Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                

Herlinger 1981

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 10

Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
Jan Herlinger

"Truth is contained in numbers (veritas in numeris con- Any such relation would involve irrational numbers, such as the
tinetur) . " This sentence of the ninth-century commentator Re- square root of 8, which lie beyond the scope of Pythagorean
migius of Auxerrel expresses the essence of medieval and Ren- arithmetic.
aissance Pythagoreanism, a view of the nature of things that The Pythagoreans defined musical intervals through the pro-
pervaded fields as diverse as astronomy, theology, architecture, portions of the lengths of the strings that produced their pitches,
poetics and music 2 . and applied the properties of those proportions to the intervals. It
The Pythagoreans divided arithmetic proportions into five was the whole tone that they defined through the proportion 8:9,
classes. The proportions of the superparticular class that is, and the arithmetic principle stated above proscribes division of
those whose terms differ by 1 show a special property: it is the whole tone not only into halvesan obstacle that, had it not
impossible to insert one or more geometric means between their been overcome, would have blocked the development of equal
terms. That is, given, for instance, the superparticular propor- temperament and modern harmony but, indeed, into any
tion 8:9, there is no rational number x such that 8:x=x:9; no number of fractional parts three, four, five or more.
rational numbers x and y such that 8:x =x: y =y:9; and so forth. No remnant of Greek musical theory survived in the Latin
West more tenaciously than the Pythagorean tuning system. It
I would like to thank the Duke University Research Council for a grant that
permitted me to work in Europe during the summer of 1979, and the
set the standard throughout the Middle Ages and well into the
Schriftleitung of the Handworterbuch der Musikalischen Terminologie for Renaissance. But proposals for fractional divisions of the whole
permission to consult its files. tone appear as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century
1 Remigius, Martianus Capella 46.8; Remigii Autissiodorensis commentum in and proliferate over the next two hundred years. These seem-
Martianum Capellam, ed. Cora E. Lutz, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1962-65), 1: ingly anti-Pythagorean proposals for dividing the tone into
153. All translations are my own except as noted.
2 0n Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages, see Edgar de Bruyne, Etudes
fifths, thirds, and ninths are the subject of the present study.
d'esthtique mdivale, 3 vols. (Bruges: De Tempel, 1946); in the Renaissance,
S. K. Heninger, Jr., Touches of Sweet Harmony: Pythagorean Cosmology and The Pythagorean Tuning System
Renaissance Poetics (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1974); in music,
Richard L. Crocker, "Pythagorean Mathematics and Music," Journal of Aes- The Pythagorean tuning system is based on acoustically pure
thetics and Art Criticism, 22 (1963-64):189-98, 325-35. octaves and fifths, from which all other intervals derive. Table 1
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 75

shows how the intervals and their proportions are derived and Example 1. A typical cadence of the later Middle Ages
compares the intervals to their counterparts in other tuning
systems. Since the Pythagorean fifth is a bit larger than the

