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

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.
The Pythagorean whole tone is not much wider than that of
equal temperament. But the 4-cent difference is compounded in
the major third, which, as the sum of two whole tones, is 8 cents
wider than the equally-tempered major third. Moreover, that
third is already 14 cents wider than the acoustically pure major
third. Thus the Pythagorean major third is larger than the truly
consonant third by 22 cents—more than a fifth of a semitone.
The width of the Pythagorean major third makes the major triad
quite unpleasant in sound.
Despite these characteristics, the Pythagorean tuning system
is perfectly suited to the medieval repertoire, which avoids the
more remote sharps and flats and treats only octaves, fifths, and
fourths as consonant. In a typical cadence of the later Middle
Ages (Example 1), the narrowness of the semitones F-sharp to G
and C-sharp to D matches the tendency of the leading tones to
resolve upward, and the piquancy of the penultimate major triad
(deriving from its wide major third) makes the arrival at the final
octave-plus-fifth all the more pleasing.
Marchetto of Padua
In the Lucidarium of 1317 or 1318, Marchetto of Padua
introduced his discussion of semitones with the revolutionary
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words, "The diesis is one-fifth of the whole tone (diesis quinta
pars est toni);" 3 he posited intervals of two-fifths, three-fifths,
and four-fifths tone as well:
Two of these five intervals joined together make up the "enharmonic"
semitone, which is the lesser. Plato called it "limma"; it contains two
dieses. Three of these dieses form the "diatonic" semitone, which is
the greater; it is called the "major apotome," that is, the greater part of
a whole tone divided in two. Four dieses constitute the "chromatic"
semitone.
Duae autem simul iunctae ex istis quinque componunt semitonium
enarmonicum, quod minus est, quod a Platone vocatum est limma,
continens duas dieses. Tres vero ex istis diesibus faciunt semitonium
diatonicum, quod maius est, quod quidem vocatur apotome maior, id
est, pars maior toni in duas divisi. Quatuor autem dieses chromaticum
semitonium constituunt. 4
Though he rejected the limitations of the Pythagorean system
by dividing the whole tone into fifths, Marchetto by no means
3 Marchetto, Lucidarium 2.6; Scriptores Ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra
Potissimum, ed. Martin Gerbert, 3 vols. (St. Blaise, 1784; reprint ed., Milan:
Bollettino Bibliografico Musicale, 1931), 3:73b. This collection is referred to as
GS subsequently.
4Lucidarium 2.5; GS, 3:73b.
76 Music Theory Spectrum
abandoned that system. As definitions of the octave, fifth,
fourth, and whole tone he retained the proportions 1:2, 2:3, 3:4,
and 8:9, departing from the Pythagorean conventions only for
the semitones . 5 If Marchetto's perfect fourth and whole tone are
Pythagorean, his semitones —derived by subtracting two whole
tones from the perfect fourth—must also be Pythagorean. The
definitions of two-fifths and three-fifths tone cannot be accu-
rate.
This state of affairs is not really surprising. Marchetto had no
way of measuring fifth-tones accurately. He must have been
speaking in approximations when he mentioned them, and it is
reasonable to assume that the system he meant to approximate
was the standard one of his time, Pythagorean tuning. Indeed,
the preceding quotation shows that Marchetto used the term
limma for the interval of two dieses and the term apotome for
that of three dieses -- and these are terms theorists generally
reserved for the Pythagorean semitones.
Marchetto had good reason to redefine the Pythagorean
semitones as fractions of the whole tone. He addressed the
Lucidarium not only to theorists but to performing musicians as
well—performing musicians, who would have had neither time
nor stomach for the laborious computations of Pythagorean
arithmetic summarized in Table 1 but who needed some simple
index for the sizes of the two semitones that the proportions
243:256 and 2048:2187 fail to supply. 6 By calling the semitones
two-fifths and three-fifths tone Marchetto sacrificed accuracy
for comprehensibility.
