318 On the Music of the Middle Ages. 
musical progressions, resembling in this respect the various styles 
of Gothic Architecture, some of which are more elaborate than 
others, but all based on the same principles, and differing only in 
their ornamental details. And if the question be put, as it often 
is, which is the most correct text of any given piece of Music in 
the Liturgical books, I answer, by asking whether you prefer the 
style of the Cathedral at Salisbury, or that of Henry the Seventh’s 
Chapel at Westminster ? 
The Musical Scale of the Greeks, from which that of the Middle 
Ages was taken, was founded upon certain sequences of four notes 
each, called Tetracords; each Tetracord being composed of two 
whole tones and one semitone, the extreme notes forming the in- 
terval of a fourth. These Tetracords were either joined together, 
or separated; in the former case, the last note of one Tetracord 
formed the first note of the next; and in the other, the succeeding 
Tetracord commenced on the note above the last of the preceding 
one. The entire Scale was composed of four of these Tetracords, 
with the addition of anote at the bottom, termed Proslambenomenon, 
which was the first note of the system, but did not form part of 
any Tetracord; so that the whole compass of the Scale was limited 
to two octaves, commencing with the A in the first space of the 
Bass Clef, and terminating with the A in the second space of the 
Treble Clef. 
Fae uaila Wak AtEE OF THE GREEKS. 
aa. 
Tetracord g 
hyperboleon, f 
united, e 
d d 
c Tetracord , 
ee b natural synnemenon. at 
Tetracord 
meson. 
united, 
Tetracord 
diezeugmenon. 
Tetracord ( 
hypaton. ( 
Proslambenomenon. 
Gamma. 
a 
G 
F 
E 
D 
C 
B 
A 
it 
