Abstract:

The Faenza Codex contains highly diverse instrumental figurations in the Ars Nova style and is unique in its sharp jump from simple melodic skeleton lines to extremely elaborate figurations (a diminution can accommodate up to 20 notes per one melodic note). This makes the manuscript an interesting candidate on which to build a figuration dictionary, here extracted through computer-aided analysis. The dictionary was based on the diminution part only using statistical considerations, without any presuppositions about the compositional origins of the pieces (French/Italian, secular/sacred, one or many scribes). We hope that it will serve as a point of reference for the talented performer-improviser of early 15th-century music. The final section of the article makes use of the extracted figurations as a way to assess the homogeneity of the Faenza Codex pieces based on hierarchical clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]Copyright of Early Music is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)