Anonymous IV is the designation given to the writer of an important treatise of medieval

Medieval music

Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...

 music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

. He was probably an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 student working at Notre Dame

Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, most likely in the 1270s or 1280s. Nothing is known about his life, not even his name. His writings survive in two partial copies from Bury St Edmunds; one from the 13th century, and one from the 14th.

Along with Johannes de Garlandia

Johannes de Garlandia (music theorist)

Johannes de Garlandia was a French music theorist of the late ars antiqua period of medieval music...

 and Franco of Cologne

Franco of Cologne

Franco of Cologne was a German music theorist and possibly composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation permanently: that the duration of any note should be determined by its...

, whose work precedes his, Anonymous IV's writings are the main source for understanding the Notre Dame school

Notre Dame school

The group of composers working at or near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced, is referred to as the Notre Dame school, or the Notre Dame School of Polyphony....

 of polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

. He is mainly noted for having written about Léonin

Léonin

Léonin is the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name...

 and Pérotin

Pérotin

Pérotin , also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style...

, thereby assigning names to two of the composers of the music of the Notre Dame school who otherwise would have been anonymous; Léonin and Pérotin are among the earliest European composers whose names are actually known. Although they probably died at least fifty years before he was writing, he describes them as though they were still famous by name and part of a living tradition at the time.

Anonymous IV mentions Léonin

Léonin

Léonin is the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name...

 and Pérotin

Pérotin

Pérotin , also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style...

 as the best composers of organum

Organum

Organum is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line may be sung on the same text, the melody may be followed in parallel motion , or a combination of...

 and discant

Descant

Descant or discant can refer to several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice above or removed from others....

 respectively. He also mentions specific compositions as being by Pérotin (or Perotinus), including the four-part organa quadrupla Viderunt and Sederunt. Anonymous IV also mentions the work of the theorist Franco of Cologne, and gives descriptions of organum

Organum

Organum is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line may be sung on the same text, the melody may be followed in parallel motion , or a combination of...

, discantus

Descant

Descant or discant can refer to several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice above or removed from others....

, rhythmic mode

Rhythmic mode

In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations . The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note , but rather by its position within a group of notes written as a single figure called a "ligature", and by the position of the ligature...

s, rules for use of consonance and dissonance

Consonance and dissonance

In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...

, notation, and genres of composition.

Editions and translations

The standard edition of the treatise of Anonymous IV is that of Fritz Reckow. Two translations into English have been made. The most recent, and still in print, is by Jeremy Yudkin. Although the older translation by Luther Dittmer has long been unavailable, it has recently been released on-line by the Institute of Medieval Music.

Sources and further reading

• Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. (ISBN 0-393-09090-6)
• Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Music Literature Outlines Series I). Bloomington, Indiana. Frangipani Press, 1986. (ISBN 0-89917-034-X)
• Articles "Anonymous theoretical writings," "Organum," "Léonin," "Pérotin," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. (ISBN 1-56159-174-2)
• Fritz Reckow, editor. Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1967. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 4, 5.
• Luther Dittmer, translator and editor. Anonymous IV. Music Theorists in Translation 1. Ottawa: Institute of Medieval Music, 1959.
• Jeremy Yudkin (translator and editor). The Music Treatise of Anonymous IV: A New Translation. Musicological Studies and Documents 41. [Rome]: American Institute of Musicology, 1985.(ISBN 978-3775109949)