b.

Music's power to influence character made it important in

educating the young.

c. The study of music through reason was a higher pursuit

than the performance of music; therefore, a philosopher
of music was the true musician, not a singer or
instrumentalist.

D. Practical theory

1. In contrast to Boethius's philosophical approach, many treatises

from the ninth century through the later Middle Ages were
oriented toward practical concerns.

2. Musica enchiriadis (Music Handbook) and Scolica enchiriadis

(Excerpts from Handbooks)

a. Anonymous ninth-century treatise with examples

b. Directed at students who aspired to religious posts
c. Introduces a system for notating chant
d. Describes eight modes
e. Provides exercises for locating semitones in chant
f. Explains consonances and their use in polyphony (see
HWM Chapter 5)

3. Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus (ca. 1025-28)

a. A practical guide for singers, commissioned by the bishop

of Arezzo
b. Covers notes, intervals, scales, modes, composition, and
improvisation

VIII. THE CHURCH MODES

A. By the eleventh century, the system had achieved its complete form.

B. Modes can be described as species with different arrangements of

whole and half steps in relationship to a final, the main note of the
mode and usually the last note in the melody.

C. Each of the four finals have two associated modes (see HWM Example
2.4a).

1. Authentic modes range from a step below the final to an octave

above it.
2. Plagal modes range from a fourth or fifth below the final to a
fifth or sixth above it.
3. To medieval singers, each of the eight modes had a distinctive
character, even though the two modes on the same final might
sound similar to modern ears.

D. The only chromatic pitch was B-flat, which frequently appears in

melodies in modes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.