''Musica enchiriadis'' is an

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

musical

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

of the 9th century. It is the first surviving attempt to set up a system of rules for

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

in western art music. The treatise was once attributed to Hucbald, but this is no longer accepted.Hoppin, Richard H. ''Medieval Music''. Norton, 1978, pp.188-193. Some historians once attributed it to Odo of Cluny (879-942).Finney, Theodore M. A History of Music. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935, p. 61 It has also been attributed to Abbot Hoger (d. 906).Wright, Craig and Simms, Bryan. Music in Western Civilization. Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010, p. 52 This

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

treatise, along with its companion text, '' Scolica enchiriadis'', was widely circulated in medieval

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s, often in association with

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...

' '' De institutione musica''.Erickson, Raymond. "Musica enchiriadis, Scholia enchiriadis". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. London: Macmillan, 2001. It consists of nineteen chapters; the first nine are devoted to

notation In linguistics and semiotics, a notation system is a system of graphics or symbols, Character_(symbol), characters and abbreviated Expression (language), expressions, used (for example) in Artistic disciplines, artistic and scientific disciplines ...

, modes, and

monophonic Monaural sound or monophonic sound (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduce sou ...

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive for ...

. Chapters 10-18 deal with

polyphonic music Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice (monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (h ...

. The author here shows how

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

intervals should be used to compose or

improvise Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

the type of early-medieval polyphonic music called

organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the sam ...

, an early style of note-against-note polyphony; several examples of which are included in the treatise. (''Scolica enchiriadis'' also observes that some melodies should be sung "more quickly" (''celerius''), others "more slowly" (''morosius'').) The nineteenth chapter of ''Musica enchiriadis'' relates the legend of

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

. The scale used in the work, which is based on a system of

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...

s, appears to have been created solely for use in the work itself, rather than taken from actual musical practice. The treatise also uses a very rare system of notation, known as Daseian notation. This notation has a number of figures which are rotated ninety degrees to represent different pitches. A critical edition of the treatises was published in 1981, and an English translation by Raymond Erickson in 1995.

References

External links

* * Link t
colour images of the MS of the text (V-CVbav pal. lat. 1342)
available via the University of Heidelberg's site. * Link t
colour images of the MS of the text (D-Msb Clm 14372)
available via the Bavarian State Library. {{Authority control 9th-century books Music theory Musical scales Polyphonic form Medieval music manuscript sources

See also

References

External links