-
From Point to Square: Graphic Change in Medieval Music Script
- Textual Cultures: Texts, Contexts, Interpretation
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 3, Number 2, Autumn 2008
- pp. 30-53
- 10.2979/tex.2008.3.2.30
- Article
- Additional Information
This essay studies graphic change in music script of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a crucial period in the standardization of square notation. Changes in three note shapes (punctus, pes and climacus) are surveyed in manuscripts datable to within twenty-five years. From the very early 1200s, music scripts exhibit a markedly more angular and quadratic aspect than in the 1100s. New tendencies include a larger letter module, the suppression of finials, increased shading, and a greater tendency to connect notes.