . . They mutihite, cur- tail, and corrupt the song; and if by good luck they light on a concord, such is their ignorance that they at once proceed to a discord. Alas! What grief ! And some endeavour to cover their defects by saying that the new method of discant uses new consonances. They offend the intelligence and the senses of all who know their faults; for when they ought to give delight they produce only dejection. Oh, what evil plausibility, what irrational excuses, what great abuse, what ignorance, what bestiality! It is as if an ass were considered a man, a goat taken for a Hon, a sheep for a fish, a snake for a salmon. . . . Oh, if our ancient learned doctors of music could hear such singers, what would they have said, what would they have done ? . . . There are some who know how to sing in the modes yet do not observe them ; others who discant lascivi- ously, and superfluously multiply the notes; some ot these hoket^ too much, break their notes^ too much in the consonances, leap, and divide the discant at inopportune places, howl, shriek, and bark like a dog, feed on vexations, use far-fetched harmony." ** There are also in these times many good and worthy musicians, singers and discanters, who, being learned in the art, compose many beautiful discants, but they use the new method of singing and lay aside the old ; ^ rioketus, a kind ot discant, in which many rests occur. - Frangere voces means to break the long notes into ornamental flourishes : hence musica fracta, broken music. Story of Notation they make too much use of imperfect semibreves, which they call minims, and instead of the old organised songs, the conductus, the motets, the double, ^, contra, double and triple hokets, they insert ^ „ , in their motets things that are subtle and not all in- ,.„ , • ,. x • • , . ^ competent ^^^^^^^ ^° ^mg." It is evident that De Muris was laudator temporh acii, and was much troubled, like 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 semibreve. "The ancients say it is indivisible, while the moderns say it is not, and they call its divisions minimas." i-ontusion Concerning the figure of the semibreve, he _ ., says there is great dissension : " some cut It in half, others half fill it, others place a tail above or below it, others make it like a dragma.^ Those who use semiminims or semiminores bend the tail to the right;" and he gives a most confusing list of the various names used by different writers to in- dicate the same things, showing that the notation was far from being settled as yet. He devotes a long chapter to the discussion of whether the plicated semibreve should have its tail attached to the obtuse or the acute angle, and he objects to "the moderns," who use single semibreves, which is repugnant to nature ; for seiiii is half, and it requires two halves to make a whole. He, like many a modern musician, compares the old simple music with the more ' See Fig. 8, p. liS. The Dragma is a lozenge with four tails. 124 Mediaeval Time Signatures difficult and subtle music of his day to the disadvantage of the latter ; and his writinijs show that music was advancing. "Some moderns," he says, "consider those who do not cultivate the new art to be un- cultured, uneducated, unlearned, and ignorant ; and they look upon the old art as barbarous, irrational, but the new as exquisite and rational. Ought that to be called exquisite in which the effect of good con- cordance is lost, the measure is confounded, the words are not heard ? "The old mensurable art was slight and clear com- pared with modern. For the moderns use many rules for their longs and breves and semibreves: and because there are many moods in their 1^^ "^uris s singing, some of them place a round circle , _, , , c ^ ^- 1 , • , • the 01"^ to show perfect time, because the circle is a < ^ perfect form. Thus — ~ — Styles "But others place three upright strokes to show perfect time. Thus — -+-)-{■ "And these strokes must cover lines and part of the spaces to distinguish them from those which represent rests. And he who uses this teaching exclaims loudly against those who do not, calling them ignorant and uncultured. "And to show Perfect Mood they use three lines enclosed in a quadrangle (see Fig. 9, p. 126). "And for Imperfect Mood two lines in a quadrangle (Fig- 9)- Story of Notation " But others use two half-circles for Imperfect Mood (Fij;- 9)- FIG. a Time Sig'nafures. Mood Value of Measure Perfec^ Major Minor Major Minor 1 Imperfect" ^^ Major Minor Perfecf Time E^ 3n: ^^S im per fect^ Perfecl- Imperfecl" Prolan on EgEEJ^: ^^^ |o o o| |oo| Ipppi ipn "And by such signs they denote Time and Mood, and they cannot denote one without the other. 126 Mediaeval Time Signatures "Some again presume to use M for Perfect Mood, and N for Imperfect, saying that as O and C arc used for variations of Time, so M and N may show Mood. But others reverse the matter and use O for Perfect Mood and Perfect Measure, C for Imperfect Mood and Imperfect Measure. Others use for Perfect Time a circle containing three strokes, thus, ©, and for Im- perfect Mood a semicircle containing two strokes, 6 (Fig- 9)« Such, and many other things, do the moderns, which the ancients never did; and thus they have added many burdens to the art, which was formerly free, but which now has become like a slave in such matters." Here he ends : and his recriminations are important, since they describe early forms of what we should now call the Time Signatures. Mood, of course, referred to the division of longs and shorts, according to the five or six moods ; or, as we should say, mood Mood contained one long or its value in a bar. Time referred in the same way to the semibreve, which, as we have seen, was a "Single Time" in the sense of the Primary Time of the Greeks. _, The signature for Time indicated a measure of one breve, and later it came to indicate a measure of one semibreve in value, which it still has. To Mood and Time was afterwards added Prolation, which will be described in a later chapter. The new notation and music were objected to by the Church. A bull was issued at Avignon about 1322 127 Story of Notation to the New Art to suppress the innovations under severe penalties. "Some disciples of the new school," it was said, "while they apply themselves to measured times, introduce new notes, prefer their own to Obj^ections ^^^e ancient chant ; the Church music is sung in semibreves and minims, and is killed with little notes. They intersect the melodies with hoquets, slide about in discant, and sometimes even load and crowd the chants with tripla and common motets." But John of Salisbury, a cen- tury and a half previously, had complained that the rites of re- ligion were pro- faned by music, and that the stupid crowd, delighted with all these vaga- ries, imagined that they heard a concert of Sirens, in which the performers strive to imitate the notes of nightingales and parrots, not those of men.^ ^ Journey, vol. ii. p. 149. 128 lEia-OKMEKS ON LVKKS (i,Kl;EI<). Scandalous Singing The times were barbarous, and there is no doubt that while the more earnest musicians were striving- to improve the new art, many of the sinjjers were doin^' their best to bring obloquy upon it by their scandalous singing. 129 CHAPTER VIII. Marchettus of Padua mentions discrepancies between Italian and French teaching — Red notes — Confusion of rules— Philip of Vitry — Rests — Points of division, perfection, addition, and demonstration — Philip of Caserta — Prosdoscimus de Beldemandis — Prolation — Mood — Time — Hothby — Pietro Aaron revolts against ternary measurement — Decay of the ternary division — Zarlino — Morley — The beating of time called arsis and thesis is derived from the motions of the pulse — Syncopation — The scale of twelve semitones in the octave re-established on keyboard instruments — Difficulties caused by it — Introduction of written accidentals — Early key signatures — Sharps used to contradict flats and vice versd — Double sharps and flats. Marchettus of Padua distingfulshes between music and mathematics thus : " If it is asked what is the most perfect in numbers, two or three, we should r p . say two; but if it is asked which is the most perfect in music, two or three, we should say three, for three contains two." He distinguishes ^, between French and Italian teaching- — c.s^., Uiscre- . . a <3 if of two notes one is tailed, then, accord- between '"& t<^ ^^^ Italians the tailed note, whether French anJ it is the first or the second, contains three Italian times, the untailed only one; thus ? ^ is Schools equivalent not to p' ^ but f>'* Accord- Red Notes ing to the French, the tailed note is not divided by quaternary division as above, but contains five parts out of six, and is equivalent to [^ P •; and several pages follovi^ showing similar differences between Gallic and Italian teaching. He gives two signs for false music, the natural and the flat; and he explains that such music „ is not really false, but true and necessary, jnr . for without it no motectiis or rondellus could be sung. It became customary to colour certain notes red, and here the rules are confusing and contradictory. Mar- chettus of Padua says that they either show a change of mood, the red notes being sung Coloured in three time values, while the black notes are in two, or they are to be sung in octaves. But sometimes red is used to show that long before long does not count three times, or that the second of two breves between longs is not to be altered ; or it is used to show that long before long is to count three times, and breve before breve that of three semibreves. Red is also used to vary time and mood ; where black longs are of the value of three times, the red notes are of the value of two ; and he naively remarks that in the tenor of a certain motet in which red is used, there are many errors ; how they are to be avoided amidst so many contradictory uses of red notes he does not say. Philip of Vitry says that red notes change what was perfect to imperfect, and what was imperfect to perfect. Story of Notation Philip of Caserta says that if a man has not the wherewithal to write red notes, he may leave them empty. Syncope, says Vitry, is the division Notes to be of any figure into separate parts, as a perfect left un- ^ long- into three breves, an imperfect long into coloured if . . two breves. the writer has no Rests are of different values, according paint ^o ^^^ number of spaces they cover: thus a rest covering one space is of the value of one time, two spaces two times, and so on ; but if a rest covers four spaces it is unmeasurable. A rest ^ descending from a line and covering half a Rests . space is worth a semibreve, and that which rises from a line and covers half a space is a minim rest: the last two are of course our semibreve and minim rests. He describes four points. It will be remembered that formerly notes were called points, but the point here alluded to is what we now call a dot. The _^ four points are of division, of perfection, of addition, and of demonstration. We have already described on page 97 the sign which afterwards became the point of division, and whose modern repre- sentative is the bar-line, and on page 99 the point of per- fection, which made perfect [i.e., threefold) that which would otherwise be twofold, and is our dot after a note. "The point of demonstration is placed above a minim in major prolation,'^ and it is doubled, so that the minim stands under two dots, and after that minim one or ^ Major prolation is equivalent to our three minims in a bar. 132 Double-tailed Notes more semibreves must follow, and aflcr the scmibrevcs two more minims, and it is necessary that either the first or the last minim must have the points of demon- stration, the object of which is to show that the semibreves must be sung- slowly." It seems to be an elementary method of showing a ritardayido. "The point of addition is placed behind a semibreve in major prolation, and such semibreve must be followed by a minim ; and since the point causes a minim to be added to the semibreve, it is called the point of addition." This again results in our "dot after a note"; the semibreve without a point, followed by a minim, would, according to rule, be duple, but the point of addition causes it to keep its threefold value. Philip of Caserta doubles the tails of minims to make them equal to an imperfect semibreve; he doubles the tails and leaves the notes empty to make , three minims equal to four (a triplet) ; and . . ~, when the lower tail has a hook, four minims Y .. are equal to six.^ The reader will recall many instances of similar temporary changes in modern instrumental music. But Philip of Caserta goes on to introduce considerable complications. Thus, he adds an " empty circle " to a note and makes four minims equal in value to nine ; he introduces a half-empty and double-tailed minim equal to a minim and a half, while three empty minims with single tails are equal to two.^ In Prosdoscimus de Beldemandis we find the "Direct" at the end of each stave, to show the 1 See Fig. S, p. iiS. "- Fig. 8. 133 Story of Notation reader the first note of the next stave, and in mediaeval times this was very necessary, since the clefs were ever changing their lines. It was almost universal until recent times, and was required so late as 1896 in the exercises for degrees at Oxford; a curious survival of a practice the use for which had disappeared. Prosdoscimus complains that, whereas the Italians have given up using all "points" except that of division, the Gallic musicians still use many, and it Confusion |g difficult to know at first sight what effect , TV the point has. He also complains that they of Dots , '^ , r ,-rr r have a great number or dinerent ways 01 showing mood and time, whereas the Italians use simpler methods. Prolation was afterwards added to mood and time. As mood meant one long or its value in a bar, and time , meant the breve or its value in a bar, pro- lation meant the semibreve or its value in a bar, and it must be understood that we use the word bar merely to make the matter clear to the reader from a modern point of view. The use of bar-lines began about 1600, and was an outcome of the tablatures, to be described later. The mood was divided into major and minor, so that there were — Major perfect mood = three longs in a bar Minor perfect mood ,, three breves ,, Major imperfect mood ,, two longs ,, Minor ,, ,, two breves ,, 134 Decline of Mediaeval Teaching Perfect time = three semibreves in a bar Imperfect time ,, two ,, ,, Perfect prolation ,, three minims ,, Imperfect prolation ,, two ,, ,, But any of these could be combined together; and in some of the treatises we have elaborate time-tables covering" many pages, and reminding one of the elaborate Greek notation tables of Alypius. John Hothby says that there are two points, those of perfection and division ; and we find a general tendency as time goes on to reduce the number of points. Hothby, like Prosdosci- P°'"ts or mus de Beldemandis, gives no less than , - . ~ ° duced in twenty-six tables of time measurements. number An attempt is made by Coussemaker's "Anonymus IV." to show the various values of maximas by marking off the number of longs they are to contain.^ We have dwelt at some length on the doctrines of the mediaeval Church musicians, in order to j^g Diffi- show what difficulties they had to contend cultics with in their efforts to arrive at a satisfactory which had notation. The expression, "The moderns to be love brevity," is frequently met with, and the overcome explanations as well as the notations gradually become shorter and simpler. By the beginning of the sixteenth century the whole fabric of moods, time, and prolation was falling to pieces. iFig. 8, p. II 8. Story of Notation In Pietro Aaron's Lucidario, 1545, we find a revolt _, ag'ainst the old threefold measurements under wicldv Old "Explanation of the musical time called Teaching natural," in which he bring-s arguments to begins to show that musicians are right in calling give way binary time natural, "in which opinion the before learned John Spadaro agrees." The book more en- was part of a dispute with Gafori, a lightened representative of the old teaching-. * ^^^ The rules are collected by Zarlino in his Istitutioni arvioniche, 1558, lest they should be lost, and by Thomas Morley in his Plain mid Easy Introduction to Practical Music, 1597. Zarlino says that plainsong is made without any variation of time, whence it is called fixed song, ca7ito fernio, as distinguished from measured music. ^ He speaks of metrical music, which is measured in verse-metre, and which can be instrumental as well as vocal. He says that each note, beginning Binary with the maxima, is double the value of takes the jj^g next below it. This is a great step p ace o jj^ advance of the old writers, who always px began with describing the threefold value. Division called Perfection, and treated the twofold values as of secondary consideration, being " Imperfect." Zarlino says that they are also of other values in perfect time. 1 In England a distinction was made between " Plainsong and Prick- song," the latter referring to the notes, which were "pricked " on the parchment. 136 Decline of Mediaeval Teaching He considers that the Breve is the mother and beginning of all the other notes, since the Maxima and Longa were invented after it. Here we again have the old Greek theory of a " Primary time." Of the three expressions Mood, Time, Prolation, he says that he intended to omit them when he began to write, as being unnecessary; but since some modern musicians might like to read some 7 ancient Cantilena, he explains them. His earning words show that they had gone out of . , . 1 . appearing practical use m his day in favour of the two- fold note values as we know them. " If," he says, " the modern composer should not number his cantilena according to the Moods, he could really say that the matter was of little account, and that he had no know- ledge of such things." The time and prolation signs, he says, were anciently cut by a perpendicular line to make the pace double, so that a breve became a semibreve and so on; or, as he says, cutting the signature was the same as making the open notes black, which reminds us that it had been discovered in the sixteenth century that both time and ink were saved by leaving the maxima, long, breve, and semibreve open (see Fig. 8, p. 118). He gives a long description of the beat, which is derived from the pulse, and is shown by raising and lowering the hand : levatio, up-beat ; positio, -,, „ ^ , . „ , . , ,, The Beat down-beat; or in Greek, arsis and thesis. Time was indicated by the raising and lowering of the 137 Story of Notation foot by the Greeks, hence the word "foot" for a poetical measure. Of syncopation, Zarlino says it can- not be recog-nised without a knowledg^e of the beat, and he proceeds to describe it in the form it is known to us; thus, for instance, he says a note is syncopated which commences on an up-beat and is also subject ^/ ^ ~ to the down-beat; it consciously breaks the tion . , , ■' , time and measure, and many songs become confused by too much syncopation. Morley calls the beat a "stroke," which he says is a motion of the hand. " The more stroke comprehendeth oricy s ^j^g time of a Briefe, the lesse, the time of a ^. ^ "^" Semibriefe." He describes the notation tion of the , , r , T IT jT under the name or the Large, the Long-, the Briefe, the Semibriefe, Minim, Crotchet, Quaver, Semiquaver, and explains the ligatures. Moods, Time, and Prolation at considerable length, though he says that their knowledge is practically lost. " Those who within these three hundreth yeares have Morley written the Arte of Musicke, have set downe regrc s c ^j^^ Moodes otherwise than they have been - Old °^ ^^^ taught now in England. . . . Al- Teachine though it be hard to assigne the cause, yet may we conjecture that although the greate Musicke Maisters who excelled in fore time, no doubt were wonderfully seene in the knowledge thereof, as well in speculation as practice; yet since their death the knowledge of the arte is decayed, and a more slight or superficial! knowledge come in steede thereof: so that it is come nowadayes to that, that if they know the Morley's Teaching common Moode and some Triples, they seekc no further. " He gives some examples in parts, calling the upper- most part the Discantiis^ as the Germans do now {our treble or soprano part); the second, the alius; the third, tenor; and the fourth, bassus; and he makes free use of ligatures. The single staves he calls verses, and at the end of each "verse" is a "Direct," which he calls an Index or Director. If a note that should be white is written black, it loses a third of its Value; this is an important rule in sixteenth century compositions. It would take us too far to follow Morley into all the Morley's complications of Major and Minor, perfect description and imperfect Prolation, Time, etc., and in- to his long lists of proportions of all kinds in . . the time measurement ; for those who require changed to solve mediseval compositions, his book, read in conjunction with the Latin writers, is very useful. The complete scale of twelve semitones in the octave was re-established by this time. We have seen that the early Greeks had used such a scale five hundred years before our era, and that their Re-estab- notation was based on it ; but for some I'shment of reason the semitones, while being retained _ . 12 ocmi- in the Eastern Church, were entirely lost j^j^^^ .^ ^j^^ to Western Europe in the early days of Octave Christianity, only one diatonic scale, our A minor, with the addition of B flat, being preserved. 