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
equally-tempered fifth, all intervals of the Pythagorean system
except the octave differ to some degree from those of equal
temperament.
Since each of the twelve intervals in the Pythagorean circle of
fifths is 2 cents wider than the equally-tempered fifth, every
sharp in the Pythagorean system is 24 cents higher than the flat
to which it would be equivalent in equal temperament. The
difference is called the "Pythagorean comma." Equal division
of the whole tone being impossible, the system shows semitones
of two sizes, and the comma is also the difference between
them. words, "The diesis is one-fifth of the whole tone (diesis quinta
The Pythagorean whole tone is not much wider than that of pars est toni);" 3 he posited intervals of two-fifths, three-fifths,
equal temperament. But the 4-cent difference is compounded in and four-fifths tone as well:
the major third, which, as the sum of two whole tones, is 8 cents Two of these five intervals joined together make up the "enharmonic"
wider than the equally-tempered major third. Moreover, that semitone, which is the lesser. Plato called it "limma"; it contains two
third is already 14 cents wider than the acoustically pure major dieses. Three of these dieses form the "diatonic" semitone, which is
third. Thus the Pythagorean major third is larger than the truly the greater; it is called the "major apotome," that is, the greater part of
consonant third by 22 centsmore than a fifth of a semitone. a whole tone divided in two. Four dieses constitute the "chromatic"
The width of the Pythagorean major third makes the major triad semitone.
quite unpleasant in sound.
Duae autem simul iunctae ex istis quinque componunt semitonium
Despite these characteristics, the Pythagorean tuning system enarmonicum, quod minus est, quod a Platone vocatum est limma,
is perfectly suited to the medieval repertoire, which avoids the continens duas dieses. Tres vero ex istis diesibus faciunt semitonium
more remote sharps and flats and treats only octaves, fifths, and diatonicum, quod maius est, quod quidem vocatur apotome maior, id
fourths as consonant. In a typical cadence of the later Middle est, pars maior toni in duas divisi. Quatuor autem dieses chromaticum
Ages (Example 1), the narrowness of the semitones F-sharp to G semitonium constituunt. 4
and C-sharp to D matches the tendency of the leading tones to
Though he rejected the limitations of the Pythagorean system
resolve upward, and the piquancy of the penultimate major triad
by dividing the whole tone into fifths, Marchetto by no means
(deriving from its wide major third) makes the arrival at the final
octave-plus-fifth all the more pleasing.
3 Marchetto, Lucidarium 2.6; Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra
Marchetto of Padua Potissimum, ed. Martin Gerbert, 3 vols. (St. Blaise, 1784; reprint ed., Milan:
Bollettino Bibliografico Musicale, 1931), 3:73b. This collection is referred to as
In the Lucidarium of 1317 or 1318, Marchetto of Padua GS subsequently.
introduced his discussion of semitones with the revolutionary 4Lucidarium 2.5; GS, 3:73b.
76 Music Theory Spectrum

abandoned that system. As definitions of the octave, fifth, compared Marchetto's method of dividing the whole tone to the
fourth, and whole tone he retained the proportions 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, traditional Pythagorean system as expounded by Nicolo Burzio,
and 8:9, departing from the Pythagorean conventions only for and came to this conclusion: "Burzio's opinion is good; but I

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
the semitones . 5 If Marchetto's perfect fourth and whole tone are hold with Marchetto's, because it is easy and clear (haec opinio
Pythagorean, his semitones derived by subtracting two whole [Burtii] est bona, sed ego teneo opiniones [read: opinionem]
tones from the perfect fourthmust also be Pythagorean. The Marcheti, quia facilis et clara est) . " 7 Tinctoris, though he fol-
definitions of two-fifths and three-fifths tone cannot be accu- lowed the traditional Pythagorean definitions of the semitones
rate. in his rigorous Expositio manus, adopted division of the whole
This state of affairs is not really surprising. Marchetto had no tone into fifths for the simple, informal definitions in his Dif-
way of measuring fifth-tones accurately. He must have been finitorium:
speaking in approximations when he mentioned them, and it is
Diesis is one part of a whole tone which has been divided into five
reasonable to assume that the system he meant to approximate parts .... The greater semitone is that which consists of three
was the standard one of his time, Pythagorean tuning. Indeed, dieses, ... which is called by many the apothome, or "diatonic
the preceding quotation shows that Marchetto used the term semitone." The lesser semitone is that which consists of only two
limma for the interval of two dieses and the term apotome for dieses, ... which is called by Plato a limma and by others the
that of three dieses -- and these are terms theorists generally "enharmonic semitone." There is also another semitone which is
reserved for the Pythagorean semitones. called the ` `chromatic . " It is used when, in singing, some note is raised
Marchetto had good reason to redefine the Pythagorean for the purpose of a beautiful delivery.
semitones as fractions of the whole tone. He addressed the Diesis est una pars toni in quinque divisi.... Semitonium maius est
Lucidarium not only to theorists but to performing musicians as illud quod ex tribus diesibus constat, ... quod a pluribus apothome
wellperforming musicians, who would have had neither time seu semitonium diatonicum appellatur. Semitonium minus est illud
nor stomach for the laborious computations of Pythagorean quod ex duabus diesibus tantummodo constat, ... quod a Platone
arithmetic summarized in Table 1 but who needed some simple lima, ab aliis semitonium Enarmonicum appellatur. Est et aliud
index for the sizes of the two semitones that the proportions semitonium quod Cromaticum dicitur. Fit autem dum canendo aliqua
243:256 and 2048:2187 fail to supply. 6 By calling the semitones vox ad pulcritudinem pronunciationis sustinetur. 8
two-fifths and three-fifths tone Marchetto sacrificed accuracy According to Marchetto, the whole tone is divided into inter-
for comprehensibility. vals of one-fifth and four-fifths tone
It was the comprehensibility of Marchetto's system that
struck later theorists. Writing in 1489, Bonaventura da Brescia

