Clef to each particular quality of Voice, as we do. The Clefs were, therefore, divided into the four general classes of Cantus, Altus, Tenor, and Bassus; and varied, in position, according to circumstances. When more than four Voices were used, the fifth part was called Quintus, or Quinta pars; the sixth, Sextus, or Sexta pars; and so with the rest: but, as care was taken that each additional Voice should exactly correspond in compass with one of the normal four, we scarcely ever find more than four Clefs used in the same Composition. The ten forms most frequently employed in the infancy of Polyphonic Music are shewn in the following example, with the old classification indicated above the Stave, and the modern names, below it.
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The Polyphonic Composers of the best periods were extremely methodical in their choice of Clefs, which they so arranged as to indicate, within certain limits, whether the Modes in which they wrote were used at their natural pitch, or transposed. [See Modes, the Ecclesiastical]. The Natural Clefs—Chiavi naturali—were the well-known Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass, which have remained in common use, among Classical Composers, to the present day. The transposed Clefs—Chiavi trasportati, or Chiavette were of two kinds, the Acute, and the Grave. The former were the Treble (Violino), Mezzo Soprano, Alto, and Tenor,—or Barytone. The latter consisted of the Alto, Tenor, Barytone, and Bass or Contra-Basso. The effect of this method of grouping was, that, when the Mode was written, at its true pitch, in the Chiavi naturali, the Chiavette served to transpose it a Fourth higher, or a Fifth lower: if, however, it was written at its natural pitch, in the Chiavette, it was transposed by aid of the Chiavi naturali. The High Treble and Contra-Tenore were very rarely used, after about the middle of the 16th century; and the Contra-Basso did not long survive them; but the remaining seven forms were so constantly employed, that a familiar acquaintance with them is indispensable to all students of Polyphonic Music.
The Flat and the Natural were known and used at a very early period—certainly long before the time of Guido—the former, under the name of the B rotundum, or B molle (b), and the latter, under that of B quadrum, or B durum ((
Music characters)). [See B, vol. i. 107.] The Sharp, or Diesis, has not been traced back farther than the latter half of the 13th cent., when we find it, in some French MSS. in the form of a double S. Andrew's cross (⨳)—as in Adam de la Bale's Rondellus 'Fines amourettes.' In the 14th century, Ottobi classes it with the B rotundum, and B quadrum, and calls it B giacente ((Music characters)). In the 15th and 16th centuries it quite displaced the Natural; and was used, in its stead, to correct a B which would otherwise have been sung Flat. A single B♭ was always placed at the Signature, in the transposed Modes. The use of two Flats, indicating a double transposition—as in P. de la Rue's 'Pour quoi non,' preserved in Petrucci's Odhecaton—is excessively rare. Still more so is a Sharp Signature: though examples may be found in Zarlino; and in Okeghem's 'Prennez sur moy,' printed in Petrucci's 'Canti cento cinquanta.'
In Hobrecht's 'Forseulement,' and Barbyrau's Missa 'Virgo parens Christi,' an F♭ is placed at the Signature, as a sign that the Mode is Mixolydian, at its natural pitch, and that its Seventh Degree is not to be sharpened. These cases, however, are altogether abnormal, and must not be taken as precedents. Both the spirit and the letter of Mediæval Music forbade the introduction of anything, at the Signature, beyond the orthodox B rotundum.
Accidental Sharps, Flats, and Naturals, very rarely appeared in writing; the Singer being expected to introduce the necessary Semitones, in their proper places, at the moment of performance, in obedience to certain laws, with an epitome of which the reader has already been furnished. [See Musica Ficta.] This practice remained in full force, until the close of the 16th century; and is even now observed in the Pontifical Chapel.
Indications of Tempo, Dynamic Signs, and Marks of Expression of all kinds, were altogether unknown to the Composers of the 15th and 16th centuries, unless, indeed, we are prepared to recognise their prototypes in the singular Mottos, and Ænigmas, prefixed to the Canons, which, in the time of Ockeghem, and Josquin des Prés, were so zealously cultivated by Composers of the Flemish School. [See Inscription.]
A few arbitrary signs, however, were in constant use.
When Canons were written on a single Stave, the Presa ((Music characters)) shewed the place at which the second, third, or other following Voice was to begin.
The Pause (
) indicated the note on which such Voices were to close. But it was also placed, as in modern Music, over a note which the Singer was expected to prolong indefinitely—as in Basiron's 'Messa de franza' (printed in 1508), wherein, at the words 'Et homo factus est,' Pauses are placed over no less than eight Breves in succession.
The sign of repetition was a thick bar, with dots on either side, like our own. When the bar was double, the passage was sung twice; when it was triple, thrice. A passage in Hobrecht's Missa 'Je ne demande' is directed to be sung five times ((Music characters)). When words were to be repeated, a smaller sign was used ((Music characters)), and reiterated at each repetition of the text.
Ottaviano dei Petrucci—who first printed Music from moveable types, in the year 1501—Antonio Gardano, Riccardo Amadino, Christoph Plantinus, Peter Phalesius, Pierre Attaignant, Robert Ballard, Adrian le Roy, our own John
