Society for Music Theory

Concerning Gendered Discourse in Medieval Music Theory: Was the Semitone "Gendered
Feminine?"
Author(s): Sarah Fuller
Source: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring 2011), pp. 65-89
Published by: {oupl} on behalf of the Society for Music Theory
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 colloquy 65
Colloquy:
Concerning Gendered Discourse in Medieval Music Theory:
Was the Semitone Gendered Feminine?
sarah fuller
This study reviews how medieval music theorists write about the
interval of the semitone and contests the notion advanced in a re-
cent article by Elizabeth Eva Leach (Gendering the Semitone,
Sexing the Leading Tone, Music Theory Spectrum 28 (1) [2006]:
121) that they collectively associated the semitone with femininity
and considered it to carry connotations of lasciviousness.
Examination of passages from a wide range of medieval and early
Renaissance treatises indicates that a substantial majority of theo-
rists describe the semitone in gender-neutral language. Nor does a
contextually situated reading of the theorists bear out the impres-
sion promoted in Gendering the Semitone that within a central
medieval music theoretical tradition the Greek chromatic genus,
musica ficta, and progressions from imperfect to perfect consonance
(directed progressions) in fourteenth-century music were re-
garded as feminine in nature and erotically charged. A careful in-
vestigation of the claims made in the article Gendering the
Semitone raises significant issues about how historians of music
theory reconstruct collective theoretical attitudes from past epochs.
Keywords: medieval music theory, gender, semitone, chromatic
genus, directed progression, historiography
In an award-winning article titled Gendering the Semitone,
Sexing the Leading Tone, Elizabeth Eva Leach announces that
music theorists of the Middle Ages considered the interval of the
semitone to be associated with femininity and to be in substantial
degree lascivious.1 In her view, medieval music theorists imply
that music rich in intervals smaller than a tone is effeminate, ef-
feminizing, and, by extrapolation, of a morally dubious nature.2
Moreover, the directed progression of fourteenth-century po-
lyphony, which often involves musica ficta, seems to have become
associated with the perils of feminization as an aural depiction of
sexual desire and consummation.3 She supports her position
with a plethora of references that range from antique theory (es-
pecially as transmitted under the exalted authority of Boethius)
through treatises written in the late-fifteenth century.
It is the editorial policy of Music Theory Spectrum to preserve the orthogra-
phy and typography of original sources. As a result, some spellings within
the Latin quotations will differ from one passage to another.
1 Leach (2006). This article received the Society for Music Theorys 2007
Outstanding Publication Award.
2 Leach (2006, 2).
3 Leach (2006, 13).
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MTS3301_05.indd 65
But impressive as these references may seem, a wealth of
concrete evidence from the realm of medieval music theory con-
tradicts the notion that the community of medieval music theo-
rists viewed the semitone in gendered terms and that the
semitone was already [in the mid-fourteenth century] regarded
as the most feminineand therefore potentially feminizing
interval in the medieval gamut.4 A wide-ranging examination
of medieval statements on the semitone, the chromatic genus,
contrapunctus progressions, and related matters addressed within
Gendering the Semitone reveals substantial flaws in main
lines of argument and representation of the historical record. A
majority of music theorists do not employ the gendered lan-
guage or images put forward in a way that implies they were
common currency among medieval theorists. In some instances,
context or transmission of statements cited is misrepresented.
This study will begin with a brief overview of why the semi-
tones numerical ratio and nomenclature posed a problem for
medieval music pedagogues. It will then address central ele-
ments in Elizabeth Eva Leachs exposition: language used in
characterizing the semitone, medieval views of the Greek genera
(the chromatic genus in particular), discourse about directed
progressions, and views of Marchetto of Padua and Johannes
Boen with respect to the directed progression. Finally, it will
briefly touch upon some general issues of methodology, histori-
ography, and reconstruction of past mentalities.
the semitone
A key point in Elizabeth Eva Leachs claim of a metaphori-
cal association between femininity and the semitone is the
compulsion felt by many authors to justify the use of the prefix
semi to mean something other than half, explaining instead
that it means incomplete.5 Before examining the evidence for
the pervasiveness of a metaphorical link between the semitone
and femininity, it will be useful to consider why the phenome-
non of the semitone might have posed a pedagogical problem
for a medieval theorist. Two core problems had to be faced: one
of numerical ratio, the other of nomenclature.6 The notion that
number constituted the basis for musical sound was received
from Boethiuss De institutione musica and transmitted inter-
mittently by some medieval theorists in formulations such as
music is the theory (knowledge) of number as related to
sound.7 Regardless of whether that notion was explicitly ar-
ticulated in individual treatises, the relation between number
4 Leach (2006, 13).
5 Leach (2006, 2).
6 Elizabeth Eva Leach also draws attention to the special problem of the semi-
tone (Leach [2006, 12]), but her brief exposition quickly adopts a gendered
perspective. Her sentence As the square root of a superparticular ratio is not
a ratio of two whole numbers this [a step smaller than a tone] could not be
literally half a semitone and remain within the ratio-based mathematics of
medieval music (1) should be corrected to literally half a [9:8] tone.
7 Musica est scientia de numero relato ad sonos. For a conspectus of similar
statements, see Michels (1972, 49, Note 2). A comment by Cassiodorus
(ca. 562) connecting number with musical sound seems to have been espe-
cially favored from the late-thirteenth into the fourteenth century.
3/22/11 2:30 PM
 66 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
and musical sound was inherent in the division of the mono-
chord. With the appearance of the Dialogus de musica (late-
tenth century) and Guido of Arezzos Micrologus (ca. 1025),
the monochord (and its virtual extension, the hand) became the
chief means of representing the codified pitch system, the basis
for elementary music pedagogy from the early-eleventh century
on. The student in the Dialogus explicitly praises the mono-
chord as a marvelous teacher the master has given him.8
Division of the monochord string according to diatonic norms
was executed through relatively simple (and easily produced)
superparticular ratios of 9:8, 4:3, 3:2, and 2:1. The ratio of 9:8
rendered the smallest accepted superparticular interval, the
tone. Its proportion was derived as the difference between the
perfect fifth (3:2) and the perfect fourth (4:3).9 The smaller in-
terval of a semitone posed a numerical problem on several
counts. It was not generated from a direct division of the mono-
chord but was the secondary result of the difference between a
ditone (major third) and a diatessaron (perfect fourth). Its ratio,
calculated as the difference between those two intervals, was not
a privileged superparticular but a complex superpartient,
256:243. Moreover, the 256:243 semitone was not exactly half
of a tone. Indeed, no superparticular ratio can be arithmetically
divided into two equal halves using whole numbers. Given that
premise, the tone, a 9:8 superparticular, can never be divided
into two equal semitones: one half will always be larger, one
smaller. Boethius devotes considerable space to this unequal di-
vision of the tone and to the numerical size of its constituent
semitones.10 The Middle Ages received from Boethius secure
doctrine that semitones were unequal in size, complex in ratio,
and not true halves of a tone: the minor semitone (limma) was
slightly less than half of a tone, the major semitone (apotome)
slightly larger than half of a tone.
The fact that neither the minor nor the major semitone was
an exact half of a tone produced a lexical problem of nomen-
clature. The common meaning of semis in Latin was half, but
that prefix could also convey a looser sense of imperfect or
incomplete. In music pedagogy, the name diatessaron could be
explained as of four and the diapente as of five; but the name
semitone could not simply be explained as half of a tone by
anyone educated in the basic numerical theory relevant to mu-
sica and monochord division.11 Hence, to avoid lexical confu-
sion, many teachers felt a need to explain the name semitone
and to specify that, contrary to what the name might imply, the
interval was not an exact half of a tone.12 Boethius had led the
8 Gerbert (1784, I, 255). (Hereafter GS followed by volume and page number.)
9 Boethius, Book I, Chapter 17. Friedlein (1867, 20304); Bower (1989, 2628).
10 Boethius, Book I, Chapters 1617. Friedlein (1867, 20104); Bower (1989,
2228). Book II, Chapter 2830. Friedlein (1867, 26064); Bower (1989,
8285). All 16 chapters of Book III.
11 See Johns De Musica, Chapter 8. Smits van Waesberghe (1950, 69); Babb
(1978, 111). I use the Latin musica in its medieval sense of music theory.
12 The tone similarly had a problematic etymology of nomenclature. Guido
(Micrologus, Chapter 6) derives it from intonando (thundering), which he
equates with sonando (sounding), and his lead was widely followed in the
Middle Ages: Smits van Waesberghe (1955, 116); Babb (1978, 63). However,
there is no reason to believe that whole tones sounded more thunderous
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MTS3301_05.indd 66
way with his explanation in Book I, Chapter 16 that Both of
these [the 18:17 and the 17:16 parts of a tone] are called semi-
tones, not because these intermediate semitones are equal at all,
but because something that does not come to a whole is usually
called semi.13 Guido makes a similar observation with regard
to the visual look of the monochord, but without raising the
issue of an exact half: On the monochord there are greater
spaces between adjacent pitches and lesser ones. The greater
space is called a tone, the lesser a semitone, semis, that is not a
full tone.14 Thus, it is a straightforward lexical problem that
leads some theorists to explain that the semi in semitone
does not have the commonplace meaning of half. The prefix
semi- is not in itself an index of an association between femi-
ninity and the semitone based on the way the prefix semi
modifies the word tone.15 Rather, explications of the name
semitone arise out of an ordinary lexical situation.
With this background in mind, it is time to examine how
medieval theorists described the semitone in their treatises and
to assess the degree to which they may have gone beyond basic
facts about the numerical sizes and name of the semitone and
associated that interval with femininity.
The passages from Boethius and Guido just quoted seem
neutral in tone, straightforward reports that the prefix semis in
the name semitone indicates less than a whole. This is the case
with many medieval theorists: the explanation that a semitone
is not a full tone is given without further comment, as may be
seen in a few representative passages, dating from roughly 1270
to 1350, that stem from various geographical regions.
Magister Lambert [Pseudo-Aristotle], Tractatus de musica
(ca. 126570, Parisian):
A semitone is the imperfect space between two pitches that accord-
ing to the human voice cannot be divided, or halved. Know that no
semitone occurs except between mi and fa, or the reverse. And it is
called semitone from semus, sema, semum, which is imperfect
and tonus, as though an imperfect tone.16
than other intervals, and the derivation seems simply a convenient inven-
tion. The actual ancestor was likely the Greek noun tonos in its meaning
of interval (Mathiesen [1999, 384]).
13 Sed utraque semitonia nuncupatur, nonquod omnino semitonia ex aequo sint
media, sed quod semum dici solet, quod ad integritatem usque non pervenit.
Book I, Chapter 16. Friedlein (1867, 203); translation from Bower (1989,
26). See also Book II, Chapter 29. Friedlein (1867, 26263); Bower (1989,
8384). The ratios of these divisions of the tone come about through plac-
ing an intermediate term within the tones ratio 9:8, which renders
18:17:16. Neither of these mathematically rendered subdivisions is exactly
equivalent to the 256:243 semitone produced through monochord division,
but the demonstration serves to make the point that the 9:8 tone cannot be
divided arithmetically, using whole numbers, into two equal parts.
14 Et maius quidem spatium tonus dicitur, minus vero semitonium, semis videlicet
id est non plenus tonus. Micrologus, Chapter 4. Smits van Waesberghe
(1955, 103); Babb (1978, 61).
15 Leach (2006, 2).
16 Semitonium est imperfectum spatium duarum vocum quod secundum vocem hominis
non licet dividi, vel ponere medium. Unde sciendum est quod nunquam fit semito-
nium, nisi de mi in fa, vel e converso. Et dicitur semitonium a semus, sema, semum,
quod est imperfectum, et tonus, quasi imperfectus tonus. Coussemaker (1864, I,
25758). (Hereafter CS followed by volume and page numbers.) Similar
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 colloquy 67
Aegidius of Zamora, Ars Musica (between 12961304, Madrid):
It is called semitone as though half a tone, that is, an imperfect
tone, which was investigated by Aristoxenus saying, semus is that
which does not reach perfection.17
Jacques of Lige, Speculum Musicae, Book II (132030s, Lige;
the author studied in Paris):
According to Boethius, semitones are called thus not because they
are true and complete halves of a tone, but because they are not in-
tegral tones. According to this, the semitone is so named not from
semi, which is half, but from semus, sema, semum, which is im-
perfect, and from tone, as an imperfect tone. Similarly the semidi-
tone, which we will discuss below, is called an imperfect ditone.18
A Franciscan monk of Oxford ( John of Tewkesbury?), Quatour
Principalia (4 August 1351, English):
It is called semitone because it is semis, that is not a full tone.
Nor is it, as some think, the [exact] middle of a tone, but either less
or more than that, for the tone cannot be divided into two equal
semitones, in terms of intervals.19
Such passages are typical of mainstream discourse about the
semitone in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Some the-
orists do, however, expand upon the nomenclature, and cite
lexical parallels in which semis means incomplete rather
than half. Elizabeth Eva Leach seizes upon one of these paral-
lels, Johns [ Johannes] mention and explanation of semiviri in
De Musica of ca. 1100:
The semitone, called a limma by Plato, is so named because it is not
a full tone but an imperfect one, not, as some ignorant people say,
because it is exactly half of a whole tone. Thus Vergil speaks of
semiviri Phrygesthat is, incomplete Phrygian men because they
garb themselves like women.20
formulations appear in several treatises, among them a report of the Johannes
de Garlandia tradition that is also associated with one version of Ars nova
teaching. Meyer (1998, 61); Reaney, Gilles, and Maillard (1964, 21). The
proposed dating comes from Baltzer (2001, 169).
17 Unde dicitur semitoniium, quasi dimidius tonus, id est imperfectus tonus, quod
probatur per Aristoxenum dicentum, semum est quod usque ad perfectum non
peruenit. Robert-Tissot (1974, 90). Although Zamora references Aristox-
enus, the quote seems closer to Boethius, Book I, Chapter 16. For the
dating, see Robert-Tissot (1974, 1213).
18 Semitonia, secundum Boethium, nuncupata sunt, non quod sint verae et integrae
toni medietates, sed quia non sunt integri toni, et, secundum hoc, semitonium
dicitur non a semi, quod est dimidium, et tonus quasi dimidius tonus, sed a
semus, sema, semum, quod est imperfectus, -ta, -tum, et tonus, quasi imperfec-
tus tonus; sic semiditonus, de quo dicimus infra, dicitur imperfectus ditonus. . . .
Book II, Chapter 60. Bragard (1961, vol. 2, 14748). See Desmond (2000,
35) on Jacques of Lige and the dating of his Speculum Musicae.
19 Semitonium vero dicitur eo quod fit semis, id est non plenus tonus. Nec enim ut
quidam putant est toni medietas, sed minus vel maius, quia tonus non potest
dividi in duobus semitoniis equalibus secundum consonancias. Treatise 2, Chap-
ter 12. Aluas (1996, 235). A similar definition appears in Treatise III,
Chapter 13, and includes the remark that a semitone cannot be divided
according to the human voice (quia secundum vocem hominis non licet dividi
vel ponere medium). Aluas (1996, 27879. On the attribution, see 29).
20 Semitonium, a Platone limma vocatum, dictum est, quod sit non plenus tonus sed
imperfectus, non ut quidam imperiti resolvunt dimidius tonus. Virgilius semiviri
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MTS3301_05.indd 67
Rhetorically this is not a simile but an exemplum. John does not
say the semitone is like a Phrygian semivir but presents the word
semiviri as another lexical instance of semi in the meaning of
imperfect or incomplete, and shows his erudition by assign-
ing the phrase semiviri Phryges to Virgil (although without
specifying where).21 Elizabeth Eva Leach traces his comment
through several other theorists, in the process giving the impres-
sion that it was commonplace among medieval music theorists,
for: the definition of semi as meaning incomplete continues
to provoke references to cross-dressed Phrygians well into the
fifteenth century.22 In support of this she cites five treatises: the
Summa musice of ca. 1300; the Tractatus de Tonis by Guido
of Saint Denis, from the early-fourteenth century; the
Tractatus musicae scientiae by Gobelinus Person, dated
August 1417; the Libellus Musicalis de Ritu Canendi by
Johannes Gallicus (Legrense) written between 1458-64; and the
Musicale opusculum by Adam of Fulda, dated November
1490.23 What these treatises have in common is that all draw
extensively upon Johns De Musica, and his treatise is the
probable direct source for their semiviri Phryges references.
