Musica ficta

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Musica ficta

In European music prior to about 1600, musica ficta (from Latin, 'false' or 'feigned' music) referred to chromatically

Chromaticism

In music, chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale....
altered pitches, not notated in the music, which were to be supplied by performers.

Simply put, musica ficta were notes outside of the diatonic modal system in use for a given piece that would be performed by trained musicians of the period. One common (but not exclusive) use of ficta was to avoid harsh harmonic

Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
or melodic

Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
intervals (for example the tritone

Tritone

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In European music prior to about 1600, musica ficta (from Latin, 'false' or 'feigned' music) referred to chromatically

Chromaticism

Harmony

Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
intervals (for example the tritone

Tritone

The tritone is a musical interval that spans three major second. The tritone is the same as an augmented fourth, which in equal temperament is enharmonic to a diminished fifth....
, the 'diabolus in musica'). An example might be the use of a B-flat instead of a B-natural to avoid a tritone against an F in another part. In modern transcriptions of Medieval

Medieval music

The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century....
and Renaissance music

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600. Dates of classical music eras, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century....
, ficta are usually indicated with an accidental

Accidental (music)

In music, an accidental is a note whose Pitch is not a member of a Musical scale or Musical mode indicated by the Modulation key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, Sharp , Flat , and Natural sign , may also be called accidentals....
engraved

Music engraving

Music engraving is the art of drawing music notation at high quality for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. The term music copying is almost equivalent, though music engraving implies a higher degree of skill and quality, usually for publication....
above (instead of before) the note. Editors provide these for modern singers who cannot have received the kind of training given to singers several hundred years ago that made such indications unnecessary. Only small portions of that training can be reconstructed from fragmentary and often contradictory sources.

One thing that is well known is that singers were trained to think in hexachord

Hexachord

In music, a hexachord is a six-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt serialism....
s denoted by the names ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la that contained only one half-step: the one between mi and fa. The name musica ficta refers to the elaborate use of hexachorda ficta, these were hexachords other than the three types that were part of the system by Guido of Arrezzo: molle on F, naturale on C and durum on G. The fictive hexachord were notated by indicating that a note, say F had the role of mi in the hexachord (in modern terms: be sharpened) by adding the sign . This created a fictive hexachord on D that would last for a certain (but not indicated) number of notes until the voice mutated into another hexachord. Likewise could indicate that a note was fa in a fictive hexachord, or before B that the hexachord was molle rather than durum. Unfortunately the use of the signs was by no means consistent. It was assumed that a good singer knew his mi's and fa's, so that the signs were typically only added if the scribe anticipated that singers would otherwise interpret differently.

The exact performance practice of musica ficta, where and when they were used, is a matter of intense investigation and controversy among musicological

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture....
scholars; it has been controversial, and is likely to remain so, for a long time. Music theorists

Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
from Odo of Cluny

Odo of Cluny

Saint Odo of Cluny , a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, was the second abbot of Cluny. He enacted various reforms in the Cluniac monastery system of France and Italy....
in the 10th century to Zarlino

Gioseffo Zarlino

Gioseffo Zarlino , was an Italy Music theory and composer of the Renaissance music. He was possibly the most famous music theorist between Aristoxenus and Jean Philippe Rameau, and made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning....
in the 16th century give highly different rules and situations for application of ficta. The controversy is not only among contemporary musicologists; theorists of the Late Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe history of Europe in the periodization of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early modern Europe ....
were never in agreement on the rules of ficta either. 13th century music theorist Johannes de Garlandia

Johannes de Garlandia

Johannes de Garlandia may refer to:* Johannes de Garlandia * Johannes de Garlandia ...
and 14th century theorist Philippe de Vitry

Philippe de Vitry

Philippe de Vitry was a France composer, Music theory and poet. He was an accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, and may also have been the author of the ars nova treatise....
both wrote that ficta were essential in singing polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voice , as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord s ....
, but resisted their use in plainchant, while early 14th century theorist Jacques de Liège insisted that notes in plainchant needed to be altered with judicious application of musica ficta.

The use of ficta originated with the difference between B-flat and B-natural, which was integrated in medieval theory and in practical teaching as part of the system of hexachord

Hexachord

In music, a hexachord is a six-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt serialism....
s. However, rules of cadencing and tritone avoidance could also require other notes to become altered under certain circumstances.

13th century theorists divided the use of ficta into two general categories: causa necessitatis (ficta supplied by necessity, for example to avoid a dissonant interval); and causa pulchritudinis (ficta supplied for reason of beauty). Sometimes a melodic phrase simply sounds better, or sounded better to a trained 13th-century ear, when it is smoothed out by judicious application of ficta.

In particular, contrapuntal treatises

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more Register that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony....
of the Renaissance, such as that of Johannes Tinctoris

Johannes Tinctoris

Johannes Tinctoris was a Flemings composer and music theory of the Renaissance. He is known to have studied in Orleans, and to have been master of the choir there; he also may have been director of choirboys at Chartres....
, counseled resolution at cadences through the largest possible sixth into the octave, which in many cases requires the upper voice to use a sharp in order to form the major sixth (see dyadic counterpoint). At such points, accidentals were in fact sometimes notated in the 14th and early 15th centuries.

It was formerly believed that such treatises were addressed to composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
s; now, by further examination of their Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
texts, many musicologists

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture....
have concluded that they were in fact speaking to performers, both of notated and improvised polyphony

Polyphony

Musica ficta

Further reading