Mensuration and Proportion in Early Fifteenth Century English Music

Mensuration and Proportion in Early Fifteenth Century English MusicAuthor(s): Andrew HughesSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 37, Fasc. 1/2 (Jan. - Jun., 1965), pp. 48-61Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/932338 .

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48 F. LI. Harrison: Benedicamus, Conductus, Carol

No. 20

8 Ver-bum ca-ro fa-ctum est de vir-gi - ne Ma-ri - a. 1.Di- es est le- ti- ci - e nam na-tus est ho-di - e

-0

Sfi - i - us de vir - gi - ne, de vir gi - ne Ma -ri - a. Ver-bum ca - ro (etc.)

2. O vos omnes psallite, 3. Portam clausam graditur, 4. Docet sydus radius pace facta credite, qui alcio geritur, ex ortum dignissimus, angelo nunciante Deus homo nascitur pollentem in populum de virgine Maria. de virgine Maria. de virgine Maria.

Verbum caro (etc.) Verbum caro (etc.) Verbum caro (etc.)

No. 21

. IF 0----0

1.Con - gau - de - at tur - ba fi - de - i i um, vr - go

ma - ter pe - pe - rit fi - ii - um (Chorus) In Be - le-hem.

2. Colliridas simul cum nectare benedicat Christus rex glorie Ch. In Belehem.

Mensuration and Proportion in Early Fifteenth Century English Music'

ANDREW HUGHES (UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS)

In the first half of the fifteenth century, rhythmic instability, so much a feature of fourteenth and fifteenth century music, shifts from the meaning of the note symbols themselves to the actual speed of the music. This is reflected by the replacing of the

compound rhythmic schemes equivalent to our 6/8 or 9/8 by the 3/4, a change which is not the simplification it is usually said to be. The fact is that two bars of the later 3/4 are musically equivalent to one bar of the earlier 6/8, plus an additional imperfect subdivision of the minim. If, as seems certain, there was doubling of speed we once again have the original 6/8, now able to include the semi-minim. In other words the note values of the later 3/4 are a conventional doubling of the earlier values in order to facilitate the writing of very short notes. The same remarks apply, mutatis mutandis, to the earlier 9/8, although this in fact falls into disuse.

I Unless otherwise stated, all note values in this article are those of the original manuscript. Where original notation is exemplified, red and other coloration is always marked. Ligatures and red coloration are noted in the usual way in the modern transcriptions. I should like to thank Denis Arnold for his help with the final preparation of this article.



A. Hughes: Mensuration and Proportion in Early 15th Century English Music 49

The doubling of speed, which amounts to placing the tactus on the breve rather than the semibreve, is confirmed in several ways: the musical idioms of the 3/4 are equivalent to those of the 6/8 in notes twice as long. Moreover, the later mensuration

sign is often 0 instead of 0, and even when the latter is used, concordances sometimes indicate that the former should be understood.

This point is of great importance since it may well affect pieces composed before the unmistakable doubling of values and of speed becomes evident. There was a transition period during which the value of the tactus is uncertain, and it is sometimes very difficult to decide whether the values for a modern edition should be halved, to 3/4, or quartered, to 6/8. But there are certain guides, especially when

complicated rhythms are present, which may help to clarify the situation.

The value of the tactus therefore passes through a period of ambiguity. When we consider the meaning of the note symbols themselves, we find the permanent ambiguity which is the basis of mensural notation and the chief reason for its

flexibility. Ambiguity, however, was also the system's chief defect, despite the rules

designed to avoid it; moreover, further confusion could arise from provincial, even

personal interpretations of the more uncommon technical procedures available. The

unsuitability of the notation for really complex rhythms is all too obvious from the

frequent necessity in individual cases to explain by a verbal canon the meaning of some of the techniques used. In spite of this, composers delighted in writing the most abstruse and complex rhythmic schemes, seemingly designed to get the better of the notation, but more probably partly in an unconscious attempt to prolong the idea of music as an art for the initiate and expert only, and partly from sheer crossword- puzzle-mindedness. The additional fact that often the explanatory verbal canons themselves are comprehensible only after the result has been discovered by trial and error increases the difficulty in both transcribing the music and understanding the motives behind its composition.

