1. (Pseudo-) Johannis de Muris: Tractatus de musica – Summa Musicae (Fourteenth century), chapter XXIV (GS III, 239): “Polyphonia … dividitur autem in tres species, scilicet dyaphoniam, triphoniam, & tetraphoniam, id est, in cantu duplicem, triplicem & quadruplicem./ Dyaphonia est modus canendi duobus modis; & dividitur in basilicam & organicam. Basilica est (modus) canendi duobus modis melodiam, ita quod usus teneat continue notam unam, quae est quasi basis cantus alterius concinentis, alter vero socius cantum incipit vel in diapente, vel in diapason, quandoque ascendens, quandoque descendens, ita quod in pausa concordet aliquo modo cum eo, qui basin observat”. [“Polyphony is divided in three species, i.e., dyaphonia, triphonia, and tetraphonia, i.e., into double-, triple- and quadruple song. Dyaphonia is a form of singing in two melodies (modes) and is divided into a D. basilica and organica. D. basilica means singing in a melody in two modes, in a manner that one (musician) continuously holds one note which is, so to say, the basis of the upper voice in this part-singing, while the other (musician), or partner, starts the song at the 5th or octave, in ascending or descending (passages), so that at the cadence (pausa) he may join the other who held the bass, in concord.”]Google Scholar

Already three hundred years earlier, the term “dyaphonia” (or “diaphonia“) was adapted by Guido d'Arezzo, in his Microiogus de Musica (ca. 1025–1033), chapter 18, for the polyphony of his time, though for organal polyphony only (= dyaphonia organica, according to Pseudo-de Muris):Google Scholar

“Diaphonia vocum disiuncto sonat, quam nos organum vocamus, cum disiunctae voces et concorditer dissonant et dissonanter concordant” (cf.: Joh. Smits van Waesberghe, Guidonis Aretini Micrologus, 1955, pp. 196–97). [“One gets the sound of a ‘Diaphonia' through the disjunction (splitting) of voices which we call ‘organum's, i.e., when the split voices would in turn be disjunct in concordances, or conjunct in dossonances.”] – Cf. Ewald Jammers, Musik in Byzanz, im papstlichen Rom und im Frankenreich (Heidelberg, 1962), pp. 184–85. According to H. Besseler (Afmw, VII [1925], VIII [1927]; also MGG, VII, 105), J. de Muris is not the author of Summa Musicae hence “Pseudo-de Muris”. Also cf., Ulrich Michels, “Die Musiktraktate des Johannes de Muris,” Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, VIII, (Wiesbaden, 1970), 16.Google Scholar

2. Originally, ison is a basic symbol in Byzantine neumatic notation representing a repeated or sustained note. Cf. Egon Wellesz, Byzantine Music and Hymnography (Oxford, 1961), pp. 288–89 quoting the Papadike – textbook: “All the time the tone remains on the same level, the Ison is sung”.Google Scholar

Ison-singing refers to the traditional proto-polyphonies in use since antiquity over wide areas between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. E. Jammers (op. cit., p. 187) mentions the present-day performance of the two-part wow-singing in some Byzantine monasteries, as well as in Yugoslavian folksong.Google Scholar

Recent recordings of the music of the pearl divers in the Persian Gulf (Bahrain), made by Poul Rovsing Olsen, reveal a most archaic form of ison- (or drone-) singing: The divers are assisted by some workmen (saibs) and one to four singers (nahams). “The nahams sing solo, one after the other, while the saibs-(and frequently the divers) produce a drone in a very low pitch, more than two octaves below the register of the soloist. This drone is a surprising phenomenon. It is true that vocal drone may be encountered in many European and Asiatic areas,… but the fact that it is situated in such a low register would seem to be exceptional. The drone takes several forms ….”. Cf.: Record-Album: Pěcheurs de Perles et Musiciens du Golfe Persique, ed. P.R. Olsen. Disques Ocora, OCR 42 (1968).Google Scholar

3. Part of the present article was delivered as a lecture at the International Conference ‘East and West’ in Jerusalem, 1963, which took part in collaboration with the International Folk Music Council. – Abstract in: Journal of the IFMC, XVI (1964) p. 49–50.Google Scholar

4. See Robert Lachmann, Musik des Orients, (Breslau, 1929), p. 9ff., – Idem, “Zur aussereuopäischen Mehrstimmigkeit,” Kongressbericht der Beethoven-Zentenarfeier (Vienna, 1927), 321. – Jaap Kunst, Metre, Rhythm, Multi-Part Music, (London, 1950). – Paul Collaer, “Polyphonies de tradition populaire en Europe méditer-ranéenne”, Acta Musicologica, XXXII, (1960), 51. – Bruno Nettl, “Notes on the Concept and Qassification of Polyphony,” Festschrift F. Blume (Kassel, 1963), pp. 247–51. – Hans Hickmann, “La musique polyphonique dans l'Égypte ancienne,” Bull de l'Institut d'Égypte, XXXIV (Cairo, 1951–52). –Google Scholar