7 Bonaventura da Brescia, Venturina; Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico


Musicale, ms. A 57, f. 30r.
5 For the Pythagorean definitions of the larger intervals, see the Lucidarium 8 English and Latin: Johannes Tinctoris, Dictionary of Musical Terms, trans.
3.1-3, 3.6, 4.3-5, 4.9, 6.2-4; GS, 3:76b-79b, 83b-86b. Carl Parrish (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1963), pp. 24f., 56f. For Tinctoris'
6In the dedicatory letter Marchetto refers to the Lucidarium as "a work by definitions of the minor and major semitones in traditional Pythagorean terms
means of which all theorists and performers might rationally understand what see his Expositio manus 8.7-8; Johannis Tinctoris opera theoretica, ed. Albert
they sing in plain chant (opus, quo universi musici & cantores scirent ra- Seay, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, no. 22, 2 vols. (n.p.: American Institute of
tionabiliter in plana musica quid cantarent);" GS, 3:65b. Musicology, 1975), 1:55.
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 77

Table 1. The Pythagorean tuning system: derivation of intervals and


their proportions; sizes of intervals, compared to those of equal temper-
ament and acoustically pure intervals

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
Equal Pure
Pythagorean Tuning System Temperament Intervals

Derivation Derivation Size Size Size



Interval Proportion of Interval of Proportion in cents in cents in cents

Perfect octave (P8) 1:2 1200 1200 1200


Perfect fifth (P5) 2:3 702 700 702

Perfect fourth (P4) 3:4 P8 P5 1:2 + 2:3 498 500 498

Whole tone (M2) 8:9 P5 P4 2:3 T 3:4 204 200
Major third (M3) 64:81 2 x M2 (8:9) 2 408 400 386
Minor semitone (m2) 243:256 P4 (2 x M2) 3:4 + (8:9) 2 90 100
Major semitone (Ap) 2048:2187 M2 m2 8:9 T 243:256 114 100
Comma 524288:531441 Ap m2 2048:2187 : 243:256 24

. . . when a whole tone is divided in two so as to color some imperfect This division is effected by a sign that corresponds to the modern
consonance such as a third, a sixth, or a tenth striving toward a perfect sharp . 1
one. The first part of a tone thus divided will be larger if the melody It is in such cases that the doctrine of musica ficta traditionally
ascends, and is called a chroma; the part that remains is a diesis, as here demands chromatic alteration so that an imperfect consonance
[Example 21.
may approach a perfect one as closely as possiblefor the sake
... cum aliquis tonus bipartitur propter aliquam dissonantiam of beauty (causa pulchritudinis). Marchetto stood in the main-
colorandam, puta tertiam, sextam, sive decimam, tendendo ad aliquam stream of musica scta theory by calling for this division of the
consonantiam. Nam prima pars toni sic divisi, si per ascensum fiat, erit tone "for the sake of the elegance and beauty of the imperfect
maior, quae dicitur chroma; pars quae restat, diesis est, ut hic [Example
2]. 9

100n this sign, called "falsa musica," see Lucidarium 8.2; GS, 3:89ab. See
also Marchetto'sPomerium 13-17; Marched de Padua pomerium, ed. Giuseppe
Vecchi, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, no. 6 (Florence: American Institute of
9Lucidarium 2.8; GS, 3:74b. Musicology, 1961), pp. 68-74.
78 Music Theory Spectrum

consonances (propter decorem pulcritudinemque disso- Example 2. Progressions from the Lucidarium
nantiarum) . " 11
Marchetto, however, called for unusually high leading tones

