Medieval Music

Nach einigen Vorbemerkungen zu Textsorten und speziell Gebetsformen in der römischen Liturgie (1) werden Textpraktiken betrachtet, die sich mit der Textsorte 'Oration' (2) verbinden. Kurz werden heutige Übersetzungen
liturgischer Texte aus dem Lateinischen in die verschiedenen Muttersprachen in den Blick genommen (3). Abschließend wird systematisierend die Vielfalt von Textpraktiken in der Liturgie erörtert (4).

Il libro, costituito da sette capitoli, tratta di studi individuali dedicati all' esame dei manoscritti liturgici medievali illuminati, provenienti da diversi centri della Dalmazia. I primi tre capitoli, dedicati ai salteri di Arbe, Zara e Ragusa, sono già stati pubblicati come studi separati. Pertanto qui si rimanda il lettore alle versioni in formato PDF: Capitolo 1

This article argues that thirteenth‐ and fourteenth‐century French and Occitan authors and manuscript makers used recurring tropes — texts as speech, plants, and precious objects — to conceptualize the act of interpolation and, more broadly, vernacular textuality. These figurative frameworks allowed authors and manuscript makers to articulate how texts related to their environments, to other texts, and to the people who produced, transmitted, and received them. The speech trope emphasized enunciation and authority, the plant trope modeled textual integration through metaphors of grafting and growth, and the precious object trope framed texts as crafted and valuable, underscoring authorial labor. Through close readings of works by Baudouin de Condé, Guyart des Moulins, Matfre Ermengaud, Jean Froissart, and others, the article shows that interpolation served not just as a compositional technique but as a means of theorizing literature's materiality, transmission, and relation to knowledge. In doing so, it proposes an ecological approach to medieval textuality grounded in figuration, networks, and situated practice.

Byzantine musical thought is often treated as a relatively unified intellectual tradition. This paper challenges this view by arguing that musical knowledge operated within distinct yet overlapping institutional contexts that include ecclesiastical, courtly, and scholarly environments. These contexts shaped the production, transmission, and validation of knowledge and practitioner identities. Focusing on late Byzantine Constantinople, the paper identifies two frameworks defined by distinct epistemological priorities and modes of authority. On the one hand, harmonic science belonged to an intellectual environment associated with elite education and the reception of classical scientific traditions. Conversely, the theory and practice of psaltic chant were embedded in the liturgical practice of the Church while articulated within similarly educated circles.
The fourteenth-century scholar Manuel Bryennios, in his treatise Harmonika (c. 1300), engages with ancient authorities such as Ptolemy, Aristoxenus, and Nicomachus, presenting harmonic theory as part of a classical scientific tradition grounded in mathematics and philosophy. In this framework, harmonic science appears as learned knowledge connected to the educational culture of classical paideia. By contrast, the fifteenth-century imperial musician Manuel Chrysaphes, a lampadarios of the imperial clergy associated with court liturgical practice, articulates musical knowledge within an ecclesiastical framework in a treatise preserved in a manuscript dated to 1458 (MS Iviron 1120), focusing on performance and the pedagogical transmission of chant.
By juxtaposing these figures, the paper argues that harmonic science and psaltic theory correspond to distinct knowledge contexts producing different forms of musical authority. Working from a shared musical heritage, Bryennios and Chrysaphes demonstrate how institutional and intellectual environments shaped both the articulation of theory and its pedagogical aims. Late Byzantine musical thought thus emerges as a field structured by parallel systems of expertise, reflecting broader medieval configurations in which musical knowledge operated across scientific, liturgical, and symbolic domains rather than within a single epistemological model.

El presente Congreso Internacional Quod scripsi, scripsi. Lo escrito y la Iglesia en la Península Ibérica: una visión poliédrica se enmarca dentro del desarrollo del proyecto de generación de conocimiento «Notarios apostólicos en el Occidente Peninsular (Castilla y Portugal) en la Edad Media» (PID2024-159167NA-I00 financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades y por FEDER, UE) y reunirá en la Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa a especialistas, profesores e investigadores de distintas áreas del conocimiento centrados en el estudio de las fuentes escritas producidas en el seno de las instituciones eclesiásticas de la Península Ibérica durante la Edad Media y la Edad Moderna.

