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<font face="Calibri">Dear Thomas,<br>
<br>
Your MTO article begins with a quotation of Taruskin,<br>
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<blockquote>Where actual musical practice is concerned, the relevant
historical fact is that people have evidently internalized the
diatonic pitch set—carried it around in their heads as a means of
organizing, receiving, and reproducing meaningful sound
patterns—as far back as what is as of now the very beginning of
recorded musical history, some three and a half millennia ago.<br>
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<font face="Calibri"></font>a statement that seems highly
questionable. I suppose that 'the diatonic pitch set' refers to what
I'd call 'Pythagorean' diatonicism, a scale that can be generated by
a cycle of (pure) fifths, and producing a pattern of tones (T) and
semitones (S) of the type TST T TST (two TST tetrachords separated
by a disjunctive T). There are other (Antique) definitions of
diatonicism, but let's agree that this is the strict one.<br>
Oriental ('Arabic') modality makes an extensive use of another
scale, the 'scale of Zalzal', with major (T) and neutral (N)
seconds, for instance in the arrangement NNT T NNT (NNT tetrachords
and a T of disjunction). This scale, which may be the chromatic
system of the Greek, seems to have been used also in early Christian
chant. It cannot be fully produced by a cycle of fifths and the
degrees that are not in fifth-relation with the others often are of
imprecise intonation.<br>
The link between Pythagorean diatonic and the 'actual musical
practice' mentioned by Taruskin is unclear, to say the least. The
earliest descriptions of the Pythagorian diatonic scale in the West
(after Boethius who may not have been much concerned with practice)
are those by Hucbald and the Enchiriadis group of treatises, c900.
This is too close to the beginnings of polyphony to be a mere
coincidence.<br>
<br>
Handschin's idea of the character of tones is convincing, but he may
have been mislead (by ideas common in the earlier 20th century) in
believing that it depended on the cycle of fifths. Medieval
theorists described 'qualities' of tones, the 'modi vocum', at least
from Hucbald, c900, to Hermannus contractus in the later 11th
century. They described four qualities, corresponding to the four
degrees of the tetrachord and determining four pairs of modes; the
modal final shared the same quality as the fifth above and the
fourth below (which is the origin of the theory of species of fifths
and fourths); etc. See my paper on <i>Modi vocum</i>, available on
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://paris-sorbonne.academia.edu/NicolasMee%C3%B9s/Papers">http://paris-sorbonne.academia.edu/NicolasMee%C3%B9s/Papers</a>. What
you call 'Guidonian affinity' (why Guidonian?) obviously has to do
with this (but this may not always have been properly understood).<br>
<br>
Medieval theory was torn between a tetrachordal (or hexachordal) and
a heptachordal conceptions of the diatonic system. The medieval
equivalents to your height and width cannot be dimensions of the
same degrees, as there are so to say seven 'heights' and four
'widths'. And neither can be assimilated with pitch, as pitch is not
a relevant category in medieval theory – as the pseudo Odo of Cluny
clearly stated, modes do not differ from each other by their pitch.
The 'quality' of the notes (your 'width') depends exclusively of
their intervallic surrounding: they may be described as systemic
functions. What you describe as 'height' concerns what might be
described as a modal function, without necessary link with 'pitch'
properly speaking.<br>
<br>
Your description of the height-width duality forms and interesting
modern view of diatonic scales. I have no objection against your
dubbing these scales 'modes'. I am not sure, however, that it does
explain medieval (or oriental) modality... To say it in other words:
your expression "Guidonian modes" may make sense today, but what
does it mean for medieval theory?<br>
<br>
Nicolas Meeůs<br>
Université Paris-Sorbonne<br>
<br>
<br>
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