Given the number of music treatises written between ca. 1100
and 1490, five is not a large number of transmissions. And
Adams treatise should not be counted among them, as far as the
semitone is concerned. His commentary on the semitone pro-
vides the parallel of semivocalis, not semiviri Phryges.
The semitone is, as it were, half a tone; the ancients chose to call the
sound [that is] less than a tone a semitone. But understand that it is
Phryges, id est non pleni viri, quia more feminarum se vestiunt. De Mu-
sica, Chapter 8. Smits van Waesberghe (1950, 6869); translation
Babb (1978, 111). Given here as in Leach (2006, 2), but with the first
part of the sentence restored. John, incidentally, is not usually consid-
ered a glossator of Guido of Arezzo as Elizabeth Eva Leach identifies
him (ibid.). Not only is his treatise quite different in plan from the di-
rect commentaries on Guidos Micrologus (Huglo [1977, 10]), but it
also often differs in substance from Guidos treatise.
21 The epithet can be traced to the Aeneid, Book XII, line 99. Turnus uses
it as an insult (meaning eunuch) to the Trojan invader Aeneas, whom
he had earlier called a Phrygian tyrant. The epithet is associated with
the cult of Cybele, whose husband castrated himself; see Ahl (2007, 341
[note to III:111], 348 [note to IV:215] and 426 [note to XII:98]). Ap-
parently not grasping Virgils meaning, John invents the explanation of
cross-dressing that was repeated by some music theorists who took
him as an authority. Elizabeth Eva Leach acknowleges that the con-
notations of semiviri for Johannes were probably rather different from
those of Vergil (Leach [2006, 3]).
22 Leach (2006, 3).
23 Note that two of these are from the early-fourteenth century, the other
three from the fifteenth, two of them quite late. On the date of the
Tractatus de Tonis, see Van de Klundert (1998, vol. 1, 18). I designate
Adam of Fuldas treatise from his own reference at the opening of his
dedication, rather than adopting the generic Musica used by Gerbert
(GS [III, 329]). The comment on Guido of Saint Denis (Leach [2006,
23 and Note 8]) transmits an erroneous reference in Le Roux (1965)
and identifies Martianus Capella as the source for Regino of Prms jux-
taposition of semitone and semivowel. A standard check of sources
would have revealed the actual source as Macrobiuss Commentarii in
Somnium Scipionis. Willis (1970, 98); Stahl (1990, 188). For more on
Macrobiuss juxtaposition of semitone and semivocalis, see below.
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 68 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
not to be thought of as half of a tonejust as we do not take the
semivowel in [alphabetical] letters to be the middle of a vowel
nor can one make a [full] tone from two semitones. Because of this
Plato wanted to call it a limma.24
This passage does not repeat Johns epithet, but derives from
Macrobiuss Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis (ca. 400),
which Adam closely paraphrases.25
The exemplum of semivocalis by way of explaining a usage
of semi as not half is actually not uncommon, and is nu-
merically far more frequent than semiviri Phryges. An infor-
mal count finds at least eight writers who employ that
grammatical exemplum by itself and others who provide it in
company with other semi-prefixed words. Some base their re-
marks directly on Macrobius, but others are independent in for-
mulation. Abbot Engelbert of Admont, who studied in Prague
and Padua and who probably wrote his music treatise around
1300, provides the semivocalis exemplum in his own words:
But it is called semitone from semus, sema, which is the same as
imperfect. Hence semitone as an imperfect tone, just as we say
semivocales are not halves of vowels, because a vowel letter cannot be
divided in two, but we say semivocales as though imperfect vowels.26
In illustrating semitone with reference to semivocales letters,
the English compiler John Wylde (ca. 1430) also witnesses the
currency in the fifteenth century of this grammatical exemplum.27
A late-thirteenth-century French (Belgian?) treatise, Ars
Musice Armonie, multiplies exempla, referencing semivo-
cales, a partly filled container, and demigodsbut not, it may
be noted, semiviri Phryges.
But it is called a semitone because [or: as though] an imperfect
tone. Not semitone from semis [that is] half, but from semis, -i other than semiviri Phryges form the next largest group (Bar B),
which is imperfect, as a container is called half-full, not because it
lacks half of its content but because it is not completely full, [and]
as one says semivowel or demigod.28
24 Est enim semitonium quasi dimidius tonus, sonum enim tono minorem veteres
semitonium vocare voluerunt: sed ita capiendus est, ut non dimidius tonus
putaretur, quia nec semivocalem in litteris pro medietate vocalis capimus, nec ex
duobus semitoniis potest fieri tonus: propter hoc Plato idipsum limma vocare
voluit . . . Part II, Chapter 6. GS (III, 346ab). Elizabeth Eva Leach gives
no page reference for her citation of Adams comments on the semitone.
Several chapters after the passage about the semitone, Adam does use the
exemplum semiviri Phryges but in conjunction with the locution semidia-
pente (diminished fifth) (GS [III, 353a]), a sign that the phrase was not
cemented to the semitone.
25 Macrobius, Book II, Chapter 1. Willis (1970, 9899); Stahl (1990, 188
89). See Bernhard (1990, 19) on Macrobius as a primary authority for
music theorists of the Middle Ages.
26 [S]ed vocatur semitonium a semus sema, quod idem est quod imperfectus: inde
semitonium quasi imperfectus tonus, sicut semivocales dicimus non dimidias vo-
cales, quia una vocalis littera non potest dividi in duas, sed dicimus semivocales
quasi imperfectas vocales. Ernstbrunner (1998, 193); GS (II, 299a).
27 Sweeney (1982, 91).
28 Dicitur autem semitonus vel semitonium, quia [L, C, D: quasi] imperfectus
tonus, non enim semitonium a semis [C, D: id est] dimidium, sed dicitur a semis
-i quod est imperfectum, ut vas dicitur semiplenum, non quia dimidia pars desit,
sed quia perfecte plenum non est; ut dicitur semivocalis et semidii. Bernhard
(2006, 12829), cited from the Basel and Vatican manuscripts, with vari-
ants from other manuscripts in brackets. Three of the four redactions have
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MTS3301_05.indd 68
example 1. Medieval music treatises: absence/presence of exempla
A = No exempla B = 1-3 exempla, but not semiviri Phryges
C = semiviri Phryges exemplum
The English cleric Amerus, in his Practica Artis Musice of
1271, offers the parallel of demigods by itself. After explaining
that a tone separates most adjacent pitches within a hexachord,
he notes as an exception that the conjunction mi-fa is a semi-
tone, and describes that interval as follows:
A semitone is an imperfect tonewe call a semideus an imperfect
godbecause it is less than a tone in pitch and space, which clearly
appears on musical instruments.29
As already illustrated above, medieval music treatises often do
not explicate the nomenclature semitone with a parallel exem-
plum. Example 1 gives statistics gleaned from some seventy-five
medieval treatises on exempla associated with the term semi-
tone (a search facilitated by the Thesaurus Musicarum
Latinarum). As is clear from the graph (Bar A), most treatises
offer no parallel semis exempla. Those which provide parallels
with semivowel being most commonly mentioned, and vas semi-
plenum or semidei/semideos not unusual.30 In a distinct minority
(Bar C) are those who quote Johns semiviri Phryges. These sta-
tistics show plainly that the semiviri Phryges exemplum to which
Elizabeth Eva Leach gives such concentrated attention was not
at all representative among medieval theorists. According to
this informal survey, 94% of music treatises do not transmit that
phrase. Both statistical frequency and the variety of exempla ap-
pearing in these treatises offer compelling evidence against the
impression fostered in Gendering the Semitone that medieval
music theorists commonly juxtaposed the name semitone with
semiviri Phryges and hence might be deemed to have regarded
the passage cited. For the dating and likely provenance in Northern France
or Belgium, see Bernhard (2006, 7375). Past attributions of this treatise
and others to Thomas Aquinas are without foundation (Bernhard [2006,
VIIVIII]).
29 Est autem semitonus imperfectus tonussemideos imperfectos deos appellamus
quia minor est tono voce et spacio, quod manifeste patet in musicis instrumentis
(Ruini [1977, 7879]). The first time Amerus discusses the semitone, he
offers no parallel exemplum but simply explains the semi as meaning imper-
fect or not full, and being appropriate because the interval is less than half
of a tone (Ruini [1977, 26]).
30 The multiple exempla sometimes include semivir, but with no qualifier or
explanation. Familiar medieval examples of semiviri would have been
centaurs and the Minotaurthat is, creatures half man and half beast.
3/22/11 2:30 PM
 colloquy 69
that interval as feminine. An additional indication of the pe-
ripheral status of Johns formulation is the suppression of his
description of the semitone in the late-thirteenth-century
Tractatus de Musica (ca. 1272) compiled by Jerome of Moravia
(or Moray). In Chapter 14 on the intervals constituting melody,
Jerome quotes John exactly and by name on the unison and the
tone. But for the intervening entry on the semitone, he drops
John as a source and adopts Guidos description of not a full
interval of a tone, adding the by-then-commonplace remark
that semis indicates imperfect.31
The various exempla presented as parallels to the sense of
semi- in the name semitone raise the question of the source for
these lexical parallels. And the probable answer takes us away
from the realm of musica and into the sphere of elementary
grammar instruction. Priscians Institutiones grammaticae Libri
XVIII (ca. 500) was a standard grammar text in the Middle
Ages. Near the beginning of Book I, Priscian discusses the let-
ters of the alphabet, which are the smallest parts of utterance
(vox). The letters of the Latin alphabet fall into three basic cat-
egories: vowels, mute consonants, and semivocales, which are the
seven letters f, l, m, n, r, s, and x. The vocales (literally, uttered
sounds), a, e, i, o, and u, are so called, Priscian says, because
they perfect a spoken sound or because without them it is not
possible to produce an intelligible utterance (vox literalis). The
semivocales possess some resonant qualities of the vowels, but
only partially.
The semivocales are called thus because they do not have a full sound
(vox), just as we refer to semideos and semiviros, not because they
possess a half part of gods or men but because they are not full gods
or men.32
A tenth-century commentary on the Ars major of Donatus in-
corporates Priscians linguistic parallels in its explanation of the
imperfect sound of the semivowels and goes on to state the
more usual meaning of semis.
Semivocales [are so called] not because they possess half a sound
but because by themselves, without a vowel, they do not render a
perfect sound, just as we say semideos and semiviros, not because
they are half-gods but because they are not perfect. The name
semivocalis is composed from semis, semissis and vocalis.
Semis is correctly half of some measure.33
The language of imperfection in this passage on semivocales is
similar to that in a number of commentaries on semitones in
medieval music treatises.
31 Tractatus de Musica, Chapter 14. Cserba (1935, 59). Jerome was a Domini-
can scholar resident in Paris.
32 Semiuocales autem sunt appellatae, quae plenam uocem non habent, ut semideos
et semiuiros appellamus, non qui dimidiam partem habent deorum uel uirorum,
sed qui pleni dii uel uiri non sunt. Book I. Keil (1855, vol. 2, 9).
33 Semivocales quoque, non quod dimidium sonum habeant, sed quia per se sine
vocalibus perfectum sonum non habent, sicut dicimus semideos et semiviros, non
quod dimidii di sint, sed quia perfecti non sunt. Semivocalis autem compositum
est ex nomine, quod est semis, semissis et vocalis. Semis vero est alicuius mensu-
rae dimidietas. Commentum Einsidlense in Donati Artem Maiorem. Keil
(1870, Supplementum, 222).
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MTS3301_05.indd 69
Given the status of Priscians comprehensive opus as a gram-
mar textbook in the Middle Ages, it is reasonable to think that
his text (or others derived from it) spawned the appearance in
music treatises of semivocalis as a familiar exemplum illustrating
the sense of semi in semitonium, and was the point of origin
as well for the exempla semidei/semideos and semivir/semi-
viri appearing singly or together with other semi linguistic
formulations that circulated within the sphere of music theory.
That music theorists might have appropriated exempla illustrat-
ing semis from grammar instruction seems plausible given
their own training in grammar and the early training in gram-
mar of those young musicians to whom their treatises are largely
addressed. John might have been led to the phrase semiviri
Phryges by another grammar text, Arusianus Messiuss Exempla
Elocutionum, a fourth-century work that circulated in the
Middle Ages. Messius gives a foreshortened version of Aeneid
XII (lines 97-99)da sternere corpus semiviri Phrygisbut does
not gloss the meaning of Phrygian semivir.34 Whatever his
source, John elaborated the epithet with his own invented ex-
planation. His idiosyncratic account of the semitone was subse-
quently appropriated in a few other treatises (mainly from a
Germanic, Eastern European orbit) whose authors used John
extensively as an auctoritas.35
Elizabeth Eva Leach takes Johns epithet of semiviri
Phryges as the occasion for a long discourse on connotations of
the Phrygian in medieval lore in general, and in the realm of
musical mythology in particulara discourse designed to sup-
port her contention that through their terminology, music theo-
rists of the Middle Ages imply that music rich in intervals
smaller than a tone [i.e., semitones] is effeminate, effeminizing
and, by extrapolation, of a morally dubious nature. She con-
nects this with an orientalist trope of the effeminate East.36
But this is far too heavy a burden to impose on one theorists
casual exemplum that had quite limited (and chronologically
scattered) circulation and that is far outnumbered both by other
exempla paralleling the nomenclature semitone, and by semi-
tone characterizations with no illustrative exempla (as shown in
Example 1). Her subsequent juxtaposition of descriptions of the
semitone as an imperfect tone with Aristotelian theories of
gender, which viewed women as imperfect men, is a rhetorical
strategy calculated to reinforce her reading of a semitone femi-
ninized simply because it was deemed imperfect relative to the
34 Let me shatter the body of this Phrygian eunuch. Edited in Keil (1880, vol. 7,
468, line 29). In any case, John does not quote Virgil directly, because the
epithet is singular (and genitive) in Aeneid XII but plural in John.
35 Paliscas characterization of Johns Greek etymologies as fanciful and impos-
sible, or unschooled fits his etymology of semiviri Phryges (Palisca [1990,
156 and 162]). The south-eastern European provenances of the treatises that
quote Johns comment on the semitone accord with Paliscas judgment (156)
that Musica was written in an area between St. Gall and Bamberg.
36 Leach (2006, 2, 35). In music theory, Boethius is the prime source for the
mythic story of a drunken youth of Taorminia incited by the sound of the
Phrygian mode to violence against a whore he fancied. Friedlein (1867,
185); Bower (1989, 5). Bower notes that Quintilian (Institutio oratoria)
and other early writers also transmit the story, but Quintilian does not
specify the Phrygian mode in the telling.
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 70 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
9:8 tone.37 But an automatically gendered reaction to the quali-
fier imperfect would then logically extend to semivocales,
demigods (semidei, e.g., Hercules, fathered by Jove), semibreves,
and semiditones (minor thirds), which theorists often describe
as imperfect ditones in parallel to their descriptions of semi-
tones as imperfect tones. Not only is the tactic of extending
Aristotles gender view (nowhere, to my knowledge, explicitly
referenced in medieval music treatises) to the semitone dubious
in itself, but its extension to the other imperfect entities men-
tioned in medieval writings on music would vitiate any exclu-
sionary gendered linkage to the semitone alone.
In counterbalance to the contention that semitones had not
just feminine, but morally dubious38 connotations, one may
point to a number of passages in medieval treatises that praise
the semitone, notwithstanding its complex numerical ratio and
status as the smallest diatonic interval on the monochord or
within the hexachord. Engelbert of Admont, for example, re-
gards the semitone as the binding chain and means of joining
all the intervals, for by its mediation it effects a means of respi-
ration and smooth transition from tone to tone, and a connec-
tion within intervals.39 He returns to the positive function of
semitones in the midst of a passage on mutation.