The secular pieces written by French and Italian composers in the late fourteenth

century in the Mannered style present the most difficulty in these respects, and, as

may be seen from Apel's transcriptions of many of these pieces,2 modern notation, for all its exactness, fails to deal with these rhythms in a manner in which the metrical scheme is easily comprehensible. In fact it remains in question whether the inspiration is musical or intellectual, and whether performing accuracy could have been achieved. The Mannered school worked mainly in Avignon in the second half of the century, and both provincial and personal idiosyncracies of notation abound, especially in the trial of new symbols.3 The style of the music is characterised by irregular syncopation, usually caused by the insertion of extra notes (themselves making full

2 French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century, ed. W. APEL, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1950.

3 The notation is described in Chapter IX of APEL, The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900-1600, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953.



50 A. Hughes: Mensuration and Proportion in Early 15th Century English Music

perfections) between the notes of another single perfection,4 and compound appli- cations of this procedure. The result is a continual displacement of accent, giving the music a curiously limping movement. The difficulties of performance and inter-

pretation probably account for the short-lived and mainly local importance of the

style. There is, however, one significant though brief resurgence in the otherwise

predominantly simple English music. That the interest in rhythm was strong also in

England is seen in the fact that syncopation is first mentioned in an English treatise of 1326,5 and that a notable tract on proportions was written in the vernacular

by pseudo-Chilston in the early fifteenth century." Nevertheless, as will be shown,

rhythmic complexity was not carried to the extreme lengths of the Mannered com-

posers. It occurs mainly in the Old Hall manuscript.' This major source of English polyphony, the earliest layer of which must have been written down in the first decade of the fifteenth century8 and which probably records music composed even

earlier, contains much evidence of the influence of continental on English music of the time.9 Insufficient attention has been paid to foreign influence in England, although it was equally as important as the later English influence on continental music through the agency of Dunstable. The appearance of rhythmic complications which, if not so prolonged, are at least as awkward to decipher and difficult to sing, is one sign of this foreign influence. Unfortunately no direct agency is known

through which it might have travelled. Would it be fanciful to suggest that it may have been in the person of Leonel Power? Two of the three Old Hall pieces using the

English version of the Mannered style are by him, and especially in his early life he seems to have been attracted by the excessive syncopation and irregularity of the

style (although used with more moderation) and by a seemingly deliberate obscurity of notation. Leonel died on June 5th, 1445.10 It would therefore have been quite possible for him to have spent some of his youth in France during the period of the

4 Compare Vitry's definition of syncopation, published in COUSSEMAKER, Scriptorum de Musica ... III, p. 35 (Hildesheim, 1963). Simple examples of this type of syncopation may be conveniently studied in APEL, French Secular Music..., pp. 39-43. 5 The treatise of Robert de Handlo, published in COUSSEMAKER, Scriptorum de Musica... I, p. 383.

6 Published by MEECH, Speculum X, 1935, p. 265. 7 Published by the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society in three volumes (1933, 1935, 1938), edited by A. RAMSBOTHAM, H. B. COLLINS, and DOM ANSELM HuGHES. This edition is extremely unreliable in innumerable details, and some corrections have been made by BUKOFZER in Chapter II of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music, London, 1951. Unfortunately some of his corrections are also inaccurate, and even his revised inventory is not correct. A re-edition of this important source is long overdue: I hope myself to issue a conclusive inventory very shortly, and am at the moment

investigating the possibility of a new edition. The references in this article are to the existing edition (volume in Roman numerals, page in Arabic) and to the original folio, and are merely for the reader's convenience. 8 That is, the Roy Henry of this layer is Henry IV, 1399-1413. This early date, suggested by Dr. F. LL. HARRISON in Music in Medieval Britain, London, 1958, p. 220, has been endorsed by my own research into the manuscript and into a large number of records of the Chapel Royal and

Royal Household. o See BUKOFZER, Studies..., pp. 40, 53 f., 72 f., and HARRISON, Music in Medieval Britain, pp. 221 f. 10 HARRISON, op. cit., p. 42.




Mannered composers. In this study I shall consider in detail some of Leonel's com- positions and other pieces from the Old Hall manuscript, with references to con- temporary English pieces from elsewhere.

The first point to notice is that the rhythmic irregularities are not nearly so continuous as in the French style, and are usually found in isolated phrases whose rhythms are governed by proportional signs and colours rather than by special note forms. This means that in place of the apparent haphazard syncopation and displacement of accent there is a complex subdivision of the rhythms within the normal recurrent accents, representing a progression from halting, limping rhythms to a smoother, more readily appreciable pulse. 11 This pulse must be equivalent to, or closely related to, the tactus. The importance of this fact for offering a clue to the value of the tactus where it is uncertain will be clear from some of the following analyses.

