Critical and Historical Essays / Lectures delivered at Columbia University

caused the Gregorian chant to be taught to the exclusion of all other music. Although Notker, in the monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, and

studies in notation, he was the first to improve the notation by introducing a system of line

llowed to be played or sung together, he was influenced partly by the mysticism of his age, and partly by a blind adherence to the remnants of musical theory which had been handed down from the Greeks. As Franco of Cologne, later (1200), in systematizing rhythm into measure, was influenced by the idea of the Trinity in making his or time tempus perfectum, and adopting for its symbol the Pythagorean c

sion of the scale, making thirds and sixths dissonant intervals; and so his perfect chord (from wh

the Greek tone system somewhat by arranging it

ng T for tone and S for semitone between the lines of his staff, it was only necessary to change the order of these letters for the octave at the beginning of each line. With the fourth, however, this device was impossible, and there

y an occasional third, which graduall

an end. In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris there is a manuscript containing the prophecy which ha

ID

text

shall be destroyed and the glory of the moon shall die, the mountai

h had been oppressing Christendom, that even the church reflected it in such stra

to the altar, the girl tethered the ass to the railing and sat on the steps until the service was finished. The Credo, Gloria, etc., all ended with a "hee-haw," and at the conclusion of the service the off

s countries is very evident when we remember the description of the "Abbot of Unreason," in Scott's "Abbot." In England, among other absurdities such as the "Pope of Fools," the "B

me common property for a time, with this difference, however, that the common people could carry the tunes away with them, and the music would be the only thing remaining as a recollection of the carnival. Indeed, the prevalence of popular songs soon became such that writers of church music began to use them instead of thei

been changed to dances in the hands of the common people. Even in these dances it is interesting to note that the same symbolic signif

or and minor. The fifth was retained as a consonant, but the fourth was passed over in silence by the French school of writers, or classed with the dissonants. Successive fifths were prohibited as being too harshly dissonant, but successive fourths were necessarily permitted, as it would be an impossi

ience of counterpoint came into exist

ctave in preference to the third and sixth. He called his system an "organum" or "diaphony," and to sing according to his rules was called to "organize" or "organate." We must remember that at that time fourths and fifths were not always indicated in the written music; only the melody, which was called the principal or subject. By studying the rules prescribed for the organum, the singers could add the proper intervals to the melody. We must keep in mi

by a strict adherence to the melodic structure of th

00), owing to the tendency to discard consecutive fourths and fifths, the intermovement of the voices, from being parallel and oblique, became contrary, thus avoiding the parallel succession of intervals. The name "organum" was dropped and the new system became known as tenor and descant, the tenor being the principal or foundation melody, and the descant or descants (for there could be as many as there were parts or voices to the music) taking the place of the organum. The difference between discantus and diaphony was that the latter consisted of several parts or voices, which, however, were more or less exa

urth and fifth entirely, except in the first and last bars. This innovation has been ascribed to the Flemish singers attached to the Papal Choir (about 1377), when Pope Gregory XI returned from Avignon to Rome. In the British Museum, however, there are manuscripts dating from the previous century, showing that the faux bourdon had already commenced to make its way against the old systems of Hucbald and Guido

rmitted, a license not allowed in the use of fifths or octaves. This leads us directly to a consideration of the laws of counterpoint and fugue, laws that have remained practically unchanged up to the present, with the one difference that, instead of being

re melodies being sometimes sung simultaneously, in accordance with certain fixed rules, as I have already explained. These melodies or chants were often accompanied by the organ, of which we will speak later. The second type was purely instrumental, and served as an accompaniment for the dance, or consisted of fanfares (c

sonances were used even up to 1500 is proved by Franco Gafurius of Milan,

s first mentioned

enor or cantus firmu