=Parallel Lines=.—Another plan was to use a variable number of _lines_,
writing the syllables in the spaces, thus:
[Illustration]
This clumsy contrivance indicated _relative_ pitch well enough, but
_not_ the _key_—or the duration. The next step was to use lines—which
varied in number—upon or between which the Neumes, which gradually
changed to square notes, were written. The pitch was indicated by using
a _red_ line for F, and a _yellow_ or _green_ line for C. A further
improvement was, to put the letters F or C and later G on one of the
lines at the beginning; the modern clefs are simply modifications of
these letters.
=Characters to Indicate Duration=.—The honor of suggesting characters
to indicate _duration_ is usually attributed to =Franco of Cologne=, an
ecclesiastic who lived in the latter part of the 12th century; but as
in the case of Gregory and Guido, we must believe that his name simply
stands as representative of a period. A system is rarely the work of
one man, rather a development from the labor of many. Franco’s treatise
on the subject marked an epoch. Up to the end of the 13th century
the notes in use were the Longa, Brevis, and Semibrevis, as well as
the Duplex Longa, or Maxima. The smaller values, the Minima, and the
Semiminima first occur about 1300. About the middle of the 15th century
white notes were introduced in place of certain of the black, the
latter color being reserved only for the smaller note values. The signs
underwent some change at this time. Maxima, Longa, Brevis, Semibrevis
(our whole note), Minima (half note), Semiminima (quarter), Fusa
(eighth), Semifusa (sixteenth).
[Illustration: Longa Brevis Semibrevis Duplex Longa or Maxima Minima
Semiminima]
[Illustration: Maxima Longa Brevis Semibrevis Minima Semiminima Fusa
Semifusa]
=The Beginnings of Harmony=.—Our information as to the beginning of
Harmony is very vague and uncertain. As early as the Saxon times
in England some rude kind of part singing, without written rules
apparently, seems to have existed. The first intimations we have of
any scientific attempts are _Faburden_ or _Falsoborden_ and Diaphony
or Organum. Faburden consisted of singing a melody while another voice
sang a _drone_ accompaniment below it; thus:
[Music]
Diaphony or Organum consisted of a succession of _fourths_ or _fifths_
and _octaves_, thus:
[Music: Two Parts Three Parts]
It has been denied by some authorities that such a barbarous manner
of singing ever existed; but two considerations have been lost sight
of, in making this denial: First, the fourth, fifth and octave were
esteemed the _only consonances_. Secondly, the undisputed fact that as
late as the time of Chaucer, if not later, what was called “discanting
quatible” or “quinable” existed; this discanting was done as follows:
The performer while singing a melody accompanied himself on the lute,
playing the _same melody a fourth or fifth above_. It can hardly be
doubted that a style of performance that was esteemed in the 15th, was
perfectly satisfactory to the ears of the 10th century.
=Discant=.—Another early attempt at harmonic effect was the singing of
an _extemporaneous_ part or parts with the melody, called Discanting.
In course of time the Discant or Organum gradually crystallized
into rules, and other intervals were accepted. Strangely enough,
dissonances seem to have been admitted with great freedom, and thirds
and especially sixths, were avoided. The only dissonance that was _not_
allowed was the _minor second_.
=The New Organum=.—In the 11th century, a method of combining sounds,
called the New Organum, was developed. This kind of Organum admitted
thirds and sixths. The following example will sufficiently illustrate
this:
[Music]
=Measured Music=.—The next step in advance, and one that proved very
important and far-reaching in its results on the development of
music, was the invention of a notation that indicated, although not
very conveniently, the _relative duration_ of sounds. Thus it became
possible to express two or more parts in a permanent form. The plan of
this first attempt at a notation by means of which relative duration of
notes might be expressed was very complicated. Music written with these
signs was called Measured Music (_Cantus Mensurabilis_).
=The Record of Early Harmony=.—There are references to the manner of
using voices in combination in the writings of several men associated
with the Christian Church in its early days. =Censorinus=, who lived
in the 3d century, makes mention of a practice of using a melody in
octaves accompanied by the fifth to the lower note of the octave, which
is also the fourth to the upper. =Cassiodorus=, in the 6th century,
mentions various ways of accompanying the chant with consecutive
fourths and fifths. In a work called “Sentences About Music,” written
by =Bishop Isidore of Seville=, who lived in the 7th century, we read
that “harmony is a modulation of the voice, the concordance of many
sounds and their agreement.” In the 9th century we meet with the
names of several writers: =Remi d’Auxerre= who defines harmony as
“a consonance of voices, and their union in one group”; =Jean Scot
Erigene= who recognized that the succession of chords composed of
octaves, fifths and fourths is a rational one; =Odo= or =Otger=, a
churchman of the south of France, whose work was the first to mark
an epoch in the development of the art of music. Also another monk,
the Fleming =Hucbald=, who lived in the 10th century. They defined
consonance and dissonance, and appear to have been the first to give
rules for the construction of Diaphony. Hucbald says in his “_Musica
Enchiriadis_”: “Certain dissimilar sounds sung together make an
agreeable effect, and this mingling of voices is sweet to the ear.”
Their immediate successor, =Guido=, has been credited, unjustly, with
being the inventor of nearly every improvement in the art up to his
time. The old organum closed with his. The earliest writer who treats
of the new organum is =John Cotton=, in the 11th century. He was the
first to promulgate the rule that contrary motion is always to be
preferred to similar or oblique. He says: “At least two singers are
required in diaphony formed from different sounds. While one voice
sings a melody, the other surrounds it with different tones, and at the
end of the phrases the two voices unite at the unison or octave.” The
fullest development of the new organum was attained in the works of
=Guy de Chalis=, about the close of the 12th century. He gives examples
in which we find intervals of the eleventh and twelfth, a demonstration
of the existence of a system differing from the Gregorian, which does
not exceed the octave. In the same epoch, =Denis Lewts=, of Liége, a
Carthusian monk, gives rules to fix the use of accidental signs, a flat
to lower B, a sharp to raise F. He speaks of these as if they had been
in use for a long time, and indicated that the idea was to avoid the
occurrence of the diminished fifth or the _augmented fourth_, known
in harmony as the _tritone_. This process is called _Musica Ficta_,
and formed a part of the instruction of singers. The examples cited
by Lewts conform to this theory, and show that although in the songs,
motets and other compositions of the period the sharps and flats are
not found, it is because musicians knew the principles and made the
application for themselves. Instruction in those days was chiefly oral,
a method which placed a premium on a retentive memory. By the time that
the 13th century was reached, musical forms and melodies were widely
spread, and as we look back to the 9th century it is possible to note
the gradual development. Harmony always existed, in a limited sense;
but it did not take on a scientific development until the Middle Ages.
It is to the musicians of this latter period, from the 13th to the
15th centuries, that we must give the honor of having taken the germ
of a science of harmony and of having brought it forward to mature
development.