In the late nineteenth century, Russian musicologists began to take note of an inscription in several manuscripts copied in Kyiv in the seventeenth century: "Bolgarskii rospev" or "Bulgarian chant." 1 This is a fairly narrow body of chant: contemporary scholars place the number of melodies around 300, which is relatively small compared to the thousands of melodies found in pre-or early-modern music manuscripts in the Orthodox world. 2 Only four of these melodies were widely known, all of which had made their way from manuscripts into the printed service books of the Russian Holy Synod, where they were rendered in Western notation and harmonized in a simple European style. This highly specialized and circumscribed branch of musical knowledge, however, indexes expansive religious, political, historiographical, and aesthetic issues, which I outline here as a series of movements in time and space. This begins with the transmission of Orthodoxy north from Byzantium, both in the mythologized journeys of figures including Saints Kirill and Methodius and in the gradual spread of monastic centers. This path facilitated the spread of liturgical chant through oral tradition and through notated liturgical books. In search of these books and traces of oral practice, Russian scholars followed this path in reverse, from the imperial center of St. Petersburg through the Balkans to the Greek peninsula of Mount Athos, as did pilgrims throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. I begin my account with scholars who narrativized the spatial movement of Bulgarian chant in several ways: (1) chronologically, going back in time to claim antiquity or forward to receive modernity; (2) as a sacred path, in the manner of pilgrimage or the transfer of relics; and (3) teleologically, in terms of the destiny of this music-or the nation-on its way to fulfillment. The chief narrators I follow are Stepan Vasil'evich Smolenskii (1848-1909), a highly influential Russian medieval musicologist, and Anastas Nikolov (1876-1924), a Bulgarian scholar and singer who studied and traveled with Smolenskii. Nikolov and Smolenskii themselves conceived of this movement in terms of "transfer," first of primordial musical-religious material from Bulgaria to Rus, and then of that material and scholarly expertise back to Bulgaria in the period between Bulgaria's attainment of autonomous status under Ottoman suzerainty in 1878 and its full independence in 1908. This also raises the possibility of using ideological transfer as a suitable lens through which to view the Russian-Bulgarian relationship. Smolenskii came from a milieu that prized both Pan-Slavism and Pan-Orthodoxy as imperial outgrowths of Russian nationalism. The former, which posits a brotherhood between all Slavic peoples, was particularly ripe for

My  presentation  addresses  how  the  compositional  style  of  a Communion verse setting can affect its efficiency and accuracy as part of Orthodox Christian worship within the context of the Greek Orthodox Church today. More specifically, issues that arise include the following: What are the desired qualities of a Communion verse setting? How do composers achieve that ideal? And most importantly, how do these qualities affect the congregation during Holy Communion? After providing a theological context as a starting point for our discussion, we will look at two Communion verse settings: Steven Cardiasmenos’ (1958) Communion  Verse  for  Sundays and Tikey Zes’ (1927) Receive  the  Body  of  Christ. The musical analysis of both works will determine the relationship between music and text. As a first step, I aim to realize here how musical procedures converse and coexist with text and, more importantly, what this relationship’s overall impact is. The second step of my approach asks: How does this music function in a liturgical context, and what is the music’s role in this most sacred part of the liturgy?

Este trabajo pretende demostrar las carencias en teoría musical antigua que presenta Casiodoro en su exposición de la disciplina de la música en el capítulo quinto del segundo libro de Institutiones. Para ello, la metodología utilizada parte de una breve presentación del autor y de la obra para, a continuación, ofrecer la traducción española propia del pasaje citado. El grueso de este trabajo consiste en el comentario filológico y en la comparación de loci similes, tanto presentes como ausentes, así como anotaciones a las posibles fuentes y matizaciones de los aspectos musicales objeto de estudio. Todo ello demostrará que el calificativo tradicionalmente aplicado a Casiodoro de "transmisor de la cultura musical antigua" no es muy acertado en este caso, pues, como se verá, en Institutiones Casiodoro silencia aspectos fundamentales en la teoría musical de la Antigüedad, proponiendo, además, posibles motivos que pueden explicar la omisión y/o discriminación del material no presentado.

Gadamer y la Interpretación Musical Históricamente informada. Seminario Nietzsche y la Música Festival Breve VIII 2023 Dr. Jorge Torres. Resumen. ¿Cómo presentar el repertorio para laúd de John Dowland a las nuevas generaciones?, ¿Se pueda dar una interpretación adecuada de este repertorio en la guitarra eléctrica? El autor de este trabajo ha dedicado gran parte de su actividad artística a la interpretación del repertorio barroco, fundamentalmente el repertorio del barroco alemán, dedicado especialmente a la interpretación de las Cantatas de Juan Sebastián Bach. Durante algunos años contó con la colaboración de cantantes e instrumentistas entusiasmados por este tipo de música. Lamentablemente, todos ellos han emigrado en los últimos años uniéndose a la diáspora venezolana. Esto lo ha llevado a explorar otros repertorios que incluyen otros formatos instrumentales y lo ha obligado ha reflexionar en torno a los distintos enfoques posibles para interpretar esta música desde las posibilidades reales de la Venezuela actual. Para dar respuesta a estas inquietudes el autor ha recurrido a los trabajos de autores como Gadamer y Harnoncourt quienes han tratado el tema desde la filosofía y la música respectivamente. Aquí presentamos los resultados parciales sobre esta reflexión.

