The ''Corpus mensurabilis musicae'' (CMM) is a collected print edition of most of the sacred and secular vocal music of the late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

period in western music history, with an emphasis on the central

Franco-Flemish The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition originating from France ...

and Italian repertories. CMM is a publication of the

American Institute of Musicology The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern editio ...

, and consists of 109 series (individual volumes or sets of volumes) as of 2007. Renowned composers whose works have appeared in other collected editions, such as

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de V ...

, and

Orlande de Lassus Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlui ...

, are generally excluded from the set. Many of the series are devoted to works of a single composer, and in some cases they are organized into sub-volumes because of their size (for example, "Volume 1" contains the works of

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474) was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of h ...

; it actually consists of 6 separate bound volumes, separately containing

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

es, mass fragments, other liturgical music, and secular songs). Other series contain anthologies and contents of

codices The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

and manuscripts, documents which typically compile the work of many composers: for example, series 46 has the complete Old Hall Manuscript of music from early 15th-century England, and series 85 has the six anonymous

L'homme armé "L'homme armé" () is a secular song from the Late Middle Ages, of the Burgundian School. According to Allan W. Atlas, "the tune circulated in both the Mixolydian mode and Dorian mode (transposed to G)." It was the most popular tune used for mus ...

masses from

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. Most of the editions are prefaced by biographical notes as well as notes on the transcriptions. The work was begun by Armen Carapetyan, who founded the American Institute of Musicology in 1944; work on CMM began in 1947, and continues to the present day, with the volumes continually being updated and reissued. After Carapetyan's death in 1992, Gilbert Reaney and Frank D'Accone became co-editors; after Reaney's death in 2008 and until his death in 2022 D'Accone was the sole editor. Other related publications of the American Institute of Musicology include the '' Corpus of Early Keyboard Music'' (CEKM), the '' Corpus scriptorum de musica'' (CSM), containing editions of writings about music by early music theorists, and the '' Musica Disciplina'' (MD), which publishes current scholarly work on early music.

References

CMM Home
Project description and volume contents, from the American Institute of Musicology web site (archived). * Sydney Robinson Charles, ''A Handbook of Music and Music Literature in Sets and Series''. Schirmer Books, New York, 1972. No ISBN.

External links

{{portal bar, Classical music, Music Music anthologies Renaissance music Medieval music manuscript sources