328 On the Music of the Middle Ages. 
of the Middle Ages as Guido himself, living at the very time, 
and profoundly skilled in the art. 
The fifteenth chapter of the Micrologus is devoted entirely to 
this branch of the subject, and the following are the most important 
passages in it: 
“In like manner as in Poetry there are letters and syllables, 
words, feet, and verses; so in Music there are Phthongi, or sounds, 
of which one, two, or three are adapted to a syllable; and these, 
either separately or in duplicate, constitute a neume, that is a part 
of the strain; and one or more of these parts make a phrase, or a 
convenient place to take breath.” 
“Tt is necessary that the Melody should be marked by a beat, as 
is the case in metrical feet.” 
“Some notes derive a slight pause from the circumstance that 
others are doubly longer, or doubly shorter, or of different duration; 
and great care must be taken to avoid such a division of newmes, 
that when they are formed of the same note repeated, or of two or 
three different notes; nevertheless they should correspond to each 
other, either in the number of the notes, or duration of the tones.” 
“ Let then the Musician propose to himself of what sequences of 
notes he will compose his Melody, as the Poet determines of what 
feet he will make his Poetry; except that it is not necessary that 
the Musician should bind himself by the same strict rules, because 
this art admits of a considerable latitude in the disposition of its 
measures.” : 
“Tt is necessary, however, that the musical phrases should be of 
equal length, like the verses in Poetry, and sometimes that the same 
should be repeated, or varied with a slight change.” 
“Again each respective phrase should return the same way, and 
by the same steps as those by which it advances; and if one phrase 
makes.a circuit or line in descending from the higher notes, another 
one should oppose to it a similar inclination in answering from the 
lower notes: as is the case when we look into a well, and have our 
face reflected back from the water, Moreover, sometimes one 
syllable may have one or more musical phrases associated with it, 
and at others one phrase is distributed over several syllables.” 