Brzezińska w swojej syntetycznej pracy o repertuarze polskich tabulatur organowych, korzystając oczywiście z odkryć swoich poprzedników, przede wszystkim Adolfa Chybińskiego, podała pochodzenie lub przeznaczenie liturgiczne większości kompozycji religijnych zapisanych w Tabulaturze Jana z Lublina (TJL) 1 . Autorka wymieniła jednak dziesięć utworów z kraśnickiego rękopisu o nieznanym autorstwie i niezidentyfikowanym cantus firmus lub z incypitem "wskazującym różne możliwości zastosowania w liturgii" 2 . Po latach znamy źródła melodii stałych trzech z tych opracowań. De profundis super discantum cytuje melodię Lutrowej parafrazy psalmu 129, Aus tieffer Not schrei ich zu dir, która w polskim przekładzie znalazła miejsce w rodzimych kancjonałach innowierczych i której czterogłosową wersję skomponował Cyprian Bazylik 3 . Quem precemur (odczytywane wcześniej mylnie jako Quem preces) to opracowanie ostatniej strofy sekwencji 1

In the Crown of Aragon (12th–18th centuries), a significant number of the most influential works related to musical instruments in the Iberian Peninsula were written, both in practical and theoretical fields. In some cases, these works transcended their borders and achieved international recognition. Furthermore, decisive organological innovations were developed within its kingdoms, especially regarding viols and organs, which shaped the subsequent evolution of these instrumental families.

This book is a collective work produced by a group of specialists from various fields related to the world of instruments in the Crown of Aragon, offering an interdisciplinary and kaleidoscopic perspective on the subject, understood in the broadest possible sense. Thus, its pages include studies on aspects related to iconography, organology, practical music-making, music theory, and instrumentalists. Far from being mere compilations of already established knowledge, these contributions are the result of original research now published for the first time.

This documented contribution to the musical history of the territories of the Crown of Aragon therefore also helps to improve our current understanding of the role its kingdoms played in shaping the European landscape between the medieval and early modern periods. The volume not only expands the current state of research but also opens new lines of inquiry and provides tools for future approaches.

A la Corona d’Aragó (S. XII–XVIII) es van escriure una part notable de les obres més influents a la península Ibèrica relacionades amb els instruments musicals, tant en l’àmbit pràctic com en el teòric, que en alguns casos van transcendir les seues fronteres i van assolir projecció internacional. A més, als seus regnes es van produir novetats organològiques decisives, especialment en les violes i els orgues, que van condicionar l’evolució posterior d’aquestes famílies instrumentals.
El present llibre és una obra col·lectiva a càrrec d’un grup d’especialistes en diversos camps al voltant del món dels instruments a la Corona d’Aragó, que ofereixen una mirada interdisciplinària i caleidoscòpica a aquest assumpte, entès en el sentit més ampli possible. D’aquesta manera, entre les seues pàgines podran trobar estudis sobre aspectes relacionats amb la iconografia, l’organologia, la música pràctica, la teoria musical o els instrumentistes. Lluny de ser simples recopilacions de coneixements ja consolidats, es tracta dels fruits d’investigacions inèdites que ara veuen la llum per primera vegada.
Aquesta aportació documentada a la història musical als territoris de la Corona d’Aragó contribueix també, per tant, a millorar la perspectiva actual del paper que els seus regnes van exercir en la configuració del panorama europeu entre les edats mitjana i moderna. El volum no sols amplia l’estat actual de la recerca, sinó que també obre noves línies d’investigació i ofereix eines per a aproximacions futures.

Music, through its “affections” and “effects”, has always played an important communicative role in human affairs, amplifying textual content or, in its pure form, acting as a language in its own right capable of describing and accompanying the different situations and affections of the human soul, almost like a soundtrack to the theatre of the world. This essay, starting from Greek classicism and leading us to the contemporary era, investigates the interaction between music and man in an attempt to understand whether there is such a thing as evil and anti-Christian music by definition, or whether it is texts and contexts that define its essence and purpose.

At the crossroads of East and West, fifteenth-to seventeenth-century Crete became a remarkable laboratory of musical experimentation. This book takes the reader into a world where Byzantine tradition converses with Western influences, giving rise to a singular repertory-rooted in Orthodox liturgy yet imbued with the resonances of Latin polyphony. The result of an ambitious international research project bringing together musicologists, historians, and liturgists, this study examines Cretan manuscripts within the religious and cultural life of the island under Venetian rule. It reveals how, through exchanges, tensions, and hybridizations, a distinctly Cretan musical identity emerged-an exceptional example of syncretism in the Mediterranean world.

ANONYME 2 is a 13th-century treatise on measured music, originating from the school of Francon of Cologne. It was revealed and initially named as such by E. de Coussemaker in 1864 (see Scriptorum de musica). The text is written in two main parts, which may be a compilation of various authors. Many passages, similar word for word to the Ars cantus mensurabilis of the German master, were also taken up in other anonymous treatises of the late 13th century. A section dedicated to musica ficta can thus be found in the writings of pseudo Thomas Aquinas (see Annexe 1 below). The first part sets forth the rules for notating simple and then slurred figures, employing numerous examples, followed by their rhythmic values, their differentiations, their rests, their meter within the triple meter, and their successions in rhythmic modes. The second part is dedicated to organum, its intervals, the necessity of using musica falsa in polyphony, and the creation of descant in improvised form (ex improviso). The text also mentions the qualities necessary for creating a good descant and concludes with a long section exemplifying the vocal movements of the descant according to the interval of the chant. These are essentially limited to contrary motion, using only two intervals (fifth and octave) and the unison. The examples are presented in the order of the rhythmic modes. This document thus constitutes a good representative of the Franconian tradition, whose principles it faithfully perpetuates (as described by Anonymous IV). It allows us to hypothesize a dating likely within the period of the first and second generations of theorists (ca. 1270-90).

