Critical and Historical Essays - Edward MacDowell (most important books to read txt) 📗

modern clefs (clavis or key) originated, for the C clef, as it is called, gradually changed its shape to [illustration] and [illustration], and the F clef changed to [illustration], which is our bass clef in a rudimentary form.

Later, still another line was added to the set, thus giving us our modern staff, and another clef, [illustration], was added on the next to the lowest line. This, in turn, became our present treble clef, [G:]. In the course of time the signs themselves underwent many changes, until at last from [Podium], etc., they became our modern signs.

Before this, however, a grave defect in the notation had to be remedied. There was as yet no way of designating the length of time a note was to be sustained; something definite in the way of noting rhythm was necessary. This was accomplished by Franco of Cologne, in the beginning of the thirteenth century. By disconnecting the parts of the sign [Podium] one from another, the following individual signs were acquired [illustration of Podium broken into three pieces]. In order to have two distinct values of length, these signs were called longs and shorts, longa [illustration], and brevis [illustration], to which was added the brevis in another position [illustration], called semibrevis. The longa was twice the value of the brevis, and the semibrevis was half the length of the brevis ([L B B B S S]). When notes of equal length were slurred, they were written [illustration]. When two or more notes were to be sung to one syllable in quicker time, the brevi were joined one to the other [illustration], as for instance in the songs of the thirteenth century,


DIRGE FOR KING RICHARD'S DEATH

GAUCELM FAIDIT.

[Illustration]
[W: Fortz chose est que tot le maur major dam]


ROI THIBAUT DE NAVARRE (1250).

[Illustration]
[W: Si li dis sans de laies | Belle diex vous doint bon jour]

or, in modern style,

[G: g' a' b' c'' (d'' c'') (b' a' g') |
a' b' (c'' b') (b' a' g') (a' b') g']

In this example we find the first indication of the measuring off of phrases into bars. As we see, it consisted of a little stroke, which served to show the beginning of a new line, and was not restricted to regularity of any kind except that necessitated by the verse.

The use of the semibrevis is shown in the following chanson of Raoul de Coucy (1192):

[Illustration]
[W: Quant li rossignol jolis | chante
Seur la flor d'este | que n'est la rose et le lis]

[G: d'' (c'' a') b-' (a' (g' f')) g' (a' b-' a' f') f' | f' g'
a' (b-' a') (c'' d'' c'' b-') (a' g') a' |
d'' (c'' a') b-' a' (g' f') g' (a' (b-' a') f') f']

The French troubadours and the German minnesingers of the thirteenth century used these forms of notes only, and even then restricted themselves to two kinds, either the longa and brevis, or brevis and semibrevis.

The necessity for rests very soon manifested itself, and the following signs were invented to correspond to the longa, brevis, and semibrevis [illustration]. Also the number of note symbols was increased by the maxima or double longa [illustration], and the minima [illustration], which represented half the value of the semibrevis.

Now that music began taking a more definite rhythmic form than before, a more regular dividing off of the phrases became necessary. This was accomplished by the use of a dot, and another form, the perpendicular line, which we have noticed in the song of the King of Navarre (1250). At first a means to indicate triple time was invented, and the measure corresponding to our [9/8] was indicated by placing the sign [O.] at the beginning of the line. This was called perfect. Then, for plain triple time the dot was omitted [O]; for [6/8] time the sign [C.] was adopted, and for ordinary common time [C] was taken. Consequently, when these signs were placed at the beginning of the line they changed the value of the notes to correspond to the time marked. Thus in [O.] (tempus perfectum, prolatio major) or [9/8], the brevis was reckoned worth three semibrevi [B S S S] ([1. 4. 4. 4.]); the semibrevis three minimi [S M M M] ([4. 8 8 8]). In [O] or [3/4] time [B S S S] ([2. 4 4 4]); but the semibrevis was only as long as two minimi [S M M] ([4 8 8]). In [C.] or [6/8] time [B S S] ([2. 4. 4.]), but [S M M M] ([4. 8 8 8]). In [C] or [2/2] time [B S S] ([1 2 2]), and [S M M] ([2 4 4]).