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
in such cases. If his words are taken literally, the leading tones
will be much too high: in Example 2, for instance, the major
sixth would measure 955 cents, the major third 455, intervals
closer to a minor seventh and a perfect fourth respectively. 12 But
since Marchetto intended the measurements of two-fifths and
three-fifths tone as approximations, could he not also have
intended those of one-fifth and four-fifths tone as approxima-
tions? If so, he would have been describing a system that
showed the two traditional Pythagorean semitones as well as
another pair just a bit more different in size, associated with
The whole tone is divided into three parts, a semitonus of two parts and
progressions from imperfect consonances to perfect ones. A
a semitonium of one. The semitonus is employed between every mi and
system in which leading tones are unusually high and the fa or fa and mi, and comprises two parts of the tone. The semitonium
semitones of resolution correspondingly narrow is particularly comprises the third part of the tone, and is employed betweenfa and sol
approporiate to the music of the early Trecento, a repertoire or elsewhere, because if a sharp is placed betweenfa and sol there will
marked by chromaticism of the sort Marchetto's examples be a semitonium from [the sharped] fa to sol; I state that the same is true
represent. 13 from sol to la, from ut to re, and from re to mi.
Tonus dividitur in tres partes, scilicet, in semitono et duo semitonia
Goscalcus Francigena [read: in semitono de duabus partibus et semitonio de una] . Semitonus
The so-called "Berkeley theory manuscript," dating from habet fieri inter mi et fa, et inter fa et mi ubique, et tenet duas partes
around 1375, transmits a short treatise, elsewhere attributed to toni. Semitonium tenet terciam partem toni, et habet fieri inter fa et sol,
quam alibi, quia si inter fa et sol ponatur q de fa usque sol erit tamen
Goscalcus Francigena, that suggests division of the tone into
semitonium, et idem dico de sol usque la, de ut usque re, de re usque
thirds:
mi. 14

11Lucidarium 2.8; GS, 3:74b.


12The octave, 1200 cents, minus the whole tone, 204, minus Marchetto's "Oliver B. Ellsworth, "The Berkeley Manuscript (olim Phillipps 4450): A
diesis, 41, equals the major sixth, 955 cents; the perfect fifth, 700 cents, minus Compendium of Fourteenth-Century Music Theory," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss.,
the whole tone, 204, minus Marchetto's diesis, 41, equals the major third, 455 University of California, Berkeley, 1969), 1:82. The emendation corresponds to
cents. one suggested by Ellsworth, "A Fourteenth-Century Proposal for Equal Tem-
13 For a more detailed discussion of Marchetto's division of the whole tone, perament," Viator, 5 (1974): 445-53, 447, n. 7.
see Jan W. Herlinger, "The Lucidarium of Marchetto of Padua: A Critical In normal medieval practice the "natural" sign corresponds sometimes to the
Edition, Translation, and Commentary," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., University of modern natural, sometimes to the modern sharp. When applied to F, C, or G it
Chicago, 1978), 1:16-56. expresses what we would call F-sharp, C-sharp, or G-sharp.
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 79

Thus the treatise states that the normal diatonic semitone be- Marchetto divided the whole tone into fifths because that is
tween mi and fa (E to F, A to B-flat, B-natural to C) is two-thirds the simplest division of the tone by means of which four
tone, whereas the interval between a sharped note and the semitones can be represented. Goscalcus, presumably, divided

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
uninflected note just above it is one-third tone. the tone into thirds because that is the simplest division of the
The similarities between Marchetto's system and Goscalcus' tone by means of which two semitones can be represented
are striking. Both divided the whole tone fractionally: Marchetto even though two-thirds tone is not at all a close approximation of
described a system in which semitones of four sizes appear, and the Pythagorean minor semitone .16
represented them as one-fifth, two-fifths, three-fifths, and
four-fifths tone; Goscalcus described a system with semitones of
only two sizes, and represented them as one-third and two-thirds
tone. Each claimed that one of his semitones was that normally
Is it justifiable to correlate the fourth treatise with the fifth? Ellsworth found
used in diatonic progressions: Marchetto called this semitone that "one of the most striking aspects of the manuscript is its clear conception as
two-fifths tone; Goscalcus called it two-thirds tone. Each a homogeneous entity, rather than as an anthology of unrelated works"
claimed that a semitone smaller than normal was effected by a ("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," p. 445); and concerning these two treatises in
sign corresponding to the modern sharp. Finally, there is cir- particular he wrote, "Towards the end of the ... fourth treatise, the author of
the Berkeley manuscript briefly mentions these three genera [diatonic, chro-
cumstantial evidence that the semitone each proposed for nor-
matic, enharmonic], which govern all `regular or irregular' semitones... .
mal diatonic progressions was in fact the Pythagorean minor Although the fifth treatise does not contain the names of the genera, it is entirely
semitone. possible that the author may have intended it to supplement this passage in the
As has been pointed out above, we know that the interval earlier treatise, and its cursory nature is certainly in keeping with the possibility
Marchetto called two-fifths tone corresponds to the Pythagorean of a footnote or excursus" ("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," pp. 446f.).
Crocker also regarded the five treatises as a coherent whole: "Aside from the
minor semitone because Marchetto defined the perfect fourth
fact that these five parts of the MS are written consecutively in what seems to be
and the whole tone, from which it is derived, in Pythagorean one hand, the compilation gives internal evidence that it is in some sense a single
terms. The author of the Berkeley manuscript likewise defined continuing work" ("A New Source for Medieval Music Theory," Acta Mu-
those intervals in Pythagorean terms, not in the treatise in sicologica, 39 [1964161-71, 162) . The Manuscript Catania, Biblioteche .