FRANÇAIS:
ANONYME 2 est un traité de musique mesurée du XIIIe siècle, issu de l'école de Francon de Cologne. Il fut révélé et baptisé ainsi initialement par E. de Coussemaker en 1864 (cf. Scriptorum de musica). Le texte est rédigé en deux grandes parties qui sont peut-être une compilation de différents auteurs, dont de nombreux passages, semblables mot à mot à l'Ars cantus mensurabilis du maître germanique, ont également été repris dans d'autres traités anonymes de la fin du XIIIe s. Un § dédié à la musica ficta se retrouve ainsi dans un texte attribué à Thomas d'Aquin (cf annexe 1 infra). La première partie expose les règles de notation des figures simples puis ligaturées employant de nombreux exemples, puis leurs valeurs rythmiques, leurs différenciations, leurs silences, leur mesure dans le cadre ternaire, leurs successions en modes rythmiques. La deuxième partie est dédiée à l'organum, ses intervalles, la nécessité de l'usage de la musica falsa dans la polyphonie, et la fabrication du déchant sous forme improvisée (ex improviso). Le texte mentionne également les qualités nécessaires pour créer un bon déchant et s'achève par une longue partie exemplifiant les mouvements de la voix du déchant selon l'intervalle du chant. Ceux-ci se restreignent essentiellement au mouvement contraire, n'utilisant que deux intervalles (quinte et octave) et l'unisson. Les exemples sont présentés dans l'ordre des modes rythmiques. Ce document constitue ainsi un bon représentant de la tradition franconienne dont il perpétue fidèlement les principes (tels qu'ils furent décrits par Anonyme IV). Il permet l'hypothèse d'une datation vraisemblablement dans la période de la première et deuxième génération suivante de théoriciens (ca. 1270-90).

The series of texts dating to the second half of the fifteenth century documenting the practice of dance in the contemporary courts of central-northern Italy (without neglecting the wider geography represented therein, which also incorporates at least the Aragonese court of Naples), has been relatively well known for some fifty years now. Numerous studies have in fact examined these sources from diverse viewpoints and included them in various discursive contexts. Domenico da Piacenza, Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro (aka Giovanni Ambrosio) and Antonio Cornazano have become familiar names, with the repertoire and the key words of their choreutic art a fundamental stepping-stone in all the reconstructions of the dance history that accompanied and followed the rediscovery and attempt at a more authentic understanding of medieval, Renaissance and baroque music and dance in the twentieth century. However, analysis of those materials did not focus solely on the history of a form of entertainment but extended, as will be suggested, into historical and anthropological sociology as well as into cultural studies and historical-artistic research.

The collective intoning of chant and prayer performed on a saint's feast day tells us much about what the composers, compilers, and celebrants of that liturgy understood and valued about that saint in their community. Liturgies composed specifically in honour of a particular saint thus understandably dominate the scholarship. This article instead spotlights the Commune sanctorum, those materials able to be used for the liturgy of any saint in a given saintly category. I show how Commune sanctorum materials, especially in the León Antiphoner, could do far more than simply ascribe a saint standard, saintly characteristics. Rather, they could offer liturgical practitioners the opportunity to create personalised liturgies with meaningful resonance to the saint's life. Through two case studies, this article challenges our understanding of common and proper saints' liturgies, situating liturgies created from the Commune sanctorum as sites of distinctive local practice and liturgical creativity.

Angels are assumed to represent messengers from God and in Christian art they are traditionally depicted as winged human beings. In the visual arts all figures are mute; therefore angel music as the divine message relayed to the viewer needs to be interpreted as a form of visual gestural rhetoric with an imaginary auditive reference. In order to treat this theme, the article is introduced by a general discussion of the representation of angels in El Greco=s oeuvre, followed by a brief orientation to the theme of angel musicians in Medieval and Renaissance art. An analysis of El Greco=s paintings that include heavenly musicians reveal that the interaction between heaven and earth becomes continuous, eliminating the contrast between these zones that was postulated by Aristotle. Even though only a limited number of El Greco=s paintings include angel musicians, their active presence in some of his most imaginative compositions illustrate the way in which he evolved an unique iconographical convention related to the theme of these consorts, and his innovative expansion of the meaning of the being and missions of angels.

The exceptional influence on music history of Guido of Arezzo’s innovations has obscured the original purpose of his work and its connection with the ecclesiastical reforms of the 11th cent. In his mind, the new pedagogical and notational systems are technical innovations subordinated to a ‘restoration’ of the Gregorian repertoire: Guido’s antiphonary included a revision of the liturgical melodies, carried out with the aim to return Gregorian chant back to its original ‘purity’, now fixed with the notation with staff and clefs, therefore virtually unchangeable. The new system was not intended to record the tradition of a local community, but to establish and disseminate a universally valid version of Gregorian chant as it consistent with the laws of ars musica established by the theorists. In this perspective, the chant of saint Gregory, inspired by the Holy Spirit, can not contain deviations from the rule of the ars: if deviations were found, they were certainly due to corruptions caused by incompetent singers and had to be corrected. At a time when imposing the Roman liturgy was considered a means (or one of the means) to reaffirming the papal and Roman primacy, Guido’s proposal provided an effective tool, − in relation to liturgy − to the ecclesiological and political strategies of the reformist popes. However, its ‘universalistic’ perspective was not not entirely successful: the new system was used rather to fix the local traditions, that is, the opposite of what Guido intended. Finally, the debate on the musical revision of the repertory offers a credible explanation of the otherwise inexplicable controversies arisen in Pomposa.

