Medieval France
. Rhythmic patterns governing some music of the Notre-Dame School, which were probably modeled on poetic metrics of ancient Greek and Latin. A series of rhythmic modes most likely predated the graphic notation, developed in the early 13th century within the Notre-Dame School, providing the earliest western musical notation indicating rhythm. The earliest systematic
theoretical treatment of rhythmic modes was probably a distillation of performance practices at the cathedral, subsequently edited and revised by Johannes de Garlandia (not the English poet and scholar of the same name). Garlandia provided notational patterns for six rhythmic modes, all intended for untexted music, and undoubtedly developed for the discant clausulae composed at Notre-Dame as parts of organa, the polyphonic embellishment of the liturgical service. Such modally rhythmized discant clausulae gave rise to the motet early in the 13th century.
Sandra Pinegar
[See also: ARS ANTIQUA; CLAUSULA; FRANCO OF COLOGNE; MOTET (13TH CENTURY); MUSIC THEORY; NOTRE-DAME SCHOOL; RHYTHM]
Frobenius, Wolf. “Modus (Rhythmuslehre).” In Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, ed. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1972-. 8 pp. (1974).
Treitler, Leo. “Regarding Meter and Rhythm in the Ars Antiqua.” Musical Quarterly 65(1979):524–58.
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