DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

GUIDO D'AREZZO GUIDO D'AREZZO 257
8, Guidonis Aretiiii de Musica Diitlogus. Quid est Musica.
9. De Coiiatitutiouibus in Musica.
10. De Tonia.
11. Quid est Musica. (Dillereut fioui Kos. 7 and 8.)
Early MS. copies of the Micrologus, the
Antipltmiarium, and the Epistola ad Michaelem
are preserved at the Vatican, the Paris Library,
the British Museum, and in some other large
national collections. These three works were
first printed by Crerbert von Hornau,' in 1784 ;
and the Micrologus was reprinted, at Treves,
by Hermesdortr, in 1876. The MSS. of Nos.
4 and 5 are in the Medicean Library, at
Florence. Nos. 6, 7, and 8 are in the Paris
Library. No. 7 is also in the library of
Balliol College, O.xford, where it is bound up
with a copy of the Micrologus. No. 8, which
coiTesponds with the preceding, in every respect
except tliat of its more prolix title, is also in the
Vatican Library.- The Oxford copj' of this
tract was once falsely attributed to S. Odo of
Cluny. Nos. 9 and 10 are in the British
Museum,^ bound up with an incomplete copy
(Cap. i.-xv.)of the Micrologus. No. 11, in the
Vatican library, is really a transcript of the
' Enchiriiiion ' of S. Odo. [A new critical edition
of the Micrologus was brought out in 1904 by
Dom A. Arnelli, O.S.B., of Monte Cassino.]
The principal inventions and discoveries with
which Guide has been credited, are : the Gamut
the Hexachords, with their several Mutations ;
Solmisation ; the Stave, including the use of
Lines, and Spiaces ; the Clefs ; Diaphonia or
Diseant, Organurn, and Counterpoint; tlie Harmonic
Hand ; the Monocliord ; and even the
Spinet (Polyplectrum). Kircher gravely mentions
not only this last-named invention, but
also Polyphonia, and the modern Stave of five
Lines and four Spaces ; '' and an Italian writer
of the 17th century tells us that S. Gregory {ob.
604) ordained that no other gamut than that of
''
!
Guido should be used in the Church
If, by the 'invention of the gamut,' we are
to understand the addition of the note, G, at the
bottom of the scale, it is cjuite certain that this
note was sung ages before the time of Guido.
Aristides Quintilianus (/for. arcnjA.D. 110) tells
us that, whenever a note was wanted before
the irpoa\a/j,j3ai'6fiei>o! (A) of the Hypodorian
Mode, it was represented by the recumbent
omega (s). S. Odo, writing in the 10th century,
represents it, exactly as Guido did, by
the Greek gamma (T). And Guido himself
speaks of it as a modern addition— ' In primis
ponitur P Graecum a modernis adjectum.'
The reconstruction of the scale itself, on the
principle of the Hexachords, is another matter ;
and the intimate connection of tliis with the
process of Solmisation, renders it extremely
probable that tlie two methods were elaborated
by the same bold relbrmer. Now, in his epistle
to Brother Micliael, Guido distinctly calls at-
' Scrii'tores ecctesiastici de Mvxira sacra, torn. ii.
2 No. 1191. -^ J/arl. MS. 3199.
1 .\fuxaryia. p. 114. = Rcjole di Musica (Borne. 1657).
VOL. II
tention to the use of the initial syllables of the
' hymn, Ut queant laxis, ' as a convenient form
o( memoria technica, and speaks of the method
in terms which clearly lead to the inference that
he himself was its inventor ; but he does not
mention the Hexachords, in any of his known
works ; and, when speaking of the substitution
of the B rotundum for the B durum, in his
Micrologus, he ^^'rites in the first and third
persons plural with an ambiguity whicli makes
it impossible to determine whether he is speaking
of his own inventions or not ; using, in one
place, the expression, ' molle dicunt,' and, in
another, 'nos ponimns.' Still, it is difficult to
read all that he has written on the subject
without arriving at ihe conclusion that he was
familiar with the jirinciples of both systems ;
which case, the first idea of both must neces-
sarily have originated \\-itli him, though it is
quite possible that the mutations" by which they
were perfected were invented Viy a later teacher.
Guido's claim to the invention of tlie lines
and spaces of the stave, and of the clefs {Clares
signatae) associated with the former, is supported
by very strong evidence indeed. In his epistle
to Brother Michael, he begins by claiming the
new system of teaching as his own ;
' Taliter
enim Deo auxiliante hoc Antiphonarium notare
disposui, ut post hac leviter aliquis sensatus et
studiosus cantum discat, ' etc. etc. ; and then, in
the clearest possible terms, explains the use of
the lines and spaces :
' Quanticumque ergo soni
in una linea, vel in uno spacio sunt, oiunes
similiter sonant. Et in omni cantu quantaecumque
lineae vel spacia unam eandemque liabeant
literam vel eundem colorem, ita ut omnia
similiter sonant, tanquam si omnes in una linea
fuissent.' These words set forth a distinct claim
to the invention of the red and yellow lines, and
the Claves signatae, or letters indicating the F
and C clefs, ]:>retixed to them ;
in
and upon these
the wdiole principle of the four-lined stave depends,
even though it cannot be jiroved to have
been in use in its complete form until long after
Guido's tinie.^
It is impossible that Guido can have invented
either Diseant, Organum, or Counterpoint, since
he himself projiOsed what he lielieved to be an
improvement upon the ibrni ol Diaphonia in
common use at the time he wrote, ^ and it was
not until a much later period that tlie Faux
Bourdon was supplanted by contrapuntal forms.
The Harmonic or Guidonian Hand is a diagram,
intended to facilitate the teaching of the
Hexacliords, by indicating the order of the
sounds ujion the finger-joints *^\ the left hand.**
Guido himself makes no mention of this
diagram in any of his writings ; but tradition
has ascribed it to him from time immemorial
under the name of the Guidonian Hand ;
and
Sigebertus Gemblacensis (06. 1113), writing little
6 See Mutation. ' See Stave. 8 See Diaphonia.
9 Hullah made use of the left hand for an analogous purpose.