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Musica enchiriadis is an anonymous musicaltreatise authored during the 9th century. It is the first surviving attempt to set up a system of rules forpolyphony in western art music. The treatise was once attributed toHucbald, but this is no longer accepted.[1] Some historians once attributed it toOdo of Cluny (879–942).[2] It has also been attributed to AbbotHoger (d. 906).[3]
Thismusic theory treatise, along with its companion text,Scolica enchiriadis, was widely circulated in medievalmanuscripts, often in association withBoethius'De institutione musica.[4] It consists of nineteen chapters; the first nine are devoted tonotation,modes, and monophonicplainchant.[4]
Chapters 10–18 deal with polyphonic music. The author here shows howconsonant intervals should be used to compose orimprovise the type of early medieval polyphonic music calledorganum,[4] an early style of note-against-note polyphony; several examples of which are included in the treatise.[4]Scolica enchiriadis also observes that some melodies should be sung "more quickly" (celerius), others "more slowly" (morosius). The 19th chapter ofMusica enchiriadis relates the legend ofOrpheus.[4]
Thescale used in the work, which is based on a system oftetrachords, appears to have been created solely for use in the work itself, rather than taken from actual musical practice.[1] The treatise also uses a very rare system of notation, known asDaseian notation. This notation has a number of figures which are rotated 90 degrees to represent different pitches.
A critical edition of the treatises was published in 1981, and an English translation by Raymond Erickson in 1995.[4]
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