Musica Ficta.Theories of accidental inflexions in vocal Polyphony from Marchetto to Zarlino

Music notation, like other form of writing, aids memory by means of visual represention of what is intrinsically an aural medium. The developmentof music notation in Europe shows an increasing graphic control over various aspects of sound. The problem of how torepresent music visually was solved first in the matter of pitch. By the early eleventh century, all graphic signs needed to notate pitch unambiguously had been introduced, so that the principal innovations in music notation made during the high and late Middle Ages and the Renaissance were in the domain of rhythm and meter. However although musicians of the period had at their disposal everything they needed to notate pitches unambiguously, modern readers of carly music aources, are bedevilled by a persistent problem in reconstructing the intended pitches. This is known somewhat informally as the problem of musica ficta. "The main purpose of this book is to clarify the meaning and use of the conventions governing the practice of implied accidentals in vocal polyphony from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century - a problem which has fascinated musicologists for over a hundred years now. Musicians of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance did not think it was necessary to write down all accidentals; since some accidental inflections were implied by the musical context, performers made them whether or not they were notated. This practice imposes on modern readers of early music sources, the task of supplying all such conventionally implied accidental inflections and the successful achievement of this task depends on a knowledge and understanding of the conventions involved. Since the practice of implied accidentals can be understood only in a wider context of compositional, notational, and performing practice of the period, the book attempts to throw light on some aspects of these practices as well."--Publisher's description