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ble that provides the common name of the neume, the comparison to the treatises, testimonies, and artifacts
symbol in twelfth-century Rhineland neume notation available from other time periods. Scholars and per-
on a four-line staff, and Pfau’s corresponding transcrip- formers can often only make informed guesses based
tion in modern notation on a five-line staff, as well as on the limited information available about what the
an introduction with commentary on the context and musical traditions occurring in a given geographical
musical aspects of the individual pieces included in the location were during a particular time throughout the
set. The manuscript folio numbers for the music and roughly one thousand years that define what we de-
the text are included within the collection below the scribe as the medieval musical era. While many con-
title of the piece. Hildegard scholar Dr. Honey Meconi crete answers are simply unavailable for vocal music of
notes that Pfau’s collection, while wonderfully accessi- the Middle Ages, the following sections present some
ble to modern musicians, does contain errors and tran- considerations for performance regarding medieval
scribal inconsistencies. 15 theory, rhythm, and ornamental neumes.
While a modern musician may feel more comfort-
able looking at familiar notation, modern transcrip- Medieval Theory for Performers
tions still present challenges to the performer. Wheth- Medieval plainchant is based on a system of modal-
er using a free version online or purchasing the small ity, which is defined by the final (generally the first or
volumes or individual octavos, the ensemble leader will last note and resting tone in the piece) of a melody, the
have to communicate information regarding ornamen- range of the music, and the patterns of tones and semi-
tal neumes and their execution to the ensemble. For tones within the collection. Medieval theoretical trea-
this information, the ensemble leader may refer to the tises classify modes by the name of the ordinal Greek
manuscripts or Lieder to easily identify the ornamental number and are referred to as protus (D), deuterus (E),
neumes. The front matter commentary prefacing the tritus (F) and tetrardus (G), sometimes without the clari-
first and second volumes of Pfau’s Symphonia collection fication of authentic (generally final to final) or plagal
provide rationalization for the symbols used in tran- (generally a fourth below to a fifth above the final), as
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scription and discuss the importance of the nuanced we classify Renaissance music. Modal identification
musical information the original neumes can provide. not only signified to the performer the classification of
final and range, but also melodic formulae that recur in
pieces that share the same mode. The extensive range
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Performance involved in much of Hildegard’s music and the use of
There is frustratingly little primary source materi- finals other than D, E, F, and G (namely, a and c) can
al available on the performance of medieval music in obfuscate modal classification within the system.

CHORAL JOURNAL May 2025 Volume 65 Number 8 23