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Influences On Musical Notation In The Middle Ages

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A brief essay on two influences on musical notation in the middle ages

Modern musical notation as we know it can be directly credited to the Catholic Church. The Catholic church being a primary influence in Western history, the church had many resources and was source of education. While there are a variety of rudimentary music notations pre 9th century the foundation of music notation as we know it is due to an Italian Benedictine monk, Guido de' Azzero, who invented solfege, a vocal scale we know as do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do but was introduced as ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. This scale was a huge breakthrough for vocalists that were struggling to learn new chants in the late 900's but has had a lasting effect as this is the same scale vocalists use today. Along with this he introduced the four line staff, a fifth would be added as music became more complex. Now vocalists could read the pitch, and learning new pieces of chant became a much easier task. But how long should those notes be held? We have the pitch and scale, but when does the vocalist move on to the next note without guessing or being prompted? …show more content…

This treatise had a wide influence on composers for it clarity and logic, specifically in regards to note duration which is that a notes shape could indicate its length. Franco of Cologne introduced the longa, brevis, and the semibrevis, the semibreve becoming the modern whole note. With this composers could write music with rhythmic variety. Thus we are introduced to the foundation of mensural notation, that would become the modern bar notation. Although there are no known surviving pieces of music by Franco of Cologne, a form of motet was named after him, the Franconian Motet, an example of this is Amours mi font/En mai/Flos filius

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