La investigación aborda el alcance de la reglamentación eclesiástica y su incidencia en la configuración de la música litúrgica medieval, con especial atención al contexto castellano. A partir del análisis de las Constituciones Toledanas de 1357, promulgadas por Vasco Fernández de Toledo, se examina de qué manera este corpus normativo incidió en la organización del canto litúrgico y en la formación de los músicos eclesiásticos. El estudio revela aspectos poco conocidos sobre la influencia de estas disposiciones en la estructura de la liturgia en la catedral de Toledo y su influencia en otros centros eclesiásticos de la época, estableciendo paralelismos con otras reformas litúrgicas llevadas a cabo en Europa en el mismo periodo.

the fifth, used in the 13th century and likely the 14th in Christian liturgy. The precepts are rudimentary and systematic, using the octave or fifth of the chant at the beginning and end of phrases, and doubling at the fifth within phrases. The systematic nature of the process allows for improvisational practice, intended to simply color plainsong with the fifth, for which no example is found in written measured polyphony. These treatises, one of which is written in Old French, were copied into manuscripts dating from the mid-13th to the early 15th century. This technique thus seems to constitute an ordinary alternative to the written scholarly chants and polyphonies, fitting into a continuity and tradition of improvised liturgical chant: it is the succession of the parallel organum described as early as the 10th century (Cf. Musica enchiriadis) and the predecessor of other improvised chant practices in the 15th century using imperfect consonances (sixths and thirds): the gymel and the faulx bordon (cf. Guilielmus monacus: De preceptis artis musice et practice).

FRANÇAIS :
TROIS TRAITÉS DE DÉCHANT IMPROVISÉ regroupe trois textes anonymes qui présentent la technique de l'organum à la quinte en usage au 13e siècle et vraisembablement au 14e dans la liturgie chrétienne. Les préceptes sont rudimentaires et systématiques, utilisant l'octave ou la quinte du chant en commencement en fin de période, et la doublure à la quinte à l'intérieur de la phrase. Le systématisme du processus permet une pratique improvisée, destinée à simple la coloration du plain-chant par la quinte, dont on ne trouve pas d'exemple dans les polyphonies mesurées écrites. Ces traités, dont l'un est rédigé en ancien français, ont été copiés dans des manuscrits allant du milieu du 13e siècle jusqu'au début du 15e siècle. Cette technique semble ainsi constituer une alternative ordinaire aux déchants et aux polyphonies savantes écrites en s'inscrivant dans une continuité et tradition de chant liturgique improvisé : elle est la succession de l'organum parallèle décrit dès le 10e siècle (Cf. Musica enchiriadis) et le prédécesseur d'autres pratiques de déchant improvisé au 15e siècle utilisant des consonances imparfaites (sixtes et tierces) : le gymel et le faulx bordon (cf.. Guilielmus monacus : De preceptis artis musice et practice).

In this article, a distinction is made between two different Greek scribes of the 10th century, to whom are respectively attributed the codices Par. gr. 1180 and Vat. gr. 488 (Anon. G1) and Cusanus 48 with the fragment Erevanensis M 812 (Anon. G2)

Cari amici, desidero condividere con voi il mio ultimo scritto dedicato a Leonardo da Vinci e al suo affascinante legame con la musica. È un tema che mi sta molto a cuore, poiché rivela come Leonardo vivesse la musica non solo come un’espressione artistica, ma come una parte essenziale della sua infinita ricerca di conoscenza. Egli intrattenne con la musica un rapporto profondo e strutturale: non fu soltanto un esecutore di grande talento, celebre per la sua lira d’argento, ma vide in essa una vera e propria "scienza del moto". La considerava una sorella dell’armonia universale, quella stessa armonia che cercava instancabilmente nel disegno, nella geometria e nei suoi celebri intrecci. In sintesi, per Leonardo la musica è la “figlia del tempo”: un’arte delicata che nasce e svanisce in un soffio, eppure capace di svelare le stesse leggi di proporzione, ritmo e bellezza che governano l’intero cosmo. È proprio per questo che la trattò come un prezioso laboratorio, dove matematica, emozione e filosofia si incontrano in un abbraccio meraviglioso.

