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PROCESSES OF RECONSTRUCTION 275
existence by acoustic or aesthetic principles. *Les theoriciens', re
marks Combarieu, 1 *se bornent souvent a codifier des idees qui leur
sont anterieures. 5
We have now reached a period in which the difficulty of knowing
exactly what music was used, other than the church plainsong, begins
to fade; for as soon as we arrive at the middle of the tenth century
we find coming into existence a definite system of notation (to speak
more accurately, three competing systems) by which the actual music
can be preserved. Obviously the task of the progressive musician in
that period was to find or to devise some notation which should be
definite, which should express at the same time (a) accuracy of pitch
and of interval, (b) rhythm, and (c) actual time-duration. These three
steps were reached one by one, not all at once: first the interval, then
the rhythmic form (which will be considered in Chapter X under the
'
subject of modal notation 5
), and finally the definite time-value, the
representation of which is reached a century or so later than modal
notation, about 1250. Mensural notation of this kind is explained in
connexion with the motets and other forms discussed in Chapter XI.
THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF HARMONY
When did harmonized music first come into being, and how?
These two questions are virtually inseparable: moreover, they are
practically unanswerable with any high degree of certainty, and for
that very reason they have always exercised an irresistible attraction
for the student of musical history. As to the first question, some
reasons have just been given to show that suggestions of evidence
earlier than the end of the ninth century can only be accepted with
the utmost caution. In forming an opinion as to the true answer it
will be necessary to take into selective account a number of answers
which have been proposed for the second question. These can be
divided into two classes, the prehistoric and the historic: that is to
say, those which predicate happenings which may have taken place
at any epoch, and those which rest upon features found at a more or
less definite date.
The first theory is based on acoustics. In the sounding of any note
there are present the overtones or upper partials, at a distance from
the fundamental note of 8, 12, 15, 17, &c., notes above. The distance
from the octave to the twelfth is a fifth, from the twelfth to the fif
teenth is a fourth, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth is a third.
The instinct of singers, as of organ-builders with their mixtures,
1 Histoire de la nwsique (Paris, 1913), i, p. 273.