139 Story of Notation The keyboard instruments had by this time twelve notes to the octave, and the tablatures used only one sign for a flat and a sharp ; but musicians were much exercised over the necessity of making one sound do for two. We have seen that the crux was placed between any two notes, and was looked upon as a sort of con- junction ; the b rotiindiini could also be placed between any two notes, and the b giiadnivi, our natural, was used to contradict b rottindum^ while b rotunduin itself contradicted the sharp. But unfortunately they were seldom written, since the singers were expected to know the rules of their application. " False music ought not to be indicated," said an anonymous writer. In Plainsong the sharp was never lawfully admitted, though in some The Sfiarn . ^ rare cases it may be seen; and it was not was not . J , T-11 • . , required as long as Plamsong was sung in Plain- '" unison. E flat was admitted for pur- song poses of transposition only; the other flats were not allowed. But an occasional sharp crept into the Plainsong : one finds it very slightly indicated in the form of an elongated natural in some MSS. With regard to the measured music, we find that while the German and Netherland musicians were very chary of writing an accidental sharp or flat, the Italians and French, on the contrary, when once they began, used them far more freely; and it appears that they were governed not so much by the eff"ect of the chords produced, as by the melodic 140 Eitner's Rules for False Music effect of the single parts. This is quite in keeping- with the original sense of counterpoint, which is melody against melody, rather ^*°*1 ." than a succession of pleasant soundinc TT T-- . . , , scribes chords. Herr Litner has gathered the ^„g ^^^^ following rules in addition to those we liberal in have mentioned on p. 117, from an analysis of writing later music :^ — What are called changing False notes. I.e., a note standing a single degree Music than above or below and between two notes of their the same name, are generally to be made northern semitones ; that where a note is undoubtedly poraries a leading note, it must be raised by a sharp or natural; where the dominant in the bass is pre- ceded by the note next above it (the sixth), this note must be lowered by a flat; every ■'^'j^'yon*J half or full close ends with a major chord ; „ , ... Musica the answer of a fugue or imitation pre- Falsa serves the same intervals as the subject, so long as the tonality is not disturbed. The sharps and flats gradually found a place at the beginning of the stave, with the time signature. In early days both b rotundiun and b quad- ratum had been vised as clefs. When key nature signatures began to be used in the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, they were naturally not so methodically applied as now. For example, if there were two F's or two C's in a ^ Robert Eitner in Monatshefte der Musik Geschichte, vol. xx. p. 76. 141 Story of Notation stave, each would be provided with a sharp, so that the key of G had this signature - fi^-j L — , that of , of D •mTjjtf , and so on. Another peculiarity of early key signatures which we sometimes find in the beginning of the eighteenth century is the , , omission of the last sharp or flat, so that issions ^j^g j^gy ^£ g ^^^ would be provided with a Signature signature of two flats only, that of A with two sharps, the last flat or sharp being indicated where necessary by an accidental. This practice probably arose at a time when the importance of key relationships was not yet recognised, and was continued in some remote parts as a time-honoured custom. With regard to accidentals, there is not even to-day universal consensus of opinion, and several dis- crepancies of usage may be discovered by odcrn those who are interested in the matter. As long as present-day musicians understand crepancies , , ,. • , present-day usage, these discrepancies do not matter; and since no one can make rules that will be accepted universally, we must leave posterity to make out our music as best they can. Accidentals were formerly written before every note that was aff"ected by them, and this practice continued to be used by some composers, even after bars were introduced. We find in Cerone di Bergamo a Sogetto 142 Double Sharps del genere Cromatico, which (reduced to modern round notes) reads as follows : — Do-mi-ne Je - su Christe, ex - au-di vo - cem me - am. Here it will be observed that the sharp is placed before four notes in succession, and in spite -j-j^g U^^ of the flat in the signature, an accidental is of the placed before b. The custom of using- \ to Natural contradict [,, and vice versa, continued till tempo- late in the eighteenth century, though the rarily in modern use of the natural had been taught abeyance as early as 1698 by Louli^, a Frenchman. ^ With the increasing use of the complete circle of keys, a new sign for the leading note became absolutely necessary; for although at first G natural was used as the leading note in the key ^, of G|, this proceeding was not only un- scientific, but was misleading to singers and violinists. Hence the adoption of the double sharp, in the form of St. Andrew's cross, early in the eighteenth century, which was proposed by Mattheson. Leopold Mozart, in 1756, proposed an upright cross, and other suggestions were made (see Fig. 8, p. 118), but the St. Andrew's cross has remained in use till now. Considerations of modulation also gave rise to the necessity for a new sign for the suppression of the 1 " The Flat, Sharp, and Natural," by Professor Niecks, in Pro- ceedings of the Musical Association, vol. 16. Story of Notation leading' note In keys of many flats ; and the double flat, as known at present, came into use about the same time as the double sharp, and, in spite p.j of several alternative proposals, has re- mained in use. The conventional contra- diction of these signs by |l]b, t^jf, is at present being discussed as unsatisfactory, and it is probable that some new sign for this purpose will be invented in the near future; though as long as musicians experience no confusion or misunderstanding it is hardly likely that any change will be universally adopted. 144 CHAPTER IX. The tablatures — Reasons for their use — The tablature makers never adopted the ternary division of notes — Mediaeval orchestras — Different tablatures in different countries — Examples from Virdung and Agricola — The bar-line nearly always found in tablatures — The dot or point of perfection — Dots of repetition — Various clefs — An organ tablature book which formerly belonged to Seb. Bach — The lute tablatures — Mace— Paulmann — Mer- sennus — Lute grace notes— Flute tablatures— Italian lute tabla- tures introduced into Spain by Narbaez — Cerone di Bergamo — Judenkunig — Modern revival of the principle of the tablature. While the Church musicians were working out a nota- tion for voices derived from the neumes, and hampering- themselves by connecting it with the Trinity, by splitting hairs over words, — such as that since minima means smallest, no note could be introduced smaller than the minima, or that false music must not be written down, or that since Pythagoras and Boethius say nothing about sharps, they must not be allowed, however much they improve the music, and a number of other childish re- strictions, — the lutenists, virginal players, violists, or- ganists, and others were working out and making use of tablatures, Italian Tavolatiira, Tabolaiura, from the wax tabula or tablet used for writing. This was a system, based on the same principle as the instrumental 145 L Story of Notation notation of the Greeks, of showing by letters or numbers or other means the string or fret or organ key that was to be touched, rather than the ^ . , sound to be produced. We can imagine . , ^ that the Church notation, with its number- of the ^ . . - . . Tablaturc rules about perfection, imperfection, its ligatures, and other machinery, was far too clumsy for indicating instrumental music; for however well a man might be able to read a single voice part, it is scarcely possible that he could take in the time values of several parts together, as he would require to do for the organ, or lute, or clavichord. The tablature makers borrowed what suited them from the Church notation and adapted it to their needs ; and an important feature in their notation is that never did they make The notes worth three of the next in value, but Tablature j^iways two, as in the earliest days of vocal u es were Pleasured music. They therefore had a <. J sounder basis for time measurement to start based on Even from; and it is possible that the Church Measure musicians were led back to the original duple significations by noticing how much more convenient the tablature method was than their own. The troubadours and minstrels of the thir- teenth century, when they wTote their songs, used the square notation of the Church, and large col- Mc ix^va. igctions of them exist in this notation ; they probably extemporised the accompaniments when single instruments were used. What they did with bands of instruments, such as one sees represented 146 I Mediaeval Bands in the fourteenth century Minstrels' Gallery at Exeter, at Beverley (St. Mary's Church), the twelfth century church of St. George at Bocher- ville, near Rouen, and elsewhere, is not known. Perhaps they prac- tised together until they attained to some sort of harmony, as the so-called village waits did till quite recently in England. Ambros thinks that they all played in unison; but this is scarcely likely when we consider the great energy with which organum, discant, and contrapunctus were being culti- vated in the Church, and that part-singing had reached a still higher development outside it. It is well known that a kind of extempore discant was cultivated, for which rules were made; and hence it is not only possible, but very probable, that the instruments played an unwritten harmonic ac- companiment to the song, and to the leading instrument in the dance. We have seen that the mono- chord was marked with the letters of the alphabet, and that these 147 Story of Notation letters were occasionally used together with the neumes to show the exact intervals ; this was the earliest form of medieval instrumental notation ; and we find letters used in the organ tablatures in Germany. As was natural in the days when intercommunication was slow and difficult, the tablatures were not alike everywhere ; each country, more or less, Different developed its own notation. That the . ^ ^lures Church notation was practically the same different throughout Western Europe is due to the countries ^^^^ '^^ 'ts emanating from one fountain- head, Rome. The Clavichord was a descendant of the Monochord, and was in reality merely a collection of monochords in one frame, each of which served to produce ^ three or four notes ; while in its later and improved form each key had its own string. Virdung and Agricola show a clavichord and organ keyboard provided with the letters used in tablature for these instruments, starting from F below Gamuts which is shown by double f ; it omits the low / sharp, and is lettered thus : — g, g" , a, b, a peculiar form of h, c, ce, d, de, e, f, fe, g, ge, «, b, h, c, cc, d, de, e, f> fi> g> g(^y b> ^i> cc, dd, etc. Time-signs standing on short lines signify rests ; Time- standing over letters they signify notes, signs They are :— A Breve or whole time, a lozenge. A Semibreve or half time, a perpendicular stroke. 148 Tablatures A Minim is a stroke with a crook. A Semiminim, our quaver, has two crooks. A Fusa, our semiquaver, has three crooks; and so on, Virdung- separates all his minims, semiminims, and fusas ; but Agricola and others join the crooks by hori- zontal lines, thus giving- to a succession of quarter or eighth notes the appearance of little hurdles. It was customary to write the " Discant," i.e.^ the treble part of organ and clavichord music, on a five-line stave above the T)\z tablature; and on the stave the tablature Tablature signs were attached to lozenges, which after- ^°^i,'"f wards became round black notes, in fact, <^ our crotchet, quaver, etc. The first thing we notice about nearly all tablatures is the use of a vertical line drawn right through them and often extending above the stave, as _ • The if the writer was determuied that there „ „ , , , ., .,. ^ . , , Bar-Iinc should be no possibility or mistake about the measures. This line did away with the necessity of the fnmctus divisionis, and is of course the modern bar-line. One of the few exceptions to the use of the vertical line is in the organ tablatures of Arnold Schlick, 1512, described by Eitner, Monatshefte, vol. i. p. 114, which have no bar-lines. The only dot used is that of perfection, which makes its note threefold, or, as we say, increases tIi D t its value by half. Observe, however, in Virdung's clavichord tablature (Fig. 10, p. 150) two 149 Story of Notation FIG. 10. Virdung Clavichord Tablafure. 1511 A.D. Agricola Organ Score. 1529. d i f: 1 an: ^ ^t:^^ ^ d'lO *i ¥^ i»^ o iji * a Jt T ^ ^ ^ ^=^^ i± ^ xt ^ 13: rf^ The same in Tablafure ^^^ i Ite Mh 1 1 I G 1 ^=i=H- a . d c de GFGa] baGFG FFF r:r. j e dc dd c d cb ^ 1 J: F D a b aG a PGDDcCDl 150 Tablatures dots above the double bar to indicate repetition; and we shall see that dots under notes were used later for another object. Observe the double clef in the stave, G and dd. This was very common, and in Agricola's tablature it will be noticed that there are three clefs, dd, G, and C; while in his "score" he ^°"^[^ gives a clef to nearly every line. It will be noticed that in the tablature he does not use the same lettering as Virdung, but the old Guidonian lettering, the lowest octave being in capitals, the middle octave small letters, and the highest notes double letters. Grace notes are shown in the discant part of the tablature by a stroke through the lower tail of notes, as in bars four and five of Agricola's organ tablature; and, though he does not say so, _j it is probable that the tilted signs in the other parts indicate grace notes. We shall see that Mace explains how these grace notes are to be played on the lute. Agricola gives a similar tablature for "single-voiced" instruments, such as the various kinds of viol and violin; but in them he uses the same letter- ing as Virdung does for the organ, viz. the ^ tit t lowest octave underlined, the highest over- lined, which must have gone far towards preventing an organist from adding the violin or viol to his accom- plishments (Fig. 12, p. 179). And there was a purpose in this, for these ancient practitioners were jealous of the Story of Notation encroachment of those of other trades on their own, and, like the British workman of to-day, insisted that each man should stick to his own instrument, and not earn extra pay by practising another in his leisure hours. "The French," says Morley, "who r^p"^^ were generally accounted great masters, seldom or never would prick their lessons as titioners , , , , , , , • they played them, much less reveal anythmg to the thorough understanding of the instrument." We give examples taken from a few tablatures only, with their translations. Hundreds of tablature-books exist in the museums and libraries of Europe, but those for stringed instruments ^ fj are not all easily translated, as the writers turc-book "'^'"^'y gT've the tuning to which they refer. Several of these books are usually exhibited to the public in the music-case of the King's Library in the British Museum, amongst them being a copy of the tablature-book of Amerbach, a predecessor of Sebastian Bach as organist of St. Thomas's, Leipzig. This copy belonged to Bach, and contains his autograph. As the organist represented in tablature not the intervals he caused to sound, but the organ keys he pressed, so the lutenist represented the ^ , , strings and frets on which he had to place Tablatures , . 5" , , . , J^ his fingers to produce the required eiiects; and this gave rise to certain theoretical difficulties which were overcome in practice on the unfretted violin and on the lute by playing only in a few keys. Virdung, in explaining his lute tablature, is obliged 152 Tablatures to acknowledge that Boethius says that a tone cannot be divided into two semitones ; yet the fret of the hite divides it into two semitones, and Virdung promises to explain away the difficulty at , ^ some future time. For all practical pur- t^.^?.^^^!. poses, therefore, the lute was tuned in what r y . we know as equal temperament, all the semitones being made equal, as on the modern piano- forte and organ, and it mattered nothing whether the "chromatic" intervals were called sharps or flats; in the tablature they are simply semitones. Moreover, it gave rise in Germany to a curious con- fusion of nomenclature, whereby the sharps Ci's, dis, eis, fis, etc., were confounded with the flats ces, des, es, fes, etc.; and a composition in '-'Ufous three flats was said to be in dis — i.e., d -, , , -1 . • -1 • 1 r T iNomen- sharp, while its tonic triad consisted or dis, , . g, b — i.e., d sharp, g, b flat. The English and French lutenists usually drew six lines to represent the six principal strings of their instrument; while the bass strings, which were outside the neck, and therefore could English only be played open, were tuned to the ^" diatonic scale of C, and were represented , in the tablature by the letter a, with one or Xabjatures more strokes against it, the two lowest strings being represented by the figures 4 and 5 (Fig- 13. P- 182). Gerle gives the semitones by letters and figures on the joints of the hand on the principle of the Guidonian 153 Story of Notation hand, and the tablature is arranged after the pictorial hand, which has two signs to each joint. As there were several ways of tuning the six upper strings, it was necessary for the player to know first what tuning was intended for any particular Difficulties t^^blature, and added to this was a twofold — , J lettering — some called the open string a, the first fret b, the second c, and so on ; others called the opening string o, the first fret a, the second b, the third c, and so on. Others again, as Mace,^ call the open string a, the first fret b, the second by a peculiarly shaped c, and so on \.o y and k; he explains that he uses^y instead of i. The most extraordinary lettering is that of Virdung (Fig. 12, p. 179), who explains that he learned it from a blind man, though he does not say how the blind man wrote it down, or read it when Man s „ , , written. This blind man's name was Conrad Tablature Paulmann or Paumann. He was very cele- brated in his day, and his gravestone in the church of Our Lady at Munich bears the following inscription: — "In the year 1473, on the eve of the conversion of St. Paul, there died, and was buried here, the most artistic of ^ Mustek's Monument ; or a Retnembrancer of the best Practical Music, both Divine and Civil, that has ever been known to have been in the World, published in 1676. Thomas Mace was a clerk of Trinity College, Cambridge, who had remarkable views as to the power of music — e-g-t he considers that the contemplation of concord and discord, and the nature of the octave and unison, will so strengthen a man's faith "that he shall never after degenerate into that gross sub-beastical sin of atheism." Paulmann's Tablature all masters of instruments and of music, Master Conrad Paulmann, of noble descent, of Nuremberg, and born blind, on whom may God have mercy." ^ Agfricola (whose work is in verse) mocks at tlic idea of a blind man teaching the tablature ; his lines may be thus paraphrased: " If a blind master teaches apprentices who can see, and, by leading them astray, makes them also blind, they must not be astonished if they get laughed at." We have copied Paulmann's tablature with exactness from the example given by Virdung (Fig. 12), and it will be observed that the translation gives the same result as that of his example of clavichord tablature (p. 150). Strings are usually numbered, either from highest to lowest, or from lowest to highest; but Conrad Paulmann uses another system. He calls the lowest string the " Great Brummer," i.e. Great Growler (Virdung calls it Great Prummer in his local dialect), and numbers the others from one to five. The open "Great Brummer" is marked by the figure I with two dots above it, the other open strings being shown by the figures i, 2, 3, 4, 5. In the tablature the figure 2 takes the form of Z, and 5 is incomplete. Now comes what Virdung considers a very clever arrangement, but which results in the most hopeless com- plication. Instead of the usual method of lettering the strings^ the blind man letters ^^ frets, the first fret having a, b, c, d, e, for the five strings respectively, beginning with the lowest ; the second fret is lettered/, g, h, i, k; the third /, m, n, 0, p, and so on through the alphabet. * Ambros, Gesckichle, vol. iii. p. 436. Story of Notation When he comes to c he begins again with an, bb, cc, etc. The Great Brummer frets are named by capital letters, corresponding" with the small letters of the string above it — thus, A, F, L, Q, X, AA, etc. The tuning used is — Great Brummer i m 3 :23: and the notes, taken alphabetically, instead of producing a series of semitones, as in other tablatures, have the following extraordinary result, reminding one of the curious order found in the earliest Greek instrumental notation (Fig. i, p. i6) : — h 1 =fel^ &c. or, if we take the semitones successively from the open D string, they produce the following arrangements of letters and fisfures: — :^2r &c. a confusion which, without lengthy explanation, it would be hopeless to endeavour to unravel. 