There are isolated examples of true displacement of accent by syncopation, such as this passage from Old Hall, also found slightly varied in the earlier Fountains manuscript, British Museum Add. 40011 B:

Ex. 1

8 (a): the Fountains manuscript, folio 9v. (b): the Old Hall manuscript countertenor, folio 24v.

A similar passage is shown in Example 9.

Primarily the difficulty of transcribing this English music lies not in the interpretation of the symbols, but in the meaning of the proportional signs 12 and verbal canons, and secondarily in finding a clear modern representation of the rhythm.

The most common proportion is the hemiola, which in its usual form is a group of three notes imperfected by coloration against two perfect notes of the same value. Apparently similar to this, the triplet differs from it because the three against two effect is present also in all the shorter values. Both of these rhythms are used on isolated perfections by means of coloration, which reduces the value of a note

"I A similar regularisation is seen in the 8/4 and 6/s hemiola, which in the first decades of the century

may occur across the barline of the modern 3/4, but which later usually falls within the 3/4 bar. 12 Proportions are explained as adequately as possible by APEL in Chapter IV of The Notation of Polyphonic Music. This chapter, excellent though it is, cannot cover the more extreme and unusual cases, which usually have to be worked out by trial and error. Morley's table, printed on p. 57 of ALEC HARMAN'S publication of A Plain and Easy Introduction, London, 1952, gives most proportions in an immediately comprehensible form.




by a third, or occasionally more continuously under a changed mensuration sign or after the figure 3. Little complexity accompanies these proportions, but occasionally the triplet subdivision appears on different note values at the same time.

Triplet and hemiola minims and semibreves are ubiquitous; in breves they are somewhat rare (some occur in later examples). In shorter values they are found only in those pieces in which, if we decide to transcribe into 6/8 rather than 3/4, certain voices are written in values twice as long as necessary. This method of writing in doubled values under the mensuration 0 obviously precedes the change to 0 or 0 in all voices, and enables the composer to write shorter actual values. In fact

the minim ? appears to be the shortest note form used by early fifteenth century English musicians. 13 Although the same symbol with one flag is occasionally used for the semi-minim, coloration (or, in black notation, the void note) was preferred:

Ex. 2 rRED 7 FRED 1

F1 RED

I W

8 Old Hall II, 187, folio 70v.

The only other common proportion is sesquitertia, usually expressed by the

sign D, indicating that four notes are to be sung in the time of three of the same value.

Three pieces in Old Hall exhibit very complicated methods of notation and proportions. Two of these are by Leonel, and will be considered first. One of his Credos14 is written down in a way which appears to be unnecessarily obscure:

although there is no difficulty in fitting the three parts together, no indication is

given as to which part represents the integer valor, the triplex and tenor notes being respectively twice and four times those of the countertenor. The editors of Old Hall assumed that the countertenor is written in integer valor and therefore diminished the

triplex to a half, the tenor to a quarter. This seems at a first consideration unlikely: the countertenor in chanson style (of which this piece is an example) is an inessential

13 This applies of course to black notation. When void notation is used, the solid minim symbol represents the semi-minim. For a simple appreciation of this point see APEL, The Notation of Poly- phonic Music, p. 87. In this article, original notation is given in solid notes. 14 Old Hall II, 167, fol. 68v.




voice filling out the intervals and rhythms of the tenor and triplex. As such it would be written last and made to agree with the others, not vice versa. If the countertenor was in integer valor, the triplex would contain many unusually short notes, equivalent to the modern demi-semi- and even hemi-demi-semiquaver.

Since there is no plainsong in the piece, either the tenor or the triplex is the most important part, and a perfunctory glance shows that the latter is quite the most prominent. It would therefore have been written first without doubling, since its shortest notes could be represented by the void minim. It should therefore represent the integer valor. Consequently the countertenor should be doubled, and the tenor halved. The latter seems to be confirmed as follows. A verbal canon explaining the

proportions in this piece begins

Iste tenor de tertia parte de modo perfecto temporis imperfecti. Et incarnatus de modo imperfecto temporis imperfecti.

Et in spiritum sicut prius.

