Reflexiones sobre la procedencia y evolución del “ritmo” en la monodia litúrgica y polifonía medieval (I)

Abstract

This paper presents some “meditations” about the procedure, evolution and application of the concepts rhythm and metre in liturgical monody and medieval polyphony, both of them appeared in contact with historical musical sources when interpreting “early music”. Taking its basis on the 13th century writers of treatises in favour of mensural positions, Historical research on musical notation, from its beginnings in the second half of 19th century, has centered his theoretical approaches in “sharp” application of quantitative laws (metre, poetry), -which could be framed with mathematical accuracy (mensura certa)-, to musical figures. So, Historical research, as they were more difficult to enunciate mathematically, left aside other hypothesis considering that the laws of idiomatic accent (oratorical rhythm, numerose canere) or those of the dance (weightiness, support: pes = pace, step), also could have a rellevant influence in rhythm, metre, and, finally, the musical notation. It is not yet well known if the rhythm of the Greek and latin languages were founded on syllabic quantity or syllabic accent. Otherwise, nobody doubts about musical ryhthm comes from the language rhythm. It is very difficult to clarify borderlines, if they really exists, between metre (quantity) and rhythm (accent, weightiness), because, as it is usually said, “rhythm is soul of metre”. This paper think about different circumstances which could make the study conditional on the ancient european notations, in 19th century. It also deals with the necessity of looking back to the classical Greek and Latin writers (Cicerón, Horacio, Quintiliano, Agustín, etc.), as they can clarify the provenence, evolution and differences among those concepts and terms and their application to music.