5. Edith Gerson-Kiwi, “Vocal Folk Polyphonies of the Western Orient in Jewish Tradition,” Yuval, Studies of the Jewish Music Research Centre I (Jerusalem, 1968), 169–193. Musical examples, 16–25.Google Scholar

6. Concerning the process of learned improvisation, see, E. Gerson-Kiwi, “On the Technique of Arab Taqsim-Composition.” Festschrift Walter Graf (Vienna 1970), pp. 68–73.Google Scholar

7. Hans Hickmann, La trompette dans l'Égypte ancienne, (Cairo, 1946); Idem, “La musique polyphonique dans l'Égypte ancienne,” Bull. de l'Institut d'Égyptes, XXXIV, (1952–52), p. 230. For the bourdonesque stringed instruments see, Werner Bachmann, Origins of Bowing … (New York – Toronto, 1969), p. 93ff.; Richard G. Campbell, Zur Typologie der Schalenlanghalslaute (Strassbourg, 1968), p. 45ff.Google Scholar

8. Edition J. Smits von Waesberghe, op. cit., pp. 204–206.Google Scholar

9. This drone-technique of the Kemanje- and Tanbur-players of today has probably not changed essentially since the late Middle Ages. It has been described a few times by Arabo-Persian writers on music as a practice well-known by the performing artists. One of the sources (kindly indicated to me by Dr. H. Avenary) stems from an anonymous fifteenth-century treatise dedicated to the Sultan Ormanli Muhammad II (1451–1481) and refers to the use of a bourdon-string struck during the performance of a Pishru, (‘prelude') (cf. Baron R. d'Erlanger, La musique arabe, vol. 4 (Paris, 1939), pp. 245–6):Google Scholar

“Faire un tarji', c'est – dans le langage des joueurs d'instruments à cordes, spécialement celui des luthistes – faire que le mouvement de la mélodie s'effectue sur les notes d'une corde – le hadd par exemple (la 5e) qui reçoit alors le nom de sayir at-tarji'ah (corde de mouvement de la tarji'ah) – et après chaque battement de plectre, ou un certain nombre de ces battements sur cette dernière corde, on en imprime un autre à une autre corde toujours libre, le bamm par exemple (la lre) à laquelle on donne alors le nom de lazim at-tarji'ah (corde fixe de la tarji'ah ñ bourdon) et aussi celui de raji' (corde de retour). Les tarji'at (pl. de tarji) sont: a) soit égales: … un coup de plectre à la corde de mouvement, … un autre à la corde de retour … b) soit inégales: … un battement à la corde de mouvement, … deux a la corde de retour … et ainsi de suite …”. According to pp. 235 and 247, this is a quotation from ‘Abd-al-Qádir.Google Scholar

A similar source may be found in Al-Lādhiqī's “Epistle on the Victory” (about 1500; cf. d'Erlanger, ibid., p. 427): “Un autre terme conventional employé par les musiciens est le tarjī, il consiste, pendant qu'on évolue sur les notes d'une corde à l'aide de percussions, à effectuer une, deux percussions ou davantage sur une autre corde libre – ainsi que le font des professionnels, chez lesquels ce procédé est fort usité. La deuxième corde est appelée corde fixe du tarjī, et la premiere, corde mobile du tarjī'. Par abréviation, la première est encore dite de marche et la deuxième de repliement.” Google Scholar

According to Alexis Chottin, Tableau de la musique marocaine (Paris 1938), p. 66, Ibn Sīnā (980–1037) mentions in his Kitāb ash-shifā (‘Book of Remedy') four kinds of melodic ornaments, among them the tarkīb (‘composition, or superposition [of voices?], and its subordinate form, the ibdāl (‘substitute'). “Quant au tarkīb, ajoute-il (Ibn Sina), il consiste à měler à la note fondamentale, en une seule percussion, une autre note qui soit convenable.”Google Scholar