At 'Et in spiritum' the sign O (tempus perfectum, prolatio minor) is given in the tenor. But this section is said to be sicut prius, or equivalent to modus perfectus, tempus imperfectum. It would seem that the written modus and tempus become the actual tempus and prolatio, representing a halving of the written values. On the other hand, the same argument can be applied to a passage in the triplex shown in Example 5, where the sign ( governs modus and tempus, not tempus and prolatio. This would suggest that the integer valor was in fact represented by the triplex values halved, as in the edition. It is evidently impossible to rely on the manuscript signs of this period, since they are often frankly contradictory. A transcription beginning in 3/4 would be reasonably acceptable, and would not result in unusually short notes to which modern singers are unaccustomed. But many of the subsequent proportional passages would be very difficult to fit into a three beat bar. For this reason, and because it would give a better idea of the speed, a transcription in 6/8 is preferable. Here are the two possibilities:

Ex. 3

IRED 1

rRED-




8 8

LA I"

8 8 Old Hall II, 167, folio 68 v.

The verbal canon continues In proportione dtupla generat hic J.

The meaning of this is clear: void notes, as in Example 3, are twice their true value. The first proportional passage is introduced by the sign D. This is followed by

coloration of the notes under the sign to reduce them by one third:

Ex. 4

rREDI1 _

FRED 1

to

S 7 = o (Triplex only)

Old Hall II, 169, folio 6Sv.

This shows two methods of transcription. That of A, involving a further halving of the original values and recommended by Apel,15 has the advantage that no change of signature is necessary. But the writing of the following triplets is then very com-

plicated. Transcription as shown at B avoids the latter problem and also retains the reduction used for the rest of the piece and the concept of diminution of each note. Use of conflicting time-signatures is often the easiest modern way of showing propor-

1' Notation of Polyphonic Music, p. 151.




tions on two levels16 and it helps to clarify what the basic pulse should be. Here is an instance in which performance of the triplex would be hindered by the three beat approach suggested by 3/4, facilitated by the use of 6/8. It is of course essential to express a temporal relationship at the change of signature.

The next proportion in this Credo is as follows: Ex.5

rRED 1 FRED 1

Iii

,-

-

,

I P-

, ,- " 8 Old Hall II, 171, folio 68v.

This passage is governed by the remainder of the canon:

In proportione subsesquitertia capiendo talem figuram 6 In dupla sesquiquarta pronuntiant tales 9 .

(the two note symbols are in red)

The first sentence indicates that at the sign 06 followed by red coloration three notes should occupy the same time as four previously. 17 The second sentence implies that nine red void notes are equal to four of the ordinary notes.18 In Example 5 both these proportions occur. The first needs no explanation. The black sign Obetween the two passages prevents the proportions from being cumulative, and also indicates that in the doubled values of the triplex the long has two breves of three semibreves each. Three longs therefore contain eighteen semibreves, and according to the canon this must be equal to eight of the normal semibreves. Normal semibreves are those before the sign 06. The red notation reduces the values by a third, and three longs will therefore have twelve, not eighteen, semibreves against eight normal ones. This amounts to sesquialtera, or three against two of the same value, and could have been expressed in a much simpler manner: by solid red notes of the correct value under the basic mensuration of that section (C ). It will be noted that in order to achieve a clear and simple modern version the editorial reduction used for the rest of the piece has been altered for a few notes.

The remaining passages in this piece are both subsesquitertia proportions similar to the one explained.

18 I am indebted to Professor Sir Jack Westrup for his help and suggestions in this respect. 17 sesqui- signifies a fraction in which the numerator is greater by one than the denominator, which is shown by tertia to be three. Sub- indicates that the fraction is inverted. is dupla sesqui- signifies a fraction in which the numerator is greater by one than twice the denominator, which is shown by quarta to be four.




In a Gloria by Leonel,19 the triplex is in values twice as long as those of the tenor and countertenor. As with the previous piece, it is preferable to assume that the integer valor is shown in the two lower voices, and to transcribe in 6/8. The first

complex section is:

Ex.6

Triplex rRED .

S I ,I R- , , I.,I

Contra Tenor . FRED 1

Tr.: I. ~ in original values.

.= (Triplex only) =

V3 111 m E,'

Ol HI. 1Io I'-..