156 Mace's Tablature With regard to time-values, the Germans, of whom Agricola and Virdung are representatives, use what we may call the vertical line and crook notation ; while Mersennus in France, and Mace in Various England, place crotchets, quavers, etc., over ways of the tablature to show the value of the letters showing beneath them, it being understood that , values letters without notes over them are of the time of the last note that has occurred — e.g.^ in the third bar of the quotation from Mace (p. 182), in which the final d is to be of equal value with the preceding h, i.e. a quaver. The dots under letters, or, as Mace calls them, the pricks, refer to the fingering, one prick for the first finger, two for the second. Mace describes fifteen varieties of grace notes as occurring in the lute tablature, calling them " Curio- sities and nicities in reference to the adorn- ing of your play." The shake is marked -, with a dot before a letter ; it is of various kinds, one of which, the " nerve shake," he cannot make, for, he says, " I have had occasion to break both my arms." The heat^ shown by a vertical line before a letter, and the back fall, shown by a comma before the letter, as in bars one and two of the example, were a semitone above the principal note, and made by withdrawing the left-hand finger from the string "with a twitch," after striking with the right, similar to the left-hand pizzicato of French and Belgian violin composers of the present day. It is hardly necessary to go into details of the 157 Story of Notation graces called the slur, the slide, the spingcr, the sting, the double and single relish ; the last grace he men- tions is the " soft and loud play," indicated by so : lo: equivalent to the Italian expressions f and p. He calls it "as great and good a grace as any other." The French players used '■'■ battenienls, ports de voix, passages, tremblc7nents, martelcnients, addoucissenients, flattcmcnts, graces, c/iannes, ravissements, trench viignardiscs, etc., and Pretorius gives a -/^'^'^ similar list of Italian graces "which give Notes . . ** , , *' , variety to the concert and pleasure and delight to the hearers." The lute was undoubtedly cultivated to a high pitch of perfection, and those who have heard it played can well understand the charm it possessed in the days when few keys were used, and the powerful orchestra and organ and modern pianoforte had not yet asserted their pre-eminence. The viols were usually in six parts, and a chest of viols contained two basses, two tenors, and two trebles, the uppermost viol or violin part being *° ^ called the discant. Their tablature in England and France is on the same principle as that of the lute ; a number of lines are drawn equivalent to the number of strings, and letters placed on them to indicate the frets of the viol, or the semitones of the violin. For the violin this was simple enough as long as only the " first position " was made use of: it must have had its inconveniences when the player wished to obtain a different effect by shifting. The violin tabla- ture soon gave way to the use of the "French violin i5« Wind-instrument Tablaturcs clef," in which the G was placed on the middle line of a five-line stave, while the lower instruments used the alto, tenor, and bass clefs. The English violinists used the ordinary treble clef, as at present. The wind instruments also had their tablatures, of which we give an example (Fig. 12, p. 179). They were divided into discant, alto, tenor, bass, and the tablature, founded on the holes to be opened Wind (not on the sounds emitted), was the same for instru- all, though its translation naturally varies _ , , with the pitch of the various instruments. ^ tures Thus, if all the holes were closed on a discant flute, as described by Virdung, the resulting sound was the low G in the example (Fig. 12) ; while if all the holes of a tenor flute were closed, the result was D ; and the same in a bass flute would result in gamut G. The opening of the lowest hole was indicated by the figure i ; it 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 complicated. Thus the highest y" required the thumb hole half open, the 6th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and ist fully open; and the scale is given by lengthy numberings, such as S6432 1,8532 i, 85432 I, etc. These are contracted into the strange forms shown in the diagram. It will be seen that here again there is no regular scale order, such as one would expect ; the numbers and figures proceed according to the holes, not according to the intervals. The Italian lute tablature was made on the principle of exhibiting the strings and frets by lines and numbers, 159 Story of Notation but it complicated matters by, as it were, turning- the strings upside down — that is, the lowest line of the tablature represented the highest string of the lute ; the open strings were shown Lute , , r , , f Tablature ^^ °' ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ figures i, 2, 3, 4, etc. The tablatures published in one country had to be translated for publication in another, as if they were books in different languages. Organ music, whether written on staves or in tabla- ture, was called organ tablature. Thus a book recently Q exhibited in the King's Library, published at Music Venice in 1549 by Antonio Gardano, con- called sisting of a five-line French violin and six- Organ line bass stave, is called " Intabolatura Tablature d'Organo," and the word "Tablatur" was even when used in the same way in Germany, written in The Italian lute tablature, by numbers, was introduced into Spain in 1538 by Nar- baez for the Vihuela, or guitar. It is fully described in Spanish by Cerone di Bergamo, a priest and musician of the Royal Chapel at Naples in 161 3, who explains that music was flourishing very Introduc- jj^^j^ j^^ Sp2:m owing to the dearth of -, , . teachers and writers ; and that, having into Soain ^^''^^^l'^'^ much in that country, he found many young men {Maiiccbos) anxious to learn, who could not do so for want of masters, the practitioners being unable to teach. His book is a complete treatise on measured music, and of tablatures he says: — "To-day there are two sorts of tablature in 160 Staff Notation Barbarous Tablatures use, one starting- from zero, and the other from i ; that from zero being- most common. The strings have to be touched according to the numbers, o signifying an open string; i, the first fret; 2, the second; and so on. Time is measured by notes of canto figiirato placed over the tablature, but this only does for those who know canto figiirato; the other way is by signs." The signs he gives are the same in principle as those of Agricola and Virdung — viz., an upright line for a semi- breve, an upright line with a crook for a minim, with two crooks for a semiminim, and so on, though they are slightly different in form. Points placed near the numbers show the fingering, as in Mace's tablature. His tablature refers to an eight-stringed lute or guitar, the six first strings of which are in the same intervals as those described on p. 156, though at a lower pitch. The tablatures had not a very long life. Judenkunig, a lutenist and violist living at Vienna, writing in 1523, speaks of that for the lute as lately invented. "It is generally known that the lute tabla- Decline ture has been invented within living memory." t tj x "There are so many extraordinarily barbar- ous tablatures which have arisen through inexperienced composers and common Lute-smiters, who use such bad fingering as to make the music incomprehensible, and the voices get mixed, and mi is set ior fa and fa for ?ni. . . . Since the Tablatures have become quite common, and for this reason brought into contempt, most are wrongly written by those who do not understand them, and cannot learn them; and they make impracticable 161 M Story of Notation double stops, and misunderstand the measures, and mix things up so that it is impossible that any good should result from their bad fingering: if any one should practise day and night, his labour is lost, unless he thoroughly knows each letter in the tablature." Mace, writing of the lute in 1676— viz., a century and a half after Judenkunig — seems to be reviving what was almost a lost art; the organ tablatures had long before this given way to staves of from five to ten lines, while virginal music was usually written on two staves of six lines each. The tablatures had the disadvantage of not showing the intervals, and they necessarily differed for different instruments. By not showing the exact in- Draw- tervals, they were a very imperfect guide to ^^ ^ violinists, trombonists, etc., even when few -, « « , keys were used; while for distant modula- Tablacures , •' tions they would be impossible. Again, it was a great drawback that the notation of each in- strument had to be learned separately ; for no man can confine himself to one instrument. The fact that a tablature was useless unless the in- strument was tuned in a way to suit it, while many different methods of tuning were in vogue, was all against its continuing in favour; for it is well known that to disturb the tuning to which an instrument is accustomed throws it out of gear for a considerable time. What was required was a universal notation, suitable to all instruments, which should show the intervals, not the frets and strings ; and this was found 162 A Voice Tablature in the rapidly developing- vocal staff notation. It is remarkable that the principle of the tablature has been revived and much cultivated in the nineteenth century for voices, not instruments, under the name of the "Tonic Sol-fa" notation, of which we shall speak in a later chapter. i6*e*t tenth, with the C clef always on the sixth, ^^^^^ °^ we obtain respectively the "tenor," "alto," , and "soprano" "clefs" — the clef is the Theoretical same in all, and on the same line, but it has become customary to name it according to the voices it is used for. This theory was, however, not known to the inventors of the stave; they, like Guido, merely placed the clefs where they found it convenient, and did not consider that the C clef was always on the middle line of a stave of eleven, out of which other lines were taken as required. The clefs have, as seen in Fig. ii, taken many forms, and, except the G clef, have quite lost any resemblance to the letter they represent. In the early MSS. we rarely find the G clef used; the p^^"°"^ C and F were by far the most usual, though ^. . we find other letters used as clefs, such as a, or the round or square b, or d or dd. G was not a favourite for some reason, and hardly appears till we come to the instrumental staff notation in 1 he the sixteenth century. In the five-lmed stave q ^j^j it was at one time frequently placed on the middle line, and was then called by English musicians the French violin clef; in fact, the G clef was on the Continent associated with the violin, and is called by 171 Story of Notation the Germans the Violin-Schlilsscl, and by the Italians Chiave di violino. Except by English cathedral composers, it has been rarely used for the treble voice in choruses, the "soprano" clef, C on the first line, being used for this purpose in German scores to this day; but for solos it was frequently used for the tenor, soprano, and alto voices. Yet it has on the Continent always been con- sidered more as an instrumental than as a vocal clef. The C clef may occur on any of four lower lines, thus: — Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano. Alto. Tenor. m t w **- m It is used for soprano, alto, and tenor voices; for viola, violoncello, trombones, and bassoons in the orchestra. It frequently occurs in old-keyed ^j r instrument music, such as Handel's con- certos, Bach's organ works, and the whole of the right-hand stave of the forty-eight Preludes and fugues was originally written with the "soprano" clef, while the Clavier-Uebung was printed with the "alto" and "treble" clefs. English cathedral composers gave up the use of the "soprano" in favour of the "treble" clef about the end of the eighteenth century. It is used in Boyce's cathedral music (177S), for example, but in Arnold's continuation of the work, published in 1790, the G clef is used for the treble voice. 172 Bar-lines In recent times the G clef has been used for treble, alto, and more recently still for tenor voices; for the last the notes are to be sung- an octave lower than written, and the clef is therefore Modern sometimes doubled thus, gkraS: a precaution r n f very necessary where more than four parts are used, and an excellent guide to the eye of the reader in a large vocal score. A similar doubling of the G clef occurs in C. P. E. Bach's Die Isracliten in der Wilste, 1775, in the flute part, to show that two flutes are to be used. The F clef was sometimes placed on the middle line and called the Baritone clef. The bar-line, though used in the tablatures absolutely regularly, and with the modern meaning, only gradually crept into voice parts, begin- ,. ning- to appear there about 1600.^ It was at first irregularly placed, though there is a method in the irregularity, for it does not occur in the haphazard manner of the old "scores" across the many-lined stave. The irregularities do not result, as one might expect, in alterations of time species from double to triple. In triple time they consist in producing a sixfold or ninefold instead of a threefold bar, by the omission of bar-lines, and in duple time the only irregularity con- ^ The word "bar" first occurs in Morley's Introdiidion, 1597, p. 176, and is frequently used in the succeeding pages. The examples in the second and third parts of this work are regularly barred through- out, those in the first part being unbarred. Story of Notation sists in occasionally placing- a bar-line so as to produce a measure of the value of a bar and a half — the result being- much the same as when a composer commences his fugue with a whole duple bar, and makes the answer enter at the half bar. So that there was a method in the irregularity of the original barring, and it is possible that the composers had a finer feeling- for rhythmical variety than we have, and that they, like their successors of the present day, purposely displaced the principal accent, not by introducing a single bar of less than the normal measure, but by lengthening the normal bar. Although the bar is found regularly used throughout some early seventeenth -century compo- sitions, notably, for example, in Caccini's opera Eurydice, published in 1600, yet it was not established universally till the eighteenth century. Thus in a book of Duos for solfeggi by Christofori Gradual Caresana, published at Naples in 1693, no %°?*°° bar-lines are found: even in an educational g y work, entitled Elemcntorinn MusiccB Praxis, by Gregorio Strozzio, Naples, 1683, they are absent, though in the same author's Capriccios, for organ or cembalo, after the subject is given out without bars, the rest of the piece is barred regularly. It would appear that bars were used in North Italy . before they penetrated to the south: the use of ..-_,,_ ,, T-.-- the Dot compositions or Carlo (jesualdo Principe di Venosa, published at Geneva in 1613, are barred. And here we may notice a peculiarity that is found in much music of this and the next century, in 174 Syncopation the use of the dot after the last note of a bar, thus lengthening the note hito the next bar. The modern and more practical method is to tie the last note of the bar to the first note of the next bar. Thus: — Principe di Venosa. {a) t=^ 53 1^=^ 3: a Modern method: — i te^ 2^; ::t The method {a) will be found in much old cathedral music, and is a little puzzling to those unaccustomed to it ; and there is yet another ancient way of tying a note, when the first is equal to the second, by placing a white note on the bar-line, thus : — g E£ ii equivalent to i 1221 333 Playford, in 1658, calls syncopated notes, such as these, "Driven notes," and the dot, the Driven "Prick of perfection and addition." He Notes, also describes " tyes or holds" to show Prick of that one syllable is to be sung to two or Perfection more notes; or in violin and viol music to show that 175 Story of Notation several notes are to be played with one bow. His full close is indicated by the sign ^, called by us a pause. In the nineteenth edition of his book, published in 1730, the editor speaks of "the new tyed note," referring to the modern forms given in the The two foregoing examples ; and he also men- "Ncw tions as a novelty the tying of quavers '^Y^'^ ^ * ^ ^ ^ 1^ p;fQtg». thus I I \ instead of J^J^ In 1658 the circle was still used as a time- sign, but Playford gives each time-sign a figure. Thus: — Perfect of the more mood, Oo; appearance £ .« Perfect of the less mood, ^.j ; ]y[QQjjs Imperfect of the more mood, (r^; Imperfect of the less, ends with a complete measure, the double bar occurs, and always has occurred, in any part of a measure. The repetition dots appear very early in instrumental music; we see an example in the tablature (p. 150), whence they were incorporated into the staff system. For the repetition of a Plainsong Repetition passag-e the Roman figure II. was used, or III. if it was to be sung three times, as in the Kyrie. The Ferniata sign, called "pause" in Eng-land, appears very early in both measured music and tablatures, to indicate dwelling on a ^ note beyond its normal value : it has never changed its shape. Under the influence of the tablatures the old com- plicated system of Moods, Times, and Prolations gradually disappeared, as we have seen ; and Prolation became Proportion or Time; the semibreve became the fundamental note, the minim the half note, the crotchet the quarter note, and so on ; and these are the names they now have in Germany. French musicians, looking to their shapes, name the notes o ronde, a hlanche, J noire, J crocJie (while they apply the word crochet to the hook of the quaver), ^»» double croche; and Italians use the old Latin names, Semibreve, miiiitna, scmi- 177 N Story of Notation minima, crovia, semicroma. Attempts have been made in America and England of late to use the German method of nomenclature, on the g'round that it is illog'ical to call the chief note a half sJiort (semibreve), when no whole short or long are in use; but so far the attempts have not met with any great success. The influence of the tablatures produced a conflict between theory and practice in perfection and imper- fection of measures, which ended in the The gradual disappearance of the circle as a „. J time signature, while the broken circle, used at various times to indicate Imperfect Mood, Imperfect Time, and Imperfect Prolation, now became the sign for the measure of the semibreve, the bar of one semibreve or two minims or four crotchets in value; and the shape of the broken circle, in conjunction with the fact that duple is the most frequent kind of time, gave rise to the name " Common Time" in England. Thus f signifies that the bar is to the semibreve as three is to two; in other words, it is to be three halves of a semibreve — i.e.^ three minims: | that it xp ana- j^ ^.^ j^^ ^^ ^ j^ ^^ ^^ ^^ three-quarters of a _ . semibreve — i.e., three crotchets: - that it is Modern ,..,,- . ** . Time- ^^ six-eighths of a semibreve — i.e.^ six signs quavers ; and though in arithmetic \ = g, there is a complete diff'erence in the accentuation of bars thus represented, as all musicians know. But the diff'erences of accentuation were not shown so simply in the seventeenth century, and we find § placed 17S Tablatures FIG 12. Virdung LuteTablature T T I I g 2 I ( o 1 I I f C I I b 1 I r k I I d o Pf 2 1- r P3 I r I I J i codo I r zftc I I I b d cmgm Pi Ic I I c g I I 1. M ocL i Til,doi»c I I 2. C ^^^ ^==t 3 ^f^ l g& l ^g ^rzs ^ ~e-». .^rl ^n. | g^ L 7rn° ^^ ^ ^ A^ricola Discant Violin and Viol Tablafure. Hrrw Tieageaeefege a gah c h gahc d c aef gahc |.JjJ^rrl,iJ''rr-i4^ijJ^^1-'i^ ^ Virdung Discant" Flute Tab! atu re. ^22ZoH^ -^ flO ^o H.j bu^ ^ o Jj^-o- o bo «. 5 179 Story of Notation where the sense of the music requires J-, ^ instead of ^, and so on: for these composers, though they felt the accent, had not yet arrived at indicating it, and were still more or less under the influence of the moods and prolations. Kircher, in 1650, gives only two time- signs, saying, "Musical time is nothing else than a certain determined quantity of lesser notes contained in a breve or a semibreve. It is double perfect and imperfect; perfect time is shown by a circle, and indi- cates that each breve is equal to three semibreves, thus Of; but when this sign ^ is placed at the be- ginning of the song, it indicates that the breve is imperfect and equal to two semibreves." The square and lozenge notation died hard. In a book of motets by Carlo Guiseppe San Romano, printed at Milan in 1670, we find open square breves, bquare lozenge semibreves, and minims. The sig- f^" nature C f indicates that the measure con- j^T sists of two dotted breves — z'.t?., of two breves (imperfect measure), each of which, being dotted, contains three semibreves, and this is borne out by the barring. If such a measure existed now, we should indicate it by t. In the " Passion" by J. M. Trabercus, chapel-master at Naples in 1635, we find square notes and no bars; the words of Jesus are given black notation, which was obsolete at that time except for plainsong, and the ligatures that occur are confined to two notes. As late as 1676, in a book of cantatas and canzonettas by Legrenzi, we find the old black notation used to show syncopation, the three- 180 '' Eurydice " time bars being noted thus : <> ♦, equivalent to our CJ . But the square notation and the two-note i hs^atures were not yet doomed. We find them in full use in Fux, Gracilis ad Parnassum, printed at Vienna in 1725, and again, nearly sixty years later, in the Escmplare si saggio di contrappiinto , by Giambattista Martini, which has been referred to on p. iii. In Caccini's Eurydice it is curious to see 2\\fiorihire written out in single lozenge-shaped semiquavers — i.e.