Franco of Cologne (fl. mid-13th century) was a German music theorist and possibly composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform music notation permanently: that the duration of any note should be determined by its appearance on the page, and not from context alone. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Music theory is a set of systems for analyzing, classifying, and composing music and the elements of music. ... Medieval music is music of Europe in the Middle Ages. ... Music notation is a system of writing for music. ...

Life

A few details are known about his life, and more can be inferred. In his own treatise he described himself as the papal chaplain and the preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John at Cologne, an extremely powerful position in northern Europe in the 13th century. Other documents of the time refer to him as "Franco of Paris" as well as "Franco teutonicus"; since his writing on music is intimately associated with the Notre Dame School of Paris, and his Teutonic origin is mentioned in several sources, he was probably German, probably traveled between Cologne and Paris, which had close relations during that time, and probably had a musical position at Notre Dame at some point, perhaps as a teacher, composer or singing master. The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ... The Knights Hospitaller (the or Knights of Malta or Knights of Rhodes) is a tradition which began as a Benedictine nursing Order founded in the 11th century based in the Holy Land, but soon became a militant Christian Chivalric Order under its own charter, and was charged with the care... Map of Germany showing Cologne Cologne skyline at night. ... The group of composers working at or near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1170 to 1250, along with the music they produced, is referred to as the Notre Dame school, or the Notre Dame School of Polyphony. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Jacques of Liège, in his early 14th century Speculum musice, a passionate defense of the 13th century ars antiqua style against the new "dissolute and lascivious" ars nova style, mentioned hearing a composition by Franco of Cologne, a motet in three voices. No music of Franco with reliable attribution has survived, although some works of the late 13th century, from Parisian sources but stylistically resembling German music of the time, have on occasion been attributed to him. (13th century - 14th century - 15th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was that century which lasted from 1301 to 1400. ... Ars antiqua is a term which refers to the music of Europe of the late Middle Ages between approximately 1170 and 1310, covering the period of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the subsequent years which saw the early development of the motet. ... The ars nova was a stylistic period in music of the late Middle Ages, centered in France, which encompassed the period from the publication of the Roman de Fauvel (1310 and 1314) until the death of Machaut (1377). ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ...

Writings

Franco's most famous work was his Ars cantus mensurabilis, a work which was widely circulated and copied, and remained influential for about a hundred years. Unlike many theoretical treatises of the 13th century, it was a practical guide, and entirely avoided metaphysical speculations; it was evidently written for musicians, and was full of musical examples for each point made in the text.

The topics covered in the treatise include organum, discant, polyphony, clausulae, conductus, and indeed all the compositional techniques of the 13th century Notre Dame school. The rhythmic modes are described in detail, although Franco has a different numbering scheme for the modes than does the anonymous treatise De mensurabili musica on the rhythmic modes, written not long before. (This treatise was once attributed to Johannes de Garlandia, but scholarship beginning in the 1980s determined that Garlandia edited an anonymous manuscript late in the 13th century.) Organum (stress is on first syllable: OR-ga-num) is a technique of singing developed in the Middle Ages and is an early form of polyphonic music. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... In Western musical theory a cadence (Latin cadentia, a falling) is a particular series of intervals (a caesura) or chords that ends a phrase, section, or piece of music. ... In medieval music, conductus is a type of liturgical vocal composition for one or more voices. ...

The central part of Franco's treatise, and by far the most famous, is his suggestion that the notes themselves can define their own durations. Formerly, under the system of the rhythmic modes, rhythms were based on context: a stream of similar-appearing notes on the page would be interpreted as a series of long and short values by a trained singer based on a complex series of learned rules. While the old system was to remain largely in place for decades longer, under Franco's method the notes acquired new shapes indicating their duration. From the evidence of the spread of his treatise and the writings of later scholars, this innovation seems to have been received well; then again Franco was a papal chaplain and a preceptor of a large body of knights, and the acceptance of the method may have had little to do with democracy. Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... A silver statue of an armoured knight, created as a trophy in 1850 For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ...

The consensus date of most medieval music theory scholars on the Ars cantus mensurabilis is about 1250. The De mensurabili musica dates from about 1240, not long before; clearly the mid-13th century was a time of progress in music notation and theory, even if it was only catching up with the current state of composition and performance. Events December 13 - Death of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Louis IX of France is captured by Muslims and has to ransom himself Mabinogion appears Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic Vincent of Beauvais writes proto-encyclopedic The Greater Mirror City of Stockholm founded Alphonso III of Portugal takes Algarve... Events Batu Khan and the Golden Horde sack the Ruthenian city of Kyiv Births Pope Benedict XI Deaths April 11 - Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn The Great Prince of Gwynedd Monarchs/Presidents Aragon - James I King of Aragon and count of Barcelona (reigned from 1213 to 1276) Castile...

The composer who most notably followed Franco's treatise in his own music was Petrus de Cruce, one of the most prominent composers of motets of the late ars antiqua (one of the few whose name has been preserved; many of the surviving works are anonymous).

References and further reading

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
• Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0393090906
• Andrew Hughes: "Franco of Cologne", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed February 1, 2005), (subscription access) (http://www.grovemusic.com)
• M. Huglo: "La notation franconienne: antécédents et devenir", La notation des musiques polyphoniques aux XI–XIIIe siècles: Poitiers, 1986 (In Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, xxxi/2 (1988)) (In French)