for their interest in featuring a thematic dossier on music theory and analysis, and for musing over and welcoming the idea that contributors to the dossier engage with selections from Eduardo Lourenço's recent book Tempo da música, música do tempo as suggestive mediations between musical phenomena and their own analytical explorations and theoretical constructions. 1 In spite of Lourenço's celebrated and unique status as an essayist who, for the past seven decades, has been providing penetrating if complex or labyrinthine views of Portugal's historical situated-ness through the interpretative lenses of culture, philosophy, and literature, 2 the readership of this musicological journal might be somewhat intrigued to find that a book which assembles a multitude of diary-type notes, fragments, and short texts penned by a (self-proclaimed) musical amateur over several decades, addressing the experience of and sense of time in music ranging from composers such as Bach to Xenakis, genres such as tango to the solo concerto, and concepts such as the infinite to silence, might provide not only a common thread, but a fascinating motivation and catalyst for the various theoretical contributions of this dossier.

medii aevi sotto la sigla Anonymous V e restituito nella sua integrità critica da C. Matthew Balensuela, pone la teoria della notazione mensurale medievale in un rapporto sistematico e deliberato con la filosofia scolastica e con il diritto canonico e civile medievale. L'Ars cantus mensurabilis mensurata per modos iuris si distingue dalla produzione trattatistica coeva dell'ars nova non per i contenuti tecnici, largamente dipendenti dal Libellus cantus mensurabilis attribuito a Johannes de Muris, ma per il metodo argomentativo adottato, che impiega massime giuridiche, allusioni alla lex regia e alla controversia di Becket, e questioni filosofiche come la potentia Dei absoluta per fondare e dimostrare le regole del cantus mensuralis. Il trattato testimonia la permeabilità degli spazi intellettuali del XIV secolo e la funzione epistemica che la musica poteva assumere all'interno del discorso universitario scolastico.

A major strand of the Middle French lyric output of the Valois poet-prince Charles d'Orléans (1394-1465) after his release from English captivity in 1440 paints an aging introvert withdrawing, partly by choice and partly by necessity, from a social world and a model of amorous identity into which he struggles to fit. The duke's poetry of nonchaloir (detachment or indifference) voices a subject situated at a simultaneously wistful and jaded distance from its environment and given to peopling its solitude with allegorical personifications of its own emotions and partite self. 1 While writing this verse, however, the historical Charles presided over the flourishing cultural life of his court at Blois and recorded rich literary exchanges with a diverse circle of fellow poets in his personal manuscript, Paris, BnF fr. 25458. 2 Making room for work by numerous named authors who respond directly to the duke and to each other, this manuscript evolved from an orderly self-anthologizing compendium into a "journal poétique" (poetic diary) that is also "un journal de la poésie" (a diary of poetry) and "l'album d'une conversation courtoise" (the album of a courtly conversation). 3 As such, it has become a touchstone for scholars investigating the social and textual dynamics of the late-medieval literary coterie. For Jane H. M. Taylor, the personal manuscript as coterie anthology is "a means of communication and dialogue" that both documents and facilitates "forms of sociability" articulated through verse with a predominantly "metacommunicative" function, that is, textual transactions wherein the main (though tacit) "subject of discourse is the relationship between the speakers" that poetic utterance foregrounds and affirms. Placing a complementary emphasis on the seriousness of metacommunicative play, which fosters technical virtuosity as much as courtly recreation and camaraderie through "the twin mechanisms of collaboration and competition," Adrian Armstrong views the dialogues between Charles and his interlocutors as "contributions to the collaborative, social production of knowledge . . . of the possibilities of language . . . as poets collectively explore key metaphors and test the limits of established forms. " 5 Both of these critics illuminate how literary sociability fuels creativity and demonstrate that intertextual reading in manuscript context is required to reveal or activate the system of "rhetorical acts in which authors signal their association with one an other" and elaborate what R. D. Perry calls "a manifestation of audience that is incorporated formally into the work itself," constituting the coterie as a "public that retain[s] a sense of the private. " 6 But in various places throughout MS fr. 25458, interpersonal relationships are not only implicitly encoded or performed in poetic practice, as Taylor and Armstrong demonstrate; they are also presented as an explicit theme of socially embedded composition. How, then, does the Blois circle's construction and celebration of poetic readership and fellowship intersect with the kind of introspective, often melancholic self-fashioning that is thematically central to Charles d'Orléans's lyric corpus? The duke's literary project is by no means straightforwardly autobiographical, and the historical Charles must be distinguished from the postures assumed by his textual persona, even where cues within the poems themselves encourage the conflation of author and speaker. Nevertheless, the work gathered in MS fr. 25458 reflects a sustained concern with the articulation, examination, and management of the speaking subject's emotional life, at specific moments and over time. Eschewing any overt interest in Christian morality or the regiminal discourse of "princely virtue" in favor of a modest and often wry brand of quotidian wisdom, the lyric je labors to overcome despondency, anxiety, and vexation and cultivate equanimous well-being by limiting exposure to or investment in what is painful and grotesque in human experience. Although rhetorical refinement often trumps spontaneous, intense affectivity and "le lecteur est non seulement confronté à une fragmentation du moi en une multiplicité de moi partiels, mais le je n'est pas toujours identique au je" (not only is the reader faced with a fragmentation of the self into a multiplicity of partial selves, the "I"

Este libro pretende ofrecer un recorrido por la historia de la imprenta europea desde el siglo XVI hasta principios del siglo XIX. A diferencia de otras obras de temática similar, el camino que se traza aquí se apoya en textos de gran relevancia que hasta ahora no habían sido traducidos al castellano, que no habían sido editados o que, habiendo sido ya editados con anterioridad, pedían una nueva edición. Desde humanistas tan importantes como Viglius hasta impresores tan diligentes como Plantin o Miguel de Burgos, en este volumen se recogen ocho textos que permiten ampliar nuestros conocimientos sobre la historia de la imprenta, pero que también abren nuevas preguntas e interrogantes.

