And in England, There are Singers: Grafting Oneself into the Origins of Music

Abstract

MUSIC treatises from the Middle Ages frequently begin by rehearsing a genealogical narrative for the authorities in music. Often these are intertwined with myths and legends inherited from previous generations. Boethius is cited as an authority for the division of a tone. Guido is considered the father of the monochord. Isidore gives the ultimate definition of musica. A number of theorists also felt it important to establish a story for the origins of music. In the narrative of origins, some theorists opt for a story of the Muses, while others lean towards tales of biblical heritage. De origine et effectu musicae , a late fourteenth- to early fifteenth-century music treatise from England, offers slight variants to both options in a combination story of music's origin. In addition to the tales of Tubal from the Old Testament and mythical accounts of Pythagoras, De origine et effectu musicae records numerous authorities that make up the musical tradition from Boethius, Isidore and Guido, to Franco and Philippe de Vitry. Among what is expected, one source includes a poem that strategically places English singers among the authorities of the past (Table 3.1). The poem runs through a typical list of protagonists in the origin story, albeit with slight alteration to the chronology. Such deviation is not entirely uncommon in medieval texts. The border between legend and myth is sometimes difficult to distinguish in the different stories surrounding the origin of music, leading theorists to pen perplexing interpretations in their treatises. The elusive nature of these interpretations has resulted in a general dismissal of small deviations that do not fit into a so-called urtext narrative as unimportant and insignificant, sometimes for good reason. Noel Swerdlow is especially critical of the medieval authors, whose common sense seems to have escaped them when they wrote etymologies of music, altering the stories in various extremes. According to Swerdlow, historical facts were often replaced by mythical understanding of stories based on a pure trust in ancient texts, sometimes giving ‘the impression that they were not really understood by the writers themselves’. In De origine et effectu musicae , there is a unique addition to the common ancient list of authorities which is of significant interest: ‘Now England gives birth to the greatest number of singers.