work produced by the compartments, or Cancelli, into which the page is divided by its vertical scorings. In printed Music, each Stave is usually distinguished by its proper Clef and Signature, at the beginning of every page. In MS. Scores, these are frequently placed at the beginning of the first page only. In both, the Staves are united, at the beginning of every page, either by a Brace, or by a thick line, drawn, like a bar, across the whole, and called the Accolade. The continuity of this line, and of the bars themselves, is of great importance, as an aid to the eye, in tracing the contents of the page, from the lowest Stave to the highest: but the lines are frequently broken in Scores otherwise beautifully engraved.
Of the numerous forms of Score now in common use, two only can boast of any great antiquity. The most important varieties are, (I.) the Vocal Score; (II.) the Orchestral, or Full Score; (III.) the Supplementary Score, or Partitino; (IV.) the Organ, Harpsichord, or Pianoforte Score; (V.) the Compressed Score; and (VI.) the Short Score.
I. The Vocal Score is not only the oldest form, by far, with which we are acquainted; but is really very much older than most historians have supposed. It has long been believed that Mediæval Composers wrote—or, at least, transcribed—their Music in separate Part-Books, for some centuries before they thought of writing the Parts one above another. In a general sense, this proposition is true enough: but, it is subject to some very significant exceptions. If we admit, as we must, that a complete set of Parts, so arranged that the whole can be read at one view, is entitled to rank as a Score, even though it may not be written in any living system of Notation, then, we cannot deny to Hucbaldus the merit of having taught the Art of writing in Score, as early as the first half of the 10th century. In a MS. Tract, now generally attributed to Hucbaldus, though referred by some historians of credit to his friend and contemporary, Odo, we find the following specimen of Discant, for four Voices, which, rough as it is, shows that Composers understood even at that early period the value of a system which enabled them to present their Harmonies to the render, at a single coup d'œil.[1]
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Solution. In Modern Notation.
The Harmony of this Versicle is as primitive as the system of hieroglyphics in which it is written. Very different is that of our next example—the earliest known specimen of a regular Composition, presented, in Score, in the ordinary Longs, Breves, and Semibreves, still used in the Notation of Plain Chaunt.[2] We had occasion, in a former article, to describe the famous 'Reading MS.,' in the British Museum,[3] containing the now well-known Rota, 'Sumer is icumen in.' This volume also contains a Motet, 'Ave gloriosa Mater,' scored for three Voices in black square and lozenge-shaped notes, on a single Stave consisting of from 13 to 15 lines, and supplemented by a Quadruplum, or fourth Part, written, on a separate Stave, at the end—probably by some later Contrapuntist, in search of an opportunity for the exhibition of his skill. The Quadruplum, however, has no concern with our present purpose, which is to show, that, as early as the year 1226, or quite certainly not more than ten years subsequent to that date, a Vocal Composition was scored, in this country, by an English Ecclesiastic—in all probability John of Fornsete[4]—in notes exactly like those now in daily use in hundreds of English Churches, and therefore perfectly intelligible to a modern Musician. See Fac-simile I, next page.
The Library of the British Museum contains also another record, of very little later date, and replete with interest to English Musicians, as showing that the Art of Scoring was not only known in this country before the middle of the 13th century, but was more generally recognised than we should have been justified in inferring from the evidence afforded by a single example only. A volume, formerly in the Library of the Royal Society, but now forming No. 248 of the Arundel MSS., and believed to be at least as old as the middle of the 13th century, contains, on folia 153a, 154b, 155a, 201a, Compositions regularly scored for two Voices, on Staves of eight and nine lines. In the last of these—now, unfortunately, nearly illegible—two Staves, each consisting of four black lines, are separated by a red line. In the other cases, the Stave consists of eight uniform and equidistant black lines. The upper part of the second woodcut is a fac-simile of the Hymn, Quen of euene for ye blisse, transcribed on fol. 155a. See next page.
On the same page of the MS.—fol. 1550a—
- ↑ For an explanation of Hucbald's system of Notation, see vol. ii p. 469.
- ↑ The Gros fa of French Musicians, and the 'Gregorian Note' of our own.
- ↑ Harl. MSS., no. 978. see pp. 268–270.
- ↑ It will be understood that we speak of John of Fornsete as the transcriber rather than the Composer of the Music, concerning the authorship of which we have no certain evidence. Another three-voice setting of the same words, contained in the Montpellier MS., is attributed by Coussemaker to Franco of Cologne: but this differs so much from our English version, that it is impossible to refer the two transcriptions to a common original.
