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Musica enchiriadis

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Musica enchiriadis is an anonymous musical treatise of the 9th century. It is the first surviving attempt to set
up a system of rules for polyphony in western art music. The treatise was once attributed to Hucbald, but
this is no longer accepted.[1] Some historians once attributed it to Odo of Cluny (879-942).[2] It has also
been attributed to Abbot Hoger (-906).[3]
This music theory treatise, along with its companion text, Scolica enchiriadis, was widely circulated in
medieval manuscripts, often in association with Boethius' De institutione musica.[4] It consists of nineteen
chapters; the first nine are devoted to notation, modes, and monophonic plainchant.[4]
Chapters 10-18 deal with polyphonic music. The author here shows how consonant intervals should be used
to compose or improvise the type of early-medieval polyphonic music called [4] organum, an early style of
note-against-note polyphony several examples of which are included in the treatise.[4] (Scolica enchiriadis
also observes that some melodies should be sung "more quickly" (celerius), others "more slowly"
(morosius).) The last, nineteenth, chapter of Musica enchiriadis relates the legend of Orpheus.[4]
The scale used in the work, which is
based on a system of tetrachords, appears
to have been created solely for use in the
work itself, rather than taken from actual
musical practice.[1] 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.[4]

See also
Daseian notation
Tonary

The notation used in Musica enchiriadis. The scale comprises four


tetrachords. The symbols indicating the notes are rotated and mirrored
depending on the tetrachords. A modern transcription of the notes is
below.

References
1.
2.
3.
4.

Hoppin, Richard H. Medieval Music. Norton, 1978, pp.188-193.


Finney, Theodore M. A History of Music. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935, p. 61
Wright, Craig and Simms, Bryan. Music in Western Civilization. Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010, p. 52
Erickson, Raymond. "Musica enchiriadis, Scholia enchiriadis". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
London: Macmillan, 2001.

External links
Anonymous (1981). Hans Schmid, ed. Musica et scolica enchiriadis una cum aliquibus tractatulis
adiunctis. Verffentlichungen der Musikhistorischen Kommission. 3. Munich: Bayerische Akademie
der Wissenschaften; C. H. Beck. pp. 159. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
Link to colour images of the MS of the text (I-Rvat pal. lat. 1342) (http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/di
glit/bav_pal_lat_1342/0213) available via the University of Heidelberg's site.
Link to colour images of the MS of the text (D-Msb Clm 14372) (http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de
/bsb00046540/image_5) available via the Bavarian State Library.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Musica_enchiriadis&oldid=720115768"
Categories: 9th-century books Music theory Musical scales Polyphonic form
Medieval music manuscript sources
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