question, but in the one that immediately precedes it in the Riunite Civica e A. Ursino Recupero, Fondo Ursino Recupero, ms. D 39
includes the first, second, third, and fifth of the Berkeley treatises (conflating the
manuscript, where a table shows that the proportions of the
first and fifth) though omitting the fourth (ff. 12r-30r); however, this omission
octave, the fifth, the fourth, and the whole tone are contained in by no means excludes a Pythagorean interpretation of the passage under consid-
the series 12:9:8:6. In that case, the octave must be 1:2, the fifth eration here.
2:3, the fourth 3:4, and the whole tone 8:9, all standard Pythago- 16Ellsworth regards the treatise in question as a proposal for dividing the octave

rean definitions; therefore the semitone for normal diatonic into nineteen equal parts (five whole tones of 3 parts and two diatonic semitones
of 2). But his underlying assumption that "the end result of any system of this
progressions must also be the Pythagorean one 243:256. This is
type [i.e., one that divides the whole tone fractionally] is the division of the
the semitone that is called two-thirds tone. 15 octave into a certain number of equal parts" is incorrect ("Fourteenth-Century
Proposal," p. 447): the systems described by Marchetto, Tinctoris (in the
Di^nitorium), Gaffurio, Burzio, and the Brussels Anonymous all divide the
15 The Berkeley manuscript contains five treatises. The discussion of the tone fractionally yet retain Pythagorean tuning.
series 12:9:8:6 appears in the fourth (Ellsworth, "Berkeley Manuscript," Ellsworth's reference to "the harmonic practicability assigned to this system
1:65f., 136), that of semitones in the fifth. [the nineteen-step division of Francisco Salinas, 1577] by J. Murray Barbour" is
80 Music Theory Spectrum

Johannes Ciconia Unfortunately, the chapter Ciconia devoted to these matters is a


tangle of mutually contradictory definitions drawn from diverse
Johannes Ciconia divided the whole tone into thirds and
sources; from it no coherent system can be deduced.
quarters in his Nova musica (ca. 1400), attributing these divi-