ÉTALONNER LE MONOCORDE… (Calibrating the Monochord) brings together five short, anonymous texts mentioning the measurement of the monochord towards the end of the 10th century. All the lessons come from a single manuscript in the National Library of Prague, originally from Liège (c. 1100), under the shelfmark XIX.C.26, and often have several Concordances between the 9th and 15th centuries. The three shortest texts (Dimidium proslambanomenos, Primum divide in quatuor, Si volueris) indicate only an incomplete measurement of the Greek double octave and a few names of the corresponding strings. These indications, which remain insufficient for the practical measurement of the monochord, suggest that the purpose here was rather to record notions of general quadrivial culture intended for the general education of clerics, rather than being specifically for instrument making. The two other, more developed texts (In primo diapason, Si monocordum desideras) mention the measurement of all the strings of the five tetrachords of the diatonic genus according to the F-F notation. All the texts establish the measurements according to the Boethian tradition, that is, starting from the high tetrachord (hyperboleon) and descending, using the method of adding one-eighth, one-third, or one-half of a given length (sometimes also subtracting one-quarter) depending on the interval to be obtained. The fifteen strings of the "great system" are thus measured according to the well-known Pythagorean proportions. One treatise (Si volueris) presents a diagram of the great system in the three genera according to Boethius (A-LL notation), but without specifying the tetrachords, the genera, and their proportions, nor establishing a link with the preceding text. However, it is followed by a few verses (Symphonia dicta ellenice) detailing the different kinds of the three consonances (fourth, fifth, octave), surmounted by letters belonging to the same pattern. Presumably intended to be sung, we therefore provide a transcription in the appendix.

FRANÇAIS
ÉTALONNER LE MONOCORDE… regroupe cinq courts textes anonymes mentionnant la mesure du monocorde vers la fin du Xe siècle. Toutes les leçons sont issues d'un seul manuscrit de la bibliothèque nationale de Prague, d'origine liégeoise (±1100), sous la cote XIX.C.26 et possèdent souvent plusieurs Concordances entre le 9e et et le 15e siècle. Les trois plus brefs textes (Dimidium proslambanomenos, Primum divide in quatuor, Si volueris) n'indiquent qu'un mesurage incomplet de la double-octave grecque et quelques noms des cordes correspondantes. Ces indications, qui restent insuffisantes pour effectuer le mesurage pratique du monocorde, laissent penser qu'il s'agissait plutôt ici de consigner des notions de la culture générale quadriviale visant à la formation générale des clercs plutôt que d'être destinées à la lutherie. Les deux autres textes plus développés (In primo diapason, Si monocordum desideras) mentionnent la mesure de toutes les cordes des cinq tétracordes du genre diatonique selon la notation F-F. Tous les textes établissent les mesures selon l'héritage boétien, c'est-à-dire depuis le tétracorde aigu (hyperboleon) et en descendant, utilisant la méthode de l'ajout du huitième, du tiers ou de la moitié d'une longueur donnée (parfois aussi le retrait d'un quart) en fonction de l'intervalle à obtenir. Les quinze cordes du « grand système » sont ainsi mesurées selon les proportions pythagoriciennes bien connues. Un traité (Si volueris) fait suivre un schéma du grand système dans les trois genres selon Boèce (notation A-LL), mais sans renseigner précisément les tétracordes, les genres et leurs proportions, ni établir de lien avec le texte précédent. Cependant, il est suivi de quelques vers (Symphonia dicta ellenice) détaillant les différentes espèces des trois consonances (quarte, quinte, octave), surmontés de lettres appartenant au même schéma. Vraisemblablement indiqués afin d'être chantés, nous en donnons donc la transcription en annexe.

i primi decenni del XIV secolo, un repertorio di oltre ottocento componimenti latini monodici e polifonici occupò per quasi un secolo un ruolo centrale nella cultura musicale europea, per poi scivolare ai margini della storiografia moderna. Il conductus è il primo genere polifonico della storia occidentale interamente fondato su materiale compositivo originale, privo di qualsiasi cantus prius factus nel tenor, e la ricerca ha a lungo privilegiato l'organum e il mottetto, suoi contemporanei nell'ambiente parigino. Soltanto a partire dagli studi di Gordon A. Anderson e dalla monografia di Mark Everist il genere ha ritrovato una posizione adeguata nel dibattito musicologico, mentre il progetto Cantum pulcriorem invenire, promosso dall'Arts and Humanities Research Council, ha ampliato la base documentaria e riaperto le questioni legate alla struttura ritmica, alla trasmissione manoscritta e alla figura di Philippe le Chancelier, Cancelliere di Notre-Dame dal 1217 al 1236, il più documentato tra i poeti-compositori del repertorio.