^ the strokes through several notes which ,,_ „ „ • lliUrvuicc were used m the tablatures did not yet obtain in voices (see p. 176). Sometimes as many as thirty-nine such semiquavers occur on one syllable, and the composer must have given plenty of time to the writing down of his compositions. That the inconveni- ence of writing numbers of lozenges hastily was early felt is shown by a composition of Dufay in the Bodleian (1400-1474), published in facsimile by Mr. J. F. R. Stainer, where the lozenge becomes an open triangle to save time. Lozenge notes are still used in the hymn- book of the Reformed Dutch Church. In seventeenth and eighteenth-century instrumental music it vi^as not uncommon to indicate so- called common time with a large 2, and three CHCics in crotchets in a bar by a large 3 in the stave, Time as in Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin with Signatures violin and violoncello, printed in 1741. But this is not consistent: for if the large 2 refers to two 181 Story of Notation minims, the large 3 ought to refer to three minims. However, as long as the player understands what he FIG. 15. Mace LureTablai-ure,1676 A.D. • . • •• B a B d If ""5" J) * a a ^ (■ ■ i ■ a »^ •• ■; ia B a a B d 1 *B B -a 3 a iA •a •A 5 ^ :St J2: ^ ^ iClJ. f#: JIA rif ^ 5 ^^ Africola Lu1*eTab]ature 1529 A. D. lac babG fftffflt cbbSaoFE aac babO F G tin TTTT cbbGaGFE C D mm aac babg F G A G cbbg a c agff fg b a DGO ^ S ^3S ^ ftf% i^ ij. iii ^ has to count, the matter does not seem very important. Gregorio Strozzio, in his Elcjuentoriini MusiccB Praxis, 182 Leger Lines after describing- the moods and times and prolations with their mediaeval signs, gives a long list of "pro- portions," including not only the time signatures in use at present, but a number ^, ^02210 s of impossible ones, such as ^, |-, |-, ^, -«, -»; J"°^°7, apparently he thought it his duty to complete all the possible combinations of figures without reference to their sense regarding music; for he makes * indicate four minims, y, six semibreves; j-, four semibreves; ij, two breves and a half. He had not found the right way of expressing musical proportion. One of the peculiarities in earl)' leger-line notes is that they frequently had lines above as well as below them — 22: (see p. 164): and another „ . ^u I ^ .^, ^^ ^'1 , Early IS, that ' z^ with two staves a long _ . . Lcger way a- part, the middle C, middle Lines d, and middle b were sometimes placed midway between the two staves, looking as if they were meant for other notes, with some of the leger lines omitted by a printer's error. They are not easy to read, since it is difficult to know to which stave they belong. About 1600 there arose a new form of tablature called in Italian Basso contimio, in English, Thorough bass, Fig^iredhass, in German, Geyieral-hass, and in French, Basse chiffree, which was intended g to indicate chords by means of figures placed over the bass notes ; for the new art of harmony was now beginning- to be cultivated alongside, or to the exclusion of counterpoint. Caccini's Eurydice is Story of Notation " figured" throug-hout, and it soon became the fashion to accompany everything', vocal or instrumental, on the harpsichord from a figured bass; even if there was a harpsichord or organ part in the score fully written out, a second harpsichord or second organ would fill in the chords from figures; and if in performance we find some seventeenth-century compositions thin, it is often prob- ably because we have omitted to fill in the thorough bass chords on a keyed instrument. The idea rapidly spread all over western Europe: from the early part of the seventeenth century all full scores contained a "figured bass" part as a matter of course, and solos for voices and instruments were provided with a bass with figures, from which the accompanist was expected to fill in the harmonies according to rule. Its decline was as rapid as its rise. By the latter part of the eighteenth century we find little music published with figured bass in northern Decline of Europe, though it still lingered in Italy, igurc g^_ ^j^^ middle of the nineteenth century the art of figured bass playing was lost except amongst cathedral organists, who are obliged to accom- pany from old scores; and the system is only now retained for purposes of teaching the elements of har- mony. It had this inherent defect — that no one who had not heard a composer play from his own figured bass parts could know the precise effects he produced or intended, and when the composer was a Bach or a Handel, the ordinary performer could hardly be expected to treat the harmonies with adequate skill. Moreover, 184 % Figured Bass there is reason to believe that Bach would improve, where he thought it necessary, on the harmonies »jiven by the figures even of another composer; and after Handel's death the tradition accompanying his compositions was soon lost.^ For delicate effects in opera or oratorio, one often sees in an old score the expression se7isa cembalo, meaning that the harpsichordist is to cease filling in the harmonies, and leave the instruments ^ ^"^* ,.,,... . , Cembalo and voices to do it. Again, one sees in the accompaniments to solos tasto solo, meaning that the harpsichordist is to play only the written notes, and not to fill in the harmony; but so inveterate was the habit between 1650 and 1750 of using thorough bass that we frequently find passages marked tasto solo or senza cembalo figured, though the figures are to be ignored in the performance ! This form of tablature was also used in what is called "dry" as opposed to "accompanied" recitative, the chords here being filled in on the violoncello _ . . Dry instead of the harpsichord. The practice p ** t died out at the beginning of the nineteenth century ; we find it used by Mozart in Nozze di Figaro, 1786, but not by Beethoven in Fidelio, 1805. ^ The idea of indicating chords by figures is ancient, for we find it in a treatise by Lionel Power to indicate Faburden. The figures for the most part indicate a succession of first inversions of triads. The treatise is one of the earliest musical works in the English language, dating from the early part of the fifteenth century. Hawkins and Burney quote from it, and the latter gives a bass passage with Power's figures. i8^ CHAPTER XI. Establishment of the round notes in j^lace of squares and lozenges — Bach's cantata, Gleich 7uie der Regen — Rise of expression signs — Signs for ornaments — Staccato signs — The notation of the Greek Church— The Greek Church has never lost the chromatic tetra- chord — The ancient Greek modes still used by the peasants of Brittany — The Greek alphabetical notation continued to be used in the East for centuries after it had been rejected in the West — Villoteau — Principles of modern Greek notation. Bv the beginning of the eighteenth century the tabla- tures were rapidly falling out of use, and in the ordinary notation the round- and oval-headed notes The Estab- ii^d taken the place of the lozenges and hshment squares, though there were exceptional sur- ^^ , ^ vivals of the latter, as in Martini's counter- Modern . _, , , , , 1 .1 ^ F s of point. The rests had taken the shapes that Notes ^''^ familiar to us, and the sharp and flat and natural were used in the modern way, though composers still sometimes omitted the last sharp or flat in a signature, using two flats for the key of Eb, no flat for the key of D minor, and so on ; there is an example in Bach's cantata, Gleich laie der Regen, the aria "Mein Seelenschatz ist Gottes Wort" being in the key of Eb, while the signature shows only Bb and E'?. 1 86 Bach's use of the G Clef In this cantata, and elsewhere, there is an unusual use of the G clef, peculiar to Bach, which at first sio-ht appears extremely unscientific, but a closer examination reveals its ingenuity. The two peculiar flute parts are written on a stave provided ^^^icu with the G clef on the first line. There is t c r> . J. o. Bach no signature, and they play in octaves with the first and second viola throughout the cantata when- ever they are employed. But their music is written on the same lines and spaces as that of the violas; and wherever the violas have a natural the flutes have a sharp, though the accidental flats are alike in all four parts. It looks as if the G was not used in the sense of a clef at all, and that the flutes are to read as from the alto clef, but an octave higher. This is not, how- ever, the case; by an exception Bach here writes for a fimito traverso in B'?, instead of a flide-a-bec in F, as was his usual custom, though the parts are only marked flatito in the score, and the performer is left to discover by the notation which instrument is to be used. We have already referred (p. 53) to the Romanian letters found in some of the very earliest neumatic Sfraduals. After them there seems to have „, . , ... Signs of been no attempt to mtroduce expression Ej-^gssjon signs for many centuries; composers were too much occupied with the notation to think of minor details. It was difficult enough to establish a system which would enable singers to read the notes quickly and easily. Moreover, the learned writers of the 187 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 interval mi fa was a semitone or something less, and were building up a lasting system of counterpoint and notation, so that they had no thought for the refinements of music, even if they did not, as was probable, consider expression to be the means used by the profane worldly musicians to attract the multitude. That the words of expression in use at present came from Italy is clear from their being in the Italian language. It is evident that with the in- Modern vention of music which was intended to ivf ^'^f ^^*°" express dramatic and emotional effects, much words , 1 , r in 1 r • . . ^ J depended from the first on the manner of its originated ^ , r , • • , in Italy performance ; and from hmts written down at the moment of teaching it to the per- former, the step was easy to the printing of these hints on the published pages. And the more dramatic the music became with the new harmonic and orchestral effects, the greater the number of expression directions that would be used. The madrigal writers left the tempo to the taste of the performer ; light and shade, /orfe and piayio, cres- cendo and diniiinicndo not only were unknown to them, but are not an advantage if introduced into their works. We have seen that Morley mentions the expressions so, lo, for soft, loud. The Italians began about the middle of the seventeenth century to freely use the words piano and forte for this purpose, and gradually 1 88 Words of Expression increased the number of signs, which are still in- creasing". As early as 1638 we find in some of the lute books directions for piano and forte^ the sign V for nicsao- forte; -== :r=— for crescendo and diminuendo; }>,f, and the words presto, adagio, etc. These were at first used for instruments more than for voices. They were, of course, less used on the harpsichord and organ than on other instruments, as these instruments were only capable of producing change of power by changing stops or manuals. Bach, in his organ music, uses very few expression signs, but he frequently indicates change of manual. Handel also uses few except / and 7). The means of expression have improved, especially with the invention of the piano, and are improving still. The old English composers used English words for expression, and Schumann introduced the fashion of using the German language. It is, however, more convenient, on the whole, to adhere English to Italian, since musicians almost universally * understand its musical terms. ,„ , , _ , , . , . , Words of Ornaments largely mcreased m number u ° •' . expression at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it is often difficult to translate them into modern notation. So strong was the habit of introducing them that J. S. Bach gives shakes to the oboe in positions in which they cannot be performed. The ornamental signs are now reduced to two, the shake and the turn ; but it is becoming more and more 1 89 Story of Notation customary to write the turn in full, and the sign used for it will probably soon be obsolete. The older school of English organists, who constantly intro- duced unwritten ornaments, has scarcely yet died out. The staccato sign first appeared in the works of Couperin, Sebastian Bach, and Rameau, in the form of dots over notes. By J. C. Bach it is used ^ as a dot or an upright stroke, according to c. the degree of staccato required, but at the Sign . ^. ^ ' . tune of its appearance no explanations as to its use were given. The legato sign was used early in the eighteenth century, and the staccato and legato in combination first appear in Mozart's works. ^ Jomelli was the first who used crescendo o. and diminuendo in other than lute music. Sign . . Expression signs enormously increased in number during the course of the nineteenth century, owing to the rapid development of the emotional side of instrumental music, and the improvement of instru- ments, especially of the pianoforte. Not all the signs of expression used by eighteenth-century composers have become universal. For instance, Couperin introduced a kind of inverted pause. A, to indicate that the player was to slightly delay before striking the note, which has disappeared from use. Amongst the latest nineteenth-century signs are the underlined staccato, and the vertical line used by West- phal to indicate the phrasing; but these have not yet come into general use. 190 Byzantine Music We must now go back for a moment to the Middle Ages to refer to a form of notation which seems cer- tainly to be derived from the same origin as ours, but has developed in an entirely ^°**t'°" of different direction, and which is still in use ^, , T- 1 1 i • 1 . Church in Europe, though destined to succumb some day before the more practical and universal staff notation. It will have been noticed that we have fre- quently used the expression "Western Europe" in connection with notation. The music of the Greek Church did not develop on the same lines as that of the Western Church; on the contrary, it never lost the chromatic tetrachord, which is still one of its most important features, and is regularly used in the Mass.^ The Rev. S. G. Hatherley, in his Treatise on Byzan- tine Mtcsic (1892), says: "The music, sacred and profane, of the Eastern nations. Christian Faste n and non-Christian, within and adjoining the European old Byzantine Empire, is based primarily Music upon the chromatic genus, containing two based on semitones in the tetrachord.- The diatonic the Old genus, containing one semitone only in the Greek tetrachord, is also in use, but is seldom Chromatic sustained exclusively for any length of time ^^ * in practice, being blended, sooner or later, to a greater or lesser extent, with the chromatic genus." The ^ E.g.y in the Liturgy of St. Basil. 2 That is to say the chromatic tetrachord described in Chapter I. ; not the succession of semitones called by us a chromatic scale. 191 Story of Notation music of the Eastern Church is always sung unaccom- panied, and it is therefore not bound to the twelve sounds in the octave given by the organ ; on the con- trary it is free as to intonation, and therefore it is only capable of being represented by the staff notation on the understanding that the thirty-one signs used in our notation in an octave really represent thirty-one different sounds, and not the twelve equally tempered sounds of the organ: or perhaps it will be clearer if we say that some of the varieties of tuning described in Chapter II. are still in use in the Greek Church, and in Eastern Europe generally; and not only these features, but the modes of ancient Greek music can be heard, both in Greece and, strange to say, among the peasants of Brittany,^ It will be seen therefore that the music of Europe developed not in one direction but two: the Western musicians, rejecting all but the one diatonic European scale, applied to it the combinations de- Music has scribed by ancient Greek writers, and built eve ope ^ system first of organum then of discant, in two f J s> ' J, ^, which led to counterpoint and harmony, for directions . . , . . , . which a smiple pictorial notation was a practical necessity; the Eastern musicians adhered to the old scales, and only comparatively recently intro- duced harmony under the influence of the Westerns, ^ The writer, on first hearing the Breton peasants using the modes in dance music, thought they were influenced by the Church modes; but M. Bourgault-Ducoudray finds that their music is older than the Church, and goes back to pre-Christian times. 192 Pachymere's Treatise since which they have been compelled to use Western notation.^ The Greek alphabetical notation continued in use for centuries after it was forgotten in the West, its last representative being George Pachymere, of whom Vincent 2 says: "The Treatise of 5*^°^^' Music of George Pachymere, which we ^™ " publish for the first time, may be considered, in spite of the little attention that has till now been paid to it, as one of the most interesting that we possess on the subject, ... In the thirteenth century, during the first half of which our author flourished, although the principles of modern music had already taken strong root, since the eleventh century had produced Guy of Arezzo, the traditions of ancient music were still living amongst the Greeks ; so that G. Pachymere, who was imitated or copied by Manuel Bryennius, may be con- sidered as the link between the ancient and modern epochs." We have shown, however, that the traditions of eenera and mode are still in use in the East. The method of notation of that time has continued to the present day. It is an adaptation of the neumes, exceedingly complicated and difficult to a Western 1 " In Russia the ritual books were all called in at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and a uniform Liturgy was established, in which the modern method of writing music was received. But in the Greek isles a notation peculiar to its inhabitants is still in use, which is not only as different from ours as their alphabet, but totally unlike that in the ancient missals." — Burney, vol. ii. p, 46, 2 Notices des MSS. de la Bibliothhitte du Roi. Paris, 1847, 193 O Story of Notation musician, but it seems able to express the variations of tuning better than our own notation. Villoteau, one of the savarUs sent to Egypt by Napoleon I., has given a complete account of the notation of the Greek Church, his know- ledge being partly derived from observation, and partly from lessons given him by a Greek musician.^ The subject is too complicated to be entered into here; but the general principles seem to be founded on those of the neumes, and the notation is the same as that given in facsimile by Hawkins, vol. i. page 390, of a Greek musical MS. of the eleventh century, and on pages 394, 395, which could probably be translated with the help of Villoteau's explanations. At the beginning of every composition, and at every change of key, the sign c , called iso7i, unison, is placed, and it is followed by very complicated . , figures, each of which has its own name. r"!?ir'^ ^ A major second above zso?i is shown by a of Modern , . ^ , ,• 1 1 1 ^1 • r , P , horizontal Ime — , probably the virga of the Notation neumes ; a major third by the same sign slightly inclined upwards; again, probably the virga. The apostropha, •», indicates a descent of one degree, and a double apostropha, 5, a descent of two degrees. Here we have a direct outcome of the principle of the grave accent showing a descent. The signs all refer to t'sofi, which may be any note of the scale; and they indicate intervals, but not with the exactness of Western notation. There are signs for rests and for 1 Villoteau, De P Etat aciitel de tArt 7>iusicale en Egypt e, 1812. 194 Eastern and Western Notation time, but the latter do not show relative times as with us: merely that a sound is to be shorter or longer than its predecessor. But Western civilisation has now overshadowed Eastern Europe, and all popular music published at Athens is written in our notation. Hatherley, in his exhaustive book on the modern Byzantine scales, never vises any other; but his signatures look strange to the Western eye, owing to the fact that they indicate chromatic tetrachords, rather than key, in the Western sense. 195 CHAPTER XII. ATTEMPTS TO INVENT NEW FORMS OF NOTATION, AND TO REFORM THE OLD. New notations — Improvements come gradually — New notations appeal to the intelligence rather than to the eye — Sebald's proposal — T. Salmon — Souhaitty— J. J. Rousseau — Demotzde la Salle — Jacob — Abbe de Cassagne — Rohleder's keyboard — Labatut — Dr. Natorp — Galin — lue — Claviere — Striby's "Universal System" — Delcamp — L. Danel — Craig's Octave System — Meerens — J. Stott— A " new " notation — Notation for the blind — Galin- Paris-Cheve — The Tonic Sol-fa notation. The reader will remember that we referred on p. 5 to the eflforts of those who wish to improve or supplant the existing^ notation. If the shelves of the »T , various libraries of Europe were searched, Notations . ,, ,,,, r,.i r it would probably be found that tor some centuries a new notation has appeared about every three or four years, each of which is called by its author "The" new notation, for he fondly thinks that it will become universal. A notation is like a language ; it does not suddenly appear, as the result of the efforts of some mighty genius. It is the result of the united efforts of genera- tions of musicians endeavouring to express their melodies in such a way as to make them understood 196 Welsh Harp Tablaturc Kd I Sulfa en wiio/iioiioii J.I.I. I r » r&r^ r » M w w or n n n n r r $' r •MM Oi a. a. a t ^ ^ i' ^ ^ M sn (n h (n h A I.I I -h-H- n ^ n in fi Oi ^1 (\ ^-j^^^-fr-^^^^y.