It was the comprehensibility of Marchetto's system that
struck later theorists. Writing in 1489, Bonaventura da Brescia
5 For the Pythagorean definitions of the larger intervals, see the Lucidarium
3.1-3, 3.6, 4.3-5, 4.9, 6.2-4; GS, 3:76b-79b, 83b-86b.
6In the dedicatory letter Marchetto refers to the Lucidarium as "a work by
means of which all theorists and performers might rationally understand what
they sing in plain chant (opus, quo universi musici & cantores scirent ra-
tionabiliter in plana musica quid cantarent);" GS, 3:65b.
compared Marchetto's method of dividing the whole tone to the
traditional Pythagorean system as expounded by Nicolo Burzio,
and came to this conclusion: "Burzio's opinion is good; but I
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hold with Marchetto's, because it is easy and clear (haec opinio
[Burtii] est bona, sed ego teneo opiniones [read: opinionem]
Marcheti, quia facilis et clara est) . " 7 Tinctoris, though he fol-
lowed the traditional Pythagorean definitions of the semitones
in his rigorous Expositio manus, adopted division of the whole
tone into fifths for the simple, informal definitions in his Dif-
finitorium:
Diesis is one part of a whole tone which has been divided into five
parts .... The greater semitone is that which consists of three
dieses, ... which is called by many the apothome, or "diatonic
semitone." The lesser semitone is that which consists of only two
dieses, ... which is called by Plato a limma and by others the
"enharmonic semitone." There is also another semitone which is
called the ` `chromatic . " It is used when, in singing, some note is raised
for the purpose of a beautiful delivery.
Diesis est una pars toni in quinque divisi.... Semitonium maius est
illud quod ex tribus diesibus constat, ... quod a pluribus apothome
seu semitonium diatonicum appellatur. Semitonium minus est illud
quod ex duabus diesibus tantummodo constat, ... quod a Platone
lima, ab aliis semitonium Enarmonicum appellatur. Est et aliud
semitonium quod Cromaticum dicitur. Fit autem dum canendo aliqua
vox ad pulcritudinem pronunciationis sustinetur. 8
According to Marchetto, the whole tone is divided into inter-
vals of one-fifth and four-fifths tone
7 Bonaventura da Brescia, Venturina; Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico
Musicale, ms. A 57, f. 30r.
8 English and Latin: Johannes Tinctoris, Dictionary of Musical Terms, trans.
Carl Parrish (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1963), pp. 24f., 56f. For Tinctoris'
definitions of the minor and major semitones in traditional Pythagorean terms
see his Expositio manus 8.7-8; Johannis Tinctoris opera theoretica, ed. Albert
Seay, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, no. 22, 2 vols. (n.p.: American Institute of
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

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

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

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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
diesis, 41, equals the major sixth, 955 cents; the perfect fifth, 700 cents, minus
the whole tone, 204, minus Marchetto's diesis, 41, equals the major third, 455
cents.
13 For a more detailed discussion of Marchetto's division of the whole tone,
see Jan W. Herlinger, "The Lucidarium of Marchetto of Padua: A Critical
Edition, Translation, and Commentary," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., University of
Chicago, 1978), 1:16-56.
"Oliver B. Ellsworth, "The Berkeley Manuscript (olim Phillipps 4450): A
Compendium of Fourteenth-Century Music Theory," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss.,
University of California, Berkeley, 1969), 1:82. The emendation corresponds to
one suggested by Ellsworth, "A Fourteenth-Century Proposal for Equal Tem-
perament," Viator, 5 (1974): 445-53, 447, n. 7.
In normal medieval practice the "natural" sign corresponds sometimes to the
modern natural, sometimes to the modern sharp. When applied to F, C, or G it
expresses what we would call F-sharp, C-sharp, or G-sharp.

Thus the treatise states that the normal diatonic semitone be-
tween mi and fa (E to F, A to B-flat, B-natural to C) is two-thirds
tone, whereas the interval between a sharped note and the
uninflected note just above it is one-third tone.