For according to Isidore, there would be harshness in song and con-
fusion due to the frequent occurrence and violent elevation of many
tones in succession if there were not a semitone [to provide] a soft
deflection from tone to tone, as it were if a flexible joint did not
intervene in the middle of a [persons] limb.40
Johannes de Grocheio (ca. 1300) appreciates the semitone as a
constituent component of all intervals and of melody: Its prop-
erty is to measure, along with the tone, all song and all the other
intervals, and to create melody in song.41
A musica plana treatise belonging to a John of Garland
teaching tradition follows a standard explanation of semitone
nomenclature with praise for its role in melody.
But [the semitone] is named from semus, -ma, -mum, which is
imperfect, as though an imperfect tone. The semitone, as Bernard
says, is a sweetness and seasoning of all song, and without it a song
is corroded, transformed, and disjointed. Boethius reliably specifies
the semitone as the result of a certain [numerical] problem.42
37 Leach (2006, 15).
38 Leach (2006, 2).
39 Est autem semitonium vinculum et coniunctio media omnium consonanciarum, quia
ipso mediante fit quasi media respiracio et lenis reflexio de tono ad tonum, et continu-
acio consonanciarum. Treatise II, Chapter 26. Ernstbrunner (1998, 235).
40 Quia secundum Ysidorum asperitas esset in cantu et indistinctio per frequentem casum
et violentam elevacionem multorum tonorum post invicem, si mollis quedam deflexio
de tono in tonum per semitonia quasi per quosdam flexibiles membrorum articulos in
medio non interveniret. Treatise III, Chapter 8. Ernstbrunner (1998, 253).
41 Eius autem proprietas est cum tono omnem cantum et omnem concordantiam
aliam mensurare et melodiam in cantu facere. Rohloff (1943, 120).
42 . . . [S]ed dicitur a semus, -ma-, -mum, quod est imperfectum, quasi imperfectus
tonus. Semitonium, ut dicit Bernardus, est dulcedo et condimentum totius cantus,
et sine ipso cantus esset corrosus, transformatus, et dilaceratus. Boetius autem
determinat de semitonio per solutionem cuiusdam questionis. Reportatio 4.
Meyer (1998, 61). This reportatio is included in the critical edition of Ars
nova because in a principal manuscript it precedes a report on Vitrys
teaching about notation. Reaney, Gilles, and Maillard (1964, 21).
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MTS3301_05.indd 70
The comment from Bernardthe source of which has not yet
been tracedis repeated in an Eastern European Tractatulus
artis musicae from ca. 1450. Its position following an explicitly
gendered semivir exemplum seems to counteract any aspersions
that parallel might appear to have cast on the semitone.
A semitone is therefore an imperfect tone, one that is not full, just
as a vessel might be called semi-full, not because half of its content
is missing but because it is not full. And semivir, that is an imper-
fect or not full man because misusing manly works, he is disgraced
by womanly ways. The semitone is certainly the sweetness and sea-
soning of all song for without it song would be corroded, trans-
formed, and disjointed.43
In Book II of Speculum Musicae, Jacques of Lige admits the
minor semitone (diesis) to be dissonant if its two components
are sounded together, but in the company of other intervals it is
indispensible.
Sounded together and alone, the pitches of a diesis discord greatly
with one another aurally. But this is not the case when they combine
with a tone, ditone, or tritone. And thus although this interval taken
by itself may be bad, nevertheless joined with other imperfect or bad
intervals it renders them good, so that no interval is good and per-
fect without this one.44
Marchetto also writes of semitones in an appreciative tone, say-
ing of the four he has postulated that
These sorts of parts of a tone, or these kinds of semitones, were
devised in musica so that through colored dissonances [i.e., imper-
fect consonances] or through a certain kind of beauty in them, we
might arrive at more perfect or more beautiful intervals in song.45
The absence in the majority of medieval music treatises of exempla
illustrating usages of semus or semis parallel to that in the term
semitone, the variety of such exempla in treatises that do include
them, and the various positive appreciations of the semitone ex-
pressed in some treatisesall these elements call into
43 Est ergo semithonium tonus imperfectus vel non plenus sicut dicitur vas semiple-
num; non ideo quia eius pars dimidia desit sed quia plenum non est. Et semiuir
id est imperfectus vel non plenus vir eo quod abutens operibus virilibus femina-
rum modibus deturpatur. Semithonium nempe est dulcedo et condimentum totius
cantus nam sine ipso esset cantus corosus transformatus et dilaceratus. Amon
(1977, 34). This treatise belongs to the East European Johannes Holland-
rinus tradition. Within that tradition, the so-called Musica Magistri Szyd-
lovite also transmits the quoted passage (Gieburowski [1915, 28]), but the
Opusculum de musica gives the sweetness and seasoning sentence without
the semivirexemplum (Rausch [1997, 36]). The other representatives of
the Hollandrinus tradition do not include this material.
44 Diesis voces simul prolatae et per se multum discordant apud auditum, non sic
quando cum tono, cum ditono, cum tritono sociantur; et sic haec consonantia, licet
in se et per se sumpta sit mala, iuncta tamen cum aliquibus imperfectis et cum
aliquibus malis, illas reddit bonas, ut nulla consonantia bona sit et perfecta sine
ista. Book II, Chapter 61. Bragard (1961, 149).
45 Huiusmodi autem partes in tono, seu huiusmodi semitonia, fuerunt in musica
adinventa, ut per dissonantias coloratas, seu cuiusdam pulchritudinis ipsarum,
ad perfectiores, seu pulcriores, in cantu consonantias veniamus. Lucidar-
ium, Treatise II, Chapter 5. Herlinger (1985, 136). Marchetto is here in-
dicating beauty for all his semitones (note the plural partes), not just the
chromatic semitone. Elizabeth Eva Leach quotes an identical comment
from Pomerium, Chapter 15 in her Note 70 (14), but her text (14) con-
fines the color of beauty to the chromatic semitone.
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 colloquy 71
serious question the gist of the claim that medieval music theorists
collectively viewed the semitone as gendered feminine. That asser-
tion rests on far too limited a sampling of the historical record.
Elizabeth Eva Leach has culled a few passages with either specific
or plausible gender references and focuses on them to the exclusion
of a plethora of other passages that either carry no gender implica-
tions or contradict the attitude she presents as uniformly medi-
eval. Similar problems mar her representation of how the
chromatic genus was viewed in the Middle Ages and of its relevance
for polyphonic music of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
the chromatic genus and chromaticism
Building upon her observation that Johns juxtaposition of
semitone with semiviri Phryges demonstrates a collective medieval
belief in a feminized and feminizing semitone, Elizabeth Eva
Leach claims a tradition within medieval music theory of view-
ing the Greek chromatic genusand hence medieval music in-
volving semitones foreign to the diatonic Guidonian Hand or
monochordas effeminate. Her argument musters three basic
points: in reporting remarks on the Greek genera (especially
those in Boethius, Book I, Chapters 1 and 21), medieval theo-
rists characterized the Greek genus chromaticum as effeminate;
in several fourteenth-century sources, the group of terms that
pertain to the chromatic genuscomplete with its gendered
ethossurface in application to a new musical reality, which is
the directed progression; that the new chromatic semitone
introduced by Marchetto of Padua is clearly gendered feminine
because of its music-theoretic heritage.46 This putative medi-
eval association of femininity with the Greek chromatic genus
leads her to suggest further that such a medieval attitude consti-
tuted the root of a trope of chromaticism in Western music of
later periods.47 A first question is whether medieval theorists
uniformly characterized the chromatic genus in the negative way
that Elizabeth Eva Leach describes. Other questions inviting
careful investigation are the degree to which the music theory
community of the fourteenth century transferred the concept of
the chromatic genus to music of their own time, and whether
such transfer (when it exists) was associated with what Elizabeth
Eva Leach refers to as the directed progression.
In sketching a profile of gendered views inherited from an-
tiquity, and specifically from Boethiuss Book I proem, Elizabeth
Eva Leach reports that the chromatic genus was seen as soft
(mollis), ckle (varia), and feminine (effeminata).48 The last
two adjectives do occur together in Boethiuss proem, but they
are not applied to the chromatic genus. Rather, they are joined in
a passage that relays Platos view on music appropriate for his
utopian Republic: It [music of the highest moral character]
should be temperate, simple, and masculine, rather than effem-
inate, uncultivated, or changeable.49 There is no sense in this
4 6 Leach (2006, 67, 89, and 1314).
47 Leach (2006, 3); see also the final sentence of her abstract (1).
48 Leach (2006, 67).
49 . . . [I]ta ut [musica] sit modesta ac simplex et mascula nec effeminata nec fera
nec varia. Friedlein (1867, 181); Bower (1989, 4). Bower references Platos
Republic (399, 41011), for this passage.
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MTS3301_05.indd 71
remark that effeminate and changeable or fickle apply spe-
cifically to the chromatic genus, nor is there any evidence to sug-
gest that this passage was understood as a comment on genus in
the Middle Ages. Indeed, one late-fourteenth-century English
commentator, glossing the reported sentence and joining it with
another fragment from Boethius, explicitly relates the inferior
class of music to that produced for the theater and stage:
Plato judged music of the highest character to be modest, and simple,
and masculine, that is manly, not effeminate, that is feminine or inse-
cure, nor uncultivated, nor changeable. That which is wanton and
gentle belongs fully to stage and theatrical ways, that is, sounds.50
In an earlier paragraph, Elizabeth Eva Leach accurately cites
the Boethius passage as one related to musical character in gen-
eral.51 Her subsequent transfer of the terms varia and effemi-
nata from the general (in Boethius) to the chromatic genus, in
particular, in order to construct an influential ancient view of
the chromatic genus received in the Middle Ages, is an unwar-
ranted scholarly license. Similarly unwarranted is her observa-
tion, following her initial citation of Boethiuss remark on
Platos doctrine, that later medieval theorists apply these
Greek-derived terms [temperate, simple, masculine; effeminate,
uncultivated, fickle] to their own quite different music.52 All
the theorists cited in her accompanying Note 23 are simply
transcribing the Boethius passage as received knowledge about
the powerful effects of music and specifically attribute it to the
authoritative fifth-century sage. Neither those theorists nor
others who relay this nugget of musical ethos relate these terms
directly to music of the authors own time.
As in the case of semitone characterization, there are flaws in
the depiction of an apparently standard medieval attitude in
which the chromatic genus was a repository of certain gendered
terms that are associated with technical and moral judgment on
musical material.53 Take, for instance, the assertion that Most
medieval theorists report the three Greek genera but claim that
only the diatonic genus is still in use as the ancients had rejected
the chromatic as too corrupting.54 She cites John as her first
witness,55 but John in the passage cited characterizes the chro-
matic genus as nimis mollitia, which conveys too soft or too
weak rather than corrupting.56 Her next citation, from the
Quatuor Principalia of 1351 (some 250 years after John) does
50 . . . Plato arbitratur musicam optime moratam, ita ut sit modesta ac simplex et
mascula, id est virilis, nec effeminata, id est feminea vel lubrica, nec fera nec varia.
Quod vero lascivium ad molle est, id totum scenicis ac theatralibus modis, id est
sonis, tenetur. Comendacio artis musice secundum quondam Gregorium
(Hochadel [2002, 430]). The commentator joins two fragments from Bo-
ethius (Friedlein [1867, 181, lines 2023 and 810]), so that a disparaging
comment on scenic and theatrical music stands as the illustration for vari-
able and effeminate music. Bower provides background for the complaint
about theatrical music relayed in Boethius (Bower [1989, 3, Note 12]).
51 Leach (2006, 5).
52 Leach (2006, 5, and Note 23).
53 Leach (2006, 8).
54 Leach (2006, 8).
55 Leach (2006, 8, Note 42).
56 Smits van Waesberghe (1950, 58); Babb (1978, 107). John might here be
echoing Macrobius (II, 4, 13) (Willis [1970, 109]).
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 72 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
illustrate her point.57 In the context of defending his decision to
present only a diatonic monochord division, the Franciscan
theorist condemns the chromatic genus not just as too weak
(nimis est molle) but also as conducive to corrupting good mor-
als (corrumpendo bonos mores).58 But only two other sources
both considerably later and one simply reproducing the
Quatuor Principalia passagecorroborate this attitude, a
meager slice of most medieval theorists.59
Her third illustration of a strongly negative view toward the
chromatic genus, from the late-thirteenth-century Tractatulus
de musica, does explicitly relate the chromatic genus to femini-
zation: Because the chromatic genus made many effeminate
due to its excessive weakness, it was condemned by the an-
cients.60 But characterization of the Tractatulus as widely
copieda qualifier enhancing the status of the quoted passage,
which is attested only in this treatiseis exaggerated.61 The
Tractatulus survives in only three manuscripts, in each case
appended to a copy of De Ortu Scientiarum by the English
Dominican scholar Robert Kilwardby. Both the limited circula-
tion of the Tractatulus (compare three with around fifty sur-
viving manuscripts of Johannes de Muriss Musica Speculativa)
and its absence from any collection of music treatises undercuts
the notion that viewpoints particular to this late-thirteenth-
century tract were widely disseminated.62 A mid-fifteenth-cen-
tury report that music in the chromatic genus was invented by
Timothy of Miletus who by his wonderful and sweet-sounding
singing made young men effeminate also seems marginal in
terms of mainstream medieval music theory.63 Elizabeth Eva
Leach describes the passage as in the widespread tradition of
Johannes Hollandrinus, and positions it as prime evidence for
a medieval view that possibly the chromatic genuss very nature
is soft and feminine.64 But of the eight treatises grouped within
57 Leach (2006, 8, and Note 43).
58 Treatise II, Chapter 15. Aluas (1999, 242).
59 The other sources are the early-fifteenth-century English compilation De
origine et effectu musicae (Reaney [1983, 110]) and the 1490 Schoolbook
of Lszl Szalkai (Bartha [1934, 67 and 1936, 19394]).
60 Sed cromaticum genus. quia eius mollicies multos effeminauit ab antiquioribus
est dampnatum. Tractatulus de musica. Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum,
file ANOTRDMF MFBL279, f. 143.
61 Leach (2006, 9).
62 On the Tractatulus sources and the association with Kilwardbys opus, see
Judy (1976). Elizabeth Eva Leach (2006, 9, Note 44) gives an incorrect shelf
number for the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana manuscript: it is XXVII.d.9,
not 29.9. The Musica Speculativa sources are reviewed in Falkenroth (1992,
4064). See also Fast (1994, xxi) on the number of sources. It is noteworthy
that of the three examples selected to illustrate late medieval views of a fem-
inizing chromatic genus, two (the Quatuor Principalia certainly and the
Tractatulus very likely) are English in origin, and both emanate from mo-
nastic circles (Franciscan and Dominican, respectively).
63 Opusculum monachordale. Feldmann (1938, 161). Cited in Leach (2006, 7).
64 Leach (2006, 7). The treatises are the Opusculum (Feldmann [1938]) and
the Schoolbook of Lszl Szalkai (Bartha [1934, see 67]). Elizabeth Eva
Leach references the theorist as though he were Hollandrinus himself,
but no actual treatise by that individual has come to light, and the treatises
that introduce him as an authority are sufficiently different from each other
as to preclude derivation from a common written source.
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MTS3301_05.indd 72
this tradition, only two transmit a version of this passage.
Considering that all eight treatises are unica, that despite over-
lap they do not stem from a common source, that they date
from the mid-to-late-fifteenth century, and that nearly all are of
Eastern European provenance (several plausibly associated with
Prague or Cracow), the passage linking the chromatic genus
with effeminacy found in only two of them cannot be consid-
ered to represent a widespread tradition.65
Counterbalancing the view of a feminine and even corrupt-
ing chromatic genus are comments from medieval theorists that
describe the genus in positive terms. To remain briefly with
England, take the comment in the Accessus (i.e., introduction) to
Guidos Micrologus written by an anonymous late-thirteenth-
century English musician:
Item: artificial [music] is divided into three genera, the chromatic,
diatonic and enharmonic. Chromatic is so called from colored or
tinted, for just as a well-colored thing is beautiful to the sense of
sight, so this genus is beautiful to the sense of hearing.66
Englebert of Admont, writing in about the same time period,
communicates a similar appreciation of the beauty of the chro-
matic genus with vivid comparisons from the real world:
The chromatic genus of melody is quite beautiful and delightful, for
moderately and suitably it now arouses the spirit in tending upward,
now cheers and soothes returning downward. It is called chro-
matic from chromate, which is a bright substance appearing diverse
in color according to varied aspects in the placement of light, just as
occurs with a peacock feather or certain Chinese silks.67
Speaking of his chromatic semitone, Marchetto of Padua also
chimes in ca. 1317 with an association between his chosen ad-
jective and beauty.
