Musical notation system used for Renaissance vocal polyphony
"Mensural" redirects here. For mensural level, see Beat (music).
Early 16th-century manuscript in mensural notation, containing a Kyrie by J. Barbireau.Upper voice of the "Christe eleison" part of Barbireau's Kyrie (cf. lines 4–6 in the manuscript), in mensural notation and modern transcription. playⓘ
Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for polyphonic European vocal music from the late 13th century until the early 17th century. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measured rhythmic durations in terms of numerical proportions between note values. Its modern name is inspired by the terminology of medieval theorists, who used terms like musica mensurata ("measured music") or cantus mensurabilis ("measurable song") to refer to the rhythmically defined polyphonic music of their age, as opposed to musica plana or musica choralis, i.e., Gregorian plainchant. Mensural notation was employed principally for compositions in the tradition of vocal polyphony, whereas plainchant retained its own, older system of neume notation throughout the period. Besides these, some purely instrumental music could be written in various forms of instrument-specific tablature notation.
Mensural notation grew out of an earlier, more limited method of notating rhythms in terms of fixed repetitive patterns, the so-called rhythmic modes, which were developed in France around 1200. An early form of mensural notation was first described and codified in the treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis ("The art of measured chant") by Franco of Cologne (c. 1280). A much expanded system allowing for greater rhythmic complexity was introduced in France with the stylistic movement of the Ars nova in the 14th century, while Italian 14th-century music developed its own, somewhat different variant. Around 1400, the French system was adopted across Europe, and became the standard form of notation of the Renaissance music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Over the course of the 17th century, mensural notation gradually evolved into modern measure (or bar) notation.
The decisive innovation of mensural notation was the systematic use of different note shapes to denote rhythmic durations that stood in well-defined, hierarchical numerical relations to each other. While less context dependent than notation in rhythmic modes, mensural notation differed from the modern system in that the values of notes were still somewhat context-dependent. In particular, a note could have the length of either two or three units of the next smaller order, whereas in modern notation these relations are invariably binary. Whether a note was to be read as ternary ("perfect") or binary ("imperfect") was a matter partly of context rules and partly of a system of mensuration signs comparable to modern time signatures. There was also a complex system of temporarily shifting note values by proportion factors like 2:1 or 3:2. Mensural notation used no bar lines, and it sometimes employed special connected note forms (ligatures) inherited from earlier medieval notation. Unlike in the earliest beginnings of the writing of polyphonic music, and unlike in modern practice, mensural notation was usually not written in a score arrangement but in individual parts.
Mensural notation was extensively described and codified by contemporary theorists. As these writings, like all academic work of the time, were usually in Latin, many features of the system are still conventionally referred to by their Latin terms.
Mensuralnotation is the musical notation system used for polyphonic European vocal music from the late 13th century until the early 17th century. The...
with a system of mensural time signatures to distinguish between them. This black mensuralnotation gave way to white mensuralnotation around 1450, in...
longest notated note (though now obsolete) is the maxima. In medieval mensuralnotation, the brevis was one of the shortest note lengths in use, hence its...
music publishing List of scorewriters Mensuralnotation Modal notation Music engraving, drawing music notation for the purpose of mechanical reproduction...
names. It is the equivalent of the semifusa in mensuralnotation, first found in 15th-century notation. Sixteenth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in...
the earliest known copy of the composition, a manuscript written in mensuralnotation, was found at Reading Abbey; it was probably not drafted there, however...
durations by flags (much like modern notation), although in early notations durations were shown using mensural indications, and octave displacement by...
the value of a sixteenth note. It is the equivalent of the fusa in mensuralnotation. Eighth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a...
older symbol . The note equates to the semiminima ('half minim') of mensuralnotation. The word "crotchet" comes from Old French crochet, meaning 'little...
development of modern mensuralnotation. The rhythmic modes of Notre Dame Polyphony were the first coherent system of rhythmic notation developed in Western...
the conductor, who can see signature changes more easily. In the mensuralnotation of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries there are no bar lines, and the...
short, and may refer to: Brevis (note), a musical note in mensuralnotation, see Mensuralnotation Brevis (moth) Brevis (syllable), a light syllable in Ancient...
amount of lengthening a dot provides in early music contexts may vary. Mensuralnotation uses a dot of division to clarify ambiguities about its context-dependent...
music notation from the late thirteenth century (Morehen and Rastall 2001). It derives from the round, stemless semibrevis of mensuralnotation, hence...
proportional shortening of the value of individual note-shapes in mensuralnotation, either by coloration or by a sign of proportion. A minor or perfect...
which can be used by common office software or scorewriters. Mensuralnotation Musical notation Znamenny Chant Dom Gregory Sunol, Textbook of Gregorian Chant...
In musical notation, tenuto (Italian, past participle of tenere, "to hold"), denoted as a horizontal bar adjacent to a note, is a direction for the performer...
a British English name for the maxima (music), a note length in mensuralnotation Large, or G's, or grand, slang for $1,000 US dollars Large, a community...
as quarter notes) occurred less often. This development of white mensuralnotation may be a result of the increased use of paper (rather than vellum)...
systematic treatment of the new mensural innovations of the Ars Nova (for a brief explanation of the mensuralnotation in general, see the article Renaissance...
chromatic scale in place of its diatonic neighbor. Alteration, in the mensuralnotation used by renaissance music, the lengthening of a breve, semibreve or...
of white mensuralnotation, adopted around 1450. Franco of Cologne, ancient composer and music theorist, codified a system of rhythm notation. He explained...
Deluxe Music Construction Set Denemo Dorico Encore ENT (for typeset mensuralnotation) Finale Forte Frescobaldi Gregorio (for Neumes) Guitar Pro Igor Engraver...
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