Musica enchiriadis

The ninth century treatise that first taught polyphony in the West. Long attributed to Hucbald, an attribution now rejected; its author is unknown.

Original byline

Anonymous

Published

Date not recorded

Form

Treatises

Authorship

Still unknown

Reason for anonymity

Unrecorded

Copyright

Public domain

Reference

Wikipedia · Wikidata

The authorship story

Musica enchiriadis is the ninth century Frankish handbook that first sets out rules for singing in parallel intervals, the organum from which Western polyphony and ultimately harmony descend. It travels with a companion commentary, Scolica enchiriadis, and circulated widely in the monastic schools of the Carolingian world. For centuries the pair were attributed to Hucbald of Saint-Amand; modern scholarship rejected that attribution and no replacement has been established. The foundational document of Western music theory is the work of an unknown master, probably a monastic teacher whose classroom outlived his name.

Questions readers ask

Related works

• Still unknown

  Scolica enchiriadis

  Date unrecorded · treatise

  The ninth century dialogue commentary on Musica enchiriadis, foundational to Western music theory. Formerly attributed to Hucbald; author unknown.

• Still unknown

  A Brief Inquiry into the Natural Rights of Man

  Date unrecorded · treatise

  A nineteenth century treatise on natural rights published without an author's name. No attribution has entered the documented record, and the writer remains unidentified.

• Still unknown

  Actio Curiosa

  Date unrecorded · play

  An anonymous seventeenth century Hungarian dramatic work. No author has been identified in the documented record.

• Still unknown

  Amduat

  Date unrecorded · other

  An ancient Egyptian netherworld book describing the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of night. Like all Egyptian funerary literature, it names no author.

More works like Musica enchiriadis