The similarities between Marchetto's system and Goscalcus'
are striking. Both divided the whole tone fractionally: Marchetto
described a system in which semitones of four sizes appear, and
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
used in diatonic progressions: Marchetto called this semitone
two-fifths tone; Goscalcus called it two-thirds tone. Each
claimed that a semitone smaller than normal was effected by a
sign corresponding to the modern sharp. Finally, there is cir-
cumstantial evidence that the semitone each proposed for nor-
mal diatonic progressions was in fact the Pythagorean minor
semitone.
As has been pointed out above, we know that the interval
Marchetto called two-fifths tone corresponds to the Pythagorean
minor semitone because Marchetto defined the perfect fourth
and the whole tone, from which it is derived, in Pythagorean
terms. The author of the Berkeley manuscript likewise defined
those intervals in Pythagorean terms, not in the treatise in
question, but in the one that immediately precedes it in the
manuscript, where a table shows that the proportions of the
octave, the fifth, the fourth, and the whole tone are contained in
the series 12:9:8:6. In that case, the octave must be 1:2, the fifth
2:3, the fourth 3:4, and the whole tone 8:9, all standard Pythago-
rean definitions; therefore the semitone for normal diatonic
progressions must also be the Pythagorean one 243:256. This is
the semitone that is called two-thirds tone. 15
15 The Berkeley manuscript contains five treatises. The discussion of the
series 12:9:8:6 appears in the fourth (Ellsworth, "Berkeley Manuscript,"
1:65f., 136), that of semitones in the fifth.
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 79
Marchetto divided the whole tone into fifths because that is
the simplest division of the tone by means of which four
semitones can be represented. Goscalcus, presumably, divided
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the tone into thirds because that is the simplest division of the
tone by means of which two semitones can be represented—
even though two-thirds tone is not at all a close approximation of
the Pythagorean minor semitone .16
Is it justifiable to correlate the fourth treatise with the fifth? Ellsworth found
that "one of the most striking aspects of the manuscript is its clear conception as
a homogeneous entity, rather than as an anthology of unrelated works"
("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," p. 445); and concerning these two treatises in
particular he wrote, "Towards the end of the ... fourth treatise, the author of
the Berkeley manuscript briefly mentions these three genera [diatonic, chro-
matic, enharmonic], which govern all `regular or irregular' semitones... .
Although the fifth treatise does not contain the names of the genera, it is entirely
possible that the author may have intended it to supplement this passage in the
earlier treatise, and its cursory nature is certainly in keeping with the possibility
of a footnote or excursus" ("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," pp. 446f.).
Crocker also regarded the five treatises as a coherent whole: "Aside from the
fact that these five parts of the MS are written consecutively in what seems to be
one hand, the compilation gives internal evidence that it is in some sense a single
continuing work" ("A New Source for Medieval Music Theory," Acta Mu-
sicologica, 39 [1964161-71, 162) . The Manuscript Catania, Biblioteche .
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
first and fifth) though omitting the fourth (ff. 12r-30r); however, this omission
by no means excludes a Pythagorean interpretation of the passage under consid-
eration here.
16Ellsworth regards the treatise in question as a proposal for dividing the octave
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
type [i.e., one that divides the whole tone fractionally] is the division of the
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
tone fractionally yet retain Pythagorean tuning.
Ellsworth's reference to "the harmonic practicability assigned to this system
[the nineteen-step division of Francisco Salinas, 1577] by J. Murray Barbour" is
80 Music Theory Spectrum
Johannes Ciconia
Johannes Ciconia divided the whole tone into thirds and
quarters in his Nova musica (ca. 1400), attributing these divi-
sions to Aristoxenus and Boethius:
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.
Boethius: The chromatic semitone exceeds and surpasses the half tone
to the same degree that the diatonic semitone is less than the true half
tone— as 16 of 24.