- ^^ i m ^g r r r r ^ ^ ^ ^ r ^r i w. w &1 &1 n n n n 9' 9* 9* 9* (7 (l fl fl »i h »i :^ h In- (n h ifl fi bi fi rr ^ n ^ yi h ^1 h ^^Fprfrr rfrr^FrfrffrrMfrfr^ E^ r=f § §-Lg i:^ ^ MOST ANCIENT SPECniKNS OF WELSH IIAKP TAIiLATl/Ri; EXTANT, WITH TRANSLATIONS IN MODERN NOTATION. (From Buriicy's History of Music.) (The signs are derived from the alphabetical notation of the Church, except that the note C is indicated by a Greek gamma. The pitch of the letters is shown by the little lines above or alongside them, the curious figure above the highest notes being apparently used to show the highest octave. The right-hand tablature is separated from the left by a horizontal line, and vertical lines indicate the bars.) 197 Story of Notation by their fellow-musicians. A composer is naturally anxious that others besides himself should have the benefit of the offspring of his mind. He does not make use of a means of expressing it that can only be known to his pupils or his immediate acquaintance: he wishes it to be spread abroad, and therefore writes it in the way that he thinks will be understood by the greatest number of musicians; or, if he does not, his admirers do it for him. Any improvements in a universally accepted notation come very slowly, not as mprovc- ^j^g result of one man's inspiration, but by a consensus of opinion that such and such a come J ., . , , , . J eraduallv detail requires to be, and can be, improved. The change from square and lozenge notes, for instance, to round ones took some centuries to complete; it was not the result of some one's sugges- tion, but a requirement of rapid writing; the joining of quavers was found convenient in the tablatures as a means of dividing the various parts of the bar, and was gradually adopted in the staff notation. The shapes of notes were frequently altered by individual teachers in the Middle Ages, yet the general consensus of opinion arrived at certain generally accepted forms, and rejected individual suggestions. Notation is an alphabet, and a far more universal alphabet than that which represents speech ; for musicians in all parts of Europe can perform each other's compositions at first sight, when they certainly would not in every case understand each other's language. Hence all efforts at providing "new" 198 New Notations notations are bound to meet with the same fate as the "universal" language called Volapilk, which no- body has ever spoken. But no history of notation would be complete without some reference to the efforts of individuals to invent new ones, or to make radical changes in the old. To mention all would require a whole book on the subject. Two things are generally aimed at: either the abolition of the clefs, or of the signs of sharps, flats, and naturals; and it is a remarkable fact that nearly all the new notations require a New constant appeal to the intelligence rather Notations than to the eye, showing that they result appeal from the failure of grown persons to learn the old notation ; for the grown person finds .. it easier to apply his intelligence than to ^j^j^^ ^q jj^g learn a mechanical operation, while with a Eye child the reverse is the case. The reading of the ordinary notation being an almost purely mechanical operation, presents no difficulty if acquired in early childhood, and leaves the mind free to attend to expression, which it could not do if hampered with the effort of merely reading the notes ; and none of the new notations present an instantaneous picture of the position of the notes with regard to the scale. In 1529 Sebald Heyden, rector of St. Sebaldus at Nuremberg, published in Latin and German a work called MtisiccB Stichoisis, in which he „ t Proposal proposed to abolish the clefs, usmg a stave without them, with figures or words for the notes. 199 Story of Notation In 1673, T. Salmon, a Master of Arts of Oxford, endeavoured to do away with the old clefs by making- _ „ . new ones: B for bass, M for mean, T for treble. 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 principle as using the G clef for the tenor voice, on the understanding that the notes sound an octave lower than they are written. The constant change of the position of the C clef was the thing that troubled Salmon. We have reduced the changes of clef to a minimum by the use of leger lines, and some countries have almost abolished the use of the C clef for voices. But Salmon's abolition of the old clefs produced terrible confusion and far more change of clef than before, besides making a topsy-turvy picture of the tune. Matthew Locke is very sarcastic, saying, "Nor doth the transposition of the C cliff create any confusion to a beginner, as you vainly allege; for vocal music is seldom learned by men of forty or fifty years old, but by those that are young, whose voices are proper to the treble, and by that cliff only are taught; nor is the C sol, fa, ut cliff now much used, unless in cathedral music. As to my Psalms, in four parts, I could have printed them as well in three treble cliffs, had I thought all had been so ignorant in the use of cliffs as I am assured you are. It being usual and common for men to sing those songs which are pricked in a treble an octave lower. 200 New Notations I *' Example of a Psalm ^ ^y?-ft-ti-^^^ "The same, pricked your way": — ? ^> - '•^ y ^ The reader will see that the great advantage of the staff over other notations — viz., its appeal to the eye, is abolished by the constant change of clef. Salmon's notation did not find acceptance. Four years later, in 1677, a Franciscan of Paris named Souhaitty, a mediocre musician, proposed to use the numerals i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, for jit, , re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, with rods and points attached to indicate octaves. No sharps or flats were to be shown, nor any time-signs, as this notation was only to be used for plainsong. What advantage a line of figures could have over the four-line staff and square notes of plainsong it is impossible to see. J. J. Rousseau, however, thought well of the idea, and proposed in 1743 to substitute numerals for notes: but to show the various octaves, _ Kousseau and the sharps and flats, necessitated such an immense variety of signs that the system was more complicated than the ordinary notation. The radical faults of his system were exposed by Raymond, who showed that "these simplifications will Story of Notation Dcmotz de la Salle always have the defect that their simpUcity and uni- formity alone make them impracticable; for they do not place the musical forms instantaneously before the eyes, and appeal at the same time to the intelligence, an advantage which the ordinary notation enjoys by means of that very diversity of which its detractors complain." Early in the eighteenth century Abbe Demotz de la Salle proposed to suppress the stave, and to use one form of note only, which showed the pitch of the sound by its position ; how he pro- posed to indicate time measure is not known, but his suggestion, if carried out, would take us back to the dark days of the neumes, before the use of lines was known. In 1769 Jacob, a French violinist, a pupil of Gavini^s, proposed a stave without clefs, and figures for notes, in his Methode de Musique sur un twuveau Plan. jaco ^ flute-player proposed using the vowels a, e, i, 0, 71, oil, eic as notes for the major scale, though where they had the advantage over 7it, re, vii, etc., it is hard to see. In 1776 the Abb6 de Cassagne proposed to reduce all the clefs to one only — namely, G on the second line (the treble clef), and this idea being taken ^ up again about 181 5, a good deal of music for piano was published in the "Uniclef," but it had the effect of making its users lose the power of reading ordinary music. In 1792 a German priest named Rohleder invented New Notations a new keyboard, in which white and black keys were placed alternately at the same level, the black keys beinsf equal in number with the white, and 1? Ill A * no distinction being made between E, F, %^ f "^ and B, C. By this means he abolished the naming of the notes, for all were alike; and he invented a new notation to suit the keyboard, in which the black keys were shown by black notes, the white by white notes, and values by sizes. It looks a very mechanical and simple plan, but it had so little success that it caused the ruin and death of its author. Futile attempts were afterwards made in Germany to revive it: one of its chief objections being the impossibility of seeing the intervals with sufficient rapidity on an un- broken row of black and white keys and notes. The nineteenth century seems to have been more prolific of new notations than the eighteenth ; though perhaps this appears to be the case because it is nearer to our own times, and books are better catalogued. A most remarkable eff'ort is that of Labatut, Labatut who not only proposed to suppress the staves and clefs, but to make a complete notation out of a line and a circle (p. 205). We have already seen a complete notation made in the tenth century out of the letter F (p. 67). Labatut makes his notation run in octaves above and below middle G, which is his centre. All G's are represented by a semicircle, and all F's by the reverse of the G semicircle, the remainder of the notes by lines either single or in combination — G ), A V, B A, C 1, D\, E /, F (. Story of Notation ■ Time values are to be shown by attaching circles to these signs: a semibreve by the attachment of a circle with a line through it to the required note, a minim by a simple circle, a crotchet by a circle with a dot in the centre, a quaver by a semicircle, semiquaver by two circles joined making a figure 8. The various octaves are shown by the addition of horizontal lines above the signs for the higher, below the signs for the lower, notes than middle G. The sharp is to be the Greek gamma reversed, the flat to be the same inverted, the natural St. Andrew's cross. The strange shapes arrived at by these combinations are shown in Fig. 14. This nota- tion has not obtained any large number of adherents as yet. In 1813 a Doctor of Theology named Natorp, of Essen, used figures for the degrees of the scale, placing _ __ them above and below a single line, and Dr. Natorp ,. .^ . ^, . . ^ , ^ . ' diversirymg their sizes to show the octaves. For values he combined the figures with the ordinary notation, and his book was successful enough to run through five editions. In 1818 Pierre Galin, a Professor of Mathematics at the Lyceum of Bordeaux, and at the blind school in the same town, published his Exposition (Tunc Nouvelle Mdihode pour V Enseigiieynent de la Miisique, which F<^tis criticises thus: "There is in this work a very remarkable philosophical spirit; and the clearness of the ideas, the order of their connection, and the style, make this work a distinguished pro- 204 New Notations I FIG. 14. Labatufs Notation. ^>^yiib^^1^ b^J^hi oh^ 5^^^ ^r^ (Oc!-4Ve Higher; Sharp"! Flat L Double Sharp 1- Double Flat" i^Na rural x Sfribys Universal Nohalion. TneLl^ S tF^ Bass ^ I 2a: ^ ^ -a. O Delcamp's Notation. -f!i|«» . « I °«oo 4^= LJ»ri^ c_r I [J Stott's Notation. Key^^^^^^ m ^t ^ ^ 205 Story of Notation duction, whatever opinion may be held of the utility of its method." Galin reduces the diversity of signs, and abolishes the clefs. With this object he gives a stave without a clef, provided with numbers or notes to which the teacher points with a stick while singing some well- known air. This stave is called by its inventor a "meloplast," and is used on something of the same principle as the Guidonian hand, the fingers and joints of which were pointed to by the teacher. It will be noticed that the clefless stave had been invented several times before. Galin was so convinced of the effectiveness of his method as to assert that a child of seven to nine years of age would learn to sing anything by it in eight months, or a child of twelve in five months; on which F^tis says, "Galin was an honest man, but a mediocre musician, and was full of illusions as to the apparent success of his school. In reality, for more than forty years, not a single musician of any value has been formed on the method of the meloplast, though the schools in which they teach it are very numerous." In 1824 Edward lue modified the system of Galin, reducing all the scales to one, altering the shape of the notes, but he confesses that it is always necessary to refer to the ordinary notation in connection with his system. About 1848 I. Claviere, a Frenchman, published a Mdthode ilementaire , on Principes viet/wdigues de la Mtisiqice en Chiffres arahcs, a V Usage dii Chant popn- 206 New Notations laire. This is merely another attempt to substitute figures for notes on one line ; higher and lower octaves to be indicated by dots ; only one key to be employed, and the major and minor *vicre modes, and only two kinds of time. Rests are 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 185 1. In 1857 William Striby, an Englishman living in Paris, published a "Universal System" (Fig. 14), in which two staves of six lines each contain notes of the same names, but two octaves „jy , ^\ apart. The fourth line, on which the clef c ♦ •» stands, is thicker than the others ; there are two clefs, treble and bass. This system does not appear to have been known beyond its author's imme- diate circle of friends. Three years later, in i860, Maurice Delcamp, in con- junction with a colonel in the French army, invented a new notation, derived from the square notation of plainsong, but with notes of various shapes (Fig. 14). His stave is of three lines only. Sharps are shown by an upward tail, and flats by a downward tail, added to the notes. Values are shown by Arabic figures under the notes, a semibreve being 32, a minim 16, and so on. "Is it necessary to say that this extraordinary notation went to the tomb at the same time as its author?" (David and Lussy). Fig. 14 shows an example, quoted from David and Lussy's book. 207 Story of Notation In 1867 a philanthropist, L. Danel, proposed to do away with clefs, staves, and all other impedimenta by the substitution of the letters D, R, M, F, S, L, B, for the notes Do, re, mi, etc. (an idea which was previously adopted in England by the Tonic Sol-faists), sharps and naturals being indicated by z, flats by 1, values by a, e, i, o, u; rests by inverted letters. During the last few decades English inventors have not been idle. We have Mitcherd's " Easy System of Music. Music revolutionised. No flats or sharps." This is a system of five black lines arranged in twos and threes to show the black notes, the spaces between showing the white notes. The places on the keyboard which have no black notes, BC, EF, are shown by dotted lines, dividing the groups of two from those of three black lines. One clef only, the G, is placed on the line that represents DJ*, though no clef is really required. This system is really a tablature, with the defect of the tablature that it does not indicate key- relationship. It is therefore useless for vocal, and for most other music. The "Broad Line Staff"," invented by W. Lundie, consists of three lines and four spaces, enclosed be- tween two thicker lines, which complete a stave of five lines. The middle line is always C, the lowest space always G, the highest F. No note is placed on the broad lines, since a new octave commences with the first space above or below them. The G and F clefs are used on the C line to show treble and bass; and 208 New Notations thick or thin leger lines are to be added as required. This system has the defect of breaks in the continuity of the scale at every broad line, so that the eye, accus- tomed to successive intervals on lines and spaces, is deceived, and a mental effort is required to sinj^ or play a single scale degree, where the apparent distance is that of two degrees. There is also the objection that applies to all these easy methods, that a person learn- ing it is as much incapacitated from using the ordinary notation as the ordinary musician is incapable of using the easy method. The " Chromatic Stave or Piano Tablature " is another attempt at arranging the lines and spaces to correspond with the black and white keys of the piano. It embraces the whole of the keyboard, and the different octaves are shown by substituting Arabic figures for clefs. A new alphabetical nomenclature is introduced, the spaces being named c, d, e, f, g, a, b, the lines Craig's "Octave System of Musical Notation" con- sists of a five-line stave, the fifth of which represents the same note as the first, but an octave higher. Here, instead of three clefs, no less than six Z^^^^ ^ Octtfivc are used, F, G, A, B, C, D, which always « refer to the lowest line of the stave; and these letters are printed in Italian type for treble, in Roman type fc- bass. Three of the lines are red, two are black. In any given composition one clef only is used for both staves, which are to be read two octaves apart. As in the "Broad Line Notation" the 209 P Story of Notation thick line showed no note, so here several of the spaces show no note. Hence the same defects appear in both systems. In 1873 Mecrens proposed a *' Simplified " notation. The lowest line of a five-line stave always represents C. Roman fitrures representing: the various Meerens & r & octaves are substituted for the clefs, ^ and as the inventor expects future pianos to extend to eleven octaves, he numbers them from I. to XI. He proposes to reform the time signature by giving as the lower figure the required metronome number, the upper figure showing the number of beats in a bar. J. Stott, about 1885, invented an " Improved Staff Notation" (page 205), on somewhat the same lines, his lowest line always representing G. Only one scale is to be used, for which seven symbols are provided, each showing by its form its relation to the keynote. Accidental sharps 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 minim as his time signature. Like Salmon in 1673, he proposes to abolish the clefs, and to introduce others, namely — S for soprano, C for contralto, T for tenor, B for bass. Values of notes to be shown by the number of crooks added to the stem of the note, 2 the semibreve being shown by four stems. Sharps and flats are to be shown by circles enclosing ' Compare the "Chromatic Stave," p. 209. " Compare Tablatures, p. 149. 