FRANCO, 
eat of meafured mufic, of which, he pioufly obferves, 
aren nt has the precedence, as the principal of the fub- 
fay,’? continues he, “t ba i have 
r own 
convenience, but apa forthe fake of its ae truth, 
h w 
the eafe with which it may be comprehended by th 
tudent, ana its containing the moft perfe€t method of 
teaching all th odes meafured mufic, and their 
notation. For as there a ral authors, as well mo- 
ern as ancient, who in their treatifes give many 
fic, and on the contrary are 
other particulars, efpecially in 
ink th doétrines 
ws 
Ea 
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as) 
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therefore propofe giving a compendious eer ion of 
meafure 
what others have faid well on the fulje@, to correct their 
errors, and to fupport by good reafons pee we ourfelves 
may have newly invented. 
t feems evident from this pase capac i ssn parts 
printed in one that the te) 
ean 
have ta 
u 
mer writers, 
er s des; par- 
ticularly, ae fecond, - ae uemadmadum quidam 
re ie writer upon the fubjec& of 
E and, chapter the. fourth, 
he fpeaks of the great error oak Jome have committed by 
i nd of the 
others have made in tying a long 
nd the author of a Latin treatife, 
which was among the Cotton mufical manufcripts, feems. 
- maps with great precifion the. degree of merit tha 
e to Franco, with refpeét to the time-table ; for f{peak- 
a oo the canto fer es of an earlier pe eriod, he fays: 
“ Though mufic was at that time not meafured, it was ap- 
proaching towards meafure, when Franco appeared, who 
was the fir approved au writer, On mea- 
fured mufic.” After this intro di @ion, de =fnitions are 
given in which we fhall mention whatever feems fingular or: 
curious. Meafured mufic, he fays, is regulated by long an 
ort times, or portions of mea d meafure he de- 
fines, the regulated motion of any feries of founds,.whether 
be unable to proceed together 
be the purport of the Svigioal which however we. fhall 
red m 
; willy, ad partly meafured. 
d mufic, in which we fhall not feruple to infert 
antly throw into thé notes for the confideration, of 
ne s dif-. 
J ves an idea of more tha Pp 
cme ne of note for note, and fyllable for fyllable, being 
elieved to have written 
his tract within fifty years of Gui 
ufic,’? continues aie * is of two kinds: 
Mufic wholly meafured is dif- 
ich is meafured throughout ; and that which is partly 
pa is the fimple chant or p lain-fong, which, ae 
meafured by time in fome degree, is neither organum 
difcant, as it is commonly called by thofe who fing the ec~ 
clefiaftical chants.” “ Dividitur autem menfurabilis mu- 
fica in menfurabilem fimpliciter et partim. Menfurabilis fim-. 
pliciter eft difeantus, eo quod in omni parte fua menfuratur. 
Menfurabilis eekenie - cantus fimplex et ian as menfura- 
tus, fed organum non eft, neque difcantus, (organum) 
communiter vero ‘dicitur -quibus cantus eccleig tds tem-- 
ore a ur.’ 
Lore 
™ 
SS 
 S 
> 
v 
me 
a 
= 3 
pp 
an 
un ecaufe 
neared like th erhaps, i in jee upon 
ong,. a principal iy, while it continued to be 
sane nearly in the fame manner as it ufed to be before- 
parts were a“ to it, was faid to be partly meafured; and 
th r difcant, moving in proportionate notes 
In our cathedrals, where the pfalms are chanted in fo 
parts, nee is nei Acar ear) mee nor wholly difre-~ 
garded: it is kept with refpec to the -as all t 
parts anes together ; yet the melody re 
e large,, or the 
minim. ) e, he tells us, are either erfott or imperfect. 
The "edt ig he calls the firft and principal of all the 
sioeie for. in that others are included. ‘“ The perfeét 
note, he tells us,.is that which is meafured by three. timesy. 
or portions ; ; the ternary divifion being the moft perfe& o 
all, “as it had its name from the Holy rinity, which is s true 
and pure perfeétion:”’ 
‘The perfect long is reprefented by a fquare, not with a tail 
on:the. ca“ sali as a: ee 
fented oy the fame fas €, is equal a to two.. It is im- 
perfe& for the reafon already aflig _fays Fr, » and 
can only acquire its full length by the addition of a breve 
before or after it. henge 1 3°? conti es: 
t inues “h 
_who call it perfect; as that t only. is.entire 
and — which can ftand’ by itfelf.” 
ms by this s\paflage as if there had been a doaowey: 
even in "Franco? o’s time about the greater degree of perfection - 
of triple, or common time; in after ages, however, the- 
binary 