Aristoxenus: Semitonium enarmonicum quarta pars toni est, ut vi de
xxiiii. Semitonium autem diatonicum tertia pars toni est, ut viii de
XXllll °r . Boetius: Semitonium chromaticum tantum superat et vincit
dimidium toni, quantum diatonicum minus est integro dimidio tono, ut
xvi de xxlllior, 1 7
misleading ("Fourteenth-Century Proposal," p. 448). The nineteen-step divi-
sion, with its consonant triads but beating fifths, may be appropriate for
sixteenth-century style, but certainly is not for that of the fourteenth, in which
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
equivocal: "Salinas showed that his method results in pure minor thirds, tritone,
and major sixth. But the fifth is diminished by 1/3 comma, and so is the major
third. On the whole this tuning does not compare favorably with the others [i.e.,
2/7-comma and 1/4-comma temperaments] .... There does not seem to be
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
379 cents, 1/3 comma flat, would sound insipid in the extreme" (Tuning and
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
Vaticana, ms. Vaticanus latinus 5320, f. 14v.
According to Boethius, Aristoxenus discussed quarter- and third-tones (ex-
pressed as 6/24 and 8/24 whole tone), the former employed in the enharmonic
tuning, the latter in the soft chromatic (Boethius, De musica 5.16; Anicii Manlii
Torquati Severini Boetii de institutione arithmetica libri II, de institutione
musica libri V, ed. Gottfried Friedlein [Leipzig: Teubner, 1867; reprint ed.,
Unfortunately, the chapter Ciconia devoted to these matters is a
tangle of mutually contradictory definitions drawn from diverse
sources; from it no coherent system can be deduced.
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Gaffurio, Burzio, Aaron
Division of the whole tone into ninths established itself
through a series of three landmark treatises. In the Theoricum
opus of 1480 Gaffurio wrote of the theory of the ancients:
The whole tone, then, consists of two minor semitones and a comma.
Philolaus called the minor semitone "diesis," but later writers, as
Boethius asserts, called the diesis half the minor semitone.... From
this it follows that four dieses and one comma complete the whole
tone.... The comma, as some think, is half the diesis.
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,
ut quibusdam placet, est dimidium diesis. 18
If the comma is half the diesis, then it is also one-ninth of the
whole tone. To be sure, Gaffurio merely reported this idea
without advocating it; but it is quite remarkable that he broached
it at all. Where before him, in the theory of the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance, is division of the tone into ninths even dis-
cussed?
Seven years later, Nicolo Burzio quoted this passage of Gaf-
furio's almost verbatim—typically, without acknowledging his
Frankfurt: Minerva, 1966], p. 366). Ciconia's statement concerning the relative
sizes of the chromatic and diatonic semitones derives from Boethius, De musica
2.30 (Friedlein ed., p. 263): "To the same degree that the minor semitone is less
than the true half tone the apotome exceeds it (quantum igitur semitonium minus
integro dimidio toni minus est, tantum apotome toni integrum superat
dimidium)."
18 Franchino Gaffurio, Theoricum opus musice discipline 4.3 (Naples, 1480) .

source. 19 Like Gaffurio, he cited Boethius and Philolaus; unlike
him, he mentioned Guido d'Arezzo as well— and thus trans-
ported ninefold division of the tone out of the ancient world and
a bit closer to his own time.
Given the subjects Pietro Aaron treated in his Libri tres de
institutione harmonica (Bologna, 1516) —hexachords, muta-
tions, theory of modes, cadences in counterpoint—there can be
no doubt that he was speaking of the practice of his own time. He
minced no words: "The whole tone is divided into four dieses
and a comma; the comma is one-ninth of the whole tone.
(Tonus quidem in quattuor dieses et unum comma dividitur.
Comma vero nona est pars toni . )" Further: "The major
semitone consists of two dieses and a comma.... The minor
semitone has only the two dieses without the comma. (Maius
[semitonium] quidem duplici diesi et commate constat:.. .