8 J. t.: Old Hall I, 65, folio 17v.

The logic here is difficult to see because strictly the proportion indicated by ) should continue through the red notes in a cumulative sequence until cancelled by a new signature. In fact it covers only the six notes between it and the red notes, while the latter are treated under the overall signature C alone. It is clear from the rest of the music that void notes show an exact halving of values, as usual. Because the triplex is doubled the void black ligature of perfect breves stands for semibreves, which are halved by the void to minims. These perfect minims must then be quartered for the modern transcription, and the final value is thus that of perfect (or dotted) quavers. The sign D has its usual meaning. The red void notes, considered without the preceding proportion, are treated in this way: the void calls for halving, red coloration for reduction by a third, modern treatment for a further quartering. The figuration is thus that of triplet semiquavers in modern terms.

The rhythm of the countertenor is also complicated, and to show its basic struc- ture it has here been written in the manner suggested by Apel20 for the notation of

rhythms such as these. It is a piece of cancrizans rhythm centred on the first quaver G, and is very similar to the Mannered style of writing.

Further on in this Gloria, under the mensuration C . there occur these phrases, which are easier to follow:

"1 Old Hall I, 65, fol. 17v. 20 The Notation of Polyphonic Music, p. 416.




Ex. 7 A

FRED F-BLUE

. J. (Triplex only) .

- ! " " - ,I I T ! I I I I' I

x I IA "Ii 1 I 7 I, I ,Il

A.TMoJ.EJ

8 M

8 I

Old Hall I, 67. folio 17v.

Ex. 7B FRED 1 r-BLUE -1 FRED -I

(Triplex only)

In A the red has its usual effect; it is transcribed under a changed time signature for the sake of the following section in blue notes which adds a further proportion at the breve level, the first proportion being expressed by the new signature, the second by the subsequent triplets within the new signature. The blue notes stand for proportione dupla sesquiquarta. The phrase at B is not so clear: the red notes after o6 are not doubled in value and need the normal quarter reduction. They could in fact have been written as was the red passage in A, and the different notations for the same effect are a measure of the inconsistency of the period. The blue notes are as before. The red O followed by red notes also has the meaning of a two level proportion on




long and breve simultaneously, the first expressed by the modern triplet, the second by the 6/4 signature. This succession of triplet patterns on different levels becomes so complex that accuracy of performance would be unlikely.

In a Gloria by Byttering21 there is only one difficult passage, again ending with a two level proportion awkward for our notation to express:

Ex. 8 FRED 1

o = r J.(Triplex only) rr CI . =o

Ol Hal I 4 8

Old Hall I,

44, folio 13v.

Most of the English music in continental manuscripts22 does not have these intricacies, probably because the sources date from the 1420s or later, when rhythmic experiments had ceased and the value of the tactus was made clearer. Nevertheless, English works in particular still preserve the confusing method of writing each voice in a different value so that the integer valor is difficult for the editor to deduce. A supreme example of this is the isorhythmic Gloria by Leonel, No. 169 of the Aosta Seminario manuscript, in which the notation seems to be quite unnecessarily obscure. 23 It should perhaps be mentioned that there may of course be a reason for such methods which has a significance not apparent to us in the present state of our knowledge.

Proportions are implied in the use of two different mensurations simultaneously. The combination of major and minor prolation involves a clash of the values of the tactus, which in (C is on the perfect semibreve, in O on the imperfect semibreve. Since theoretically the tactus is invariable, the perfect ought to occupy the same time as the imperfect note, but in practice this is not so and the minim values are equivalent. Any combination of major and minor prolation implies this:

Ex. 9 Tr.:C J d0

- 4. C.

4 ]

-1ldfA I I

I A i i 'I

8 Old Hall II, 152, folio 66v.

21 Old Hall I, 39, fol. 13v. The B of the composer's name is missing in the manuscript and the editors have replaced it with a G from a misreading of other appearances of the name. 22 Such as the Trent Codices, Bologna Q 15, Aosta Seminario, Munich 3232a and Modena a X, 1, 11. 23 I am preparing a separate article including a transcription of this piece.




Here is further evidence that the value of the tactus is unstable. This situation is at its most involved in the mensuration canon, of which there is one extremely intri- cate example in Old Hall. 24 The three canonic parts are each in a different mensuration, C O and 0 respectively, a combination which again demands equivalence of the minim rather than the semibreve. The mensurations and the effect of the red, red void and blue coloration is explained in a lengthy set of instructions, but although various scholars have contributed to an understanding of the notation25 the meaning of a few passages is still uncertain. A full study of the rhythm can be made only with the help of the original notation, which has been published in colour facsimile in Volume III of the edition. One interesting point is the presence of the dragma symbol otherwise found only in Italian sources. The rhythms and proportions are extremely complex, including the following which have been mentioned: propor- tio dupla, sesquialtera, dupla sesquiquarta. There is also tripla, or three notes in the time of one, and the unusual subdupla sesquinona, or nine notes in the time of nineteen (but as Apel has pointed out,26 the latter is an error for subdupla sesquiquarta, four in the time of nine).

