Modal rhythm
Modal rhythm refers to those rhythms that result from the use of modal notation , as well as their use in differently notated pieces of music of the corresponding time (especially the 13th century ).
The rhythms
Before the 13th century, it was not yet common in European music to notate the rhythm of a composition in symbols for duration. The modal notation of the 13th century then introduced corresponding signs - but only for relatively simple rhythms and only in certain musical genres.
The music theorists distinguished six different modes. These correspond to six different, essentially exclusively three- stage ostinative duration schemes (see figure). There are only a few different note values that are not divided or combined at will and that are always in a ratio of 2: 1 or 1: 2 (pulse duration vs. elongation). Binary or syncope- like rhythms cannot yet be represented.
The mode term thus denotes a reading of pitch symbols that is not symbolized as duration , which the performer must know and which apply across the board to the text during execution. Pieces in modal notation are usually transmitted in 6/8 time .
Modal rhythm in the early motet
The rhythms of the six modes, especially those of the 1st and 5th modes, can also be found in the early motet of the 13th century. These are no longer notated in modal notation, but in an early form of mensural notation . This made it possible to use rhythms other than those of the six modes. However, the familiar rhythms were apparently still preferred.
This fact becomes plausible when you consider that the motet is closely related to the Clausula : The same composition can be in one handwriting as Clausula without text and in modal notation, and in another handwriting as a motet with text and in early mensural notation.
The modal theory and Pierre Aubry
Line 1) Transfer according to Riemann's method
Line 2) Transfer according to Aubry's method from 1905
Line 3) Transfer according to Aubry's method from 1907
Only part of the music of the 13th century is rhythmically notated with the help of either modal or mensural notation. The early mensural notation did not emerge until late in the 13th century, and the modal notation can only be used for pieces that are predominantly melismatic, i.e. in which there are a lot of notes on one syllable . The songs of the trobadors , trouveres and minstrels are mostly syllabic , i. H. most syllables have only one tone. Similar problems arise with the conductus . The music theorist Hugo Riemann had developed a rhythmization method for these pieces between 1896 and 1902, based on the meter in Minnesang: Each syllable was given the value of a quarter note in 4 ⁄ 4 time , with more notes per syllable this quarter note was divided accordingly.
From 1905 the French music scholar Pierre Aubry developed an alternative for the songs of the Trouveres: First, he also provided all text syllables with the same length of note values. Unlike Riemann, however, he chose a time of three, so that with several tones per syllable, rhythms similar to those in modal notation and earlier motets resulted.
In 1907 he expanded his method so that now the text itself could also be rhythmized; the different meter measures corresponded to the different rhythms of the modes. (In 1909 a French court ruled that the Strasbourg Romanist Jean Beck should have influenced him). This modal theory had the advantage over Riemann's method that rhythms were used that were popular at the time.
The debate about how medieval music should be rhythmized played an important role in musicology until the middle of the 20th century . In the meantime, rhythmically neutral transfers are often used for such pieces and the concrete rhythmic design is left to the performers.
literature
- Willi Apel : The notation of polyphonic music. VEB Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1962, ISBN 3-7330-0031-5
- John Haines: The Footnote Quarrels of the Modal Theory: A Remarkable Episode in the Reception of Medieval Music . In: Early Music History Vol. 20, 2001, pp. 87–120
Individual evidence
- ↑ Apel pp. 241-247.
- ↑ Apel pp. 318–341, especially pp. 322–324 and pp. 334–335.
- ↑ For example, the Johanne clause from the Notre Dame manuscript F fol. 164v musically identical to the motet Ne sai que je from the Codex Montpellier fol. 235r. Facsimile edition of the manuscript F: Firenze, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Pluteo 29, I, facsimile edition of the manuscript, ed. by Luther Dittmer, New York 1966–1967, 2 volumes. Facsimile edition of the Codex Montpellier: Polyphonies du XIIIe siecle. Le manuscrit H196 de la Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier. Vol. 1: Reproduction phototypique du manuscrit, ed. by Yvonne Rokseth, Paris 1935.
- ↑ Haines pp. 90-92.
- ↑ Haines pp. 93-94.
- ↑ Haines pp. 99-100.
- ↑ Haines pp. 100-108.