Musica enchiriadis is an anonymous musical treatise authored during 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 (d. 906). [3]
Contents
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 organum , [4] 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 19th 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 90 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]
