John Cotto ( lat. Johannes Cotto , also lat. Johannes Affligemensis John of Affligem) is a medieval music theorist. The Benedictine monk. The author of the treatise "De musica" (circa 1100).
| John Cotton | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| A country | |
| Occupation | , , |
Biography
Details of the biography of John are unknown. It was previously believed ( M. Herbert and other scientists), on the basis of the author’s dedication to a certain Fulgenius, that John is from England, since Fulgenius is described in initiation as 'episcopus anglorum'. Later ( J.M. Smiths van Wasberge ) it was suggested that John is a monk of the Affligem Monastery in Brabant [2] , in which Fulgenius served as an abbot in 1089–1121. Now the opinion has been firmly established ( M. Juglo , K. Paliska ) that John worked in the St. Gallen monastery or in Reichenau - on the grounds that in the tonaria attached to the treatise, the author shows knowledge of the peculiarities of irresponsible notation and the monodic chants themselves, which are inherent precisely South Germanusus. At the same time, it is possible that he was of English origin (Cotton), as well as the fact that the abbot Fulgenzius of Affligem (under whose leadership, perhaps, John spent his young years) could be the customer of his work.
Teaching
The main authorities of John are Guido Aretinsky and Boethius . Among others (named and not named directly by name) are Pseudo-Odo (formerly known as Odo of Clunius), Isidore of Seville , German Relaxed , Berno from Reichenau , Amalarius of Metz .
The treatise consists of 27 chapters (chap. 24-27 - tonaria) and covers various topics, one way or another connected with Gregorianism . After the chapters on the etymology of the word “music” and the ethos (benefit, purpose) of music, syllabic (ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la, but without mentioning the mutation ) and letter notation (G-ABCD ...), the monochord , nine “consonant” intervals (among which John ranked in unison, but excluded an octave) [3] , the Complete Greek system , monodic frets (including [Ch. 16] their ethical characteristics ) and the rules for composing a “proper” monody , chapter 23 follows , describing two-voice (original terms lat. diaphonia, organum ), folded according to the principle of note-versus-note (that is, syllabic ). There, John very briefly mentions what is now known as the melismatic organum [4] .
Comments, musical examples, and recommendations on the “correct” composition are believed to reveal John’s acquaintance with the music of his contemporary singing schools in France ( Saint-Martial ) and Spain ( Calixte Codex ). Instructions for the polyphonic composition of John are also related to the now well-known anonymous practical manual on the composition of the organum “Ad organum faciendum”, which was written in the second half of the 11th century.
Chapter 21 John devotes a notation, which he considers exclusively from the point of view of fixing pitch . He identifies three ways of recording melodies (in the original terms of John - modi neumandi , where “nevma” should be understood in the second meaning). The “ancient musicians” used the first method, fixing the melodic relief with marks on the monochord (as, for example, in Boethius). In the second method, “the invention of which is associated with the Relaxed German, ” the letters E, S, T (Greek tau), D, Δ, as well as combinations of the named letters, indicated the interval of the height adjacent to this sound [5] . The third “extremely convenient” way, in which the nevma (notulae) was strictly positioned on the rulers and in the intervals specified by the key (meta), invented, according to John, Guido: “Tertius neumandi modus est a Guidone inventus. Hic sit per virgas, clines, quilismata, puncta, podatos, caeterasque huiusmodi notulas suo ordine dispositas, quas etiam meta in margine apposita multum facit expeditas. " In this passage of John, as the researchers note, for the first time in history the names of nemes are mentioned (in the first meaning) [6] .
Reception
The treatise of John Cotton is one of the most frequently reproduced works on music in the Middle Ages (some of its copies were made back in the 15th century). A critical edition of the treatise "On Music" (with a tonaria ) was published in the first volume of the famous Corpus scriptorum de musica series edited by Smiths van Wasberge in 1950.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Record # 88025024 // VIAF - 2012.
- ↑ Benedictine Affligem Abbey (consecrated in 1086) - the most significant in Brabant at the end of the 11th and 12th centuries.
- ↑ By “consonances” we mean emmelic, i.e. suitable for melody, intervals. A complete list of John: unison, half tone, whole tone, half tone, deton , quart, fifth, half tone with fifth, whole tone with fifth.
- ↑ John is talking only about “two or three notes” in a free voice.
- ↑ E = equalitas (unison), S = semitonium (semitone), T = tonus (whole tone), D = diatessaron (quart), Δ = diapente (quinta).
- ↑ Phillips 2000, S. 369
Literature
- Hucbald, Guido, and John on music: Three medieval treatises. Ed. by CV Palisca. New Haven, CT, 1978 (translation into English of the treatise "On Music" by John Cotton).
- Phillips N. Notationen und Notationslehren von Boethius bis zum 12. Jahrhundert // Die Lehre vom einstimmigen liturgischen Gesang. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2000, SS. 293–624 (= Geschichte der Musiktheorie, 4)
- Palisca C. Johannes Cotto // The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York; London, 2001.
- Atkinson ch. The critical nexus. Tone-System, mode and notation in early medieval music. Oxford, 2009.
Links
- John Cotton. A treatise on music (CSM 1, revised by J.M.Smits van Wasberge)