This article argues that the thirty sonatas constituting Domenico Scarlatti's Essercizi per Gravicembalo (London, 1738) are structured according to the Guidonian hexachordal system operative in his musical training, and that the analytical framework applied by Ralph Kirkpatrick (1953) and subsequent scholarship — rooted in major-minor tonal theory — systematically misidentifies the structural logic governing these works. Direct reading of the scores through the hexachordal framework reveals: (1) that the binary form of each essercizio is the governing hexachord traversed in time, beginning at fa and closing at la; (2) that the harmonic event Kirkpatrick termed the "crux" — routinely described as a remote or surprising modulation — is in nearly every case the most proximate possible pivot between adjacent hexachords, a mutation at the semitone; (3) that the acciaccatura technique Scarlatti inherited from his teacher Francesco Gasparini is the hexachordal semitone mi-fa rendered simultaneously rather than sequentially; and (4) that Scarlatti's self-described scherzo ingegnoso — the "ingenious jest with Art" announced in his preface — is precisely wit about the timing and manner of hexachordal mutation, directed at an audience trained to anticipate the semitone shift. These findings carry implications both for Scarlatti scholarship specifically and for the broader re-examination of early eighteenth-century keyboard music through its historically operative theoretical framework.

El 10 de abril de 2026 finaliza el plazo de presentación de comunicaciones para el VIII Congreso Internacional de la Comisión “Música y contextos en el mundo ibérico medieval y renacentista” (MEDyREN). Os animamos a presentar investigaciones originales que aborden temáticas musicales hasta ca. 1650 y a contribuir con una visión dinámica e interdisciplinar de nuestro pasado musical. El evento se celebrará en la emblemática ciudad de Granada, del 19 al 21 de junio de 2026, coincidiendo con el Festival de Música y Danza. Más información en: https://medyren.wixsite.com/medyren-sedem/viii-encuentro-granada-2026

The Treatise of Saint Martial (Anonymous La Fage) is an anonymous treatise on music in three parts, written in the 12th century (after 1140) and influenced by Cistercian tradition. After a brief introduction, the first part (chapters I to XIII) details all the essential elements of musica plana — letters, intervals and their types and placements, consonances, modes and tones, regular and irregular chants — dwelling on ranges and the self-generation of octaves and tones (chapter VI). The second part (chapters XIV and XV) is shorter and presents the rules of simple and double discantus and organum: beginning, ending, progression, breaths, required consonances, composition, etc. This part offers two examples of discantus but no examples of organum. The examples cited illustrate the use of discantus for an antiphon and that of organum for a responsory. This presentation is in addition to those later from other Cistercians who did not disdain liturgical polyphony but framed it precisely (e.g. Frater Petrus palma ociosa). The third part (chapters XVI to XVIII) is a long and frequently modified version of the Cistercian tonary of Saint Bernard (1090-1153). It revisits the dialectic between disciple and master on the essential subjects of plane music as applied to the Cistercian reform of liturgical chant: characteristics of tones and their differentiations, composition of regular chants and correction of existing irregular chants, classification of tones in restricted melodies, etc. It is unusual in that it provides only a single musical example to support its argument, merely citing the names of defective melodies requiring correction. Finally, the absence of doxological endings make  the precepts difficult to put into practice and suggests that the text was primarily theoretical in the later period when it was copied.

FRANÇAIS
Le traité de Saint Martial (Anonyme La Fage) est un traité anonyme de musique en trois parties, rédigé au 12e siècle (après 1140) d'influence cistercienne. Après une brève introduction, il détaille en première partie (ch. I à XIII) tous les éléments utiles de la musica plana – les lettres, les intervalles et leurs espèces et placements, les consonances, les modes et les tons, les chants réguliers et irréguliers – en s'attardant sur les ambitus et l'auto-génération des octaves et des tons (ch. VI). La deuxième partie (ch. XIV et XV) est plus brève et présente les règles du déchant simple et double et de l'organum : commencement, terminaison, progression, respirations, consonances requises, composition etc. Cette partie offre deux exemples de déchant mais ne présente aucun exemple d'organum. Les exemples cités évoquent l'usage du déchant pour une antienne, et celui de l'organum pour un répons. Cette présentation s'ajoute à celles ultérieures d'autres cisterciens qui ne dédaignaient pas la polyphonie liturgique mais l'encadraient précisément (ex. Frater Petrus palma ociosa). La troisième partie (ch. XVI à XVIII) est une version longue et souvent modifiée du tonaire cistercien de Saint Bernard (1090-1153). Elle reprend la dialectique entre disciple et maître sur les sujets essentiels de la musique plane appliqués à la réforme cistercienne du chant liturgique : caractéristiques des tons et de leurs differentiae, composition de chants réguliers et correction des chants irréguliers existants, classement des tons dans les mélodies restreintes etc. Elle présente la particularité de ne donner qu'un seul exemple musical pour appuyer le propos, se contentant de citer les noms de mélodies défectueuses nécessitant correction. Enfin, l'absence des terminaisons de doxologie rend les préceptes difficiles à pratiquer et laisse penser que le propos avait plutôt une visée théorique à l'époque tardive où il fut recopié.