The word chromatic derives from chroma; chroma is color in
Greek. Thus, the chromatic is called the color of beauty, because
it is on account of the elegance and beauty of the dissonances [i.e.,
imperfect consonances] that the whole tone is divided beyond the
division of the diatonic and enharmonic genera.68
65 On the shadowy figure of Johannes Hollandrinus (a magister in Prague in
1365) and the circumscribed chronological and geographical range of the
Hollandrinus tradition, see Ward (1985); Rausch (1997, 46); and
Rausch (2003). The latter lists the eight Hollandrinus-Tradition treatises
and their editions (Column 112).
66 Item artificialis [musica] diuiditur in tria genera. In chromaticum. in dyatonicum.
in enarmonicum. Chromaticum dicitur coloratum uel colorabile quia sicut res
bene colorata pulchra est uisu: ita istud genus pulchrum est auditu. Hirschmann
(2001, 169).
67 Est enim chromaticum genus melodie pulchrius et delectabilius: quia mediocriter
et oportune nunc incitat animum tendendo ad acutas nunc alleviat et lenit re-
deundo ad graves: unde vocatum est chromaticum a chromate quod est corpus
lucidum secundum variatum aspectum ad obposicionem lucis apparens diverso-
rum colorum sicut sunt penne pavonis et quidam panni Serici. Treatise 4,
Chapter 3. Ernstbrunner (1998, 28990). Engelberts reference just before
this passage to Boethius, Book V, Chapter 16, on the nature of the genera
according to Aristoxenus, places his own description within ancient
authority.
68 Dicitur enim cromaticum a cromate; est namque croma in greco color. Inde cro-
maticum color pulchritudinis appellatur, quia propter decorum pulchritudi-
nemque dissonantiarum dividitur tonus ultra divisionem dyatonici et enarmonici
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 colloquy 73
However they may have gained an impression of the chromatic
genus, these three writers from the late-thirteenth and early-
fourteenth centuries address the chromatic in positive terms de-
void of disparaging gender biases or negative moral judgments.69
In his Musica Speculativa, a treatise strongly oriented to-
ward transmission of musical knowledge received from antiquity,
Johannes de Muris offers yet another perspective on the three
Greek genera that emerges from his investigation of monochord
division in the three genera. Of his own time, he reports that in
all regions where the Catholic religion is observed only the dia-
tonic genus is practiced and this holds not just for chant but for
all polyphony and songs of the laity as well.
But I marvel and know not why in those regions where the Catholic
religion thrives, as elsewhere in the whole world, those two genera
of melody, the chromatic and the enharmonic, have ceased to be
practiced, but that all ecclesiastical songwhich the holy fathers,
doctors and men of good remembrance, and pleasant and worthy
minds devisedis in the diatonic genus. [This holds true also for]
all cantus measured by a fixed tempus, as in conductus, motets, or-
gana, cantilenas, and other sorts [of song], and all songs of the laity,
of men and women, young and old, and all song for each of our in-
struments.70
Wondering whether the other two genera are hidden somewhere
in the world, he then reflects upon why the chromatic and en-
harmonic genera might have disappeared from practice:
I would nevertheless conjecture that it might be as though these
divisions of song were against the natural inclination of the human
voice. I know indeed that scarcely or never would the human voice
concord in those two genera, nor would it ever have been definite in
itself; but on an instrument much is possible.71
There is no trace here of moral laxity for either the chromatic or
the enharmonic genus. Rather, the nature of the human voice is
invoked, a remark that resonates with the Parisian formulation
of the mid-thirteenth century that the semitone is a space be-
tween two pitches that according to the human voice cannot be
generis. . . . Lucidarium, Treatise 2.8 (56). Herlinger (1985, 150, transla-
tion, 151). For Marchetto, the category of dissonance includes thirds,
sixths, and tenths; see Lucidarium 5.2 (811). Herlinger (1985, 202).
Marchetto repeats this positive characterization in Treatise 9.1 (24). Her-
linger (1985, 322).
69 For further discussion of positive views of the chromatic genus by early and
later medieval theorists, see Lefferts (2007, 15860).
70 Sed miror multum et nescio, quod in partibus nostris, ubi viget religio katholica
fidelium in orbe terrarum, numquam in usu ceciderunt illa duo genera melo-
diarum, chromaticum et enarmonicum, sed in genere diatonico omnis cantus
ecclesiasticus, quem invenerunt sancti patres et doctores et homines bonae mentis
et dignae memoriae [est]. Omnis cantus mensuratus per tempora certa, ut in
conductis, modulis [notulis in some readings], cantilenis ceterisque modis; om-
nisque cantus laicorum, virorum et mulierum, iuvenum et senum, omnisque
cantus cunctorum nostrorum instrumentorum. . . . Part II, Fifth Conclusio,
Version A. Falkenroth (1992, 262); a slightly different version is in Fast
(1994, 28890).
71 Nichil plus opinor nisi quod quasi contra naturalem inclinationem humanarum
vocum ad cantus divisa sunt. Scio enim, quod aut vix aut nunquam humana vox in
his generibus concordaret, nec umquam de seipsa certa esset; in instrumento tamen
possibile est multum. Falkenroth (1992, Version A, 264); Fast (1994, 292).
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MTS3301_05.indd 73
divided, or halved.72 In terms of dissemination, the approxi-
mately fifty sources of de Muriss Musica speculativa would
have made his viewpoint far more widely distributed than that
of the Quatour principalia author whose work is complete in
just five medieval manuscripts, all from England. What is also
intriguing in de Muriss reflection on the disappearance of the
chromatic and enharmonic genera is the suggestion that these
genera might survive in some sense on instruments.
There was, in fact, a modest medieval tradition of carrying
out three-genus monochord divisions in emulation of Boethius.73
This extends from an early-eleventh-century division tradition-
ally associated with Bern of Reichenau, to Jacques of Liges
Speculum Musicae, Book V, ca. 1325, to Johannes Ciconias
Nova Musica of ca. 140310.74 In addition, a late-thirteenth-
century report of the musica plana teaching of Johannes de
Garlandia contains a monochord division that provides sub-
stantial resources of raised and lowered pitches through provi-
sion of extra synemmenons. These are generated through
normal divisions, but are not associated with the Greek genera.75
This method provides G (between Gamma and A), Bb, Eb F,
G, c, eb, and their upper octaves, as appropriate. The theorist
attributes these to the best practitioners (or practices? secundum
optimos practicos), but does not enter into details.
The monochord was a demonstration instrument used for
plotting and sounding out basic pitch resources. But musical
instruments used in performance were also linked with produc-
tion of pitches outside the official gamut. For example, after
delineating monochord division according to the three Greek
genera, the anonymous author of the Compendium de musica
(ca. 1310?) notes that by placing a finger or bridge on the
monochord string, one can recognize all the resulting pitches,
just as is clear on the vielle or the hurdy-gurdy.76
Without invoking the learned chromatic genus, some theo-
rists associate legitimate production of pitches outside the offi-
cial gamut with musical instruments. Two versions of the
early-fourteenth-century Introductio Musicae Planae secun-
dum Magistrum Johannem de Garlandia (a treatise claiming to
transmit the teachings of the mid-thirteenth-century master)
72 See, for example: the mid-thirteenth-century tradition of Johannes de Gar-
landia. Meyer (1998, 29, 61); Magister Lambert (CS [I, 257]); Jacques of
Lige, Speculum Musicae, Book II, Chapter 55. Bragard (1961, 13132).
73 Boethiuss monochord division occurs in Book IV, Chapters 511. Friedlein
(1867, 31434); Bower (1989, 12646).
74 See Meyer (1996, XXXV) for a list of many of these treatises with references
to the editions in that volume. For Jacques of Lige, Speculum Musicae,
Book V, Chapters 839, see Bragard (1968). For Ciconia, see Ellsworth
(1993, 40610). Rausch (1999, 11727) gives convincing arguments against
attribution of the treatise De mensurando monochordo to Bern.
75 See Reportatio 1 of Johannes de Garlandias teachings. Meyer (1998, 11).
Jerome of Moravia appears to draw upon that teaching in introducing extra
synemmena at the end of Chapter 23 of his Tractatus de Musica, but
does not show monochord divisions. Cserba (1935, 17273).
76 [U]t in viella vel symphonia manifestum. Smits van Waesberghe et al. (1988,
107). The Smits van Waesberghe attribution of this tract to Jacques of
Lige is no longer credited: see Meyer (1995).
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 74 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
report that musica falsa is associated with musical instruments
and teach that any tone can be divided into two semitones.
It is now necessary to turn attention to falsa musica which is essen-
tial for musical instruments, especially for organs. Falsa musica is
when we make a semitone of a tone, or the reverse. Any tone can be
divided into two semitones and consequently signs designating
semitones can be increased on all tones.77
The author of the Summa musice speaks explicitly about
extra semitone divisions on organs and their necessity for the
performance of chant.78 At several points in his magisterial
Speculum Musicae, Jacques of Lige mentions musical in-
struments in conjunction with expanded pitch resources pro-
duced through subdivision of whole-tone intervals on the
gamut. In discussing false mutations in Book VI, Chapter 66,
he states: And so, in some instruments, such as the organ, al-
most everywhere the tone is divided into two unequal semi-
tones, so that there they can effect many consonances.79
Speaking of semitone properties in Book II, Chapter 70, he not
only notes subdivisions of whole-tones on many instruments,
but further reports division of semitones into the enharmonic
on some keyed instruments. 80 In the 1342 revision of his
Flores musicae, Hugo Spechtshart von Reutlingen also as-
sociates pitches absent from the Hand with musical instru-
ments. His monochord division introduces four extra low
pitches, Bb, C, Eb, F, and their octave duplications. He states
that these additional pitcheswhich he generates from reposi-
tioning a synemmenon tetrachord, as in the Garlandia musica
plana report cited aboveare far more appropriate to musical
instruments than to the Hand: These pitches [the additional
synemmenons] are less suitable as notes on the Hand, but are
often fitted on manufactured instruments, the upright organ
and lyra as shown also on monochords.81
7 7 Nunc uidendum est de falsa musica quae in instrumentis musicalibus multum est
necessaria spetialiter in organis. Falsa musica est quando de tono facimus semi-
tonium et econuerso. Omnis tonus est diuisibilis in duo semitonia et per conse-
quens signa semitonia designantia in omnibus tonis possunt ampliari. . . . Meyer
(1998, 84); CS (I, 166). This passage occurs in two of the four sources for
the Introductio.
7 8 Page (1991, 177 and translation 96). His footnote (9697) needs some
adjustment with recognition of a date of ca. 1300 for the treatise convinc-
ingly argued in Bernhard (1998). No earlier than 1300 is what Bernhard
actually says.
79 Ideo, in aliquibus instrumentis, ut in organis, quasi ubique tonus dividitur in
duo semitonia inequalia, ut plures ibi fieri possint concordiae. Bragard (1973,
vol. VI, 187). For similar references, see also Book II, Chapter 34, 8586,
Chapter 70, 170; Book IV, Chapter 11, 21; Book V, Chapter 13, 40; and
Book VI, Chapter 55, 146.
80 Book II, Chapter 70. Bragard (1961, 170). The view in Hibberd (1942, 21)
that statements such as these refer not to instruments but to vocal organum
does not hold up to scrutiny.
81 Voces ad claves manui sed quas minus aptat/ Has instrumentis manufactis saepe
coaptat/Organa recta, lyra quod monstrant ac monochorda. Gmpel (1958,
114, lines 11820). The section in which these lines occur is added in Hu-
gos revision of 1342. On extra-manual pitches on Hugos monochord, see
Herlinger (1987, 7); Herlinger (2001, 254); and Meyer (1996, LI).
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MTS3301_05.indd 74
The earliest extant manuscript of keyboard music, the
Robertsbridge Codex of ca. 1360, confirms what the theorists
say with its notations of F, f, g, c, eb, and cc. All of these ex-
tra-manual pitches, save for eb, occur in the intabulation of
Vitrys motet Tribum que/Quoniam secta/Merito. This is a par-
ticularly interesting case, since it is the transposition of the vocal
version up a tone (from an F to a G final) that causes the high
incidence of extra-manual pitches. The creator(s) of this key-
board repertory clearly assumed an instrument on which at least
six whole tones besides that between a and square b were subdi-
vided into two semitones.82
From the passages cited above, it can be seen that the chro-
matic genus was viewed in some quarters as beautiful and con-
nected positively with coloration.83 The record also shows that
divisions of whole-tones resulting in pitches outside the gamut
were experienced either through monochord division (in three
genera or by adding divisions from Bn or Bb) or through proper-
ties of musical instruments such as the organ or the vielle.
Prosaic late-thirteenth- and fourteenth-century observations on
the prevalence of extra-manual pitches on instruments do not
support the view that semitone inflections outside the gamut
carried particularly sensual connotations in that time period.
Nor do such observations give any hint of a special connection
with contrapuntal progressions.84 Chant practices in some lo-
cales even embraced elaborative pitch inflections. In a chapter
specifically focused on performance of ecclesiastical chant,
Jerome of Moravia describes French singers as introducing var-
ied semitones, intermixing in diatonic contexts small intervals
from the chromatic and enharmonic genera, and including me-
diatae within both semitones and tones.85
82 Edition of the Robertsbridge Codex in Apel (1963, 19). For a facsimile,
see Wooldridge (18971913, vol. 1, plates 4245). The keyboard transcrip-
tion of Vitrys Firmissime/Adesto/Alleluia includes e b s notated in the vocal
version as well as some f#s not indicated in the motet sources. For early-
fifteenth-century treatises that describe semitones on organ keyboards (in-
cluding pedal boards) see Casimiri (1942) and Witkowska-Zaremba
(2001) and (2003). Christopher Page has also drawn attention to extra-
manual pitches on instruments (Page [1986, Chapter 9, 11125]).
83 The seed for this view is planted in Boethius I, Chapter 21: chroma is de-
rived from surfaces, which, when altered, are transformed into another
color (diceretur chroma, a superficiebus, quae cum permutantur, in alium tran-
seunt colorem). Friedlein (1867, 213); Bower (1989, 40). The word color
was associated not only with visual hues but also with the colors or deco-
rations of rhetoric. See Hentschel (2000, 18184).
84 Peter Lefferts has noted that from the twelfth up through the fourteenth
century, a few northern-French and English music theorists were explor-
ing rigorous, systematic expansion of the gamut specically in order to
incorporate more pitches methodically, a trend begun well before inflected
directed progressions became common. Lefferts (2007, 12627).
85 See Chapter 25, which is explicitly devoted to how to sing ecclesiastical
chant. Cserba (1935, 18587). A discussion of the ornamental singing
mentioned by Jerome may be found in McGee (1998, 80 and 9193). This
is one of the rare instances where Greek genus terms are applied to music of
the authors own time, andsignificantly for the present contextit con-
cerns monophonic chant, not polyphony.
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 colloquy 75
the directed progression
The most vivid language invoking erotic currents in
Gendering the Semitone pertains to the directed progres-
sion, a motion from imperfect to perfect consonance in which
one pitch of the imperfect consonance may be inflected to form
a half-step (or less) with its goal tone. Elizabeth Eva Leach
speaks of a degree of moral panic about this musical realitythe
directed progressionwhose traces survive in music theorists
varied responses, and further states that the tension-resolution
patterning of the directed progression provided an aural analogue
(a phonologue) of desire and satisfaction that was later made
more acute by stretching the interval of the penultimate sonor-
ity to give a greater sense of drive.86 The fact that this rhetoric
is rooted in dubious claims about feminized and feminizing
semitones and a gendered Greek chromatic genus routinely pro-
jected onto medieval polyphony already undermines credence.