10. Walther Krüger, “Zum Organum des Codex Calixtinus”, Die Musikforschung, XVII (1964), 225–234; Idem., “Ad superni regis decus”, ibid., XX, (1967), 30–44. – Cf. the complete edition of the polyphonic pieces of the Codex Calixtinus, by Peter Wagner, Die Gesänge der Jakobusliturgie zu Santiago de Compos tela (Freiburg, 1931), pp. 112–126. The transcription of this twelfth century polyphony – the earliest one known in Spain – is given here still in choral notation. – Higino Anglès, in his article “Die Mehrstimmigkeit des Calixtinus von Compostela und seine Rhythmik” Festschrift H. Besseler, (Leipzig, 1961), 91 ff., tries new ways in a partly mensural transcription, acknowledges also the new ways of W. Krüger without being able to agree to his interpretation of the vox organalis as an instrumental voice, and thus, to the supposed fundamental drone.Google Scholar

W. Krüger has some strong arguments for his defense: Dom German Prado, editor of the Facsimile-edition of the Codex (1944), was already able to identify the vox principalis of the Conductus Ad superni regis as being a Galician dance for a bagpipe, and some more may have been dance tunes from Toledo and Seville. Moreover, there are to be seen the strange drone notes before the beginning of the songs, sometimes indicating a mixture chord, possibly referring to a special bourdon instrument or even an organ. the existence of such mixture organ pipes had been proven even for the early eleventh century (cf. Hanoch Avenary's “The Mixture Principal in the Mediaeval Organ,” Musica Disciplina, IV (1950), 51ff). – The bagpipe tunes and drone melodies of medieval Santiago de Compostela – as they have been assumed to exist by Jammers, Krüger, or G. Prado – have perpetuated their tradition in the present-day folk-playing of the Gaita Gallega, the peasant bagpipe of Spanish Galicia. In his monograph on the Bagpipes (Oxford, 1960), Anthony Baines, while discussing one specimen of the gaita from Santiago de Compostela, stresses the fact that “the present state of the instrument is flourishing”, that makers of the Gaita are in steady demand and that there are itinerant gaiteros, members of Galician clubs bringing their melodies to other provinces (pp. 108–111). The accomplished technical structure of the instrument, with a bass drone (roncon), a tenor drone and a treble drone (ronquillo), the latter sounding the high twelfth-mixture sound, may serve as a further indication that we are faced here with an indigenous tradition of high age.Google Scholar

11. One should not overlook the sociological realities of this international center of pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela. In the first book of the Codex, the chronicler enumerates the nationalities among the pilgrims from twenty-two countries: “Franci, Scotti, Theutinici, Yberi, Angli, Flandri, Frisi, Itali, Greci, Armeni, Russi, Nubiani, Parthi, Ephesi, Medi, Hierosolimitani, Ungari, Bulgari, Africani, Persi, Mesopotamiani, Iudei.” Many of them, according to the above source, brought musical instruments from their country to assist at the liturgical ceremonies for St. Jacob in an active way; thus joining forces in an international ‘orchestra’ of varying colors, leaving open any kind of performance, and any level of craftsmanship. It cannot be compared with France's Ars antiqua. Essentially, the part-playing remained folk polyphony, like certain local part-writings in Italy, where one should call it, even in the thirteenth century, not “ars antiqua,” but “antiquissima.” See: Kurt von Fischer, “Musica e Societa nel Trecento Italiano.” L'ars nova italiana del Trecento. Centro di Studi. (Certaldo, 1970), p. 13; Idem., “Die Rolle der Mehrstimmigkeit am Dome von Siena zu Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts,”Archiv f. Musikwissenschaft, XVIII (1961), 167 ff.Google Scholar

12. Edited by Max Schneider (Kassel, 1936). – On the relationship between the historical forms, see H. Besseler, Bourdon und Fauxbourdon (Leipzig, 1950), p. 72.Google Scholar

13. Cf. E.E. Lowinsky, Tonality and An tonality in 16th-century Music, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), pp. 6–11. – Another extension of the scheme of “Italian Tenors” can be followed along the dance tunes of guitar tablatures, during the early Baroque, analysed in a recent article by R. Hudson, “The Concept of Mode in Italian Guitar Music during the first half of the 17th Century”, Acta Musicologica, XLIII(1970), 163–183.Google Scholar

14. Diego Ortiz … p. 106 (ed. M. Schneider): “para mayor cumplimiento desto obra me pareçio poner aqui estas Recercados sobre estos Cantos llanos que en Italia comunmente llaman Tenores, en los quales se ha de aduertir que queriendolos taner como aqui estan apuntadoas las quatro bozes, y la reçercada sobre ellas es el effecto principal para que las hize. Mas queriendo tañer el contrapunto sobre el baxo solo, queda el contrapunto en perfection como si para esta sola boz se hiziera, y para en caso que falte el Cimbalo se puede estudiar y tañer desta manera”.Google Scholar