''De Mensurabili Musica'' (concerning measured music) is a musical treatise from the early 13th century (medieval period, c. 1240) and is the first of two treatises traditionally attributed to French music theorist Johannes de Garlandia; the other is ''de plana musica'' (Concerning Plainchant). ''De Mensurabili Musica'' was the first to explain a modal rhythmic system that was already in use at the time: the

rhythmic mode In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms). The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent European musical notation), but rather by i ...

s. The six rhythmic modes set out by the treatise are all in

triple time Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , , ...

and are made from combinations of the note values ''longa'' (long) and ''brevis'' (short) and are given the names ''

trochee In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (al ...

, iamb,

dactyl Dactyl may refer to: * Dactyl (mythology), a legendary being * Dactyl (poetry), a metrical unit of verse * Dactyl Foundation, an arts organization * Finger, a part of the hand * Dactylus, part of a decapod crustacean * "-dactyl", a suffix used ...

anapest An anapaest (; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consist ...

spondaic A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'. Spondees in Ancient Greek a ...

'' and '' tribrach'', although ''trochee, dactyl'' and ''spondaic'' were much more common. It is evident how influential Garlandia's There has been recent scholarly debate on whether Johannes de Garlandia actually wrote the treatise. Some music historians believe that he was simply editor of the treatises. More information can be found on his Wikipedia page. treatise has been by the number of theorists that have used its ideas. Much of the surviving music of the

Notre Dame School The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names hav ...

from the 13th century is based on the rhythmic modes set out in ''De Mensurabili Musica''.

Sources

Bruges
Ms. 528f. 54v-59v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
Latin 16663f. 66v-76v
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Vat.lat.5325f. 12v-30v

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