But terminology is also an issue. Although she acknowledges
that the term directed progression is a late-twentieth-century
locution, Elizabeth Eva Leach writes as though it were a con-
cept familiar to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century music theo-
rists, rather than a modern heuristic tool for analysis of
progressions in late-medieval music.87
Fourteenth-and fifteenth-century music theorists write
about motion from one dyad to another, and about inflection of
some imperfect consonances that precede an adjacent perfect
consonance. But they had no specific term for the phenomenon
denoted by the locution directed progression. One must seri-
ously question whether the theorists could have experienced or
expressed much sense of desire and satisfaction or moral
panic about something for which their language offered no
name or specific identifying label. Granted that in contrapunctus
theory of the fourteenth century imperfect sonoritieswhether
or not inflected by musica fictawere regarded as unstable, the
actual discourse in the treatises does not invite an erotic con-
strual of this instability, nor do fourteenth-century theorists in
general express alarm at the phenomenon of motion from im-
perfect to perfect consonance.88 The discussion in Gendering
the Semitone actually dwells more on musica ficta (falsa) than it
does on progressions, but not all progressions from imperfect
to perfect consonances entail ficta, and, as Jennifer Bain has
pointed out, there is considerable debate over the degree to
which unnotated inflections should be introduced by modern
performers and editors of polyphony.89 Terminology aside, the
evidence that the directed progression itself . . . seems to have
86 Leach (2006, 5 and 10). See also similar statements in Leach (2006, 3
and 13).
87 For introduction and usage of the term directed progression, see Fuller
(1986, 51 and 56), and Fuller (1992).
88 For some fourteenth-century comments on the quality of imperfect conso-
nances, see Fuller (1986, 44).
89 Bain (2003, 33033). Bain also points out that in Machauts music imper-
fect sonorities sometimes constitute internal cadential goals that effectively
punctuate phrase or ouvert sectional endings (Bain [2003, 34349]).
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MTS3301_05.indd 75
become associated with the perils of feminization as an aural
depiction of sexual desire and consummation begs to be
thoughtfully examined.90 A reasoned assessment of the signifi-
cation claimed may appropriately begin with the language of
the contrapunctus manuals, for they preserve the actual traces of
practical instruction about interval successions.
Extant contrapunctus teaching addresses standard successions
of intervals: imperfect to perfect, perfect to imperfect, imperfect
to imperfect. The conventions are first summarized in hand-
books that circulated by at least the third decade of the four-
teenth century, and that replaced the interval-progression
manuals (Klangschrittlehre) of the thirteenth century.91 It is the
contrapunctus texts that one must scrutinize for indications that
certain progressions carried connotations of anxiety or erotic
desire. The verbs employed in contrapunctus teaching offer one
index of the degree of desire and satisfaction or appetite that
might have been signaled in movement from an imperfect to an
adjacent perfect consonance.
A central document for early-fourteenth-century contrapunc-
tus teaching is Quilibet affectans scire contrapunctum, which
also circulated under the rubric Ars contrapuncti magistri
Johannis de Muris.92 The magister reviews each of the intervals
admitted to contrapunctus and indicates its normal sequel, using
the verb requirere. The entries on the unison, semiditone, and
diapente are as follows:
The first perfect interval, the unison . . . naturally seeks after it the
semiditone, or minor third. The semiditone is re-fa or mi-sol, or
vice versa. It [the unison] may have after it some other perfect or
imperfect interval, because of variety in the cantus. The diapente is
a perfect interval, and is called a fifth. It naturally seeks after it the
ditone, or major third. The ditone is ut-mi or fa-la, or vice versa. It
[the diapente] may have [after it] some other perfect or imperfect
interval, for the above-mentioned reason.
The semiditone, or minor third, is an imperfect interval. It naturally
seeks after it the unison. It may have [after it] some other perfect or
imperfect interval, but then it must be raised to become a ditone
[major third].93
9 0 Leach (2006, 13).
91 The seminal studies of the sources remain Sachs (1971) and (1974).
92 Critical edition in Di Bacco (2001, 29497); see also CS (III, 5960). The
treatise is transmitted in twelve manuscripts. Klaus-Jrgen Sachs considers
it the core text (Kerntext) for the first stage of contrapunctus teaching (Sachs
[1974, 66]). His 1974 study remains the classic treatment of fourteenth-
and fifteenth-century contrapunctus theory. Di Bacco (2001) offers an in-
depth study of the early contrapunctus treatises associated with the figure of
Johannes de Muris.
93 Prima species perfecta, scilicet unisonus . . . requirit naturaliter post se semidito-
num, scilicet tertiam minorem. Est autem semiditonus refa, misol, et e con-
verso. Potest etiam habere post se aliam speciem perfectam vel imperfectam et hoc
causa variationis cantus. Diapente est species perfecta et vocatur quinta; requirit
post se naturaliter ditonum, id est tertiam maiorem. Est enim ditonus: utmi,
fala, et e converso. Potest etiam habere aliam speciem perfectam vel imperfec-
tam, et hoc causa predicta. . . . Semiditonus, id est tertia minor, est species imper-
fecta; requirit naturaliter post se unisonum. Potest etiam habere aliam speciem
perfectam vel imperfectam, sed tunc oportet tantum sustineri quod fiat ditonus.
Di Bacco (2001, 29495). A section on the diapason intervenes between
the comments on the diapente and the semiditone.
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 76 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
The usual meaning of the verb requirere is to seek or to look
for. It seems to have no particularly intense meaning of striving
in the Quilibet affectans context, nor does it appear to be pre-
scriptive. Both in these entries and in others, the instructor
freely invites other sequels to the interval mentioned. This is
true also of the diapente-with-tone or major sixth. Although it
naturally seeks the octave, it may be followed by another imper-
fect interval (by reason of cantus movement) or by a fifth if the
cantus ascends by a major or minor third.94 This openness to
various successions besides the natural one bespeaks a rather
relaxed, and contextually nuanced, attitude toward the sequel to
any interval admitted to contrapunctus. Moreover, the verb re-
quirere is used for both perfect and imperfect intervals with re-
gard to their natural sequel. That is, the seeking is not a
consequence of imperfection, but rather pertains to perfect
and imperfect intervals alike.95
Quilibet affectans is entirely representative in these aspects
of its contrapunctus teaching. The orientation is instructional
to train beginners in the simplest procedures for what was es-
sentially an improvisational practice. 96 The training is
elementary and deals with pairs of intervals in the abstract, di-
vorced from any specific compositional context. The tone is
straightforward and non-judgmental. The three versions of
Voluntibus introduci in arte contrapunctia text variously as-
sociated with Johannes de Garlandia or Philippe de Vitry
similarly suggest sequels to both perfect and imperfect intervals
(with the neutral formula generally follows [generaliter sequi-
tur]) and allow flexibility in successions.97 Cum notum sit, a
companion to Quilibet affectans, does not specify details of
successions, but does recommend alternation of different cate-
gories of consonance: [H]e who produces one perfect and the
next imperfect sings well and best.98 In his Compendium de
discantu mensurabili of 1336, Petrus dictus Palma ociosa even
specifies interval successions for note-against-note simple dis-
cant (i.e., contrapunctus) before identifying which intervals are
perfect and which imperfect. His verb of choiceshould be
done (debet fieri)puts emphasis on what the singer does
rather than on what an interval might seek.
94 Di Bacco (2001, 296). The sentence about other possible sequels also exists
in a more compact variant that alludes to particularities of the cantus.
95 Elizabeth Eva Leach cites Cohen (2001) as evidence for language in medi-
eval treatises that implies expectation in movement from imperfect to per-
fect consonances. In a footnote, Cohen acknowledges that the verbs
employed in the treatises also apply to perfect-to-imperfect progressions,
but he rather casually dismisses that usage as just rhetorical (Cohen [143,
Note 13]). He states that his view concurs with that of Sachs (1974), but
Sachs in fact affirms that both types of progression (i p and p i) are
to be considered normal within contrapunctus theory and does not down-
play perfect-to-imperfect successions (Sachs [1974, 10910]).
96 See Fuller (2002, 47780).
97 The versions are published in CS (III, 12a13b and 23a27), and Sachs
(1974, 17073).
98 . . . [B]ene et optime cantabit, quando unam perfectam et aliam imperfectam
dabit. Di Bacco (2001, 300).
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MTS3301_05.indd 76
The tone-with-diapente is another discant interval whose other
name is the sixth . . . and it should not be done unless the cantus
descends a step to the diapason.99
This statement has a prescriptive cast, but Petrus goes on to
admit other situations in which the sixth does not move to an
octave but stands either midway between an octave and a fifth,
or between two fifths over a sustained cantus note.100 After re-
viewing all six intervals allowed in discant, Petrus issues a blan-
ket license for sequels other than the normal ones.
In addition, note that although all the discant intervals mentioned
stand and are ordered in the stated locations more properly than in
any others, they can be ordered and produced wherever you wish,
being carefully attentive that any discant interval observes the
[proper] number of tones and semitones in the manner and form
indicated above.101
The representative statements cited above betray no anxiety
about sequels for imperfect intervals; nor does the attitude
change in later contrapunctus manuals. For instance, a counter-
point handbook said to transmit the teaching of Magister
Philipoctus de Caserta (fl. 1370s) located in a collection of con-
trapunctus treatises compiled around 1400 defines contrapunctus
as when the singer goes from perfect to imperfect, or the re-
verse, a formulation that puts perfect imperfect successions
and imperfect perfect ones on an equal footing.102 Although
the summary of standard imperfect successions employs the
verb requirit, the text immediately authorizes other possibilities.
Note that the third seeks after it the fifth or unison, the sixth seeks
the octave, the tenth seeks the twelfth, except by reason of necessity,
or if there are several singers, and then one may make [the contra-
punctus] according as one wishes.103
In speaking of progression of a third, sixth, or tenth to a conso-
nance, Marchetto of Padua uses the verb tendere which has a
semantic range from move toward or tend toward to strive.
The fact that he also uses this verb to indicate rising and de-
scending contours of consonance speciesthe higher species
of diatessaron is that which begins above a diapente and extends
99Tonus cum diapente est quaedam alia species discantus, quae alio nomine sexta
vocatur. Et non debet fieri, nisi cantus descendat per unam vocem ad diapa-
son. Wolf (191314, 510). Note that the sequel is stated in terms of cantus
[i.e., the pre-existent voice] movement, not the quality of the interval.
100 Wolf (191314, 51011).
101Insuper nota, quod, licet omnes species discantus antedictae decentius stant et or-
dinantur in locis praedictis quam in aliis quibuscumque, possunt tamen ordinari
et fieri ubicumque volueris, hoc cautius observato, quod unicuique speciei discan-
tus debitus numerus tonorum et semitoniorum observetur modo et forma superius
annotatis. Wolf (191314, 512).
102. . . [C]ontrapunctus nichil aliud est nisi quod cantor vadat de perfecta ad imper-
fectam, et e converso. Di Bacco (2001, 341).
103Item nota quod tercia requirit post se quinta vel unisonum, sexta requirit octavam,
decima requirit duodecimam, nisi causa necessitatis vel si sint plures cantores et
tunc potest facere ad libitum suum. Di Bacco (2001, 341). In this text, thirds
and sixths are not qualified as minor or major. Di Bacco (2001, 141) dates
the Italian manuscript containing this treatise and others (including Quili-
bet affectans and compendia from Marchettos Lucidarium) between the
end of the fourteenth century and the second decade of the fifteenth..
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 colloquy 77
(tendit) upwardsuggests that his usage need not imply striv-
ing but may simply indicate motion toward.104 In such cases
of multiple shades of meaning, a translator must take care not to
unduly skew the sense of a word in a particular context.
Although comments regarding the aesthetic effect of imper-
fect consonances moving to perfect ones are infrequent, those
that do touch upon the subject do so in terms of pleasant sound,
not of any burning desire for perfection or attainment of sat-
isfaction.105 When Cum notum sit recommends that the
penultimate sound of a contrapunctus always be an imperfect
consonance, the reason given is euphony, or pleasant sound.106
Marchetto of Padua speaks of elegance and beauty when a
lightly inflected imperfect consonance (a dip of a diesis, one-
fifth of a tone in one voice) approaches a subsequent (perfect)
consonance by the smallest possible distance.107 Elizabeth Eva
Leach mentions this characterization but does not perceive in
elegance and beauty a challenge to her interpretation of sen-
suality, appetite and satisfaction in such a succession.108 In
Pomerium, Marchetto specifically relates the colors intro-
duced by the pitch inflections he recommends to the prized
grammatical colors of rhetoric that produce beauty of thought.
And as in music coloring is sometimes done for the beauty of in-
tervals, so in grammar the colors of rhetoric are made for the
beauty of meaning [or: sentences].109
In the immediately preceding chapter, Marchetto specifically
rejects the common name for pitch inflectionsfalsa musica
because of its negative connotations and proposes musica color-
ata as a more proper, and positive, designation.110
Jacques of Lige similarly invokes an aesthetic effect in ex-
plaining that it is more pleasing to the hearing, if in a progres-
sion unison-third-unison a singer changes a major to a minor
third through a falsa (see Example 2).111 In a passage that harks
back to the recommendation in Cum notum sit for alternation
between perfect and imperfect consonances, Prosdocimus de
Beldomandis recommends that an imperfect consonance should
fall between any two adjacent perfect ones. His reason is that
when from one of these imperfect consonances an approach is
made to a perfect one with which it is associated, a very sweet
104On progressions: Lucidarium, Treatise 2, Chapter 8 (Herlinger [1985,
148, 152]); Treatise 5, Chapter 6 (Herlinger [1985, 220]). On rising con-
tours: Treatise 9, Chapter 1 (Herlinger [1985, 354]); Treatise 11, Chapter 4
(Herlinger [1985, 394, 434]); on descending contours, Treatise 11, Chapter
4 (Herlinger [1985, 482, 484]).
105Leach (2006, 5, 10).
106Octava conclusio est quod in suo contrapuncto penultima debet esse semper im-
perfecta, et hoc ratione eufonie. . . . Di Bacco (2001, 303).
107[D]ecorum pulchritudinemque, as translated in Herlinger (1985, 150).
108See Leach (2006, 14 and 15).
109. . . [E]t quia in musica fiunt interdum colores ad pulchritudinem consonan-
tiarum, sicut in gramatica fiunt colores rhetorici ad pulchritudinem sententiarum.
. . . Part I, Treatise IV, Chapter 3. Vecchi (1961, 71).
110Part I, Treatise IV, Chapter 2. Vecchi (1961, 70).
111Et nonne, si duo simul cantent, unus la la la sol, alius la fa fa sol, descendens in fa
facit unam falsam? Non ditono, sed potius utitur semiditono, quia voces eius
magis placent auditui. . . . Speculum Musicae, Book II, Chapter 80. Bragard
(1961, vol. II, 191).
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a) Possible solmization as:
la la la sol
8
la fa fa sol
  
8
b) Performed as:
la la/re re ut
    
8
la mi mi fa/ut
8
example 2. Jacques of Lige on alteration of the ditone,
Speculum Musicae, Book II, Chapter 80
Compare Bragard (1961, 191). Original described only
in solmization syllables. The realization here is only one
among several possibilities.
kind of singing is made.112 The phrase sweet kind of singing
carries no hint of desire or anxiety.
Contrapunctus treatises habitually suggest normative sequels
not just for imperfect but also for perfect consonances. They
freely allow other sorts of successions depending on cantus mo-
tion, and commonly employ relatively neutral verbs such as re-
quiret, sequitur, or debet fieri in formulaic precepts pertaining to
perfect and imperfect consonances alike. Given these character-
istics of the practical teaching tradition, it can hardly be be-
lieved that most fourteenth-century music theorists viewed
progressions from imperfect to perfect consonances as aural
analogue[s] . . . of desire and satisfaction, or that a feminine
imperfect sonority was considered to require moral legitima-
tion by a second sonority.113 Appreciative comments on the eu-
phony, elegance and beauty, or sweet singing produced by
pairing imperfect with perfect consonances point toward quite
different impressions on the part of those medieval musicians
who expressed their thoughts on the matter. But the contrapunc-
tus treatises do not enter into the proposed interpretation of the
directed progression as sexually charged.114 The primary four-
teenth-century theorists enlisted to bolster this viewpoint, and
to provide a link with the background of feminized semitone
and morally disreputable chromatic genus already depicted, are
Marchetto of Padua, whose Lucidarium dates from 1317/18,
and Johannes Boen, whose Ars [musicae] and Musica date
from the 1350s. A considered response to that view of the
112 E  t quando fit accessus ab aliqua istarum consonantiarum imperfectarum ad
aliquam perfectarum inter quas ipsa imperfecta combinatio ponitur fit dulcissi-
mus modus cantandi. Contrapunctus (1412). Herlinger (1984, 66).