210 New Notations various internal features, as lines and dots. Rests arc as in the old system. Key to be indicated by words, as in the Tonic Sol-fa system. The system is to be used for instrumental music with certain modifications, though however useful it might be for vocal music, if adopted, it is difficult to see what advantage it has for instruments over the ordinary notation. In the London Aliisi'cal Courier o{ Ja.nua.ry 14th, 1897, a new notation was announced as about to appear, the chief advantage of which was to be the • A " New " absence of all accidentals and key signatures. _-, ,, nr^, •, Notation On May 26th, 1898, the same journal gave some particulars of the new notation, which was in- vented by Mr. W. H. Thelwall, an engineer. He proposed a seven-line stave, the middle line being thicker than the rest, and representing the note C. The alternate lines and spaces are to represent semi- tones, and Arabic figures placed in a circle on the thick line are to be substituted for clefs ; the treble octave being indicated by the figure 6, tenor by 5, bass by 4, and so on;^ and as there are to be no leger lines there must be changes of figure whenever the music goes beyond the stave on which it commences. It will be seen at once that this notation must result in the con- fusion caused by constant change of clef shown on p. 201 in Salmon's notation; and the semitonic arrange- ment of the lines and spaces is a modification of those ^ Compare Meerens, p. 210; Chromatic Stave, p. 209; Broad Line, p. 20S. 211 Story of Notation of Mitcherd, page 208, and the "Chromatic Stave," page 209. The representation of the octaves by figures had been proposed by Meerens in 1873, and since the figures in these cases really take the place of clefs, the inventor, so far from abolishing the clefs, introduces seven or eight in place of the two in ordinary use for piano and organ music, to which alone his system could possibly apply. The latest innovation, as far as we can learn, is that of Mr. A. H. Castle, who proposes to use five different sizes of type to represent to the eye the relative dynamic values of the notes, and to indicate features of form and phrasing. As this involves no fundamental alteration of the ordinary notation, and may be of use, especially for teaching purposes, it has a better chance of success than those notations we have described. We have reserved for the last the description of three other new notations. One of these has filled a real need to the most unfortunate of mankind. The other two being founded on practicable principles, have had considerable numbers of adherents. The first of the three is that used by the blind, who have invented for themselves a notation in Notation which groups of raised dots, differing in „j, , number and arrangement, show both scale- degree and value, accidental sharps, flats, naturals, and rests. The second is that of Galin-Paris-Chevt^, which, though it has been officially repressed, is still taught to some extent in the communal schools in Paris and 212 Galin-Paris-Cheve other parts of France, as well as in the public schools of Geneva, and in some parts of Sweden. We have seen that Galin invented or rather reintro- duced a numerical notation about 1818. Galin- and that he was followed by lue, who W^"^' modified his system. The system was *^* taken up by Aim6 Paris, an advocate, and a pupil of Galin, who, in conjunction with Emile Cheve, a doctor, and brother-in-law of Paris, published, about 1850, a Mcthode clementaire de la Mnsique vocale, in which the Galin system is again modified and used in conjunction with the Guidonian syllables as an Introduction to the ordinary notation. The pupil is taug-ht to refer everything to the tonic, and the printed numbers are sung to the syllables Do, re, mi, etc. Octaves are shown by dots above and below the numbers. Rests are shown by zero, time by dots after figures, and lines above them ; and the Galin-Paris- Cheve method of indicating values has been adopted for the Tonic Sol-fa notation. It is of course practically a revival of the principle of the tablature, but with the advantage of showing tonic relationship instead of only the strings to be sounded, and probably Its success is due to this, and to the fact that Almd Paris gave up his profession and devoted his life to its propagation. The third new notation which has survived its birth is that used in the elementary schools In England, In the early decades of the nineteenth century Miss Sarah A. Glover _, "^"', "* made use of a sol-fa notation for teaching 21-? The Tonic Sol-fa Norwich Sol-fa Method children to sing- simple tunes at sight. Her system, which she called the " Norwich Sol-fa Method," was enlarged and improved by the Rev. John Curwen, a 21^ Story of Notation Nonconformist minister, and it is now very widespread, and is used for important musical work. The name "Tonic Sol-fa" was gfiven to the improved method by John Curwen. Like the French system, it is a kind of vocal tablature, in the sense that no attempt is made to indicate the rise and fall of the melody; but it has the advantage over the tablatures of recognising the complete series of signs used in the staff notation ; in other words, it does not force the tone into a division of two equal semi- tones, as was the case with the old tablatures. No system of notation with only twelve signs for the octave can have a chance of success for reading vocal music: an instrumentalist has a mechanical means at hand by which his C^ and D? are forced to be repre- sented by the same sound ; a vocalist could not make the same sound do for both notes, however hard he might try. Another advantage of the Tonic Sol-fa notation is that it refers all intervals to a tonic, on the same principle as that of the mediaeval and modern Greek notation, which refers all intervals to the starting note isou (p. 194). The tonic is impressed on the singer's mind before starting, and provision is made for the new tonic in case of modulation, on the principle made use of by Guido for change of hexachord — namely, calling a note by two or more names. In the case of the modern Greek notation, the new iso7i is sounded by a singer appointed for the purpose. The Tonic Sol-fa consists of the Guidonian syllables Do (?''' this name contemporaries at Nuremberg, but what relation if any, they were is not known; and there is confusion as t( the dates of their death. Gcvaert, F. A., Director of the Brussels Conservatoire, is one o the most learned of living writers on ancient music. O the three volumes of his La Musiqice de VAniiquite, vol. i (1875) treats exhaustively of the sources of information, th< modes, tropes, nuances, and notation of the Greeks ; vol. ii. 1 88 1, is occupied with the rhythm, the instruments, and th( drama of antiquity; vol. iii., 1895, deals with the transitioi from Greek to Christian music, analyses the early hymni and antiphons, throwing much new light on their origin. Guido, Aretino, was born at Arezzo, not far from Rome, toward: the end of the tenth century, though he has been at variou: times claimed as having been born in Normandy, in Ger Q>f^ many, and at Canterbury; while Spanish historians clain that he attained his musical knowledge in Catalonia. H( became a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Pomposa neai Ferrara, where he obtained a reputation for his teaching powers, which soon spread through Italy. Driven ou of his abbey by the jealousy of his fellow-monks, whc 228 Appendix A poisoned the mind of the abbot against him, he made "long voyages in his exile," according to his own words. It seems doubtful where these long voyages were made: some say he went to Bremen ; in any case he ended them at Arezzo, where he retired into a Benedictine monastery. From Arezzo he unwillingly went, after having received three invitations from Pope John XIX., to Rome (see p. 87), but his health giving way, he retired to I'omposa, whose abbot now received him with friendship. It is not known when or where he died. Of his invaluable work in connec- tion with notation we have spoken in Chapter V. Hanboys, Hambois, Hamboys, Doctor John, eminent in music, Latin, and mathematics, is mentioned by several historians for his "notable cunning" in music. Nothing is known of his life. He wrote about 1470, Quatitor Principalia Totius Artis^ published by Coussemaker. Burney, however, attri- butes this tract to Tunstede. A second work by him, in the Bodleian Library, is entitled, Musica Magistri Fran- conis cum Additionibtis et Opinionibus Diversorum. Handle, Robert de, an English musician of whom no particulars are known, author in 1326 of Regula aim Maxiinis Magistri Francotiis, cum Additiojiibiis aliorum Musicontm^ in dia- ,>' logue form, published by Coussemaker. The ancient MS. of this work was destroyed in the fire at the Cotton Library at Westminster, but fortunately Dr. Pepusch had made a copy, which is now in the British Museum. Morley calls him Robert de Harlo. Hermann, surnamed Contractus, on account of his being para- lysed, was born in 1013 at Golgau in Suabia, and brought up at the Abbey of St. Gall. He became a Benedictine monk at Reichenau, and is said to have died about 1055. His largest work was a history of the world. As a musi- cian he is said to be the composer of some antiphons, of the hymn, Ve7n, Sancte Spiritus, and many other proses. He is the author of a tract, entitled Musica, on the Creek modes, of no value, and of a work in verse, entitled Versus Hermatini ad discernendum Cant urn, giving a key to a 229 Story of Notation notation by Greek and Latin letters, used in his day to decipher the neumes. Both works are published by Gerbert. Hothby, Hothbus, Ottobus, Hothobus, Otteby, John, an English Carmelite, produced in 1471 a work entitled, Hothby, An^liciy Proportiones Musica. It is published by Cousse- maker in three parts ; the third, entitled Rci^uIce super Contrapunctutu, gives the rules of a mode of singing, called "visible discant," used in England. Hucbald, Hugbald, a monk of St. Amand in Tournay, born about 840, died about 932 ; was either a Frenchman or Belgian by birth. He was a pupil of his uncle at St. Amand, who, in a fit of jealousy caused by his brilliant compositions, drove him from the monastery and forced him to retire to Nevers, where he opened a school of singing. After the death of his uncle he succeeded him as director of the monastic school of St. Amand. His success was great, and he was called upon to direct or found other schools ; in his old age he retired to St. Amand, where he died. He is mentioned as the author of several treatises, which are published by Gerbert, but Hans Miiller and Riemann {Gesch. der Musik. Theorie, p. 4) contest his right to JMusica enchiriadis and Harmonica instiiutio, which have been attributed to his authorship. Kircher, Athanasius, a learned Jesuit, was bom in 1602 at Geysen, near Fulda, died 1680; author of an enormous work on music, entitled Musurgia Utiivcrsalts. Fetis says, "This learned man shows in his writings a bizarre con- junction of deep knowledge in mathematics, physics, natural history, philology, and a credulous mind, greedy of the marvellous, and devoid of judgment. In his immense works the false and the true are mixed together pell-mell, but there are plenty of good and interesting things for those who take the trouble to seek them." The Thirty Years' War drove him from Germany to Avignon, and then Rome, where he spent the rest of his life in gigantic works on nearly every branch of human knowledge, and where he founded a famous museum, which is still in existence. The 230 Appendix A Musiirgia contains the Greek notation of the first of Pindar's Pythic odes. Mace, Thomas, born 1619, died 1709. Little is known of his life, and the only work he appears to have published is Mustek's Mo7iuinent (see page 154, note), which treats of Psalm-singing in parish churches, and of the lute and viol, published in 1676. Marchcttus of Padua flourished at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. Nothing is known of his life, or of whether he was a monk or a priest. His Brevis Coinpilatio in Arte Alusicce is published in Coussemaker's third volume. Martini, Giambattista, born at Bologna 1706, died 17S4, a learned composer and theorist, and a famous teacher, was the possessor of one of the most complete musical libraries of his day, estimated by Burney at 17,000 volumes. His two most important works, frequently referred to by Burney and Hawkins, are a History of Music, and his work on counterpoint. A list of his compositions is given in Grove's Dictionary. Mcibomius, Meybaum, or Meibom, Mark, born at Tcinningen 1626, died at Utrecht 171 1, a learned Dutch philologist, was a professor at the University of Upsal, and librarian to Frederick IH. of Denmark. He published in 1652, Antiquce inusicce Auctores septeiu, a wonderfully correct edition of treatises by Aristoxenus, Euclid (see Cleonides), Alypius, Nicomachus, Gaudentius, Bacchius Senior, and Aristides Quintilianus, with Latin translations and copious notes. His visionary temperament led him into several unfortunate enterprises. Giving up his chair at Upsal, he endeavoured to persuade Dutch and French mariners to adopt the ancient triremes; failing in this, he came to England and endeavoured to publish a Hebrew edition of the Old Testament, corrected by himself; this also failing of success, he retired to Holland and died in poverty. 231 Story of Notation Morley, Thomas, Mus. Bac, born about the middle of the sixteenth century, died about 1604. A pupil of Byrd, and a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, was the author of a quaint work entitled A Plaitic and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musickc^ 1597) containing much valuable information on the old notation and the tablatures. He was the composer of many madrigals, anthems, services, lessons for the Virginals, a list of which is given in Grove's Dictionary. Muris, Johannes de. According to Dr. Hugo Riemann, Gesch. der Musik. Theorie, im ix.-xix. Jahrhwidert, 1898, page 235, etc., there were in the fourteenth century two musicians of this name, the Norman and the Parisian. The Norman Muris studied at Paris, but lived and taught at Oxford, whence he is also called the English De Muris. He con- tributed nothing new to the development of notation. The Parisian De Muris was a friend of Philip of Vitry, and the author of important works, among them Musica Specula- tiva^ 1323. The works of both are published by Gerbert and Coussemaker. Narbaez, Louis de, a Spanish musician, who published at Val- ladolid, in 1538, six books of tablature for the viol or vihuela, together with instructions for the use of the tabla- ture in Spanish. Odo, or Oddo of Clugny, a monk of noble family, who, after studying under Remi d'Auxerre, became Canon and Pre- centor of St. Martin de Tours in 899, and in 927 Abbot of Clugny, where he died in 942. His Dialogus de Musica, published by Gerbert, is an instruction book for the use of the monochord, the modes and their transpositions and formulas, to which the Latin letters, together with the Greek gamma, are arranged for the scale in the modern way, a method formerly attributed to Guido. His claim to the authorship of the Dialogics has, however, been con- tested of late in Germany — vide Riemann, Gesch. der Musik. Theorie, p. 55. Olympus, who lived before the Trojan war, was a pupil of Marsyas, and the composer of three nonics or songs, which 232 Appendix A were sung for centuries by the Greeks; and to him is attributed by Plutarch the invention of the enharmonic genus. A second Olympus was a famous flute-player of the time of Midas. Pachymerc, George, a Byzantine historian, born in 1242 at Nicasa, died about 1310. He was a priest of the Greek Church, and the author of a work on music in fifty-two chapters, published by Vincent in his Notices et Extraits dcs Manuscrits du Bibliothcque du Roz\ 1847. Plutarch, the Greek historian, born at Cheerona?a in Boeotia about A.D. 49, was the author of a treatise on music, published with a German translation and notes by West- phal in 1865, and with an anonymous English translation in 1822, at Chiswick, by C. Whittingham. It is in the form of a dialogue treating of the history of Greek music, which, together with the work of Athenaeus, gives the most impor- tant information extant on the subject. Plutarch is also the author of another musical work, which treats of the Pytha- gorean musical numbers described in Plato's Tiuucus. Pollux, Julius, a Greek grammarian and rhetorician, born at Naucratis in Egypt in the second century after Christ, died at Athens in the early part of the third century, was the author of a work in six volumes called Onomastico7i, in the form of a lexicon; edited by Bekker at Berlin, 1846. The second and fourth books contain several chapters on music. Polymnastus, of Colophon in Ionia, was a follower of Terpan- der, and composed flute airs, pro-odes, elegiacs, and elegies. Plutarch counts him amongst the founders of the second Spartan school of music, in which the enhar- monic genus had a place. Prosdoscimus de Beldemandis was in 1422 a professor of Philo- sophy of Padua, his native town. He is the author of several treatises on luusica niensiirata and counterpoint, published by Coussemaker. Fetis considers that his works owe their chief importance to the fact that their author, being contemporary with Dufay and Binchois, belonged to 233 Story of Notation one of the most important epochs in musical history. The dates of his birth and death and particulars seem to be unknown. Ptolemy, Claudius, the celebrated Greek astronomer, the events of whose life are unknown, e.xcept that his last recorded astronomical observation can be traced to the 22nd of March a.d. 141. He was the author of a treatise on music in three parts, of which MSS. are found in most great European libraries ; the work was published with a Latin translation and notes in 1680, by Wallis, an O.xford mathe- matician, together with a mass of mathematical (Pytha- gorean) calculations of intervals. This work gives a clear exposition of the transposition of the trope, our descending minor scale, to all the keys possible to the modern key- board, together with other details of Greek music not mentioned elsewhere. Pythagoras was born at Samos about B.C. 580. He studied philosophy in Phoenicia and Egypt, returned to Greece, where he studied at Sparta ; finally went to Italy and established a cult of philosophy at Crotona, where he had many disciples. Persecution of the new sect arose ; the Pythagoreans were slain or driven into exile, and the founder was martyred at Metapontus. Pythagoras, like Socrates, wrote nothing; and his musical doctrines appear to have suffered modification at the hands of ancient writers. He taught that numbers were the soul of the universe ; that the planets in their courses made a " celestial concert " of consonances analogous to the musical intervals of the octave, fifth, fourth, etc.; and that, therefore, the musical scale must be regulated by mathe- matical proportions. This resulted in the impossibility of modulation, while it made the major third (called by the Pythagoreans a ditone) one of the harshest of discords. The Aristoxenian school was probably the result of the protests of practical musicians against such a cramping doctrine. Aristides Quintilianus attributes a certain form of notation to Pythagoras ; it is possible that the Pythagoreans used it for their own purposes. 234 Appendix A Strozzio or Strozzi, Gregory, an abbe, doctor of canon law, and apostolic protonotary; born at Naples, where he was living in the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1683 he published Ele]nc7ito)Uin Miisiac Praxis, in which he treats of the music of his day, and gives a number of strange proportions for time (see page 183), perhaps the result of his not being a practical musician. He also published a book of organ and harpsichord music, of good quality, in 1687. Tcrpandcr, called the Lesbian. It is not known when he lived, but all ancient writers are agreed as to his merits as a musician. He gained many prizes for music in the games, and is said to have calmed a sedition at Sparta by the charm of his songs with the kithara. His compositions, called names, were very famous throughout Greece, and were used as opening pieces for the public games. He is said to have introduced the heptachord scale for the lyre (see page 9), and some writers assert that he wrote in notation the lyric intonations for the whole of the Homeric poems. Tinctor, John, the date of whose birth is variously given, died at Naples in 1476; was a native of Flanders. Besides being a learned writer, he was one of the first professors, if not the founder, of the public music school at Naples, said to be the first of its kind in Italy. Amongst his works are the earliest known musical dictionary, Terminorum Musiccc diffinitorium, published with a German translation by Bellermann in the Jahrbiicher dcr Mus. Wtssenschajt, vol. i., and by Coussemaker; and a Proportio7iale Musices in three books, treating of the proportions of notes in the notation of his time. Vincent, A. J. H., born in 1797, a member of the French Academy, and Librarian to the Ministry of Public In- struction, was the author of many pamphlets and writings on the music of the ancients and of the early Church, and the publisher of several ancient MSS. He sustained a lengthy controversy with Fe'tis on the question of whether the ancients made use of harmonic combinations of sounds; 235 Story of Notation the question was practically settled by Westphal, whose opinion is now generally accepted, that the ancients used no harmony of voices (except that of the octave), but that the lyre occasionally sounded single notes above the voice, which were not in octaves with it. Virdung, a Bavarian priest and organist, who lived at Basle during the first decades of the sixteenth century. He was the author of Musica Gctutscht unci Aus^esogcn in quaint Bavarian dialect, intended as the preliminary to a much larger work, which, however, was never written. It de- scribes the instruments in use, and gives examples of tablatures for them (see pages 150, 179), Vitry, Philip of, lived between 1290 and 1361, was Bishop of Meaux, and a famous composer of motets, lays, and rondos; author of a treatise on the Ars Nova of his day, called Liber Mt4sicalhi)n^ though Riemann considers that the Ars Nova, in which the rules for counterpoint became more strict, was in use before his time {Geschtchie der Musik. Theorie, chap. ii.). Burney {History, vol. ii. p. 209) shows that several ancient writers attributed to him the invention of the minim. Westphal, Rudolph, a professor at the University of Moscow (died about 1889), was amongst the most learned of modern investigators of ancient music, especially with regard to its rhythm. He showed that the principles of rhythmical con- struction of phrases, and even of complete works of art, are essentially the same in the dramas of the ancients and the compositions of modern classical musicians, from Sebastian Bach onwards. He was also a strong advocate of the view that the Aristoxenians made use of equal temperament, in which he is followed by Gevaert, Riemann, and most modern authorities on ancient music. Zarlino, Joseph, born in 15 19 at Chioggia (though Burney says he was born in 1540), died 1599, was organist of St. Mark's at Venice, and one of the most famous theorists of his day. *' II quale nella theoria e nella composizione e senza pari" 236 Appendix A (Sansovino); " Famoso restauratore della musica in tutta Italia" (Foscarini). In connection with the history of notation, his Istituziotn Harmoiiiche, in 448 folio pages, published at Venice in 1558, gives much information, both with regard to his own and previous times. It was followed by several other works on theory, especially with regard to the proportions of intervals, on which he was attacked by his pupil Galileo. He was also the author of philosophical and theological treatises. 