Overview of Medieval Music Notation

In medieval notation, the staff only had 4 lines. The note represented by these lines could

change based on the clef.

The C cleft looks like a C, and the F clef looks similar but has a note with a downward tail

behind it. The line the clef is on represents the line that has the pitch value of the clef (either C or

F). In the below example, by Nigel Horne (2014), the same notes F, G, A are represented on a C

clef and an F clef. Lines and spaces work the same way as they do in modern notation, which

each line or space representing the next note in the scale.

C clef. The top line is a C.

F clef. The 3rd line is an F.

The clef of a piece may change on each line. For example, in the original manuscript for

Au Renouvel du Tens, the C clef is used. In the first line shown below, it appears on the second

line from the top. In the next line, it appears on the 3rd line from the top. As there were only 4

lines to work with, and notes never went off the staff (such as in modern notation using ledger

lines), the moving clef allowed the composer to notate music in a way that allowed the music to

stay within the staff. (Horne, 2014)

C clefs on different lines

Note values were notated based on the shape of the head of the note and whether or not it

had a stem. These were called double-long, long, breve, and semi-breve. Each is valued at a 2:1

or 3:1 ratio with the next note in line based on the mode of the music. (Horne, 2014)

Picture from (Horne, 2014)

In this piece, only one type of note, called a long, was used in the notation. Thus, the mode

ratio between the other notes does not come into play in determining the note values and rhythm

of the piece. This was common in pieces that were not written in mensural notation (a later form

of notation used in French music that notated rhythms) and instead based the rhythm of the piece

on the stress pattern of the language (Parrish, 1978).

In trouvère melodies written in this style, the rhythm is determined based on the stress

pattern of the language. Most importantly, the rhyming syllable should always coincide with the

first note of the rhythmic pattern. Then, if the predominant stress pattern is on odd-numbered

syllables, the rhythm will be a basic 2:1 repeated melody (such as half note followed by quarter

note notated in 3/4 time, or a quarter note followed by an eighth note in 6/8 time, left). If the

stress falls predominately on odd syllables, the rhythm will be 1:2 (quarter note followed by half

note, or eighth note followed by half note, right) (Parrish, 1978).

Stress on odd syllables Stress of even syllables

An addition rhythmic element in medieval music notation is note groups. Note groups

were sets of notes that are written together on the staff and represent movement of the melody on

a single syllable. For example. While there are many types of note groups, they are generally

written with the heads of the notes touching and the order in which the notes appear are the order

in which you sing the notes for the syllable. Note groups could consist of two, three, or four

notes. In Au Renouvel du Tens, only one type of note group is used, called a Clivis, and it

represents two notes sung in a descending order to the same syllable. (Horne, 2014)

The top note (D) would be sung followed by the bottom note (C) to one syllable of lyric

(Horne, 2014)

A Clivis in the manuscript

Lastly, straight lines up and down in the text were used to denote the end of a poetic line,

and thus delineate sections in the music. (Leach, 2016)

The end of the first line

of text

Additional notes on Rhythm

In notating the music, rhythm is determined by word stress. Stress in French tends to fall on

word final syllables and function words in languages tend to be unstressed in phrases. The

rhyming words that fall on the final note of a phrase should fall on the first note of the rhythmic

pattern (Parrish, 1978).

Multiple syllables words usually have a secondary stress, and generally stressed syllables do not

fall next to each other. Thus, in a three syllable word, assume a stress-unstress-stress pattern.

Pronunciation: French in the 14th Century

The 14th century was a time of change for the French language. Old French, also called

ancien français or langue d’oil was the language of Northern France from the 9th to 13th Century

(as opposed to the langue d’oc, or Occitan, the language of Southern France). The 14th Century

started a transitional period between Old French and Modern French lasting until the 17th

century. This transitional period is referred to as Middle French, or moyen français. (French

Orthography, 2016) Old French was a language composed of many regional dialects including

Picardy, Normandy, Ile de France, Lorraine, Anjou, Poitou, Bourgundy, and Berry. During this

time period, some areas retained features of Old French up until the modern era, while other

features changed quickly. (Bauer, 2014) Thus, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which phonetic

features existed in the language at a specific time period and thus determining pronunciation is

based on broad categorization of sound changes.

In general, old languages were written down exactly how they sounded. Silent letters

entered orthography in languages due to pronunciation changes after spelling had become

traditional or formalized. Thus, the pronunciation of Old French was accurately reflected in the

written letters on the page. However, by the 13th century spellings in Old French had become

traditional and “only texts written or copied by uneducated people continued to reflect new

sounds with any accuracy” (McGee, 2004). Thus, the spelling is a baseline for pronunciation, but

“silent” letters and sound changes had begun to enter Old French and tools such as rhyme, meter,

and borrowed words must be used to guestimate the pronunciation of Old and Middle French at

any given time (McGee, 2004).

References

Bauer, B. L. (2014, May 13). Old French Online. Retrieved from Linguistics Research Center:

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/ofrol-0-X.html

French Orthography. (2016). Retrieved from World Public Library:

http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/french_orthography

Horne, N. (2014). The Written Notation of Medieval Music. Retrieved from Dolmetsch Online:

http://www.dolmetsch.com/medieval.pdf

Leach, E. E. (2016). Fourteenth-Century French Notation. Retrieved from DIAMM Moodle at

the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford: http://diamm.nsms.ox.ac.uk/moodle/

McGee, T. J. (Ed.). (2004). Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in

the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Bloomington, IN: First Indiana University Press.

Parrish, C. (1978). The Notation of Medieval Music. New York: Pendragon Press.

Pronunciation chart from Singing Early Music (McGee, 2004)