113 L  each (2006, 10 and 11).
114 Leach (2006, 13).
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 78 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
directed progression must, then, consider how the witness of
these two theorists is reported.
In her exposition of semitones as gendered signifiers in the
realm of directed progressions, Elizabeth Eva Leach places
much emphasis on the size and nomenclature of the new semi-
tones introduced by Marchetto. Lucidarium is apparently the
work to which she refers in invoking a widely copied treatise
that appropriates all three of the Greek genus names into four-
teenth-century musical theory in order to attempt a rationaliza-
tion of a [sic] what may have been a widespread contrapuntal
practice.115 (By implication, that practice is the directed pro-
gression.) Here, some qualification is in order. Marchettos
Lucidarium and its derivatives circulated chiefly in northern
Italy and his idiosyncratic nomenclature of semitones by no
means became common in fourteenth-century musical theory
outside of a circumscribed geographical orbit.116 Marchetto
posits four types of semitone (not three as Elizabeth Eva Leach
implies): the diesis (one-fifth of a tone) the enharmonic semi-
tone (two-fifths of a tone), the diatonic semitone (three-fifths
of a tone), and the chromatic semitone (four-fifths of a tone).117
What is strange about Marchettos nomenclature is that it
matches up neither with the Greek genera nor with the medi-
eval diatonic system. His enharmonic semitone is much larger
than the dieses of Boethiuss enharmonic genus, and matches
most closely the 256:243 semitone of the medieval diatonic
gamut.118 His diatonic semitone is closest to the apotome, or
medieval major semitone (a 2187:2048 ratio occurring between
round and square bs), which was seldom sounded in chant.
Indeed Marchetto specifically states that his enharmonic semi-
tone is used in plainchant, and that his diatonic semitone is ex-
cluded from plainchant but is used in measured song, i.e.,
polyphony.119 Marchettos chromatic semitone is much larger
than any semitone in any genus of the Greek tuning system.120
So although Marchetto indeed appropriates Greek terminology
for his semitones, he applies that terminology in a distinctly
idiosyncratic way that neither reflects nor respects the relative
115Leach (2006, 13). It is unclear why in this passage she does not cite Lu-
cidarium by name, but the following two paragraphs do deal with Mar-
chettos special semitones. An assiduous search through the TML uncovers
no other likely candidate for her reference. The citation in her Note 67
concerns not a treatise but notational signs in musical manuscripts.
116Herlinger lists and describes the fifteen manuscripts that transmit Lu-
cidarium wholly or in part (Herlinger [1985, 2162]). All are of Italian
provenance, and twelve of the fifteen date from the fifteenth century
(chiefly post-1440), which gives the impression that the work had its main
vogue late in that century.
117See Lucidarium, Book II, Chapter 5. Herlinger (1985, 13440). Leach
(2006, 13) refers to just three types of semitone, but Marchetto makes clear
that the diesis is also a semitone.
118See Boethius, Book I, Chapter 21. Friedlein (1867, 213); Bower (1989,
3941). Herlinger has noted the traditional medieval equivalents of two of
Marchettos semitones (Herlinger [1981, 21314]).
119Lucidarium, Book II, Chapter 7, 24. Herlinger (1985, 144).
120See Boethius, Book IV, Chapter 6. Friedlein (1867, 322); Bower (1989,
134). The lower of the chromatic genus semitones is the 256:243 ratio, the
higher is a 2916:2736 ratio, which reduces to 81:76.
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MTS3301_05.indd 78
sizes of the small intervals in the Greek genera referenced. To
have enharmonic semitones the norm in plainchant, which
was generally understood to follow the diatonic gamut of the
standard monochord, is totally to misrepresent well-established
meanings of the Greek enharmonic and diatonic. Prosdocimus
de Beldomandis recognized grave problems with Marchettos
theories about the semitone (among other matters) and not only
repudiated his division of the tone into five parts but chastised
him for transferring the names of tetrachords to semitones.121
Apart from the writings of Marchetto and his Italian epig-
ones, Greek genus names are not applied to semitones in medi-
eval music theory, nor is the division of the tone into fifths
recognized.122 Far from indicating an intelligent transfer of
Greek terms into his contemporary situation, Marchettos idio-
syncratic use of genus labels for three of his semitones actually
reveals his obliviousness to Greek genus theory transmitted by
Boethius (or anyone else), as Prosdocimus recognized.123
Whether or not Lucidarium is the widely-copied treatise
said to rationalize contrapuntal practice through Greek genus
names, Marchetto is specifically identified as continuing a gen-
dered music-theoretic heritage when he describes the chro-
matic semitone as having feigned color and being produced by
an action in which the singer feigns.124 Leaving aside the at-
tendant claim of an automatic association between feigning
and specifically feminine behavior, it is essential to note that
Marchetto does not employ the verb fingere for the chromatic
semitone as a type. He introduces it only for the exceptional
contrapuntal case in which the altered note, instead of ascend-
ing to its presumed goal by a diesis, descends. The passage reads:
But such a partition of a tone [into chromatic semitone and diesis]
can sometimes be made in descent with imperfect consonances
tending to perfect ones, but less properly, as here: (Example 3). This
bipartite division of the tone should be made with feigned color, so
that whoever executes it feigns in the first descent, which is the
diesis, as if he wished after that descent to return upward. But after
that let him descend by a chromatic semitone and thus a [perfect]
consonance will follow, although less naturally and properly.125
121Tractatus musice speculative, 1425, Part III. Herlinger (2008, 21222).
Prosdocimus explicitly declares that he compiled this treatise against the
views of Marchetto of Padua.
122The final treatise in the Berkeley Compilation of ca. 1375 proposes a non-
traditional division of the tone, but into thirds, not fifths, and with just two
categories: the semitonus, said to be the usual mi-fa but at two-thirds of
a tone distinctly larger than the Pythagorean minor semitone, and its part-
ner, the semitonium, one-third of a tone (Ellsworth [1984, 24046]). This
scheme is known only from this treatise.
123Idiosyncratic appropriation of Greek terminology recurs in Book 9 where
application of genus labels to intervallic configurations within perfect conso-
nances seems quite bizarre. For example, he assigns the whole tone and open
intervals of fourths, fifths, and octaves to the enharmonic genus, despite the
fact that in Greek theory that genus includes no whole tone, and that uninter-
rupted leaps of fourths, fifths, or octaves provide no indication of tuning
within a genus as traditionally understood. See Lucidarium, Book IX, Chap-
ter 1, 1531 and 115122. Herlinger (1985, 31626 and 36066).
124Leach (2006, 14).
125Nisi forte fiat talis toni bipartitio per descensum, que est minus propria in disso-
nantias tendentibus ad consonantias, ut hic: [Exemplum] Hec enim bipartitio
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 colloquy 79

 *   *  
centuries.127 Thoughtful and interesting as Boens views are, it is
 
 doubtful that they were widely shared, at least in writing. That
8 aside, Elizabeth Eva Leachs representation of Boens teachings
    * 
    is, in my view, deeply flawed not just because she does not con-
sider the guiding intellectual context for and language of his re-
marks, but also, more mundanely, because of opportunistic
example 3. Marchettos less appropriate descending division of translations of his Latin, selected to support her viewpoint.
the tone. Lucidarium, Treatise 2, Chapter 8 Her reading of a passage from Boens Ars has the theorist
Compare Herlinger (1985, 154-55). Notes marked * are melodi- saying that the moderns make this subtle fictive placement of
cally a diesis away from the adjacent note above and a chromatic semitones both because they are bored by the everyday position
semitone higher than the uninflected note below. of the notes, and because they are led by greater wantoness
(maiori ducti lascivia).128 A passage from Musica makes a
similar point about modern placement of the signs for b-fa and
Marchettos description makes plain that the feigning oc- -mi on any pitch-letters, not just b. In the translation she
curs because the singer makes it sound as though the melody presents, the passage reads:
will return upward by a diesis, creating a normal interval succes-
It must be noted more subtly that modern usage admits the said let-
sion, but surprises with a descent to an unexpected note and ters in claves [i.e., pitches] outside the nature of the manual mono-
unanticipated consonance. The feigning does not apply to the chord only for consonances or the wantonness of the song itself
chromatic semitone per se, but characterizes a particular contra- [lasciviam ipsius cantus]for men did not formerly pant after so
puntal situation as a whole, specifically one in which the diesis is many wantonnesses [lasciviis] in the practical performance of a song
rerouted downward and the next pitch is attained through a as they do now; and so that this wanton merriment [hec lasciva iocun-
chromatic semitone. Marchetto makes clear that this situation ditas] may be marked in written works without any kind of construc-
tion of a new monochord, as has to happen in the case of pitches, so
is less proper than the one described earlier in which a melody
that the sign may correspond to the thing signed, usage has rationally
rises by a chromatic semitone and a diesis. For that situation he admitted those letters and their effects in different claves.129
does not use the word feign. Elizabeth Eva Leach takes a lo-
cution Marchetto applies to a strictly limited and unusual situ- Drawing on these translations, Elizabeth Eva Leach concludes:
ation and improperly portrays it as a general characterization of The repeated use of lascivia in connection with musica ficta by
his chromatic semitone, so that it appears to support her claim Boen shows that the use of musica ficta was morally equivo-
that the interval was explicitly feminized. Careful reading of the cal.130 One flaw in this conclusion is that Boen nowhere in
passage in question indicates that it is Marchettos diesis, not his Musica or in Ars actually employs the term musica ficta (or
chromatic semitone, that is the focal point of the feigning falsa); rather, he speaks of creating intervals of a certain size (a
action.126 Neither his epithet chromatic semitone nor his cir- distance of two minor semitones, of a comma) by positioning
cumscribed reference to feigning carries weight as evidence for the usual signs for b-fa and -mi on pitches with various other
a highly gendered reading of directed progressions. letter names.131 By not adopting a specific designator for extra-
The other fourteenth-century theorist mustered in support of manual pitches, Boen can discuss them as naturally occurring
erotic signification in the directed progression is Johannes phenomena that are as legitimate as the ordinary pitches of the
Boen. Johannes Boen of Rijnsburg is a remarkable theoristbut gamut. Note how carefully in the Prohemium to his Musica he
whether his views and teachings are to be regarded as represen- phrases the third topic he will address in terms of the position-
tative of mid-fourteenth-century thought about music may be ing of b-fa and -mi signs:
questioned. Each of Boens treatises (the Ars and the Musica)
survives in just two sources. Teachings that bear his individual
127For an informative discussion of Boens views on division of the whole tone,
mark (such as the consonantia per accidens, geometric division of see Hentschel (1998).
the tone, melodic figures incorporating series of minor semi- 128Leach (2006, 11, and Note 58). Latin in Gallo (1972, 35). Actually, Boen is
tones, singing of commas between pitches) are not transmitted speaking not about semitones, but about placement of b-fa and -mi signs
in other music treatises of the later fourteenth and the fifteenth on any pitch in the gamut, a meaningful (if subtle) distinction in this context.
129Sed ne dicta conclusio lateat indiscussa, est subtilius advertendum, quod modernus
usus dictas litteras in clavibus extra naturam monocordi manualis admittit solum
toni debet fieri cum colore ficticio, ut qui eam profert fingat in primo descensu, que propter consonantias vel lasciviam ipsius cantusnon enim tantis olim quantis
est dyesis, ac si vellet post talem descensum sursum redire; post hec chromaticum nunc in prolatione practica alicuius cantilene lasciviis hominis inhyarunt; et ut
descendat, et sic consonantia, licet minus naturaliter et proprie, subsequitur. Book hec lasciva iocunditas absque omnimoda novi monocordi compositione signari pos-
II, Chapter 8. Herlinger (1985, 15254). Marchetto reiterates the feigning sit in scriptis, sicut habet fieri in sonis, ut signum signato respondeat, rationabiliter
in descent in Book V, Chapter 6, and characterizes the effect negatively as eas litteras et earum effectus in diversis clavibus usus admisit. Leach (2006, 12);
unpleasant (iniocunde). Herlinger (1985, 220). Latin, Frobenius (1971, 63).
126On the relationship between the diesis and the chromatic semitone with 130Leach (2006, 13). Although the translations from Latin in Leach (2006) are
language and examples that plainly show the diesis coloring the imperfect all attributed to Leofranc Holford-Strevens, they are evidently endorsed by
interval and performing the terminal ascent see Lucidarium, Book II, the author, and thus represent her interpretations of the passages.
Chapter 6. Herlinger (1985, 14042). 131Frobenius (1971, 56).

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 80 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)

Third, I will move lightly [or: quickly] to the nature of the tenth both translations being equally valid. An apt translationone
pitch position (clavis) which is called b-fa -mi, in which the major that captures the probable original senseis one that explicitly
semitone and the minor semitone, and the comma are found, and to takes context into account. A similar positive interpretation is
the effects of the letters there, that is b and , touching on the most
marvelous possibilities in daily practice.132
likely in Ars, where Boen mentions lascivia as the motivation
behind a cantors shifts between duple and triple mensuration:
Boen speaks in terms of the b and signs (not musica ficta) and
It happens sometimes that a singer is led by sportiveness to vary the
characterizes associated possibilities as most marvelous, a pos- modus within a song, so that now the process is ternary, now binary.
itive remark that hardly suggests moral equivocation. But then it must be indicated in this sort of song through different
A second troublesome issue is that the translations Elizabeth colors, as in the tenor of the motet In arboris.135
Eva Leach presents consistently render the word lascivia (and
its various lexical mutations) as wantona word that in Boens overall tone in this passage is one of approval. His cita-
English carries conventionally negative moral connotations. In tion of Bishop Philippe de Vitrys motet Tuba sacra/In arboris/
Latin, however, the words lascivia/lascivus had two senses, a Virgo suma dignified piece in terms of both text and musical
good and a bad, context determining which was in effect. substancewould seem to rule out a translation of wanton
The good sense of lascivia was frisking, play, sport, jesting, of here.136
lascivus, playful, frisky, frolicsome, given to levity or frivol- The case for positive translation in Boens contexts finds re-
ity.133 The bad was as in the English cognate. Although inforcement in appearances of lascivus in other medieval music-
Elizabeth Eva Leach declares herself aware that lascivus can sig- theoretical contexts. Summaries of the qualities of the
nify merry and playful, in this study she consistently presents ecclesiastical modes often characterize the seventh mode as las-
the negative meaning that, in her view, carries sexual over- civus and suited to the young, while the eighth, in contrast, is
tones.134 said to be more sober and associated with older people. A typi-
The above-quoted passage from Musica on the positioning cal comment from the late thirteenth century is:
of b and elsewhere than on the note above projects a quite Note that the seventh mode is playful and cheerful having diverse
different attitude on Boens part if a positive sense of lascivus is leaps, representing the movement of the young. . . . And note that
adopted in the translation (I place the targeted words in italics the eighth mode is smooth and deliberate according to the manner
of those of mature judgment.137
here and in the following translations).
It must be noted more subtly that modern usage admits the afore- Heinrich Eger von Kalkar, who was in Paris from 1355 to 1363,
mentioned letters [i.e., b-fa, -mi] on pitches outside the nature of amplifies this view of mode 7 by citing two chants: The seventh
the manual monochord [i.e., the monochord as represented on the is called leaping or springing, sweet, playful, and joyful, as in
Guidonian Hand] only for the sake of consonances or for sport in the antiphons In civitate Domini and Assumpta est Maria.138
the song itselffor formerly men did not so eagerly desire so much Reinforcing a positive interpretation is his later comment that
playfulness in the practical performance of a song as they do now. the seventh, or G mode, leaps joyfully, is frolicsome (lascivus),
And just as this playful merriment may be notated in writing without
any construction of a new monochord, so it can be executed in
and sings sweetly, as opposed to mode 8, which is slow (morosus)
sound. So that the sign may correspond to the thing indicated, and directed to the elderly (senum fertur).139 In the early eleventh
usage has rationally admitted those letters and their effects at di- century, John, giving advice on chant composition that is appro-
verse pitch positions. priated by some later writers, counsels attention to the age of
This positive translation of lascivus-words is well suited to its
context, given that in both his treatises Boen is clearly an advo- 135Solet aliquotiens cantor lascivia ductus in eodem cantu variare modum, ut nunc
cate for new and modern practices, and supports expansion of processus fiat per ternarium, nunc per dualitatem. Sed tunc oportet, quod huius-
the pitch collection. His juxtaposition of lasciva with joy or modi cantus bene distinguatur per distinctos colores, ut in tenore moteti In arbo-
merriment (iocunditas) supports this interpretation, as does his ris emphiro. Gallo (1972, 20).
