Critical and Historical Essays
_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superseded by that of Gregory, and from any history of music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.:
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. In the
_Bibliotheque Nationale_ in Paris there is a manuscript
containing the prophecy which had been handed down for many
centuries; also the signs for the notes to which it was to be
sung, viz.:
[Figure 07]
The text is:
The Judge will speak and the earth shall tremble
with awe. The stars shall be destroyed and the glory
of the moon shall die, the mountains shall be crushed
and the world with all in it shall utterly perish.
With the opening of the eleventh century, such was the relief
from this fear which had been oppressing Christendom, that even
the church reflected it in such strange rites as the _Feast
of Asses_ (January 14th), which was a burlesque of the Mass.
In this travesty of the Mass a young girl, dressed to
represent the Virgin, riding on an ass and carrying a child
in her arms, was conducted to the church door. Upon being
admitted and riding up the aisle 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 officiating priest brayed three times, and was answered by
the congregation. The mixing of the vernacular with Latin in
this service is the first instance of the use of any language
but Latin in church music.
This quasi-symbolical pantomime gave rise in time to the
mediaeval Passion Plays, or Mysteries, as they were called. That
these travesties of the Mass took different forms in various
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 "Ball
Dance," etc., they also had the festival of the "Boy Bishop,"
in which, between the sixth and twenty-eighth of December,
a boy was made to perform all the functions of a bishop.
It would seem that all this has but little bearing upon
the development of music. As a matter of fact it was a most
potent factor in it, for music was essentially and exclusively
a church property. By permitting the people to secularize
the church rites at certain seasons, it was inevitable that
church music would also become 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 their being derived
from church music, as was originally the case. This continued to
such an extent that almost up to 1550 a mass was known by the
name of the popular song it was based upon, as, for instance,
the mass of the "Man in Armour," by Josquin des Pres, and those
entitled "_Je prends conge_" and "_Je veult cent mille ecus_."
Now we know that the _tempus perfectum_ was _par excellence_
[9/8] and [3/4] time. It was natural therefore that these first
church tunes should have been changed to dances in the hands
of the common people. Even in these dances it is interesting to
note that the same symbolic significance appears to be present,
for the earliest form of these dances was the "round song,"
or roundelay, and it was danced in a circle.
Duple time did not come into general use until the beginning of
the fourteenth century. About the same time, the organum (as it
was called) or system of harmonization of Hucbald was discarded,
and Johannes de Muris and Philippe de Vitry championed the
consonant quality of the third and sixth, both major 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 impossibility to do
without them. Nevertheless, the fourth was still considered
a dissonance, and was permitted only between the upper parts
of the music. Thus the harsh consecutive passages in fifths
and fourths of the organum of Hucbald disappeared in favour
of the softer progressions of thirds and sixths.
In order to make clear how the new science of counterpoint
came into existence, I must again revert to Hucbald.[09]
Before his time, all "recognized" music was a more or less
melodious succession of tones, generally of the same length,
one syllable being sometimes used for many notes. He discovered
that a melody might be sung by several singers, each commencing
at a different pitch instead of all singing the same notes at
the same time. He also laid down rules as to how this was to
be done to produce the best effect. We remember why he chose
the fourth, fifth, and octave 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 mind, however, that later fourths were preferred to fifths
(being considered less harsh), and that the musical scale of
the period compelled the different voices to vary slightly,
that is to say, two voices could not sing exactly the same
melody at the interval of a fourth without the use of sharps
or flats; therefore one voice continued on the same note until
the awkward place was passed, and then proceeded in fourths
again with the other voice as before:
[G: {e' a'} {d' g'} {d' f+'} {d' e'}]
On account of the augmented fourth that would occur by a strict
adherence to the melodic structure of the subject, the following
would have been impossible: [G: {e' a'} {d' g'} ({c' f+'})]
Thus we find the first instance of the use of thirds, and also
of oblique motion as opposed to the earlier inevitable parallel
motion of the voices. This necessary freedom in singing the
organum or diaphony led to the attempt to sing two _different_
melodies, one against the other--"note against note," or
"point counter point,"[10] point or _punct_ being the name
for the written note. There being now two distinct melodies,
both had to be _noted_ instead of leaving it to the singers
to add their parts extemporaneously, according to the rules of
the organum, as they had done previously. Already earlier than
this (in 1100), 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 exact reproductions, at
different pitch, of the principal or given melody, while the