Sonus illiteratus

Sonus illiteratus (German: non-literary piece of music ) is a seldom used medieval music term that occurs in the music tract of Johannes de Grocheo (approx. 1300), which deals with the music form of the Estampie .

According to Grocheio, the estampia preserved today belong to the Sonus illiteratus. The interpretation of this form of music as an instrumental piece is a misunderstanding because, according to the statements in the treatise (without text), it was performed (i.e. sung) with the “voce humana”.

Web links

• Guido Adler: Handbook of Music History. Vol. 1. SEVERUS Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86347-532-1, p. 260.
• Timothy J. McGee: The Sound of Medieval Song: Ornamentation and Vocal Style According to the Treatises (= Oxford Monographs on Music). Clarendon Press 1998.
• Klaus-Jürgen Sachs, Wolfgang Sachs: The Contrapunctus in the 14th and 15th centuries. Studies on the term, e.g. Teaching u. to d. Sources . Supplements to the archive for musicology, archive for musicology. Volume 13.
• Timothy J. McGee: Medieval Instrumental Dances. Indiana University Press, 2014.
• Otto Kolleritsch: Studies on Valuation Research , Volume 36, P. 146f.
• Elizabeth Aubrey: The Music of the Troubadours . Indiana University Press, 2000.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes de Grocheo: The Music Act. After d. Sources new ed. with transl. to Dt. u. Audit report v. Ernst Rohloff. Reinecke, Leipzig 1943, DNB 57414109X.