136Elizabeth Eva Leach, however, endorses that negative reading (Leach
use of the adverb rationally to characterize admission of mi-
[2006, 12, Note 60]).
and fa-signs to diverse pitch positions. This is not a matter of 137Et notandum quod septimus tonus est lasciuus et iocundus uarios habens saltus,
motus adolescentiae repraesentans. . . . Et notandum quod octauus tonus est
suauis et morosus secundum modum discretorum. Aegidius of Zamora, Ars
132 Tertio ad naturam decime clavis que b-fa -mi dicitur, in qua semitonium maius Musica (Robert-Tissot [1974, 104]). Similar statements occur in De trac-
vel semitonium minus et comma reperta sunt, et ad effectus litterarum eiusdem tatu tonorum (Schneider [1969, 109]); in Tractatus de musica cum glossis
clavis, puta b et , mirabilisimos in cottidiana praxi contingere possibiles leviter (Amon [1977, 88]); and a number of other treatises.
emigrabo. Frobenius (1971, 32). 138Septimus saliens dicitur seu saltans, suavis, lascivus atque iucundus ut in an-
133Definitions from the Oxford Latin Dictionary (Glare [1982, 1004]). The tiphona In civitate Domini et ibi Assumpta est Maria. Cantuagium
positive definitions are the first ones given. The more specialized Novum (Hschen [1952, 48]). Schlager (2000, 274), citing this passage, translates
Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis defines lascivus as Foltre, petulant, lascif lascivius as ausgelassen or frolicsome.
(playful, sportive, capricious) (Blatt [1957, 43]). 139G laetans saltat, lascivus, dulcia cantat. Cantuagium (Hschen [1952, 49]).
134Leach (2006, 6). See also Leach (2007, 270) for recognition of the dual This point resonates with Johns remark some two centuries earlier that the
sense of lascivia and declaration (without explanation) that in the Boen acrobatic leaps (mimicos saltus) of mode 7 appeal to some listeners (Smits
passage (Musica, 63) the more sexual overtones are operational. van Waesberghe [1950, 109]; Babb [1978, 133]).

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 colloquy 81
those addressed: Therefore, if you intend to compose a song at
the request of young people, let it be youthful and playful (lasci-
vus), but if of old folk, let it be slow and staid (italics mine).140
The connection between the young and playfulness or frolicking
in these observations about chant accords well with Boens ap-
proving comment in the final paragraph of Musica that the
young seem to delight in strange sorts of pitch.141
The anonymous author of the early-fourteenth-century
Compendium de Musica uses the word lascivia in the context
of intermixing different types of consonances in polyphony. His
exuberant comparison of this musical practice with the pleasing
creations of weavers, painters, and cooks, along with his com-
ment on the ears rejoicing makes clear that he uses lascivia in
its positive sense.
Practice, indeed, more broadly weighing playfulness and sated with
simple [intervals], rejoices in mixtures in its work, intermixing su-
perpartient sounds [i.e., imperfect consonances] with those men-
tioned [multiples and superparticulars such as the octave and the
fifth], nor does it hold to the order of reason. But, as I might say, [it
operates] in the manner of a weaver mixing wools together and in-
tertwining threads, who skillfully produces a cloth that is pleasing to
the sight, to be preferred to a cloth of simple weave. Or as a painter,
skillfully transferring natural colors, intermixes innumerable pleas-
ing types of color from the simple ones. Or as an Epicurean cook
with a variety of spices and, as I might say, a certain transfer of fla-
vorings, attains an enormous sweetness of taste. And thus the ear
delights in mixture of a great variety of sounds, as the eye [delights]
in color, or the throat in flavors. But it all should correspond to some
valid arrangement.142
From these instances from the late thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries (and many others could be cited), it is clear that posi-
tive signification of lascivia/lascivus in writings on music theory
140Itaque si iuvenum rogatu cantum componere volueris, iuvenilis sit ille et lascivus;
sin vero senum, morosus sit et severitatem exprimens. De Musica, Chapter 18.
Smits van Waesberghe (1950, 117); Babb (1978, 137). Jacques of Lige
repeats this remark in Speculum Musicae, Book VI, Chapter 74. Bragard
(1973, 215). He then amplifies it in a way that clearly contrasts the joy and
playfulness (laeti sint et lascivi) of some songs with the gravity and serious-
ness (graves, ponderosi et maturi) of others. Bragard (1973, 21516).
141. . . [I]n extraneis vocum varietatibus iuvenes potius quam antiqui lascivire
videntur. . . . Full passage in Frobenius (1971, 77); trans. Fuller (1998,
47576). Boens list of musical delights includes not just non-Guidonian
pitches, but also unexpected leaps, shifts from perfect to imperfect men-
suration, and hocket.
142Usus vero peramplius lasciviam perpendens simplicibus iam satur mixturis gaudet
etiam ad sui opus, superpartientes sonos praedictis immiscens, nec rationis aut tenet
ordinem, sed, ut ita dicam, in modum textoris lanas simul commiscens et fila tex-
endo, gratiosum aspectui panni profert artificium, simplici texturae panno praeel-
igibile. Sed et pictor naturales colores artificio transferens, innumera coloris genera
placabilia simplicibus commiscet. Sed et Epicureus cocus aromatum varietate et, ut
ita dicam, quadam alienatione saporum quamplurimos gutturi retinuit dulcissi-
mos. Itaque nimirum sonorum mixturis auris gaudet,ut oculos colorum vel guttur
saporum, expedit tamen ut omnia rato sibi respondeant ordine. Compendium de
musica (Smits van Waesberghe et al. [1988, 12021]). In his German trans-
lation of this passage, Hentschel renders lascivia as ausgelassene Frlichkeit,
frolicsome joy (Hentschel [2000, 186]). This passage fits well with the
comments cited earlier on the pleasing aesthetic effects of intermixing per-
fect and imperfect consonances.
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MTS3301_05.indd 81
a) b) c) d)
8
example 4. Polyphonic progressions illustrated in Johannes
Boens Musica
Compare Frobenius (1971, 67, 68, 70).
was not uncommon. Given the attention Boen devotes in the
third and fourth sections of his Musica to various kinds of
unusual intervals and intervallic successions as well as to uncon-
ventional sonorities (such as DFbn and DFbb), the declara-
tion that he is torn and describes the new commatic music in
negatively loaded terms seems decidedly contrarian.143 That
viewpoint resides not in his text, but in the negatively biased
translations and interpretations presented.
Despite her insistence that increased usage of semitone in-
flections in fourteenth-century polyphony was connected with
aural analogue[s] . . . of desire and satisfaction provided by di-
rected progressions, Elizabeth Eva Leach offers virtually no
evidence of the connection from Boens two treatises.144 The
closest she comes is in remarking that Boen links his commatic
music to counterpoint in a passage from Musica, although the
passage in question is hardly compelling, since it refers only to
consonances in a general way, not to concrete progressions.145
In fact, it is difficult to recruit Boen to her hypothesis about
semitones and directed progressions. The notated musical ex-
amples in Musica are predominantly monophonic clips of a
few notes, or illustrate a single sonority.146 Boen gives no hint of
context for the monophonic fragmentsare they segments of a
monophonic line, figures within a polyphonic texture, ornaments
a singer introduces in either a monophonic or polyphonic con-
text? The reader is not told.147 None of his references to chro-
matic song specifies polyphony. Boens central point is that the
unusual, non-Guidonian intervals he shows are within the
realm of possibility; they can be rationally described and no-
tated.148 From among his forty-eight notated examples, only
four (shown in Example 4) depict a progression, and of these
only one (Example 4[d]) could reasonably be described as a
143Leach (2006, 16).
144Leach (2006, 10). On Boens avowed purpose of examining (and contest-
ing) traditional views regarding division of the tone, see Hentschel (1998).
145Leach (2006, 12). This remark on repositioning of b and signs likely does
not refer to counterpoint but derives from the thirteenth-century view that
musica falsa or ficta was necessary in discant in order to create perfect con-
cords, for instance to correct tritones between F and Bn. See, for example,
the Anonymous St. Emmeram (Yudkin [1990, 274]) and Magister Lam-
bert (CS [I, 258a]).
146The same is true of Ars. Gallo (1972). All the examples there, whether of
durations or of claves, are monophonic. Herlinger (2001, 255) reproduces
some of Boens unusual inflected melodic fragments.
147In some respects his remarks connect with Jerome of Moravias comments on
special intonations in ecclesiastical chant (Cserba [1935, 18587]).
148For an illuminating discussion of Boens generation of extra-manual
pitches, see Peter Lefferts (2007, 13235). Lefferts connects Boens explo-
rations in this realm with the Tabula monochordi of Nicolaus de Luduno
that is the focus of his study.
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 82 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)

directed progression. Boens comment on that one example too vast a topic to be addressed here.151 But it is worth noting
dwells on the sweetness experienced when a series of thirds and that formal acceptance of extra-manual pitches in fourteenth-
sixths concludes on a sonority of octave and fifth. century music theory comes with coniuncta theory, and that the
The cantus that is judged imperfect due to [a series of ] thirds and
coniuncta examples presented in treatises of the late fourteenth
sixths, despite its discord, attracts and charms the ears for the sub- and fifteenth centuries are all monophonic chants of long-stand-
sequent perfection of the song in a fifth or octave. Their heralds and ing repute in the repertory. In the first treatise of the Berkeley
handmaidens are thirds and sixths that long announce the antici- compilation, coniunctae are introduced as a means of regulariz-
pated greater sweetness, as here: (Example 4[d]).149 ing musica falsa or ficta and provide low Bb, C, Eb F, and ab, as
This judgment of sweetness attendant upon movement from well as the upper octaves of these last four.152 These notes result
imperfect to perfect consonance resonates with the comment on from repositioning standard hexachords on the gamut, and are
euphony from Cum notum sit and with Prosdocimuss sweet not characterized as chromatic. If extra-manual pitches or ad-
kind of singing, quoted above. For Boen, the concept that a ditional semitones were as intimately bound to directed contra-
pleasant consonant sound compensates for (and, indeed, justi- puntal progressions as is claimed in Gendering the Semitone,
fies) an unpleasant, less consonant one applies broadly, not just it seems strange that there would be no reference at all to con-
to an imperfect-to-perfect succession. In discussing a seventh trapuntal context when they are accepted as regularized. It is
that moves to a fifth, he states that the surrounding sweetness of their necessity for monophonic chant that is signaled through
the context dispels the bitterness of the dissonant interval multiple examples and across the several treatises that present
(Example 4[c]).150 These two reports of dulcet effects carry no the topic of coniunctae.153
hint of erotic urgency; the language focuses on effective juxta-
position of different aural qualities. The paucity in Boens two
treatises of musical examples illustrating polyphonic interval method and historiography
progressions signals that progressions from one sonority or in-
terval to another were not central to his message. Only by creat- The above critique has largely focused on the medieval re-
ing a bubble of suggestion around her discussion of Boens cord of music theory and on systemic weaknesses in Elizabeth
writings does the author of Gendering the Semitone manage Eva Leachs highly selective profile of that record. But her arti-
to create an impression that his comments on unorthodox notes, cle also engages core issues of methodology and historiography.
note series, and intervals can be taken to apply specifically to the Although there is insufficient space here to explore the full
directed progression. range of such issues, they do require brief attention. At several
Neither in the contrapunctus manuals, nor in Marchettos dis- junctures, Elizabeth Eva Leach invokes medieval mindsets in
cussion of proximate imperfect-to-perfect successions, nor in support of her hypotheses. She writes the binaries falsa/vera,
Boens advocacy of non-Guidonian pitches and intervals, are ficta/recta would have been clearly gendered in the context of
there explicit indications (or even suggestive hints) of anxiety widespread medieval antifeminism, and sees imperfect sonor-
about pitch inflections attendant on imperfect-to-perfect inter- ity and characterization of the semitone as an imperfect tone as
val progressions. As already noted, from at least the late thir- mirroring Aristotelian theories of gender, which viewed women
as imperfect men. 154 Regarding falsa/vera, the early theorists do
teenth century (and arguably even earlier), pitches from outside
the Guidonian orbit were familiar from some monochord divi- not emphasize that binary (Lambert and others, for instance,
sions, from musical instruments, and from correction of tritones mention in passing musica regularis, not vera), and the over-
in polyphony. Familiar too were the problems for chant posed by whelming majority emphasize the necessity of musica falsa or
a regularized pitch inventory based on mathematical string divi- fictaespecially as a means of rectifying problematic intervals
sions that rigidly fixed the succession of tones and semitones.
From the time (in the first half of the eleventh century) that the 151See, for example, Bern of Reichenau, Prologus (using Boethian pitch
Guidonian monochord/Hand became the standard representa- names; Rausch [1999, 5561]); John, De musica, Chapters 2122 (Smits
tion of the pitch system, chant masters wrestled with melodies van Waesberghe [1950, 13356]; Babb [1978, 14659]); Theinred of Dover,
De Legitimis Ordinibus Pentachordorum et Tetrachordorum (Snyder
that did not fit that system, whose intervallic structure required
[2006, especially his Introduction, 75114]; Atkinson [2009, 21719,
either placement on an irregular final or emendation. That is 23458]).
152See Ellsworth (1984, 5066, and 9496). As noted above, Jerome of Mora-
via and Walter Odington had already admitted additional pitches through
149. . . [U]t cantus ille, qui per tertias et sextas imperfectus censetur, non tamen extra synemmena, but that strategy had not become standard in written
discors aures trahat et alliciat, ut perfectionem cantus, qui per quintam sequetur music theory. On the musical examples illustrating coniunctae, see Karp
vel octavam, quarum tertie et sexte sunt nuntie et ancille, exspectatem diutius (1998, 181223).
indicent dulciorem, ut hic: [Example 4d]. Frobenius (1971, 70). In terms of 1 53It is perhaps also worth noting that unusual pitch inflections permeate the
gender issues, note that the metaphor for the thirds and sixths involves both melodic fabric of the extraordinary mid-fourteenth-century two-voice bal-
heralds or messengers (masculine) and handmaidens (feminine; I adopt the lade Ut pateat evidenter (characterized by Peter Lefferts as a self-conscious
classic Biblical English translation of ancilla). The metaphor suggests social demonstration piece), and operate there quite independently of directed
hierarchy rather than erotic longing. progressions (Lefferts [2007, 173]).
150Frobenius (1972, 68). 154Leach (2006, 10, 15, also 5 and 14).

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 colloquy 83
such as the tritone.155 The device is not usually presented in a
negative light. In her single example of a negative viewpoint
Elias Salomons 1274 diatribe against falsa musicaElizabeth
Eva Leach neglects to mention that Salomon defines four dif-
ferent categories within that rubric, only one of which involves
introduction of extra-manual pitches.156 Not to be overlooked,
too, is the common definition of musica falsa/ficta as when we
make a tone from a semitone and the reverse.157 This formula-
tion takes account of the tone equally with the semitone; musica
ficta is not just about semitones. Moreover, a reading of the
Roman de la Rose (e.g., Chapters 5, 6, and 10) or the Roman de
Fauvel (to cite just two examples from medieval literature)
would suffice to show a Middle Ages that regarded things
false, or falsitas, as human failings equally applicable to men as
to women, by no means inherently feminine.