237 Appendix B. Glossary. Alto Clef, the name given to the C clef when it is placed on the middle line of the stave. Arsis, the weak portion of a bar or measure. B, German for B flat, from the mediaeval b rotundum, as opposed to b quadruvi, which in Germany is called h or H. Bar. The perpendicular lines across the stave to mark the measures began to come into use at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the staff notation ; but they had been used for more than a century previously in the tablatures. Morley, who died in 1604, is probably one of 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 placed on the middle line of the stave. Bass, the vocal part called bassus lying below the Plainsong, or Tenor, was of later invention than the Discant and Treble. Bass Clef, the name given to the F clef when, as in all modem music, it is placed on the fourth line of the stave. Bemol, the French for flat, as si banol, etc. B quadrum, Latin for B natural. Brcvis, our Breve, a note of double, and in mediaeval music three times, the value of the Semibreve ; it is now almost obsolete. B rotundum, Latin for B flat. 2-,8 Appendix B Cantus figuralls, the "figurated" counterpoint that accom- panied the melody of the Plainsong. Cantus firmus, Fixed song, Plainsong, the Gregorian melody on which early contrapuntal music was based. Cantus planus, Plainsong, generally known as Gregorian music. Chromatic, " coloured," a Greek form of scale in which certain degrees were altered in pitch. The word is used in modern music for a series of semitones, or for harmonies in which many accidentals occur. Clavichord, "keyed string," an instrument derived from the monochord, in which keys, instead of a plectrum, caused strings to sound. Since its strings were struck, it must not be confused with the harpsichord, of later invention, in which the strings were plucked. Clef, the " Key" letter placed at the beginning of every stave to unlock the secrets of its notes, according to old writers. Conjunct System, a series of seven scale degrees, containing two similar tetrachords having a sound in common, thus — e^g~a: B C D E Crochcta, the Crotchet, of one-third or one-half the value of the Minima ; it seems to have been invented by the Englishman Hamboys, about a.d. 1470. Purists objected that a note smaller than the smallest {itmiiina) could not e.xist. Diatonic, a scale proceeding chiefly by tones. Diaphony, Discord, i.e. all intervals except the octave, fifth, and fourth. Owing to the peculiarity of Pythagorean tuning, the major and minor thirds and sixths were reckoned among the diaphonies. Diese, the French for sharp, as C dicse, etc. Diesis, an interval smaller than a semitone. Direct, a sign formerly used at the end of a stave to indicate the position of the first note on the stave next below. Dis, properly speaking, the German for D sharp; but under the influence of the tablatures, in which each sound had only a single sign, Dis was used for E flat. In 1805 Beethoven's 239 Story of Notation Eroica symphony was announced on the programmes of two concerts at Vienna as "Sinfonie in Dis." Discantus, the part added above the Plainsong in the early days of Counterpoint. The soprano part is still called Diskant in Germany. Disjunct System. A series of eight scale degrees, having no sound in common, and embracing two similar tetrachords; our major scale fur nishe s an exa mple of a disjunct system — C^~E~F", g'a~B~C Dorian Octave, the sounds given by the white keys of the pianoforte from E to e. Boethius, however, and after him all the Church musicians, applied the name Dorian to the scale 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 with tails at each angle, some- times used for a semibreve in mediaeval times. Driven Notes, a term used by Playford and others for synco- pation. Enharmonic, a Greek form of tetrachord, in which the semi- tone was divided into quarter-tones. Expression Words were used in the tenth century by Romanus and others. They then entirely disappeared until the seventeenth century, since which period they have been constantly increasing in number. False Music, Feigned Music, Musica Ficta, Musica Inusi- tata, music in which certain intervals were raised or lowered by a semitone to suit the harmonic combinations. As these alterations produced sounds that were not given by the monochord, they were at first not written. False music embraces all flats except B flat, and all sharps. Fermata, see Pause. Fixed Sounds, in the Greek scale, those sounds which remained fixed in all the three genera — that is to say, the highest and lowest sounds of tetrachords, together with Proslambano- menos. Flat, the sign which shows that a note is to be lowered by a 240 Appendix B semitone. In Latin it is mollis, soft; in French, bt'mol\ in German, be ; showing in the two latter lanjjuages its connection with the note B flat, the only flat admitted in the early centuries of the Church. Free Rhythm, an ancient form of music, in which Latin prose was sung without being influenced by the measure of music. A modern example is found in the "Reciting Note" of the Anglican Chant. French Violin Clef, the name given to the G clef when it is placed on the middle line of the stave. Fusa, a name used in tablatures for the semiquaver. Guidonian Hand, a figure of the left hand, on which were placed the names of the scale degrees according to their hexachordal arrangement, and pointed to by the teacher of singing. The principle has been revived in the " Modu- lator" of the Tonic Sol-faists, the degrees of which are named by Guidonian syllables, and pointed out by the teacher. Gymel, twin song, an early form of part-singing in thirds and sixths, apparently only used in England. H, German for B natural, since the old form of square b was something like h. Harmony, in Greek meant a scale, such as the Dorian, Phrygian, etc. Heptachord, a scale succession of seven notes. Our descend- ing minor scale consists of the Heptachord of Terpander, completed by the addition of a note below it ; and this Heptachord contains two tetrachords. See Tetrachord. Hexachord, which must not be confounded with the Hepta- chord, consists of the first six sounds of the major scale, which were used in certain combinations by Guido of Arezzo to teach sight-singing. See page 79. Hoket, Hoquet, Hockctus, an ancient form of composition, in which the course of the melody was interrupted by frequent rests. Hypate, the "highest"— /..?., longest string of the Greek tetra- chord, and therefore the lowest sound. 241 R Story of Notation Imperfect Mood, Time, Prolation, the division of the longer notes into two of the next in value — i.e.. Duple measure. Kithara, an elaborate form of the lyre. Krouma, the accompaniment to a song, played by the lyre. Larga, a note containing nine longas, apparently invented by John Hamboys. It does not appear to have been much used. Legato. The slur, or legato sign took the place of the old ligatures early in the eighteenth century. Lichanos, the third string of the tetrachord, plucked with the forefinger. Ligature, a sign indicating that two or more scale degrees were to be sung to the same syllable. It has been replaced in modern notation by the " Bind" or " Slur," called in Italian Legato, from Ligaiura. Locrian or Common Octave, represented by the notes A to a of the pianoforte. . Longa, a note of three times (or double) the value of the Breve. Lydian Octave is represented by the modern C major scale. Boethius is responsible for miscalling the octave F toy" the Lydian mode. Maxima, a note of the value of three or two "longs." Measured Music, music measured according to the laws of metre and rhythm, as opposed to Gregorian music or Plainsong, in which the notes showed no measure. Of late years attempts have been made to give time-values to pure Gregorian notation, the varying forms of which are derived from the neumes, and not from measured music. Mese, the " middle" sound of the Greek musical system, the A to which we tune the violoncello. Mese was also used in the sense of the Gregorian Dominant, the note most used in melody, according to Aristotle. Some writers have seen in it a "keynote" in the modern sense; but the keynote should be more properly sought in Hypate. Mezzo-soprano Clef, the name given to the C clef when it is placed on the second line of the stave. 2X2 Appendix B Minima, our Minim, a note of one-third or of half the value of the Semibreve. It came into use in the thirteenth century, being mentioned by Walter Odington about 1275. Mixolydian Octave, the notes B to b. Boethius and the Church musicians, however, call G to^c^the Mixolydian mode. Monochord, an instrument in which a string was stretched over a scale of alphabetical letters. By placing a movable bridge, or a rod, under the string at the points indicated by the letters, the required sound could be produced. The monochord was for centuries used in teaching Plainsong and sight-singing. Mood, or Mode, time measurement of which the longa formed the basis. Mode is also used for Octave-system and Trope, as the Dorian mode. Motet, a form of composition whose modern English representa- tive is the Cathedral anthem. Movable Sounds, in the Greek scale those sounds which were altered to suit the different genera, as our "third" is altered to suit the major or minor mode. The second and third sounds of each tetrachord were movable (and are still in the Greek church), the first and fourth being fixed. Natural, the sign which originally stood for B natural, i.e. a square-shaped b\ afterwards used to restore a note that has been affected by a sharp or flat. The hexachord beginning on C was called itaturalc^ hence our C major key is called the "natural key." The natural is called in German quadrat, in French becati-e {b squared). Duple Rhythm began to be called " Natural Time " in the beginning of the sixteenth century. I I' Nete, the highest sound of tetrachords lying above Mese. Neume, or Neuma, a sign, equivalent to the Latin Nota. Notation, the art of representing musical sounds in writing, from Nota, a sign. Note properly signifies a written sign, indicating a sound ; but it is used of the sound itself, and hence of the key of an instrument, which produces the sound. Organisers, priests who travelled from church to church to sing the organum. 243 Story of Notation Organum, the earliest form of part-singing, in which the melody was sung by two or more voices at the interval of a fourth or fifth, as well as an octave. Parhypate, "next to the highest," the lowest sound but one of the Greek tetrachord. See Hypate. Pause. In Latin, German, Italian, this word means a Rest. In English it is used for the sign called in Italian Fermata, indicating that a note is to be held beyond its normal value. The Fermata sign is used by Playford on a full close, and is thus found in some music of the eighteenth / century. ^ Perfect Mood, Time, Prolation, time measurement by the division of the longer notes into three of the next in value, i.e. Triple measure. Phonetic Notation, any notation in which sounds are repre- sented by alphabetical letters, figures, or words. Pricksong, an English expression for measured music, which was " pricked " on the jaarchment by its composer. Proportion, an old term for time signature, referring to the arithmetical fractions placed at the beginning of the stave. Thus, the fraction $ means that the measure or bar is to the semibreve in the proportion of three to four ; or, in other words, the value of the bar is three-quarters that of the / semibreve. ^ Phrygian Octave, the octave from D to d of the pianoforte without black keys ; but Boethius and his successors applied the term " Phrygian mode" to the octave E to e. Pictorial Notation, any notation in which the rise and fall of melody is depicted by the higher or lower position of written signs, and time-value is represented by varying the shapes of the signs. Plainsong, a name for Gregorian music. Plectrum, an instrument used by the ancients to pluck the strings of the lyre, etc. In the harpsichord it is called a "Jack," and consists of a wooden upright to which a quill is attached, which acts on the string in the same way as the ancient plectrum. Plica, a kind of ligature used with the "liquid" letters of the alphabet, the sound of which was carried into that of the 244 / Appendix R succeeding syllable, as is sometimes heard in uneducated singing of the present day. Pneuma, a breathing, a breath ; used of passages in Plainsong which are sung with the breath only, and without words. Point. This word is used in many senses, a^. for notes, which were anciently called Points ; Point of Division, which altered the relative position of long and short notes ; Point of Perfection, which lengthened a note of two-time value to three-time ; Point of Addition, which had the same effect ; and Point of Demonstration, which is obscure, but seems to be a means of showing ritardaJido. Prolation, time measurement of which the breve formed the basis. Proprietas, or Propriety, the chief note of a ligature, which was long or short, according to its position with regard to the other notes, called Improprieties. Psalm, a song accompanied by the lyre, when the latter was played with the finger-tips instead of a plectrum. Psaltery, a mediaeval stringed instrument of the nature of the dulcimer. The name arises from the Psalterion, a kind of lyre played with the fingers. See Psalm. Proslambanomenos, the note "added" below the Heptachord of Terpander to complete the Octochord or Diapason. The Octochord thus formed became the " Common " scale of the Greek musical system, and was adopted as the basis of the Church system. When Latin alphabetical letters took the place of the old Greek names of sounds, Proslam- banomenos was called A, the Heptachord being named B, C, D, E, F, G, rt ; and the keyboards of organs, clavi- chords, etc., which were originally labelled with the letters, have retained this alphabetical nomenclature to the present day. The keyboards of early mediaeval organs commenced at B, Proslambanomenos, or A, being deemed a superfluous sound, and outside the range of tetrachords. Pycnon, "compressed," the three lowest sounds of the tetra- chord, whose intervals varied with the different genera. Quadruplum, a fourth part, added above the TripUim, or Treble, 245 Story of Notation Quavar was called in the old tablatures a semiminiin, and figured by an upright stroke with two crooks. Repetition Dots first appeared in the tablatures, whence they were imported into the staff* notation. Rest. The rests have scarcely varied their shape from the earliest times, but they are larger now than formerly. The modern " Double Bar " was originally a rest, showing the conclusion of a piece or a section. Semiminim, a name used in tablatures for the quaver. Score. Vertical lines were " scored " at various intervals through the great staves of twelve to twenty lines in the Middle Ages, to guide the eye ; and in more modern times, when a large number of vocal or instrumental parts began to be written on the same page, the bar-lines were " scored " through all the staves for the same purpose, the music thus written being called a " Score." Sharp, the sign which shows that a note is to be raised by a semitone. In Latin it is called Crux, a cross ; in German, Kreuz J in French, Ditse, from Diesis. It was originally a modification of the sqaare b, and gradually arrived at the shape familiar to us. Signature, signs placed at the beginning of the stave to indi- cate the rhythmical form, and the key. Time signatures appeared at a very early period in the form of circles, semicircles, etc., which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave way to numerals, the " broken circle " being- however retained for Duple rhythm. Key sig- natures began to appear in the sixteenth century, and were for a time somewhat ambiguous in their mean- Soprano Clef, the name given to the C clef when it is placed on the lowest line of the stave. Species of Octave or Tetrachord refers to the distribution of tones and semitones therein. In ecclesiastical music the species 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 lines on whirh musical notes are written. At the present day the stave of five lines is universal in all music except (uci^orian ; but for some centuries any number of lines from one to twenty- four were used, the writer frequently addinjj a new line when the melody overstepped those he had already drawn. Suspirium, "an apparent rest," according to llieronymus de Moravia; in reality, a breathing place. Symphony, a concord, i.e. the intervals of the octave, fifth, and fourth. In modern music the word Symphony is applied to the most important form of orchestral music. ■/ Tablature, a form of instrumental notation used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See Chapter IX. Tenor, the holding part, Plainsong or Gregorian melody, when used as a basis for contrapuntal compositions. Tenor Clef, the name given to the C clef when it is placed on , the fourth line of the stave. / Tetrachord, a scale or succession of four sounds embracing two tones and a semitone. Our major scale consists of two tetrachords superposed ; our minor descending scale also consists of two tetrachords, having a note in common and a note "added" below the lower tetrachord. See , Proslambanomenos, Heptachord. "^ Thesis, the down beat, or strong portion of a measure. y Time or Tcmpus, time measurement of which the semibreve formed the basis. Triplum, Treble, the third part, sung above the Discantus, which was above the Plainsong or Tenor. > Trite, the third string of the tetrachord, counting downwards; only applied to tetrachords lying above IVIese. Trope, the series of sounds of two octaves from A to ii., includ- ing b flat. The trope could be transposed to any pitch, and practically corresponded to our " Key." 247 Appendix C. Chronological Table of Notation. About B.C. 671 Between B.C. 671 and 600 B.C. 40S B.C. 403 Terpander adds a second tetiachord to the one already existing on the lyre, thus pro- ducing a heptachord ; and each string has a special name. The heptachord is extended by the addition of tetrachords, to a compass of two octaves, called the Greater Perfect System, and to a compass of eleven sounds, called the Lesser Perfect System.^ The instrumental notation invented (probably by Polymnastus of Colo- phon),2 by adapting part of the old Attic alphabet to the musical scale. Composition of the drama " Orestes," by Euri- pides, of whose music a few bars have been accidentally preserved, from a copy made in the time of Augustus. The neo- Ionic alphabet becomes legally estab- lished for official use at Athens ; and prob- ably about the same time its letters are applied to the musical scale as a vocal nota- tion, the old Attic letters being retained for instruments." Gevaert, La Mitsiijtie de V Antiqtiiti, vol, i. p. 125. R. Weslphal, Die Miis. des Gr. Alterlhums, p. 117. Westphal, loc. cit., p. 174. 248 Appendix C y About B.C. 300 The earliest existin^f treatise on Music written by Aristoxenus of Tarentum, in which the use of tables of notation, called catapycnosis, is condemned, because students are apt to think that the learning of the notation is the whole art of music.^ About B.C. 120 Composition of a " Hymn to Apollo," of which the notation and words have been discovered, engraved on stone, in the Treasury of the' Athenians at Delphi. Of this important composition about ninety bars in | time are sufficiently well preserved to be capable of performance with only a few unimportant restorations. About A.D, 100 A short hymn of this period has recently been discovered at Tralles, near Ephesus, en- graved on a marble pillar, set up by one Seikilos. It contains vocal notation with time and accent signs. About A.D. 117 Three hymns, to Calliope, Helios, and Nemesis, to 138 the first of which is attributed to Dionysius, the others to Mesomedes, two poets who lived under Hadrian. The MSS. with vocal notation, which are found in several Euro- pean libraries, are in sufficiently good pre- servation for performance. About A.D, 200 Alypius writes an " Introduction to Music," of which a portion is preserved, containing tables of the notation of the fifteen tropes in the three genera, forty-five tables in all. As he not only gives the forms of each instru- mental and vocal sign, but also describes them in words, his work is the most trust- worthy and complete authority in existence on the ancient notation. ' Aristoxenus, Stoicheia (Meibom.), pp. 38, etc. 249 Story of Notation At unknown dates, during the first few centuries of the Christian era. About A.D. 510 About A.D. 55: About A.D. 850 Hacchius Senior writes a catechism of music, using notation, both vocal and instrumental, to explain the intervals. Aristides Quintilianus, in a long treatise on music, gives several examples of the notation of Alypius, and another notation which he ascribes to the Pythagoreans. An unknown writer, usually referred to as " Anonymus," quotes many examples of vocal exercises in notation, and gives signs for rests, accents, long and short notes, staccato, legato, etc. This treatise is therefore very important. Gaudentius, a philosopher, writes an " Intro- duction," at the end of which he gives the notation of the Hypolydian, Hyperlydian, yEolian, and Hypoceolian tropes, in the Dia- tonic Genus only, agreeing with the tables of Alypius. Boethius, a philosopher and Roman Consul, writes a treatise on music, in which he quotes some of the Greek notation, but shows that it had gone out of use in his day. As nothing had j'et been invented to take its place, he uses Latin letters for reference, but in no regular order; hence a " Boethian notation " has been wrongly attributed to him. The Neumatic notation, in which Greek accents were used to show the rise and fall of the voice pictorially, appears to have begun about this time, under Byzantine influence. The Antiphonary of St. Gall was written, with complete Neumatic notation and expression signs. 