In the beginning of the fifteenth century the notes began to be written in an open form

[Illustration] Maxima.
[Illustration] Longa.
[Illustration] Brevis.
[Illustration] Semibrevis.
[Illustration] Minima.
[Illustration] Semiminima, which was added later.

As still smaller units of value were added, the semiminima was replaced by [filled minima], and the half semiminima thus became [minima with tail], and the next smaller values, [two tails] and [three tails]. The rest to correspond to the semiminima was [illustration]; for the semibrevis [illustration], and minima [illustration].

Thus we have the following values and their corresponding rests:

Maxima [Illustration]
Longa [Illustration]
Brevis [Illustration]
Semibrevis [Illustration]
Minima [Illustration]
Semiminima or crocheta [Illustration]
Fusa or crocheta [Illustration]
Semifusa [Illustration]

The rests for the fusa and semifusa were turned to the left in order to avoid the confusion that would ensue if the rest [illustration] stood for [fusa]. Besides, the sign would have easily become confused with the C clef [illustration].

Signs for the changes of tempo, that is to say changes from quick to slow, etc., were introduced in the fifteenth century. The oldest of them consists of drawing a line through the tempus sign [O|]. This meant that the notes were to be played or sung twice as rapidly as would usually be the case, without, however, affecting the relative value of the notes to one another. Now we remember that the sign [C] stood for our modern [4/4] time; when a line was drawn through it, [C|] it indicated that two brevi were counted as one, and the movement was said to be alla breve. This is the one instance of time signatures that has come down to us unaltered.


IX

THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO D'AREZZO-THE BEGINNING OF COUNTERPOINT


We have seen that by order of Charlemagne, Ambrosian chant was superseded by that of Gregory, and from any history of music we may learn how he 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 others developed the Gregorian chant, until the time of Hucbald this music remained mere wandering melody, without harmonic support of any kind.

Hucbald (840-930) was a monk of the monastery of St. Armand in Flanders. As we know from our studies in notation, he was the first to improve the notation by introducing a system of lines and spaces, of which, however, the spaces only were utilized for indicating the notes, viz.:

[Illustration]

His attempt to reconstruct the musical scale was afterwards overshadowed by the system invented by Guido d'Arezzo, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe it in detail. His great contribution to progress was the discovery that more than one sound could be played or sung simultaneously, thus creating a composite sound, the effect which we call a chord. However, in deciding which sounds should be allowed 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 [3/8] or [9/8] time tempus perfectum, and adopting for its symbol the Pythagorean circle [O.] or [O], so Hucbald, in choosing his series of concords or sounds that harmonize well together, took the first three notes of the overtones of every sonorous fundamental, or, to express it differently, of the series of natural harmonics, that is to say, he admitted the octave and fifth: [F: g, d g]. But from the fifth to the octave gives the interval of the fourth, therefore he permitted this combination also.

From the works of Boethius (circa 400) and others, he had derived and accepted the Pythagorean division of the scale, making thirds and sixths dissonant intervals; and so his perfect chord (from which our later triad gets its name of perfect) was composed of a root, fifth or fourth, and octave.

Hucbald, as I have already explained, changed the Greek tone system somewhat by arranging it in four regular disjunct tetrachords, namely:

[F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) G: (a b c' d') (e' f+' g' a')]

This system permitted the addition of a fifth to each note indiscriminately, and the fifths would always be perfect; but in regard to the octaves it was faulty, for obvious reasons. As his system of notation consisted of merely writing 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 therefore he laid down the rule that when the voices proceeded in fourths, and a discord (or augmented fourth) was unavoidable, the lower voice was to remain on the same note until it could jump to another fourth forming a perfect interval:

[F: {g b} {g b} {g a} {g b} {d a} {d g} {c f} {c e} {a, d} {g, c}]

This at least brought into the harmony an occasional third, which gradually became a recognized factor in music.

We probably know that the year 1000 was generally accepted as the time when the world was to come to an end.