Regarding imperfect sonorities and the imperfect tone
characterization of the semitone, it may be noted first that me-
dieval terminology for interval categories is variable. Marchetto,
for instance, designates thirds, sixths, and their octave com-
pounds with the term dissonantiathey are not imperfect con-
sonances in his lexicon.158 But equally telling is the fact that
distinctions between perfect and imperfect status are made in
multiple domains of medieval music theory. Technical distinc-
tions between the perfect and the imperfect apply to durations,
to types of mensuration, to chant melodies, to the semiditone
(as an imperfect ditone), to discords as well as to concords.159 In
155Lambert, Tractatus de musica. CS (I, 258). Leach (2006, 11) suggests that
Lamberts positive view of musica falsa is perhaps because of his interest in
polyphony, but the passage in which he deals with musica falsa stands within
the musica plana section of his treatise, which is devoid of references to po-
lyphony. On the choice of mutata or inusitata in the Lambertus passage, see
Russo and Bonge (1999, 31520). Note also Jacques of Lige who, in Spec-
ulum Musicae, Book VI, Chapter 66, writes of falsa musica going contrary to
the regular pitches (regulares voces) of the gamut. Bragard (1973, 185).
156Leach (2006, 1011), with misrepresentation of the specificity of pitch
references for Mariae praeconio; Dyer, whom she cites, in fact characterizes
Salomons writing on falsa musica as a grab bag of faults in singing or
copying (Dyer [1980, 9192]). Salomons Chapter 31 in Scientia artis mu-
sicae (GS [III, 6164]) seems indebted to the complaints against a variety
of singing errors in Guidos Micrologus, Chapter 10 (Smits van Waesber-
ghe [1955, 13338]; Babb [1978, 66]) and in Johns De Musica, Chapter
15 (Smits van Waesberghe [1950, 10408]; Babb [1978, 12930]). Dyer
(2001, 172) notes that Salomons treatise is not representative within me-
dieval music theory.
157. . . [Q]uando nos facimus de semitono tonum et e converso; non tamen est falsa,
sed inusitata. Quoted from De plana musica breve compendium (Gilles
[1989, 48]). See also the Johannes de Garlandia Reportatio 4 (Meyer
[1998, 62]) and Magister Lambert (CS [I, 258a], with reading as edited
non tamen est falsa, sed mutata). For similar statements that mention both
tone and semitone in accounts of the nature of musica ficta see the Anony-
mous St. Emmeram (Yudkin [1990, 274]) and Johannes de Grocheio, De
Musica (Rohloff [1943, 128]).
158See Lucidarium, Book II, 5, Chapter 2 (Herlinger [1985, 136]), Chapter 8
(150), and Book V, Chapter 6 (20620). Marchetto employs the same termi-
nology in Pomerium, Part I, Treatise 4, Chapter 1 (Vecchi [1961, 69]).
159Mensural theory consistently distinguishes between perfect and imperfect
longs, breves, and semibreves, and, in the ars nova, between perfect and
imperfect modus and tempus. The author of the Quaestiones in musica
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MTS3301_05.indd 83
the realm of musical ars or scientia, the categorization of a semi-
tone as an incomplete or imperfect tone or a sixth as an imper-
fect consonance may be viewed as a type of technical distinction
common in the discipline, comparable to that between a perfect
or an imperfect long, perfect or imperfect tempus, a perfect or
imperfect chant melodyno more tinctured with gender impli-
cations than they are. Put another way, if one were to suppose
that medieval minds automatically associated all things imper-
fect with the feminine, then a great many phenomena in the
realm of music theory (and, indeed, outside it) would be thought
to be tinged with femininity, not just semitones and imperfect
consonances.
The argument from ingrained medieval mindsets and essen-
tialized binaries is simply untenable, given the full context of
medieval theoretical discourses on music and the paucity of
concrete indications of such mindsets in the many surviving
music treatises. A basic flaw is what Dominick LaCapra has
broadly critiqued as a tendency to turn away from patient, sub-
tle, and painstaking analysis of texts or particular artifacts and
to stress the role of collective discourses, ideologies, codes, and
institutions.160 It is the actual voices of the past, as preserved in
a full range of their written traces, that need to be heard, evalu-
ated, and interpreted, with minimal imposition of pre-formed
ideology that adopts narrowly selective criteria.161
An important issue that arises with regard to listening to and
writing about those past voices is that of terminology, particu-
larly use of current language to characterize the past as though
that language carries some fixed, universal validity. Although
Elizabeth Eva Leach is evidently aware of this issue, the man-
ner in which she speaks of chromaticism, exoticism, and sensual
effect, describes contrapuntal progressions as loaded with sen-
sual appetite and sexual desire, and depicts medieval theorists
as sexing the leading tone, creates an image of a music-theo-
retical past saturated with present-day perspectives.162 Her
abstract pointedly claims a significant connection between four-
teenth-century counterpoint and chromaticism, exoticism,
femininity and the sexually alluring East [orientalism], a claim
hardly mitigated by an initial it can be argued.163 These vari-
ous modern epithets are used far too lightly to characterize me-
dieval attitudes toward musical phenomena and to color
rhetorically her discussion of particular texts whose language
(Steglich [1911, 4142]) and Marchetto, Lucidarium, Treatise 11, Chap-
ter 2 (Herlinger [1981, 378, 382]) label melodies that do not fill out a full
modal octave as imperfect. Johannes de Garlandia sorts discords as well as
concords into categories of perfect, medial, or imperfect. In his scheme the
semitone stands among the perfect discords, while the tone is a medial dis-
cord. Musica mensurabilis, Chapter 9 (Reimer [1972, vol. 1, 6772]).
160LaCapra (1989, 189).
161See Weller (1997) for a thoughtful consideration of models of cultural his-
tory and principles of historiography that relate to investigation of music in
the Middle Ages.
162See, for example, Leach (2006, [title], 3, 13, and 15). Her adoption of the
designator directed progression, mentioned above, and casual use of the
term leading tone are other cases in point.
163Leach (2006, 1).
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 84 music theory spectrum 33 (2011)
carries no explicit reference to the erotic. With regard to the
sexing of the leading tone, it is pertinent to note the in-
formed debate among scholars about use of the term sexuality
with reference to past epochs and diverse cultures.164 In any
event, as my earlier comments on translation practices and ter-
minology indicate, reconstructions of past viewpoints require
careful attention to the language actually used by writers in the
relevant time period and in medieval treatises and to the im-
mediate contexts within which particular passages functioned
and took on meaning in their own epoch.
Gendering the Semitone ends with a speculation (the au-
thors term) about secular musicians and amateur performers
whose singing of small arbitrary subdivisions of the tone pro-
vides a possible scenario for fourteenth-century changes in
contrapuntal practices.165 The final paragraph attributes to
some unspecified laici vulgares the singing of directed progres-
sions that earned them condemnation for their highly sugges-
tive aural depiction of desire.166 These terminal speculations
seem unwarranted and, as presented by the writer, detached
from concrete evidence.167 The path leading from ars antiqua
contrapuntal practices to ars nova contrapuntal practices is
surely more complex than is implied by these invented scenarios
and involves more domains than pitch. To write that perhaps
exposure to the improvised two-part polyphony of urban min-
strels . . . enchanted, and captured the ears of clerical music
makers and so led to changes in [written] contrapuntal practice
is to depart from the realm of historical scholarship into that of
fantasy.168 Far from supporting claims about the fraught nature
of fourteenth-century contrapuntal practices, the concluding
imagined scenarios magnify the questionable montages of as-
sociation that occur too frequently within the article.
An interest in exploring expressions of gender within medi-
eval music theory is understandable in todays intellectual cli-
mate in which the topos of gender looms large as an important
and relatively unexplored frontier. Elizabeth Eva Leach has use-
fully uncovered some explicitly gendered and misogynistic
viewpoints that were expressed by a few medieval music theo-
rists and has called attention to shards of gendered language
embedded in antique theory that later medieval theorists some-
times repeated as received lore from the past. The question is
not whether such viewpoints existed, but whether they
164For a compact summary, see Karras (2005, Chapter 1, 127), a work cited
also in Leach (2006, 3, Note 11). On a musical context of the early nine-
teenth century that raises these issues, see Kallberg (2004).
165Leach (2006, 16).
166Leach (2006, 17).
167In a chapter on accurate performance of intervals, the author of the Qua-
tour Principalia (1351) does mention singers of chant who justify raising
the middle degree of sol-fa-sol or re-ut-re because the excellent singers at
courts do that. But he reports that other chant singers simply say they like 169By generic context, I have in mind Lawrence Gushees astute comments
the sweet effect. Treatise III, Chapter 56 (Aluas [1996, 356, trans. 642
43]). This is an isolated statementregarding chant, not invoking polyph-
onythat cannot support the proposed scenario regarding secular
musicians in towns and amateurs in courts. Note that Johannes de Muris,
in a passage quoted above, states that lay singing adopts the diatonic genus.
168Leach (2006, 16).
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MTS3301_05.indd 84
permeated medieval music theory and pedagogy to the degree
proclaimed, and (specifically) whether they determined collec-
tive attitudes toward the semitone and toward contrapuntal
progressions from imperfect to perfect consonances. A relatively
comprehensive investigation of a broad range of treatises from
various regions and chronological periods shows that medieval
music-theoretical thought is both far less monolithic and far
less gender oriented than she asserts. Excessive selectivity
leads to neglect of the full spectrum of extant medieval music
treatises, and of the diversity within them. In investigations of
this sort, attention needs also to be given to differentiation
among treatiseswhether they are primarily pedagogical in
purpose, what their generic affiliations might be: encyclopedic
compilation of received knowledge, digest of theoretical prin-
ciples, exposition of current musical practices, or some combi-
nation of these or other categories. Chronological location and
geographical sites need to be taken into account as well. Both
specific and generic contexts of particular statements also affect
how those statements were probably offered and received in
their own time, and how we might (even should) interpret (and
translate) them in ours.169 To reconstitute broadly held men-
talities from the past is a challenging and complex task, but
there are standards for accuracy as well as norms regarding com-
prehensive investigation of the surviving evidence that should
guide the enterprise. At stake in the present case is how we in
the twenty-first century understand and represent the views of
a music theory community that lived and wrote six to seven
centuries (or more) before our time. Our investigations need to
be carefully constituted in ways that respect the environments in
which those theorists lived, the language in which they ex-
pressed themselves, and the diversity of their voices.
works cited
Treatises
Because most medieval treatises are undated, the order in which
they are listed here reflects only approximate chronological
placement. The editions referenced are included in Secondary
Sources. Note that many more treatises than those specifi-
cally cited were consulted in preparation for this article (com-
pare Example 1).
Abbreviations
CS: Coussemaker [186476] 1963
GS: Gerbert [1784] 1963
CSM: 1950. Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, Rome: American
Institute of Musicology
on genre in medieval treatises on music as a complex combination of intel-
lectual style, social function, institutional situation, and musical repertory
addressed (Gushee [1973, 36567]). By specific context, I mean the par-
ticular textual environment in which a statement is situatedthe chapter,
topic, or argument of which it is a part. In this regard, note also the remarks
on interpreting medieval sources in Karras (2005, 914).
3/22/11 2:30 PM
 colloquy 85
Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius. Commentarii in Somnium
Scipionis. Italy; ca. 430. Edition: Jacobus Willis (1963). English
Translation: William Harris Stahl ([1970] 1990, 79246).
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. De Institutione Musica
Libri Quinque. Rome; ca. 503. Edition: Gottfried Friedlein
(1867). English Translation: Calvin M. Bower (1989).
Regino of Prm. Epistola de Harmonica Institutione. Trier;
ca. 901. Editions: Michael Bernhard (1989, 3773); Edna
Marie Le Roux (1965); GS I (23047).
Anonymous (Ps.-Odo). Dialogus in Musica. Northern Italy;
late-tenthearly-eleventh century. Edition: GS I (25264).
Guido of Arezzo. Micrologus. Arezzo, Northern Italy; ca.
1025. Edition: Joseph Smits van Waesberghe (1955). Eng-
lish Translation: Warren Babb (1978, 5783).
Bern of Reichenau. Prologus in Tonarium. Reichenau; ca. 1021
36. Editions: Alexander Rausch (1999, 3170); GS II (6279).
John [of Afflighem]. De Musica. Southern Germany; ca.
1100. Edition: Joseph Smits van Waesberghe (1950). Eng-
lish translation: Warren Babb (1978, 10187).
Anonymous (Ps.-Rudolf of St. Trond). Quaestiones in Mu-
sica. Lige; ca. 1100. Edition: Rudolf Steglich (1911).
Anonymous. (Ps.-Bern of Reichenau). De Mensurando
Monochordo. Germany; ca. 1100. Edition: Joseph Smits
van Waesberghe (1978).
Theinred of Dover. De Legitimis Ordinibus Pentachordorum
et Tetrachordorum. England; mid-twelfth century. Edition:
John L. Snyder (2006).
Anonymous, tradition of Johannes de Garlandia. Four Report
ationes. Paris; mid-thirteenth century. Edition: Christian
Meyer (1998). Reportatio 4 also in Gilbert Reaney, Andr
Gilles, and Jean Maillard (1964, 1323).
. Introductio Musicae Planae secundum Magistrum Jo-
hannem de Garlandia. Paris; mid-thirteenth century. Edi-
tions: Christian Meyer (1998, 6397); CS I (15775).
Johannes de Garlandia. De Mensurabili Musica. Paris; ca.
1260. Edition: Erich Reimer (1972).
Magister Lambertus (Ps.-Aristotle). Tractatus de Musica.
Paris; ca. 126570. Edition: CS I (25181), attributed to
Cujusdam Aristotelis.
Anonymous, Lambertus Tradition. De Musica Plana Breve
Compendium. Paris; late-thirteenth century. Source: Paris,
Bibliothque nationale, lat. 15128 (ff. 12427). Edition: An-
dr Gilles (1989).
Amerus. Practica Artis Musice. Rome?; 1271. Edition: Cesa-
rino Ruini (1977).
Elias Salomon. Scientiae Artis Musicae. Roman Curia; 1274.
GS III (1664).
Jerome of Moravia (of Moray). Tractatus de Musica. Paris;
Dominican; 128589. Edition: Simon M. Cserba (1935).
Anonymous, St. Emmeram. De Musica Mensurata. Paris;
1279. Edition: Jeremy Yudkin (1990).
Anonymous, Augustinus minor. Ars Musice Armonie. France/
Belgium; late-thirteenth century. Source: Cashel MS, G. P. A.
Bolton Library (formerly Cathedral Library), no. 1, 5970.
Edition: Michael Bernhard (2006).
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MTS3301_05.indd 85
Anonymous. Tractatulus de Musica. England; Dominican sec-
ond half of thirteenth century. Source: Florence, Biblioteca
Medicea-Laurenziana, XXVII.d.9, ff. 143v145r. Edition:
Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum: ANOTRDMF MFBL279.
Anonymous glossator of Guidos Micrologus. Incipit: Inten-
tio huius auctoris et tractare. England; late-thirteenth century.
Source: Oxford, St. Johns College, 188. Edition of Accessus
and selected glosses: Wolfgang Hirschmann (2001).
Engelbert of Admont. De Musica. Admont; late-thirteenth
early-fourteenth century. Editions: Pia Ernstbrunner (1998);
GS II (287369).
Johannes de Grocheio. De Musica. Paris; ca. 1300. Edition:
Ernst Rohloff (1943).
Johannes Aegidius de Zamora. Ars Musicae. Parisian tradi-
tion and Spain; Franciscan; ca. 12961304. Editions: Michel
Robert-Tissot (1974); GS II (36993).
Anonymous. Summa Musicae. Southern Germany; ca. 1300.
Editions: Christopher Page (1991); GS III (190248).
Anonymous (Ps.-Jacques of Lige). Compendium de Musica.
Incipit: Dispendiosa sub compendio tradere. Parisian tradi-
tion; early-fourteenth century. Edition: Joseph Smits van
Waesberghe et al. (1988, 88122).
Walter Odington. Summa de Speculatione Musicae. England;
early-fourteenth century (dated ca. 1300 in Hochadel [2002,
LXXXI]). Edition: Frederick F. Hammond (1970).
Guido of St. Denis. Tractatus de Tonis. Paris; early-fourteenth
century. Edition: Sieglinde Van de Klundert (1998).
Marchettus of Padua. Lucidarium. Padua; 131718. Edition:
Jan W. Herlinger (1985).
. Pomerium. Padua; ca. 132126. Edition: Joseph Vec-
chi (1961).
Johannes de Muris. Musica Speculativa. Paris; 1323. Editions:
Christoph Falkenroth (1992); Susan Fast (1994); GS III
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