3 - The Musical Grammar of the Second-Mode Tracts

Summary

In reaching the fullest possible understanding of a musical genre, it is neither necessary nor, probably, desirable to limit oneself to the technical vocabulary used at the time of the music's composition and dissemination. However, this vocabulary and the conceptual understanding it reflects can suggest profitable routes for analysis. This chapter therefore begins with a brief consideration of the relationship between the ars grammatica and medieval concepts of musical structure as expressed in the contemporary music theory. This forms the backdrop for a detailed description of the musical grammar of the second-mode tracts. The rationales lying behind choice of phrase shape are discussed, including an identification of phrase shapes associated with particular verses, words or syntactical structures. This builds on previous analytical excursions into the repertory, but my interpretations differ from those of previous scholars in several significant respects, primarily related to the factors governing the choice of one phrase shape rather than another when the formulaic system appears to allow for choice: this has not previously been tackled systematically.

The ars grammatica and the ars musica

The acquisition of vocabulary for the Carolingian ars musica was a major achievement of the ninth century. The largely abstract musical vocabulary of antiquity was insufficient for describing and prescribing medieval practice although the Carolingians were enormously indebted to the vocabulary of their Graeco-Latin music-theoretical heritage (via Boethius, Cassiodorus and Augustine). From the mid-ninth century, Martianus Capella's De nuptiis was widely studied, further enriching the vocabulary of the ars musica. Carolingian writers leaned on Byzantine models for the development and articulation of the eight-mode system; other concepts and vocabulary of the ars musica are drawn from the ars grammatica, a thoroughly established discipline that presented few problems of adaptation to the early-medieval context. Palaeo-Frankish notation was apparently based upon, and described in terms of, prosodic accents. Bede's De arte metrica was mined for rhythmic and other vocabulary; his organisation of topics parallels the hierarchical approach of medieval music theory. In the ars grammatica, text was discussed in a hierarchical structure, from periodus through cola and commata (or neuma/pars and distinctio) to syllables and letters. Medieval music theorists commonly equated this hierarchy with melodic structure and cadence organisation, using the same vocabulary.