''Scolica enchiriadis'' is an anonymous ninth-century

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

treatise and commentary on its companion work, the ''

Musica enchiriadis ''Musica enchiriadis'' is an anonymous musical treatise of the 9th century. It is the first surviving attempt to set up a system of rules for polyphony in western art music. The treatise was once attributed to Hucbald, but this is no longer accept ...

''. These treatises were once attributed to

Hucbald Hucbald ( – 20 June 930; also Hucbaldus or Hubaldus) was a Benedictine monk active as a music theorist, poet, composer, teacher, and hagiographer. He was long associated with Saint-Amand Abbey, so is often known as Hucbald of St Amand. Deeply i ...

, but this is no longer accepted.Hoppin, Richard H. ''Medieval Music''. Norton, 1978, pp.188-193. . The ''Scolica enchiriadis'' is written as a tripartite dialogue, and despite being a commentary on the ''Musica enchiriadis'', it is nearly three times as long.Erickson, Raymond. "Musica enchiriadis, Scholia enchiriadis". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. London: Macmillan, 2001. Much of the theory discussed by the treatise is indebted to

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

conceptions of music, especially its affirmations of the importance of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

to music as kindred disciplines of the ''

quadrivium From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the ''quadrivium'' (plural: quadrivia) was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in the ...

''. Later sections draw heavily on the music theory of

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...

and

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...

, two early medieval authors whose works on music were widely read and circulated hundreds of years after their death. The treatise makes use of the

monochord A monochord, also known as sonometer (see below), is an ancient musical and scientific laboratory instrument, involving one (mono-) string ( chord). The term ''monochord'' is sometimes used as the class-name for any musical stringed instrument h ...

to explain interval relations. The treatise also discusses singing technique,

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

of plainchant, and

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

in the style of

organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the sam ...

. The scale used in the work, which is based on a system of

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord ( el, τετράχορδoν; lat, tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency pr ...

s, appears to have been created solely for use in the work itself rather than taken from actual musical practice. The treatise also uses a very rare system of notation, known as

Daseian {{about, the medieval musical notation, the Greek diacritic, rough breathing 400px, ''Tu patris sempiternus es filius'', written in Daseian notation. The Daseian signs are at the far left of the staff. Daseian notation (or dasian notation) is the t ...

notation. This notation has a number of figures which are rotated ninety degrees to represent different pitches. A critical edition of the treatises was published in 1981, and an English translation by Raymond Erickson in 1995.

References

External links

* * Link t
colour images of the MS of the text (V-CVbav pal. lat. 1342)
available via the University of Heidelberg's site. * Link t
colour images of the MS of the text (D-Msb Clm 14372)
available via the Bavarian State Library. {{Authority control 9th-century books Music theory Musical scales Works of unknown authorship Medieval music manuscript sources

See also

References

External links