TERMINOLOGY IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL MUSIC TREATISES (CA. 400--1100 A.D.): A STUDY OF CHANGES IN MUSICAL THOUGHT AS EVIDENCED BY THE USE OF SELECTED BASIC TERMS

Music played an important part in the philosophical world-view of medieval thought, this being to a large extent based on the teachings of the classical Greek philosophers from Pythagoras on. At the same time, the widespread use of music in the liturgy of the Christian Church encouraged medieval scholars to investigate its properties. The treatises included in this dissertation fall naturally into several groups, the members of each sharing a particular historical time-frame and philosophical background, although not necessarily religious beliefs or technical vocabulary. The first group includes the fourth-century works of the pagan Martianus Capell and the Christian St. Augustine. The second takes in the sixth- and seventh-century treatises by Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Isidore of Seville. The third group of treatises includes the ninth-century writings by Aurelian of Re cx ome, Remy of Auxerre, Regino of Prum, and Hucbald, together with the anonymous Alia musica and the Enchiriadis treatises. The last group are those tenth- and eleventh-century treatises which include the Arabic philosophy al-Farabi's Kitab al-musiqi al-kabir together with the Latin works of Adalbold of Utrecht, Guido of Arezzo, Hermannus Contractus, Heinrich of Augs-burg, Aribo Scholasticus, Wilhelm of Hirsau, and John of Afflighem, as well as the anonymous Dialogus attributed to Odo of Cluny. The scheme of the dissertation has been to follow through these writings the usages of a selected group of terms, and to examine the concepts to which these terms were applied at different times. These groups of terms are: musica/modulatio/armonia; consona/consonantia/symphonia; vox/tonus/phthongus; tonus/tropus/modus; and spatium/intervallum. The examination carried out provides an overview of a developing technical command at the same time as the emphasis of the treatises tends away from the speculative towards the practical, perhaps under the influence of Arabic thought, but no doubt at least partly in response to the Church's requirement for music to be accurately performed as part of the liturgy.