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
sions to Aristoxenus and Boethius:
Gaffurio, Burzio, Aaron
Aristoxenus: The enharmonic semitone is one-fourth whole tone, as 6
[parts] of 24. The diatonic semitone is one-third whole tone, as 8 of 24. Division of the whole tone into ninths established itself
Boethius: The chromatic semitone exceeds and surpasses the half tone through a series of three landmark treatises. In the Theoricum
to the same degree that the diatonic semitone is less than the true half opus of 1480 Gaffurio wrote of the theory of the ancients:
tone as 16 of 24. The whole tone, then, consists of two minor semitones and a comma.
Aristoxenus: Semitonium enarmonicum quarta pars toni est, ut vi de Philolaus called the minor semitone "diesis," but later writers, as
xxiiii. Semitonium autem diatonicum tertia pars toni est, ut viii de Boethius asserts, called the diesis half the minor semitone.... From
XXllll r . Boetius: Semitonium chromaticum tantum superat et vincit this it follows that four dieses and one comma complete the whole
dimidium toni, quantum diatonicum minus est integro dimidio tono, ut tone.... The comma, as some think, is half the diesis.
xvi de xxlllior, 1 7
Constat igitur tonus duobus semitoniis et uno comate. Semitonium
nanque minus Philolaus ipse diesim appellavit. Posteri vero, ut ponit
Boetius, diesim dixerunt semitonii minoris dimidium, ... ex quo
sequitur tonum ex quatuor diesibus et comate perfici .... Coma enim,
misleading ("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," p. 448). The nineteen-step divi-
sion, with its consonant triads but beating fifths, may be appropriate for
ut quibusdam placet, est dimidium diesis. 18
sixteenth-century style, but certainly is not for that of the fourteenth, in which
If the comma is half the diesis, then it is also one-ninth of the
triads are handled as dissonances and cadences often involve a bare fifth (as in
Example 1) . And Barbour's evaluation of the nineteen-step system is really quite whole tone. To be sure, Gaffurio merely reported this idea
equivocal: "Salinas showed that his method results in pure minor thirds, tritone, without advocating it; but it is quite remarkable that he broached
and major sixth. But the fifth is diminished by 1/3 comma, and so is the major it at all. Where before him, in the theory of the Middle Ages and
third. On the whole this tuning does not compare favorably with the others [i.e., the Renaissance, is division of the tone into ninths even dis-
2/7-comma and 1/4-comma temperaments] .... There does not seem to be
cussed?
much chance of the 19-division coming into use in our day.... To modern
ears, accustomed to the sharp major thirds of equal temperament, the thirds of Seven years later, Nicolo Burzio quoted this passage of Gaf-
379 cents, 1/3 comma flat, would sound insipid in the extreme" (Tuning and furio's almost verbatimtypically, without acknowledging his
Temperament: A Historical Survey [East Lansing: Michigan State College
Press, 1953], pp. 34, 116). How much more insipid would these thirds have
sounded to ears attuned to Pythagorean major thirds, even wider than those of
equal temperament!
17 Johannes Ciconia, Nova musica 1.22; Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Frankfurt: Minerva, 1966], p. 366). Ciconia's statement concerning the relative
Vaticana, ms. Vaticanus latinus 5320, f. 14v. sizes of the chromatic and diatonic semitones derives from Boethius, De musica
According to Boethius, Aristoxenus discussed quarter- and third-tones (ex- 2.30 (Friedlein ed., p. 263): "To the same degree that the minor semitone is less
pressed as 6/24 and 8/24 whole tone), the former employed in the enharmonic than the true half tone the apotome exceeds it (quantum igitur semitonium minus
tuning, the latter in the soft chromatic (Boethius, De musica 5.16; Anicii Manlii integro dimidio toni minus est, tantum apotome toni integrum superat
Torquati Severini Boetii de institutione arithmetica libri II, de institutione dimidium)."
musica libri V, ed. Gottfried Friedlein [Leipzig: Teubner, 1867; reprint ed., 18 Franchino Gaffurio, Theoricum opus musice discipline 4.3 (Naples, 1480) .
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 81

source. 19 Like Gaffurio, he cited Boethius and Philolaus; unlike Italian manuscript of the late fifteenth century, now in Brussels.
him, he mentioned Guido d'Arezzo as well and thus trans- After defining the octave, fifth, fourth, and whole tone in the
ported ninefold division of the tone out of the ancient world and Pythagorean fashion, the anonymous author continued:

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
a bit closer to his own time. The major semitone has four commas, one cisma, and one derisma. The
Given the subjects Pietro Aaron treated in his Libri tres de cisma is half a comma, the derisma a quarter comma. The minor
institutione harmonica (Bologna, 1516) hexachords, muta- semitone contains three commas plus one cisma and one diacisma.
tions, theory of modes, cadences in counterpointthere can be
no doubt that he was speaking of the practice of his own time. He Semitonium maius habet quattuor comata, unum cisma, et unum
derisma. Cisma est media pars comatis, derisma est quarta pars
minced no words: "The whole tone is divided into four dieses
comatis. Semitonium minus continet tria comata et unum cisma et
and a comma; the comma is one-ninth of the whole tone. unum diacisma. 21
(Tonus quidem in quattuor dieses et unum comma dividitur.
Comma vero nona est pars toni . )" Further: "The major The cismanormally called the schismawas traditionally
semitone consists of two dieses and a comma.... The minor defined as half the comma. The derisma in unique here, in my
semitone has only the two dieses without the comma. (Maius experience. The diacisma is problematical: either standard def-
[semitonium] quidem duplici diesi et commate constat:.. . inition of that interval a half or a quarter of the minor
Minus autem duas tantum pulso commate dieses habet.) 9,20 If semitone would make the writer's minor semitone exceed a
Aaron's whole tone is the Pythagorean one of 204 cents (as half tone by a considerable amount. 22 But Gaffurio, again,
Gaffurio's and Burzio's certainly are), then five-ninths and offered an idiosyncratic definition in the Theoricum opus:
four-ninths whole tone are amazingly accurate approximations "Some divide a schisma into two diaschismas (unumque
of the Pythagorean semitonesaccurate within one-half cent sichisma in duo dyachismata partiuntur nonnulli) . " 23 If this
(Table 2) . theorist did so, then his major semitone is 4 3/4 commas, his
minor one 33/4,, and the whole tone 8 1 definitions that imply a
The Brussels Anonymous division of the tone into thirty-four parts (quarter commas) and
approximate the true sizes of the Pythagorean semitones almost
The most surprising division of the whole tone appears in an
within a quarter cent (Table 3) !
19 ` `The whole tone, as Boethius attests, is made up of two semitones, the
minor semitone and the major semitone, which is the apotome. The apotome is
nothing other than the minor semitone plus a comma.... The diesis is half the
semitone. The comma is half the diesis, as some think. (Tonus namque, Boetio
teste, ex duobus semitoniis conficitur, videlicet semitonio minori et semitonio
maiori quod est apothome. Et nihil aliud est apothome nisi semitonium minus et 21 Brussels, Bibliothque Royale Albert I, ms. II 785, f. 13v.
comma.... Dyesis namque est semitonii dimidium. Comma vero dimidium 22 The diacisma was universally defined as half the diesis; but as the quotation
dyeseos, ut quibusdam placet.)" Nicolo Burzio, Florum libellus 1.21; Nicolai from Gaffurio shows, the diesis was variously considered as either identical with
Burtii Parmensis florum libellus, ed. Giuseppe Massera, "Historiae Musicae the minor semitone or equal to half of ithence the ambiguity concerning the
Cultores" Biblioteca, no. 28 (Florence: Olschki, 1975), pp. 92f. diacisma.
20 Pietro Aaron, Libri tres de institutione harmonica 1.17 (Bologna, 1516; 23 Gaffurio, Theoricum opus 4.3. The passage is quoted by Gaetano Cesari in
reprint ed., Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, Second his Preface to the facsimile edition of Gaffurio's 1492 revision, Franchini
Series, no. 67 (New York: Broude, 1976), f. 12v. Gafuri theorica musicae (Rome: Reale Accademia d'Italia, 1934), p. 71.
82 Music Theory Spectrum

Table 2. Comparison of Pythagorean semitones with approximations in


ninth-tones

Actual

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
Values Expressed

Pythagorean in the Ninths of the

Values Pythagorean Whole Tone


Whole tone 203.910 cents 203.910 cents

Major semitone 113.685 cents 113.283 cents (5/9 whole tone)

Minor semitone 90.225 cents 90.627 cents (4/9 whole tone)

Table 3. Comparison of Pythagorean semitones with approximations in


thirty-fourth-tones

Actual Values Expressed


Pythagorean in Thirty-Fourths of the
Values Pythagorean Whole Tone


Whole tone 203.910 cents 203.910 cents

Major semitone 113.685 cents 113.950 cents (19/34 whole tone)

Minor semitone 90.225 cents 89.960 cents (15/34 whole tone)

Conclusion
one. Rather, they abandoned only the complicated Pythagorean
The Pythagoreans may have claimed that "truth is contained proportions for the semitones in favor of simpler fractional
in numbers"; but between 1317 and 1516 eight theorists, of expressions. These fractions are approximations, but they are
whom four were among the outstanding figures of their time, approximations that had become surprisingly accurate by
were willing to discard at least some of those numbers. The around 1500.
theorists did not abandon the Pythagorean tuning system, The central importance of Marchetto for the movement under
howeveralthough several of them expanded it by introducing discussion here is indisputable. He was the first major theorist of
an unusually narrow semitone in addition to the normal diatonic the Middle Ages to propose dividing the whole tone into frac-
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 83

tional parts; and he directly or indirectly influenced most of the ing these facts, there can be no doubt that Marchetto was the
others who did so. Ciconia borrowed extensively from the principal instigator of these two hundred years' investigation of
Lucidarium, in both the content and the organization of his Nova fractional division of the whole tone.

