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baritone's lowest note to the tenor's highest. The three overlapping registers identified by the Anonymus will then be A-g, e-d', b-a'. A bass could of course go a little lower. But the indications are that the Greeks esteemed high notes more than low ones. In Chapter 2 we saw evidence that a clear, full vocal tone, associated with higher rather than lower notes, was most admired, and that notes high enough to be taxing were employed.61 For much of the Middle Ages high singing was favoured. |
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The evidence is as consistent as we could wish. We must concludeas indeed scholars concluded long ago, though from a more limited body of material62that the conventional note-equivalents, as given in the chart on p. 256, are too high by about a minor third. The differential might conceivably be larger by up to a tone, but it can hardly be smaller. |
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61 pp. 42, 46. Cf. Isid. Orig. 3.20. 14, 'the perfect voice is high, sweet, and loud: high, to be equal to the top notes; loud, to fill the ears; sweet, to soothe the listeners' spirits'. |
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62 F. Bellermann, Anonymi Scriprio de Musica (Berlin, 1841), 3-16, and Die Tonleitern und Musiknoten der Griechen, 54-6; R. Westphal, Griechische Rhylhmik und Harmonik (2nd edn., Leipzig, 1867), 367-76. |
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