Zur Verschriftlichung sogennanter primitiver Mehrstimmigkeit

Abstract

In medieval and early modern music there existed, besides artificial polyphony, simple part singing, the so called primitive polyphony. Written examples of this music, which differs in several respects from artificial polyphony, reveal its special function, as well as the special function of the written documents themselves; they are neither descriptive (i.e. they are not written records of the music sung) nor are they prescriptive (i.e. they are not composers’ scores to be performed by singers).