Downloaded from http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/ at The Australian National University on March 16, 2015
musica. The similarity of Tinctoris' division of the tone into The contents of several manuscripts containing these treatises
fifths to Marchetto's suggests that he must have known the reveal that their compilers were particularly interested in tuning
Lucidarium; so do the similarities in the two theorists' doctrines and related problems, and suggest thereby an avenue for future
of mode. Gaffurio copied the Lucidarium in 1473 and incorpo- research. Goscalcus' treatise appears not only in the Berkeley
rated whole chapters of it into his Extractus parvus musice (ca. manuscript but in one from southern Italy or Sicily dated 1473;
1474) . Burzio was the student of Johannes Gallicus Carthusien- this source also includes the Lucidarium and a diagram of a
sis, author of a bitter attack on Marchetto's division of the tone. seventeen-note scalethat is, one of five sharps and five flats in
Aaron not only commented on the Lucidarium, but borrowed addition to the seven naturalsin Pythagorean tuning, with the
Marchetto's title for the treatise in which he did so. 24 Consider- intervals between successive degrees explicitly designated.
Ciconia's Nova musica and Marchetto's Lucidarium appear
together in a fifteenth-century Italian manuscript now in Flor-
ence. The Brussels manuscript that presents the proposal for
24 Aristoxenus was the first to suggest fractional division of the whole tone.
dividing the tone into thirty-four parts also includes the
Medieval theorists typically followed Boethius in rejecting his approach. The
Aristoxenian tradition was transmitted in less disparaging fashion by Martianus
Lucidarium, plus a table showing hexachords built on B-flat,
Capella; it was widely disseminated through Remigius' commentary (see Re- E-flat, and D in addition to the standard C, G, and F. 25 These
migius, Martianus Capella 494.18-495. 1; Lutz ed., 2:329f.). interrelationships suggest that historians of music theory would
Remigius, incidentally, was the writer Marchetto most frequently mentioned do well to examine the contents not only of individual treatises
in the Lucidarium. but of the manuscripts in which they appear. There is every
Chapters 60-65 of the First Book of Ciconia's Nova musica (Item de conso-
reason to believe that source studies of theoretical manuscripts
nantia; De dissonantia; Quid sit intervallum; De euphonia; De armonia; De
symphonia) show his debt to Marchetto very clearly. Chapter 62 is an interpola- would prove as fruitful for scholarship as have those of musical
tion, but the subjects of Chapters 60, 61, 63, 64, and 65 parallel those of manuscripts over the last decade and a half.
Chapters 1-5 of the Fifth Treatise of theLucidarium, and much of their content is
identical.
The similarity in Marchetto's and Tinctoris' treatments of the semitones is semaker, 4 vols. (Paris: Durand, 1864-76), 4:324-31, 349.
evident in the passages quoted above. Furthermore, both classified modes as For Aaron's comments on Marchetto, see his Lucidario in musica 1.4, 5, 7
perfecti, imperfecti, plusquamperfecti, mixti, and commixti (on this point see (Venice, 1545; reprint ed., Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, Sezione 2, no. 12,
Lucie Balmer, Tonsystem and Kirchentone bei Johannes Tinctoris, Berner Bologna: Forni, 1969) .
Veroffentlichungen zur Musikforschung, no. 2 [Berne and Leipzig: Haupt, 25 Catania, Biblioteche riunite Civica e A. Ursino Recupero, Fondo Ursino
1935], pp. 211f., 234, 240). Recupero, ms. D 39 contains Goscalcus' treatise on ff. 12r-30r, the diagram of
Gaffurio's copy of the Lucidarium now resides without signature in the the seventeen-note scale on f. 116rv, and the Lucidarium on ff. 157r-189r.
private library of Count Gian Ludovico Sola-Cabiati, Tremezzo. F. Alberto Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, ms. 734 contains the Nova musica on ff. lr-57r
Gallo's critical edition of Franchini Gafurii extractus parvus musice, Antiquae and the Lucidarium on ff. 74r-101y. Brussels, Bibliothque Royale Albert I,
Musicae Italicae Scriptores, ,no. 4 (Bologna: Universit degli Studi, 1969), ms. II 785 contains the proposal for division of the tone on f. 13v, the table of
identifies page after page of material drawn from the Lucidarium. hexachords on f. 14v, and the Lucidarium on ff. 15r-38v; for a detailed study of
Johannes Gallicus Carthusiensis' attacks on Marchetto appear in Scriptorum this manuscript, including an inventory, see Herlinger, "A Fifteenth-Century
de Musica Medii Aevi Nova Series a Gerbertina Altera, ed. Edmond de Cous- Italian Compilation of Music Theory," forthcoming in Acta Musicologica.

You might also like