Musica Ficta

This Latin term refers to the practice of altering certain notes of the scale in early music, between the 13th and 17th centuries. However, these alterations were not always notated: they arose from rules (of varying degrees of strictness) which were known to the singers of the time, who operated in circles where such rules formed part of common musical knowledge.

These rules are essentially of two kinds:

• Causa necessitatis: for reasons of necessity.
• Causa pulchritudinis: for reasons of beauty.

Causa necessitatis

Perfect consonances: simultaneous or consecutive intervals of octaves, fifths and fourths must be perfect. For example, one cannot sing a B natural and a B flat together, or an F natural and a B natural (tritone) together, as these intervals were considered dissonant.

Causa pulchritudinis

Cadences (endings of musical phrases) must be approached by a semitone, for example G-F#-G and not G-F-G. The same applies to half-cadences.

(Cadences and half-cadences can be compared to the punctuation of a text: Perfect cadence = a full stop. Half-cadence = a comma or a semicolon.)

Furthermore, two other musical rules led to alterations in relation to notated music:

The Picardy third rule

When the final chord includes a minor third, that third must be raised by a semitone to make it a major third.

The FA super LA rule

This rule stems from the ancient solmisation method, in which singers used the notes UT–RE–MI–FA–SOL–LA (hexachord). When a melody rose above LA (A), they would normally have to switch to a different hexachord. But if the melody rose only one degree above LA (A) before immediately descending again, they would sing a FA (F), that is, a note situated just a semitone above LA (A) and then return to their original hexachord.

Implications for Chanteclair Editions scores

Modern editions of early music must reflect these rules directly in the score, indicating accidentals (sharps, flats or natural signs) that are understandable to modern singers. In most editions currently available on the market, these musica ficta accidentals are distinguished by placing them either in brackets before the note, or above the note, or by making them slightly smaller than the accidentals clearly indicated by the composer.

In our editions, except for a few clearly marked pieces, we have not distinguished these accidentals (they are therefore applied tacitly) to facilitate the learning and performance of the pieces.

It should be noted that early music editors do not always agree amongst themselves regarding the application of the above rules, and you may therefore find scores with different musica ficta alterations depending on the editor.