[Smt-talk] Seven-letter scale notation (was re: scale degrees)

[Nicolas Meeùs]

I do not think that the usage of the letters A-G in the /Musica 
Enchiriadis/ really can be equated with what the 11th-century /Dialogus/ 
[of pseudo Odo] did. Is not it so that the /Musica Enchiriadis /sequence 
starts at A and continues as far as necessary, and repeats it for a 
second voice, but without giving clear indication as to where the 
semitones are found? This is not utterly different from earlier usages 
[e.g. by Boethius] were the alphabet was extended to as many letters as 
needed. The main difference in the /Enchirias/ is that the same 
lettering is used for the second voice.

The unique achievement of the /Dialogus/ is that it shows the 
organization of the musical system itself, i.e. of all pitches available 
to make music; so doing it repeats a point already made by Hucbald, that 
all music [that they knew] could be made to correspond to one single 
systematic scale. Their aim was not to laying out modes, but to show 
that all modes could be brought back to the same [diatonic] scale.

Nicolas Meeùs
Université Paris-Sorbonne (emeritus)



Le 20/05/2014 08:28, Fiona McAlpine a écrit :
> Perhaps we should just get rid of Pesudo-Odo, as if he is a person, & 
> refer to the C10th treatise /Dialogus de Musica. /In fact the 
> C9th/early C10th /Musica Enchiriadis /uses the letters A-G as a 
> repeating sequence; not, however, for the purpose of laying out a mode 
> in a scalar way, but as pitch indicators in a diastemmatic-syllabic 
> diagram to show organum at the octave, in a way that the /Musica 
> Enchiriadis'/ tetrachordal notation never could have.
>
> (Dr) Fiona McAlpine
> Honorary Research Fellow
> School of Music
> University of Auckland
>
> /Le Béguinage/
> 42 Horns Rd
> RD 1
> Oxford 7495
> North Canterbury
> NEW ZEALAND
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Smt-talk [smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org] on 
> behalf of Nicolas Meeùs [nicolas.meeus at scarlet.be]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 20 May 2014 08:30
> *To:* art samplaski; smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Smt-talk] Seven-letter scale notation (was re: scale 
> degrees)
>
> My mistake, I meant /c/1000. Ps Odo predated Guido by about a 
> generation, 25 years.
> Nicolas
>
> Nicolas Meeùs
> Professeur émérite
> Université Paris-Sorbonne
>
>
>
> Le 19/05/2014 18:35, art samplaski a écrit :
>> A couple of digests ago, Nicolas Meeús wrote:
>> > --[Pseudo] Odo, /c/1100, apparently was the first medieval author 
>> to suggest the
>> > notation with seven letters, cycling at the octave, which is still in
>> > use today, and which for a long time was in use in parallel with the
>> > tetrachordal/hexachordal naming of the degrees.
>>
>> A question, and a possible correction.
>>
>> Has the dating on "Odo" been revised? I had always thought he predated
>> Guido of Arezzo by a few years. (The online NGD2 entry on modal theory
>> still lists him as such, as of 10 min. ago...:)
>>
>> Guido definitely uses the seven-letter notation system in both the 
>> _Regule
>> rithmice_ and the _Micrologus_, using an analogy to the 7 days of the 
>> week
>> that I believe is also used by Ps-Odo--no access just at the moment 
>> to check.
>> No idea if that analogy is original with Ps-Odo or was some sort of 
>> common
>> coinage--if anyone has info one way or another on that I'd love to 
>> hear it.:)
>>
>> Art Samplaski
>> Ithaca, NY
>>
>>
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