farfel_n02_037_075

4 line staff - customarily employed for ecclesiastical chant
(Mass) as opposed to the 5 1. staff customary for
other music - became widespread in the 12 c.
- the vital link between the music of the Middle Ages +
the Renaissance is that found in England in the early
15th c.
"Sumer Is Icumen In" - one of the most celebrated
of all mediaeval musical compositions.
- In the 11th c Guido d'Arezzo advocated the use of colored lines
on or in the stave to serve as clefs but also used the lettering
system which quickly became the usual method. The pitches
F + C were 1st represented because they stand above a
semitone which it is important to identify. The signs
for B flat + B natural were also used. Not until the 15th c
did the G clef become common. Other letters such as
D + A appear less often.