Minus autem duas tantum pulso commate dieses habet.) 9,20 If
Aaron's whole tone is the Pythagorean one of 204 cents (as
Gaffurio's and Burzio's certainly are), then five-ninths and
four-ninths whole tone are amazingly accurate approximations
of the Pythagorean semitones—accurate within one-half cent
(Table 2) .
The Brussels Anonymous
The most surprising division of the whole tone appears in an
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
comma.... Dyesis namque est semitonii dimidium. Comma vero dimidium
dyeseos, ut quibusdam placet.)" Nicolo Burzio, Florum libellus 1.21; Nicolai
Burtii Parmensis florum libellus, ed. Giuseppe Massera, "Historiae Musicae
Cultores" Biblioteca, no. 28 (Florence: Olschki, 1975), pp. 92f.
20 Pietro Aaron, Libri tres de institutione harmonica 1.17 (Bologna, 1516;
reprint ed., Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, Second
Series, no. 67 (New York: Broude, 1976), f. 12v.
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 81
Italian manuscript of the late fifteenth century, now in Brussels.
After defining the octave, fifth, fourth, and whole tone in the
Pythagorean fashion, the anonymous author continued:
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The major semitone has four commas, one cisma, and one derisma. The
cisma is half a comma, the derisma a quarter comma. The minor
semitone contains three commas plus one cisma and one diacisma.
Semitonium maius habet quattuor comata, unum cisma, et unum
derisma. Cisma est media pars comatis, derisma est quarta pars
comatis. Semitonium minus continet tria comata et unum cisma et
unum diacisma. 21
The cisma—normally called the schisma—was traditionally
defined as half the comma. The derisma in unique here, in my
experience. The diacisma is problematical: either standard def-
inition of that interval — a half or a quarter of the minor
semitone — would make the writer's minor semitone exceed a
half tone by a considerable amount. 22 But Gaffurio, again,
offered an idiosyncratic definition in the Theoricum opus:
"Some divide a schisma into two diaschismas (unumque
sichisma in duo dyachismata partiuntur nonnulli) . " 23 If this
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
division of the tone into thirty-four parts (quarter commas) and
approximate the true sizes of the Pythagorean semitones almost
within a quarter cent (Table 3) !
21 Brussels, Bibliothēque Royale Albert I, ms. II 785, f. 13v.
22 The diacisma was universally defined as half the diesis; but as the quotation
from Gaffurio shows, the diesis was variously considered as either identical with
the minor semitone or equal to half of it—hence the ambiguity concerning the
diacisma.
23 Gaffurio, Theoricum opus 4.3. The passage is quoted by Gaetano Cesari in
his Preface to the facsimile edition of Gaffurio's 1492 revision, Franchini
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

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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
The Pythagoreans may have claimed that "truth is contained
in numbers"; but between 1317 and 1516 eight theorists, of
whom four were among the outstanding figures of their time,
were willing to discard at least some of those numbers. The
theorists did not abandon the Pythagorean tuning system,
however—although several of them expanded it by introducing
an unusually narrow semitone in addition to the normal diatonic
one. Rather, they abandoned only the complicated Pythagorean
proportions for the semitones in favor of simpler fractional
expressions. These fractions are approximations, but they are
approximations that had become surprisingly accurate by
around 1500.
The central importance of Marchetto for the movement under
discussion here is indisputable. He was the first major theorist of
the Middle Ages to propose dividing the whole tone into frac-

tional parts; and he directly or indirectly influenced most of the
others who did so. Ciconia borrowed extensively from the
Lucidarium, in both the content and the organization of his Nova
musica. The similarity of Tinctoris' division of the tone into
fifths to Marchetto's suggests that he must have known the
Lucidarium; so do the similarities in the two theorists' doctrines
of mode. Gaffurio copied the Lucidarium in 1473 and incorpo-
rated whole chapters of it into his Extractus parvus musice (ca.
1474) . Burzio was the student of Johannes Gallicus Carthusien-
sis, author of a bitter attack on Marchetto's division of the tone.