250 Appendix C A.D. gooto looo About A.D. 990 A. D. 1000 to HOC Attempts were made by Hucbald, Odo of Tomieres, Hermann Contractus, and nuny others, to invent a more satisfactory notation than that of the neumes, by means of alpha- betical letters. Birth of Guido of Arezzo. The Montpellier Antiphonary was provided with alphabetical letters from a to k above the neumes. A manuscript, now in the Bod- leian Library, was provided with alphabetical letters, a Xq k above the words, and without neumes. A local system of seven lines, representing the seven sounds of Terpander's heptachord, and bearing dots for notes, seems to have been used about this time in Sicily. It, however, led to nothing. In the first decades of this century, Guido of Arezzo adopted the naming of sounds by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet, which system has continued to the present day. As Proslambanomenos was the lowest sound of the Greek system, he called it A, but a still lower sound, he called by the Greek letter Gamma. Hence the word Gamut for scale. He also drew parallel lines through the neumes, which lines became the staff of modern music ; and on each line he wrote a letter, called a clavis or clef. For teaching singing he used the well-known syllables, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, arranging them in hexachords, according to that order of sounds which was afterwards known as the major scale. The first half of the eleventh century, therefore, maybe said to have seen the birth of modern notation as regards its representation of intervals. Story of Notation A. D. I lOO I200 to A. D. 1 200 1300 to About 1250 1274 About 1275 A.D. 1300 1400 to Owing to the development of Organum into Discant, the necessity arose for measuring the relative length of sounds, as well as de- ciding their intervals. The Punctum of the neumes became both a square note, called a breve, and a lozenge, called a semibreve ; the virga was given a square head, and became a "long," equal to two breves. A notation for Triple Measure was invented by making the long contain three breves, and the breve three semibreves ; and the new valuation was called Perfect Measure, the older duple valuation being called Im- perfect. Rests were invented. False music began to be used. "Sumer is icumen in," composed by John of Reading. The date of "Ars Cantus Mensurabilis," by Franco of Cologne, is unknown ; it was perhaps between 1230 and 1250. Marchettus of Padua describes red notes as showing change of mood, or alteration of the normal value of the notes. The sharp, as well as chromatic passages are used by the same author. The minim invented by Walter Odington, monk of Evesham. A great number of treatises on Measured Music are written, of which Coussemaker prints forty. Appendix C A.D. 1321 1326 About 1413 / About 1470 1460 About 1475 1512 1529 Johannes de Muris, the Norman, uses alpha- betical letters instead of notes, on a four- lined stave. The "figure" of the semibreve much con- fused at this period. The circle, or three upright lines, to show triple measure, and the half-circle, or two upright lines, to show duple measure, seem to have come into use shortly before this date. At the same time musicians were not unanimous, some using letters, others circles enclosing lines, etc. An efifort to suppress semibreves and minims by a Papal Bull. Robert de Handlo endeavours to indicate false music by varying the position of the stems of notes. The "Direct" used at the end of each stave to show the first note of the following stave, by Prosdoscimus de Beledmandis. Conrad Paulmann invents the tablature for the lute described by Virdung in 1511. The crotchet described, and perhaps invented, by John Hamboys. John Hothby reduces the "points" or dots from four to two in number. Arnold Schlick publishes the first printed organ tablature book. Sebald Heyden, of Nuremberg, proposes to abolish the clefs. 253 Story of Notation A.D. 1538 1545 1558 About 1590 1597 About 1600 1638 1673 1677 1698 Introduction of Italian lute tablature into Spain by Narbaez. Pietro Aaron, in his Lucidario, leads the revolt against the threefold value of notes. Zarlino finds a knowledge of the old measure- ments called Mood, Time, Prolation, no longer necessary to the musician. Key signatures began to be used. Morley explains the old teaching regarding threefold note value, but says that the know- ledge of it is lost. The same author uses the expressions "so," " lo," for " soft " and " loud " in lute music. The bar-line began to come into use in the staff notation, after having been used in the tablatures for more than a century. Rise of figured bass. Lute books begin to show words of expression, as piano, forte, presto, adagio, together with the signs used for dimitiiietido and crescendo at the present day. Thomas Salmon, of Oxford, proposes to abolish the clefs. Souhaitty, of Paris, proposes to abolish notes in favour of numerals on the stave. Louli^ teaches the modern use of the natural to contradict sharps and flats. Previously a sharp had been used to contradict a flat, and a flat to contradict a sharp, the natural being only used for B quadnuit. 254 Appendix C About A. D. 1700 The square and lozenge notation was rapidly giving way to the oval and round-headed notes of the present day. Appearance of the staccato sign in the works of Couperin, J. S. Bach, and others. The nineteenth edition of Playford's " Intro- duction" refers to the running together of the crooks of a succession of quavers (in the modern method) as " the new tyed note." Mattheson proposes the modern form of the double sharp. J. J. Rousseau endeavours to carry out Sou- haitty's proposal to abolish notes. Adlung says that indicating triple appearing. the circle with a dot, measure, is rapidly dis- Jacob, a Frenchman, proposes to abolish the clefs, and to use figures for notes. The treatise on Counterpoint, of Martini, pub- lished, with the old square notation, and ligatures ; probably their last use, except in plainsong. C. P. E. Bach gives a doubled G clef in the flute part in his oratorio Die Israeliten in dct IViiste, to show that two flutes are to play from the same stave. The Abbe de Cassagne proposes to abolish all clefs e.xcept G. 255 Story of Notation About A. D. 1790 1792 1818 1845 The soprano clef began to be given up in favour of the (i clef, for the treble part of English anthems. Rohleder, a German, endeavours to abolish the names of notes for piano music by giving black notes to black keys, and white notes to white keys ; a new keyboard being invented to suit the notation. Galin, of Bordeaux, invents a method of teach- ing the notation by numerals, the system now used in the elementary schools of France. Miss Sarah Glover publishes her invention of the Tonic Sol-fa notation. 256 Inde X. A MINOR, key of, 31 Aaron, Pietro, Lucidm-io, 136 Abyssinians, 11 Accents, 50-52 Accidentals, 119, 140; rules not yet fixed, 142 Adlung, 176 /Eolian trope, 36 Agricola, 148, 149; organ tabla- ture, 151 ; viol tablature, 151, 15s Alphabetical notation from A to S, 63 Altus or alto, 139 Alypius, 3, 30; notation tables, 33 and 35, 135 Ambrosian hymns, 43 Amerbach's tablatiire-book, 152 Ancus, 60 Anonymus (Bellermann's), 37-40 No. 4 (Coussemaker's), 135 No. 7 (Coussemaker's), 107 Antiphonary, 44 ; composition of, 45 ; Guido's, 87 Apostropha, 60; of Greek Church, 194 Archytas, 22 Aristides Quintilianus, 3, 19 note, 30, 36, 48 Aristotle, Pseudo, 114 Aristoxenus, 16, and note : enhar- monic, 23 ; oclave-species, 26 ; compass of voices, 30 ; on nota- tion, 33 Arius, 42 Armenians, 1 1 Arsis and thesis, 137 B FLAT, origin of, 9, 76 B quadratum or quadrum, 1 14, 115, 140 ; used as a clef, 141 B rotundum, 114, 115, 140 ; used as a clef, 141 Each, y. S., peculiar use of G clef, 187" Back fall, 157 Bands, medieval, 147 Bar, first use of the word, 173, note Bar-lines, 134; in the tablatures, 149, 173, 174 Baritone clef, 173 Basso continuo, 1S3 Bassus or bass, 139 Beat, 137, 138; an ornament, 157 Becarre, II7 Bede, 45 Beldemandis, Prosdoscimus de, 133, 134 Bergamo, Cerone di, III; use of accidentals, 142, 160 257 Story of Notation Black notes to indicate diminution, 139; syncopation, 180 Blind, notation for the, 212 Boethian notation, 3, 47, 63, 67 Boethius, 3 and note, 27, 29, 46 Breton peasants, music of, \^2,note Brevis or Ijreve, 95, 97, 138 ; " the mother of all other notes," 137 ; in tablature, 148 Brevis altera, 98; erecta, 119; recta, 97, 100, 108 Bryennius, 193 Bull acjainst innovations, 127 Byzantines, 1 1 C CLKF, 165 C used as a time signature, 176 Q,?iCC\Vi\ % Eiirydice, 174, 181, 1S3 Canto fermo, unmeasured, 136 Cantus compositus, 92 ; firmus, planus, figuralis, floridus, 91, 161 ; organicus, 1 13; mensura- bilis, 113 ; per medium, 92 Caresana's music unbarred, 174 Caserta, Philip of, 132, 133 Cassagne, Abbe of, proposes to re- duce the number of clefs, 202 Castle's notation, 212 Calapycnosis, a table of notation, 33 ; revived, 62 Cephalicus, 60 ; becomes the plica, lOI Chaldeans, i Chest of viols, 15S Chiave di violino, 172 Chinese, 2, 1 1 Chords used by the Greeks, 17, 18 7tote Chromatic genus, 3 ; three kinds, 24 ; falls out of use, 39 Chrf)matic stave, 209 Chronos protos and medixval rhythm, 107 Circle, empty, 133; of keys, 143; as time signature, 176 Clausula or close, 1 17 Clavichord, 148 Claviere's notation, 206 Clefs, 83,93; in taV)latures, 151 ; modern names of, 171 ; various forms of, 171 ; proposed aboli- tion of, 199 Cleonides, 9; description of modes, 28 Climacus, 56 ; becomes a liga- ture, 102 Ciivis or clinis, 56, 59 Colour, no, 112 Coloured lines, 84; notes, 131 Common time, 178 Conductus, 124 Confusion of tropes and modes, 27, 28 Conjunct system, 9; tetrachord, 35 Contrapunctusor counterpoint, 91 ; much cultivated in England, 112 Couperin's inverted pause sign, 190 Coussemaker, iii, 120 Craig's notation, 209 Crocheta, crotchet, invented by llamboys, 120, 138 Croma, 178 Crouma, an instrumental prelude, 43 . Crousis, the ancient accompani- ment, 17, note Cruce, Petrus de, 120 Crux, H7, 119, 140 Curwen, John, 216 Danei/s notation, 208 David and Lussy, 4, 47, 207 De Harmonica de Institiitiotie, 62 Delcamp's notation, 207 2?8 Ind ex Delphic Hymn to Apollo, 27 and note, 39 Demotz, Abbe, proposes to sup- press the staff, 202 Diaphony, the ancient term for discord, 18 iiole, 65 Diastematic or pictorial notation, II Diatonic, 3 ; of Polymnastus, 21 ; middle soft, 22 Diese, 117 Diesis, 22 ; notation of, 23 ; a medicEval term for the sharp, 117 Direct, 133, 139 Discantus, discant, 91, 94, 107, 109; extempore, 146; terra for soprano voice-part, 139; applied to viol, 158; to flute, 159 Disjunct system, 9 Distropha, 60 Division of mood, 97 ; is the origin of the bar-line, 98 Dorian alphabet used fornotation, 15 Dorian tetrachord, 8 ; harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 35 Dot after a note, 133 ; of per- fection, 149 ; of repetition, 151; peculiar use of, 174 Dots or points used to indicate fingering, 157, 161 Double bar, 176 Double flat, 144 Double long, 96 Double sharp, 143 Double-tailed notes, 133 Dragma, 124, and note Driven notes, 175 Dufay uses open notes to save time, 181 Dutch Reformed Church, iSl E FLAT, mollis, 115, 140 Early English Harmony, 165, 167 Early line notation, 69 Eastern Church, and scale of twelve semitones, 139; music of, 192 Egyptians, i Eitner's rules for false music, 141 Enharmonic genus, 3, 22 ; falls out of use, 39; notation of, 23-25 Epigoneion, 8, 16 Epiphonus, 60 ; becomes the plica, lOI Equal temperament, 20, and tioU ; known to the Greeks, 36 Expression signs, 53, 1S7, 189; in tablatures, 15S Extempore discant, 147 F NOTATION, 62, 67 False music, feigned music. See Musica falsa Fauxbourdon, Faburden, 91 Fermata, 177 Fetis's criticism of Galin's notation, 206 Figures, an ancient term for notes, 95 Figured bass, 183 Fixed sounds, 20, 23, 32 Flat used to contradict a sharp, 1 1 7 Florid chant, 46 Flute prohibited in early church. Foot, in poetry, 138 Franco of Cologne, 91-106, 114, 119 Free rhythm, 53, lOo French and Italian notation, dis- agreements between, 131, 134 French names of notes, 177 Fusa, in tablature, 149 Fux, Gradus ad Parnassum, i8t 259 Story of Notation G CLBK used for tenor voices, 173 G clef doubled, 173 Galin's notation, 204, 213 Galin-Paris-Cheve, 212, 213 Gamut, 61, 81 Gardano, Antonio, organ tahlature, 160 Garlandia, Joh. de, 107, 108, 114 Magister de, 113 Gaudentius, 43, 91 General-bass, 183 Gerle's tablature, 153 German nomenclature, peculiarities of. 153 . Glover, Miss, 213 Gothic notation, 57, 58 Grace notes in tablatures, 151 Gradual, composition of, 45 Greek Church, notation of, 191, 193. .194 Greek instruments, 6 etseq.: names of strings, 12-14, ^"'i '7 i^olc ; vocal notation, 31 ; music and character, 25 ; time-signs, 36 ; solmisation, 40 Greek music adapted to use of early church, 42 Greek notation, unorthodox kind of, 47 Greeks, 2, 1 1 ; only sang in octaves or unison, 17; used chords in accompanying voices, 17 ; had no sign indicating the flat, 23 and 35 ; used circle of twelve keys, 36 ; practised scales down- wards, 48 Gregorian music, II, 43 ; composi- tion of, 45 Gregory the Great, 44 ; did not favour music, 45, 63 Guido of Arezico, 4, 62, 72, 89 ; rules for unknown song, 73, 113, 193 Guidonian hand, 80, 87 ; principle applied to tablature, 154 Guilielmus, the monk, explains the ligatures, 104 Gymel, 92, 113 Hamhoys, Hanboys, 120, 121 Ilandlo, Robert de, 119, 120 Harmony, the ancient term fur mode, 25, 26 llatherley, 191, 195 Hebrews, i Hermann, Contractus, 67 Hexachords, Guidonian, 77-79; principles of, revived, 216 Heyden's suggestion to abolish clefs, 199 Hieronymus de Moravia, 107 Hindoos, 2, 1 1 Hoketus or hoket, 123, 124, 128 Hothby, John, 135 Hucbald, 65, 67, 106 Hypate, 12 Hyperceolian, 36 Hyperiastian trope, 36 Hyperlydian trope, 35 Hyperphrvgian trope in Delphic hymn, 39 HypoKolian trope, 36 Hypodorian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 35 Hypolydian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 31, 35 Hypophrygian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 35 Iastian trope, 36, 40 Imperfect measure, 95 ; mood, 125, 127 Incompetent singers, 73, 122 Intervals, notation by, 68 Instans, 107 Ison, 194, 216 260 Index Italian names of notes, 177 lue's notation, 206 Jacob proposes to abolish clefs, 202 Jews, 1 1 John the Deacon, 44 Judenkunig, 161 Kircher's time signatures, 180 Kithara, 8 Kreuz, 117 Labatut's proposed notation, 203 Larga or large, 120, 138 Legato sign, origin of, 108, 190 Leger .lines, 164, 183 Legrenzi, 180 Levatio, 137 Lichanos, see Greek names of strings; flattened, 21 ; omitted, 22 Ligature, 59, 95, lOl et seq., 120 Liquescents, 60 I>ocke, Matthew, 200 Locrian or common trope, 16, 29 Longa or long, 95, 97, 98 ; recta, 95, 108 ; originally equalled two breves, 107 ; dupla or super- abundans, no; duplex, 120 Loulie teaches modern use of accidentals, 143 Low and high strings (Greek theory), 12 Lozenge-shaped notes, 149, 180 Lundie's notation, 208 Lute, 158 Lydian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 3S> 39j 40 ; notation, 46 Lyre, 8 ; prohibited in churches, 43 26 Mace's tablaturc, 154; curious names in, 158 Magadis, 7 et seq., 15 Major and minor seniibrcvcs, 100, lOI Marchettus of Padua. See Padua Martini's counterpoint, in, i8i Maxima, 135, 136, 137 Meeren's notation, 210, 212 Meibomius, 3 Meistersingers, 112 Melody, Greek rules of, 37, 51 Mersennus tablatures, 157 Mese. See Greek names of strings Metrical music, 136 Mi fa, n7, 188 Minima or minim, origin of, 98, 114, 124, 12S, 13S, 145; in tablature, 149 Minnesingers, 112 Miserere of Allegri, anecdote of, 219 Mitcherd's notation, 208 Mixis, the ancient harmony, 18, note Mixolydian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 35 Mode, 25 Modern time signatures, explana- tion of, 178 Mollis, 115 Monochord, 61, 75, 115, 147 Monte C?issino, 85 Montpellier MS., 64, 70 Moods, 94, 106, 108, 109, 125, 126, 134, 135; abolished, I37> 177; "sed for prolalion, 176 Morley, Thomas, ni, 136; re- marks on French performers, 152 Motet, motectus, 128, 131 Movable sounds, 18-20, 32 Story of Notation Muris, Johannes de, the Norman, 121 Muris, Johannes de, of Paris, 121 Musica EnchiHadis, 67, 106 Musica falsa, ficta, inusitata, 114, 115. 117, 119, 131. 140, 145; fracta, 123 note; mensurabilis, 91. 93; plana, 91 Mustek's Rlonu7nent, 154 Natorp's notation, 204 Natural propriety, 113 Nete. See Greek names of strings Neumes, 4, 46 Neumes, 11, 53, 54 ; in a Virgil MS., 52 New notations, 196 et seq. Nicomachus, 3 Nomes, 2, note Nonantolian notation, 82 Norwich Sol-fa, 215 Nota, I ; brevior, brevissima, longior, longissima, 107 Notation a Points superpose's, 81 Notation, Greek, 39 ; absence of, in early church, 44 ; enharmonic and chromatic, 25 ; of Greek Church, 52 ; of mixed Latin and Greek alphabets, 63 OcTAVK species, 25 Odington, Walter, 113, 114 Odo of Tomieres, 67, 106 Olympus, 17, 22 Open notes introduced, 137 Oresles, fragment of music of, 40 Organisers, no Organ music on staves called tablature, 160 Organum, 65, 93, 94, no Oriscus, 60 Ornamental signs, 189 I PACHYMfeRE, 193 I Padua, Marchettus of, 130, 131 I Paleographie Miisicale, 58, 70, Paramese becomes B natural, 76 i Paranete. See Greek names of I strings I Paulmann, Conrad, 154; his tab- lature, 155 Pause, sign of, 176 Perfect measure, 95 Perfect mood, 125, 127 Perfection, Franco's definition of, 99, 136 Perfection, with and without, 104 Persians, 2 Pes or podatus, 56, 59 Pes cornutus, 60 Philip of Vitry. See Vitry Phonetic notation, 1 1 Phrygian harmony, 26, 29 ; trope, 35 ; used in Delphic hymn, 39; in Pindar's ode, 40 Pictorial or diastematic notation, II Pindar, music of, 40 Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society, 71, 165 Plato's references to music, 17, note Play ford, 175 Plica, loi, 102, no Plicated semibrevc, 120, 124 Plutarch's description of chords, 17, and note Pneuma, 53, 54 Podatus, 56 Point, of addition, of demonstra- tion, of division,' 132; of per- fection, 97, 99, 132 Points simplified by Italians, 134 Pollux, list of instruments, 7 Polymnastus, 21 262 Index Porrectus, 56, 59 ; becomes a ligature, 102 Positio, 137 Power, Lionel, 185, 7iote Pressus, 60 Pretorius, 176 Prick, a name for note, 157 ; of perfection, 99, 175 Prolation, 127, 133; described, 134, 135; abolished, 137; major and minor, 139 Proportion, 177, 182 Propriety, 102, 103, 113 Prose words sung by early Christians, 44 Proslambanomenos, 9, 15, 20, 35 Prudentius, 43 Psalmos, Psalmody, Psalterion, Psalm, Psaltery, 7 Psalms, 2, note Ptolemy, Claudius, 3, 36 Punctum, 56, 59, 93, 149 Pycnon, 25, 31, 34 Pythagoras, 19, note Pythagoreans, 22, 90 Pythagorean notation, 19, note Quadrat, 117 Quadruplum, 110 Quarter-tones, 22 Quaver, 138 Quavers, tied together, 176 Quilisma, 60 Ragas, 2, note Rameau, Pikes de Clavecin, iSl Ratios, 19, note Raymond, exposes faults of pro- posed innovations, 201 Recitative, dry and accompanied, Red notes, 131 Repetition signs, 176, 177 Rests, 104, 105, 108, 109, IJ2 Rhyme introduced by early Christians, 44 Rhythm, Creek, 37 Ricmann, II., 4, 106, 1 13 Rohleder invents new keyboard and notation, 203 Romanian letters, 53, 187 Rondels, 112, 131 Rousseau, J. J., 201 Russian ritual books, 193 St. Ambrose, 42 St. Gall, 52 Salicus, 56 ; becomes a ligature, 102 Salisbury, John of, 128 Salmon invents new clefs, 200, 210 Sarum Gradual, 165 Scandicus, 56, 59 Schlick, Arnold, 149 Score, vocal, at first written on a single large staff, 165 Semibreves or semibreve, 95, 100, 12S, 138; division of, 124; in tablature, 148 Semibreves minoratre, 120, 121 Semicroma, 178 Semilonga, 120 Semiminim, in tablature, 149 Semiquaver, 138 Semitones, twelve in the octave, re-established, 139 Senza cembalo, 185 Shake, 157 Sharp used to contradict a flat, 117, 143; not admitted in plain- song, 140 Sign of perfection, 97 Signature (of key), 141 ; pecu- liarities of, 142, 186 263 Story of Notation Simikion, 7 Sineminis, De, a nicdixval term for sharps, 1 19 Solesnics, monks of, 54, 57, 58 Solmisation, Greek, 40; modern, 78 Soprano clef, falls out of use in England, 172 Sotades, 42 Souhaitty uses numerals for notes, 20 1 Southern Indians, 20 Southern Italy, vibrato of singers in, 20 Spadaro, John, 136 Speculatione Mtisiar, De, 1 1 3 Speculum Mttstcic, 121 Spur-money, Si Square notation, 57, 58, 121, 180 Staccato sign, 190 Staff, invention of, 83 ; of four lines, 164 : of five, six, seven, eight, thirteen, and fifteen lines, 168; of twenty-four lines, 167 Staff (Great) of eleven lines, 169 Stott's notation, 210 Striby's universal notation, 207 Stroke or beat, 138 Strophicus, 60 Strozzio's music unbarred, 174; proportions, 183 " Sumer is icumen in," 86, 112 Suspirium, suspiratio, 107, 109 Symphony, the ancient term for perfect concord, 18 nole, 65 Syncope, syncopation, 132, 138 Systems (Greek), 9 Tablaturr, 134, 140; description of, 145 et sec/.; for stringed instruments, 158; Italian lute, 159; introduced into Spain, 160, 161 ; for wind instruments, 159; decay of, 162; disadvan- tages of, 162 Tailed notes, 130, 131 Tasto solo, 185 Tavolatura, tabolatura. See Tablature Tempo, rules for, in the tenth cen- tury, 106 Tenor, 91, 109, 139 Terpander, 9, 17, 70 Tetrachord, 18, 19 ; modern com- pared to ancient, 116 ; of modern Greek music, 191 Thelwall's notation, 211 Theodosius closes pagan schools, 43 Thorough bass, 183 Time, 93, 107, 126, 134, 135; abolished, 137 Time signatures, inconsistencies in, 181 Time-signs, Greek, 38 Timetables, mediaeval, 135, 139 Tone, a term applied in various ways, 30 ; tones of Aristoxenus, 30 ; indivisible, 1 53 Tonic Sol-fa, 11, 163 Tonic Sol-fa notation, 11, 163, 216, 217 Torculus, 56 ; becomes a ligature, 102 Trabercus, Passion music, ill, 180 Transposition, 27 Treble, origin of term, no, uo!e ; clef, 159 Trinity, doctrine of, applied to notation, 145 Triplum, no, 128 Tristropha, 60 Trite. See Greek names of strings; also p. 115 264 Index Trope, 25, 26, 27, 115; tropes usedfor instruments, 39 ; reduced to one only, 61 Troubadours, 112; used square notation, 146 Tyes or holds, 175 Ultra mensuram, loS Venosa, Principe di, barred his niMsic, 174 Violin clef, Schliissel, 171 Virdung, 14S, 149; lulc tablalurc, 154 Virga or virgula, 56, 58, 59, 9} Vitry, Philip of, 131 Wai.lis, 3 Weslphal's phrase signs, 190 Zarlino, htilutioni armonichc, 136 ( U^4^VE4^^:■^l' < THE END. The next volume in this Series will be THE STORY OF THE ORGAN. BY C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS, M.A., MUS. BAC. THE WALTER SCOTT I'UBLISHING CO., LTD., NK\VCASTl.K-ON-TVNE. ^ ^ y ^ /i ML431.W5 '^. % C037344936 U.C BERKELEY LIBRARIES %. DATE DUE % Music Library University of California at Berkeley J" ■%. \ .^^ ^ '^o^