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IX
MUSIC IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
NEW CONDITIONS
By DOM ANSELM HUGHES
As we approach the end of the eleventh century the conditions under
which we can study polyphonic developments are very different from
those obtaining in the days of the Musica Enchiriadis and the Win
to that which
chester Troper. It is a change which may be compared
takes place from a night of darkness, varied only by passing phases of
moonlight, to a dawn, at first indeed obscure but promising steady
progress towards the full blaze of noontide. In this half-light the form
and the position of objects can be distinguished, but the sharpness of
their outline cannot be immediately seen, and their colour is not yet
discernible with any degree of accuracy. Translated into the language
of music, this is to say (1) that the manuscripts of both plainsong and
polyphony have now begun to denote the actual pitch of the notes,
and (2) that some sort of conventional agreement on a time-system
must have come into existence, for there are now two or more notes
in one voice against only one in the other. These two very significant
changes must be considered in some detail later on, for they introduce
us to (3) the vitally important subject of the relationship between the
individual voices. From this point we shall be able to notice (4)
the beginnings of the idea of harmonic cadence, (5) some results of the
wider range of voices now in use, and (6) the first recorded instances
of three-part writing. Before giving attention to these matters the
sources of our information must be enumerated,
SOURCES OF THE PERIOD
In the last chapter the theoretical writers were mentioned before
such few practical sources as were then available. Now that we are
passing on from the period of mnemonic to that of definitive notation,
it will be wiser to build our conclusions upon the actual music which
survives, and to judge the reliability of the theorists by the degree of
accuracy with which they describe and explain it. Two collections of
music survive from this period, known respectively as the Codex