The transmission of ancient music theory into the Middle Ages

2002 ◽  
pp. 136-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin M. Bower
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Ancient Music ◽  
The Middle Ages

A Road Not Taken: Theinred of Dover's Theory of Species

1990 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fundamental Structure ◽  
Perfect System ◽  
Ancient Music ◽  
The Middle Ages

The music theory of the Middle Ages had its origins in the music theory of late antiquity. As Markovits observes, ‘The fundamental structure of ancient music theory is the tetrachord’; in turn, the medieval gamut had its origin in the Greater Perfect System, and was similarly constructed from conjunct and disjunct tetrachords. The chromatic and enharmonic genera disappeared, but the tetrachord synemmenon remained as the source of the only sanctioned medieval altered note, the B♭.

scholarly journals The ancient musical tradition in late latin writers: 3rd-5th centuries

2016 ◽  
pp. 37-63
Author(s):  
Fuensanta Garrido Domené ◽  
Felipe Aguirre Quintero
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
General Survey ◽  
Musical Notation ◽  
Musical Tradition ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

This work is introduction to and a general survey of the treatises written in Latin between the 3rd and 5th centuries that transmitted the ancient Greek musical theory to the Middle Ages. Throughout these pages there will be a concise, eclectic and panoptic view of Latin authors who dedicated their work or part of their work to notions related to the harmonic science of the ancient Greeks. This study will show a “selection” of certain aspects of Greek music theory in its step to the Middle Ages, such as the gradual loss of the vocal and instrumental musical notation, as well as the progressive importance that Rhythmic and Metrics were acquiring into the musical treatises of this era.

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