By \a hose standards are we to judgc quali4?

\ltrat evid€nce is therc for medieval musical aesthetics?

quality is 'period-depcndent'; ?

only those alive around the time a piece ofmusic *as composed were capable ofarrivingat a valid judgment ofits
qualitya

guod reason to doubt that music is mcaninglcss bcyond its own tinre and place

dowc halc anyrighr to criticir-€ thc work of other clllturcs?

medieval p<-rllphony rcveals |hat i|sfoNard motion is generated by ,uxrapositions ofdissonanc€ md

consonancc: melodic lines st rt in a consonant rchlionship (for exarnplc, a 6fth or an octave apar$, then movc
up ordoun by diflerent amounts to produce a morc dissonanl sonorily (sNy a third and a sixth above the lowest
notc), the tension in $'hich then sce|ns to requirc resoludon into another conson:rnce (in lhis case, out*ardsto
drc nearestffth and ()ctav

this is the experience of medieval listeners

a hierarchical relationship of structure and decoratron is cqually apparent in mcdicval music

Notre Dame organum and the fourtecnth-century mote

are clearly nothing but decorations ofan evidcnt structure (their chant and thc consonances strategically
placcd around it)

The early (i) thirreenth-century Vatican Organum Treadser providcs in its (ext instructions for making
well-formc<l progressions orer ani likeli prir of adjacent chant notes a sequcnce of !wo-!oic€ chords - a
harmonization oi rhc chanr , thc brsic principlcs ofgood voiccJeading

of Petru! frater dictus palme ocios ,

samc dual approach in thc fou rt€cndr -ccntury counterpoint trearise
principlcs of good progression , what can be done with countcrpoint when (in his dclightful phrase) it
is'adorncd rvith florvers

composition was taught in tcrms ofstructure and decoration

cridence ofperiod trsre exisls

1) deduced from wrirings designed to aid mcdicvalteachers ofmusic

2) deduccd b), cxamining composers'priorities during thc composjtion process

possiblc in cenain q?cs ofstricdy ordcred compositions (mosdy isorhfihmic) to see composers beiDg forced
into choiccs betveen the comperjng dehands ofmclodic writing, rhythmic schencs lnd good counrerpoint;

iudgments of snccilic $orks suF,iving from the period- saying that Perotinus \rvas a better composer of
discant clausulae than his prcdec€ssor Leoninus, but implies that Leoninus was the bctter composer
oforganunr- a rernark that would bc nxrre use todal ifrve knew \r'hrt Leoninus wrote.

Or

hat most cxcellenr motet ,/irrr'rr.r'- the fo$r-\oice Infudmtet/liflutiba/Alna,/CT E robabh) by Phil;ppe dc
\iitry is a virtrnso display of four-part isorhythnic wriring .

or

We have remarks by Guillaume de Ntach.rut about some ofhis own songs

ls Machaut saying that to him the piecc soundss\rcer orsouri Horv did he rank his last seven vears' work in
relxtion to'DixetseDf?

Do not be relying on a single view of a picce [Iow mighl thc t\{enw-filih century approach Romantic opera
ifthe onl! suniving contcmporary view were Nietzschc's, thai Cdrrt? was 'thc best opcra in €xistence'6i hat
period views need confirmation from study ofthe music

What is medieral aesthctics ? medieval writings about musical beauty is too abstract ( concerned with the power
of music rather than being specific ( is a good piece because

In the rure cases where examples ofmusical ciftcts are ofiered, they tend to be drarvn from the repenory
ofccclcsiestical chant (clerical background) while chant was heard on a daily basis - was, in fact, the
primary musical experience of most lileral people , polphony was relatilcly rare, confined for the most
part of festal occasions in the wealthiest institutions.

Polyphony provided a big area of compositional activities ( compositional exercises) not too much in the
lives of writing classes to stimulate enough speculation.

lrs higher nrrchanisrns rvcre taught verbally and by example there was litde need for high level
specularion about compositional techniquc, still les! for a generalized thcory oi musicalperception.
mcdicval composidon is better thought of as a craft rather than an art, the applications of rules rather
than the creation of beauty.

medieval view about the value of its music is scarce and documentary is rare and very difficult
to interpret.

There is a lot of music and we know about grammatical principles so we can judge the value upon them.

The appereance of a piece in different manuscripts indicates its fame

but the quality has to be proven.

The anonymous piece jour a jour appears in ten manuscripts but it

owes its popularity more than just the fun metrical contrasts? Is it a
good piece?

Contrapuntally poor pieces are attributed to ordinary composers and

not worth studying. Piece that consistently follow the rules then are
worthwhile. Piece contrapuntally correct may be dull, it is not true that
anonymous pieces are less good than ones with a composer name or
that piece with two voices are less good when the norm is 3 voices.

Scholars interested in monophony tend to be aloof towards polyphonic

pieces and vice versa. We should have a closer look to pieces that do
nothing out of the ordinary or those that move away from the ordinary
in an interesting way.

Our aural knowledge has still to be acquired perhaps using

Pythagorean tuning, period pronunciation and appropriate voices. The
critic must demonstrate why a piece is monotonous or it is
contgrapuntally inept and not assumed. IT should show how a piece
function or fails to function.

Example 1) if prevalet simplicitas is a bad piece it is because the

inadequacies are obvious against a normal compositional practice that
goes against rules, so the composer is not an expert. The cantus II
seems has been adapted and adjusted and composed to fit cantus I
and it has weird leaps and circles around c and clashes with
dissonances with cantus I.

Some pieces look odd on the paper but they function in performance.
Some pieces make sense only with the Pythagorean tuning as they
were conceived.

Example 4) the chord motion is monotonous and no significant sense

of shaping the melody and lacks form.

The question is to choose between the good and marvelous so that

piece has to engage the listener until is over, unpredictable in terms of
details, meaningful counterpoint, refined melodic shape and the
phrase shape should match the underlying rhythm and metre.

THE ENGLISH A CAPPELLA HERESY