Mensural notation

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Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for polyphonic European vocal music from the late 13th century until the early 17th century. The term "mensural" refers to the notation of precise rhythmic durations based on numerical proportions of note values. Its modern name is derived from the terminology of medieval theorists, who used terms like musica mensurata ("measured music") or cantus mensurabilis ("measurable song") to refer to the rhythmically defined polyphonic music of their age, as opposed to musica plana or musica choralis, i.e., Gregorian plainchant. Mensural notation was employed principally for polyphonic vocal music, while plainchant retained the older system of neume notation throughout the period, and some instrumental music was written in various forms of instrument-specific tablature notation. Mensural notation grew out of an earlier, more limited method of notating rhythms in terms of fixed repetitive patterns, called rhythmic modes, which were developed in...

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