Writing Sounds in Carolingian Europe
The Invention of Musical Notation

This comprehensive study of musical notation from early medieval Europe provides a crucial new foundational model for understanding later Western notations.

Susan Rankin (Author)

9781108421409, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 November 2018

426 pages, 42 b/w illus. 14 tables 75 music examples
28.4 x 22.5 x 2.5 cm, 1.42 kg

'… offers a clear advance in knowledge and a much improved foundation for advanced discussions.' Roman Deutinger, Deutschen Archiv

Musical notation has not always existed: in the West, musical traditions have often depended on transmission from mouth to ear, and ear to mouth. Although the Ancient Greeks had a form of musical notation, it was not passed on to the medieval Latin West. This comprehensive study investigates the breadth of use of musical notation in Carolingian Europe, including many examples previously unknown in studies of notation, to deliver a crucial foundational model for the understanding of later Western notations. An overview of the study of neumatic notations from the French monastic scholar Dom Jean Mabillon (1632–1707) up to the present day precedes an examination of the function and potential of writing in support of a musical practice which continued to depend on trained memory. Later chapters examine passages of notation to reveal those ways in which scripts were shaped by contemporary rationalizations of musical sound. Finally, the new scripts are situated in the cultural and social contexts in which they emerged.

Part I. Musical Literacy: 1. Writing music
2. Palaeographical study of neumatic notations (from 1681 to the present)
3. Music notations 800-900: the evidence
Part II. Music Scripts: 4. Graphic techniques and strategies
5. Frankish scripts
6. Lotharingian and Breton scripts
7. Palaeofrankish script
8. Music scripts: conclusions
Part III. Writing Sound: 9. Signs and meaning
10. Writing music: accents
11. The Carolingian invention of music writing.

Subject Areas: Christian liturgy, prayerbooks & hymnals [HRCL], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Musical scores, lyrics & libretti [AVQ], Sacred & religious music [AVGD], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]