Aaron not only commented on the Lucidarium, but borrowed
Marchetto's title for the treatise in which he did so. 24 Consider-
24 Aristoxenus was the first to suggest fractional division of the whole tone.
Medieval theorists typically followed Boethius in rejecting his approach. The
Aristoxenian tradition was transmitted in less disparaging fashion by Martianus
Capella; it was widely disseminated through Remigius' commentary (see Re-
migius, Martianus Capella 494.18-495. 1; Lutz ed., 2:329f.).
Remigius, incidentally, was the writer Marchetto most frequently mentioned
in the Lucidarium.
Chapters 60-65 of the First Book of Ciconia's Nova musica (Item de conso-
nantia; De dissonantia; Quid sit intervallum; De euphonia; De armonia; De
symphonia) show his debt to Marchetto very clearly. Chapter 62 is an interpola-
tion, but the subjects of Chapters 60, 61, 63, 64, and 65 parallel those of
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
evident in the passages quoted above. Furthermore, both classified modes as
perfecti, imperfecti, plusquamperfecti, mixti, and commixti (on this point see
Lucie Balmer, Tonsystem and Kirchentone bei Johannes Tinctoris, Berner
Veroffentlichungen zur Musikforschung, no. 2 [Berne and Leipzig: Haupt,
1935], pp. 211f., 234, 240).
Gaffurio's copy of the Lucidarium now resides without signature in the
private library of Count Gian Ludovico Sola-Cabiati, Tremezzo. F. Alberto
Gallo's critical edition of Franchini Gafurii extractus parvus musice, Antiquae
Musicae Italicae Scriptores, ,no. 4 (Bologna: Universitā degli Studi, 1969),
identifies page after page of material drawn from the Lucidarium.
Johannes Gallicus Carthusiensis' attacks on Marchetto appear in Scriptorum
de Musica Medii Aevi Nova Series a Gerbertina Altera, ed. Edmond de Cous-
Fractional Divisions of the Whole Tone 83
ing these facts, there can be no doubt that Marchetto was the
principal instigator of these two hundred years' investigation of
fractional division of the whole tone.
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The contents of several manuscripts containing these treatises
reveal that their compilers were particularly interested in tuning
and related problems, and suggest thereby an avenue for future
research. Goscalcus' treatise appears not only in the Berkeley
manuscript but in one from southern Italy or Sicily dated 1473;
this source also includes the Lucidarium and a diagram of a
seventeen-note scale—that is, one of five sharps and five flats in
addition to the seven naturals—in Pythagorean tuning, with the
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
dividing the tone into thirty-four parts also includes the
Lucidarium, plus a table showing hexachords built on B-flat,
E-flat, and D in addition to the standard C, G, and F. 25 These
interrelationships suggest that historians of music theory would
do well to examine the contents not only of individual treatises
but of the manuscripts in which they appear. There is every
reason to believe that source studies of theoretical manuscripts
would prove as fruitful for scholarship as have those of musical
manuscripts over the last decade and a half.
semaker, 4 vols. (Paris: Durand, 1864-76), 4:324-31, 349.
For Aaron's comments on Marchetto, see his Lucidario in musica 1.4, 5, 7
(Venice, 1545; reprint ed., Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, Sezione 2, no. 12,
Bologna: Forni, 1969) .
25 Catania, Biblioteche riunite Civica e A. Ursino Recupero, Fondo Ursino
Recupero, ms. D 39 contains Goscalcus' treatise on ff. 12r-30r, the diagram of
the seventeen-note scale on f. 116rv, and the Lucidarium on ff. 157r-189r.
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, ms. 734 contains the Nova musica on ff. lr-57r
and the Lucidarium on ff. 74r-101y. Brussels, Bibliothēque Royale Albert I,
ms. II 785 contains the proposal for division of the tone on f. 13v, the table of
hexachords on f. 14v, and the Lucidarium on ff. 15r-38v; for a detailed study of
this manuscript, including an inventory, see Herlinger, "A Fifteenth-Century
Italian Compilation of Music Theory," forthcoming in Acta Musicologica.