The countertenor is in many ways the most difficult part, and in order to illustrate the apparent ease with which extremely unusual rhythms can be expressed by mensural notation, the following is given:

Ex. to FRED1:FrBLUEl

Old Hall II, lo5, folio 62v.

The version printed in the edition27 is incorrect, but the editor's later interpretation is correct.28 Apel's is not. He says29 'the [black-red] note [a breve] retains its value of 5 minims', but this applies only under the signature C . Under 0 the black- red breve is treated thus: the normal black breve is worth nine minims; the black half-breve is therefore worth four and a half and the red half-breve the same reduced by one third to three minims. The semibreve rest is three minims halved by the blue to one and a half. Other extreme rhythmic intricacies are shown in the next example. It will be noticed, however, that there is basically no displacement of accent.

24 The Credo, Old Hall II, 101, fol. 63v. 25 Old Hall II, p. x and III, p. xxx; APEL, The Notation of Polyphonic Music, p. 432 f.; BUKOFZER, Studies ... p. 54. 26 Op. cit., p. 433. 27 Old Hall II, lo5. 2 Old Hall III, p. xxx. 29 Op. cit., p. 434.




Ex. 11

14J

8

Old Hall II, 110, folio 62v. Printed also in Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain, p. 239.

Proportion is also implied when the mensuration changes, and the temporal relationship should always be shown in modern terms. This necessitates a decision about the value of the tactus in the adjoining sections, and a decision as to whether the later 0 is to be understood for 0. The Old Hall phrase per dimidietatem, although ambiguous, certainly indicates the same as 0 (Example 12 A). Another instruction implies that at the change of mensuration the tactus moves from the long to the breve (Example 12 B).

Ex. 12 A

per dimidietatem

OR

Old Hall1, 116, folio 26v.

* punctus divisionis omitted

Ex. 12 B

rREDI

cantentur per proportlonem fantenturom subsesquitertiam antentur to ED RED




Old Hall I, 24-25, folio 9v.

These points show that the relations between adjacent sections are not necessarily based on the simple tactus/semibreve rule. Individual decisions have to be made in each case, bearing in mind the note values used30 and that difficulties of performing complicated rhythms against conflicting accents might be partly eliminated by employing a doubled speed. While it is clear that certain voices often have to be augmented or diminished in order to fit the other parts, it is not necessarily so clear that certain signs definitely indicate one or the other. The C in the tenor, for instance, is usually said to imply augmentation to correspond with 0; in fact doubling of speed may counteract the doubling of value. The problem is one needing a great deal of work before a definite theoretical conclusion can be reached. Even then, whatever values the transcription uses, so long as they approximate those of modern times, the tempo should be partly based on musical considerations. The choice of tempo should, as with all music, depend on the quickest notes used, and on considerations of how it will be simplest for the singer to fit complex rhythms into the pulse of the music. Nevertheless, an interpretation of the speed according to modern taste and capability should not be assumed to be identical with a fifteenth century interpretation, which would certainly have allowed notes much shorter than those to which modern singers are accustomed. It seems to me that most medieval music is nowadays performed far too \slowly.

One final point: the English took French isorhythm and applied it to Mass texts, a procedure not usual on the continent. They also took the Italian canon, reserved mainly for secular music, and applied it to Mass texts. Similarly, the secular Manner- ed style was applied to English Mass music.

These appropriations, among others, emphasise the importance of Old Hall as a gathering place where numerous preceding styles, both sacred and secular, foreign and native, were worked into music for the Mass. But the Old Hall composers, by combining and modifying the styles, revitalised them and provided the starting point for most of the important later developments.

so and occasionally the actual symbols, such as the coloured or flagged minim symbol to represent the semi-minim, a distinction which may suggest augmentation. See CHARLES HAMM, A Group of Anonymous English Pieces in Trent 87, in: Music and Letters, XLI, 1960, p. 211.



Mensuration and Proportion in Early Fifteenth Century English Music

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