Later mensural notation
Psalms in mensural notation, decorated manuscript on paper [France, c.1700]
An unusual, late example of mensural notation in an attractive choirbook setting of psalms made in France c.1700.

Two-part settings of 152 psalms, tenor and bass parts notated on facing pages on up to three staves per page. 308 pages, 135 x 305mm, watermark: bear within a shield, notation in black ink with the tenor parts heightened in colours and with foliate decoration at the end of the staves (possibly lacking title page and a leaf at the end, first two leaves loose). Contemporary French sheep binding, clasps.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby’s, 4 December 2007, lot 109.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5404.

Mensural notation, in use from the end of the 13th century until the early 17th century, was the first system in European music to systematically use individual note shapes to denote duration: the evolution of the mensural – or ‘measured’ – system, with its highly complex rhythmic possibilities, marked a fundamental change in the writing of Western vocal polyphony and became the standard form of notation for Renaissance music. The note-heads were diamond- or rhombic-shaped rather than oval, with their stems perched directly on top or below. Black mensural notation, with note-heads filled in solid black, was used up to about the mid-15th century; white mensural notation with void note-heads was used after that time. The present manuscript seems to be in white (void) mensural notation; the coloured note-heads for the tenor parts seem to be employed primarily for decoration and ease of reading purposes. Coloured notes, first introduced in the 14th century, offered another way of denoting duration, but red and blue note-heads were most usually employed: the use of grey, blue, red, yellow and green here corresponds to no known mensural scheme.

Published: R. Malikènienè, Muzikos Labirintai (2010), pp. 49, 52, 69; Neumi - Cantus volat signa manent (2011), pp.30-31.