MUSICA FICTA
These terms should not be taken too literally. Indeed, Philippe de Vitry himself, as reported in Ars Nova, cautioned that “false music” is not false but real “and even necessary.” All that the name implied was that the notes involved were not part of the gamut as defined long ago by Guido d’Arezzo, and that they had no predefined “vox,” or position within a hexachord. So in order to solmize them—that is, find a place for them among the ut–re–mi’s of traditional sight-singing—one had to imagine a hexachord that contained them, one that may have been “fictitious” with respect to the official theory of music, but whose sounding contents were fully presentable to the senses and in that respect altogether real.
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 Business Math, Politics, and Paradise: The Ars Nova." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-008012.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 8 Business Math, Politics, and Paradise: The Ars Nova. In Oxford University Press, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 12 Nov. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-008012.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 Business Math, Politics, and Paradise: The Ars Nova." In Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 12 Nov. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-008012.xml
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