Johannes de Grocheio

Johannes de Grocheio (or Grocheo) (Ecclesiastical Latin: [jɔˈan.nɛs dɛ ɡrɔˈkɛj.jɔ]; c. 1255 – c. 1320) was a Parisian musical theorist of the early 14th century. His French name was Jean de Grouchy, but he is best known by his Latinized name. He was the author of the treatise Ars musicae ("The Art of Music") (c. 1300), which describes the functions of sacred and secular music in and around Paris during his lifetime.

Biography Johannes de Grocheio, originally named Jean de Grouchy, likely grew up in a wealthy family that controlled a fiefdom in Normandy. Not much else is known about Grocheio's life because any biographical information comes from the Ars musicae as well as scholarly research and speculation.

Ars musicae

Topics discussed in treatise Grocheio wrote about several principles of music in thirteenth-century Paris that he had observed. Grocheio's divides music into three categories: musica vulgaris ("music of the people"), musica mensurabilis ("measured music"), and musica ecclesiastica ("church music"). He also discusses music theory and compositional techniques such as mensural notation and musica ficta. Grocheio also consults and criticizes the works of many other music theorists, mathematicians, and philosophers such as Plato, Pythagoras, Johannes de Garlandia, Franco of Cologne, Nicomachus, and several others. Grocheio further specifies that there are two kinds of genres musica vulgaris: cantus and cantilena. Both could be performed with the voice or with instruments. It is intended to make people feel sympathetic for the heroic deeds and would urge them to rise above their station and serve the public by doing their jobs. Cantus coronatus is a song written by kings and nobles that was sung for them in order to give them the ability to become great leaders. The literary themes of the song include friendship and love. Cantus versiculatus is a song that was intended to be performed from young people who refused to work. Cantilena ductia is another dance song that Grocheio described as having the ability to draw the hearts of young men and women away from erotic love. The cantilena ductia is believed to have been an early version of the virelai based on the repetition of the first line of the first stanza being repeated in subsequent stanzas.

Musica ecclesiastica Grocheio discusses several aspects of musica ecclesiastica (church music) in his treatise. He describes the use of all of the chants in the Mass, the function of the eight church modes, and the threefold division of musica ecclesiastica into music for Matins, the Divine Office, and the Mass. The other manuscript of the treatise survives in the British Library in another anthology of music theory, including treatises by Guido of Arezzo, Guy of Saint-Denis, Petrus de Cruce, and several anonymous authors.

Editions and translations Rohloff, Ernst, trans. Der Musiktraktat des Johannes de Grocheo nach den Quellen neu herausgegeben mit Übersetzung ins Deutsche und Revisionsbericht. Media latinitas musica 2, Gebrüder Reinecke, Leipzig 1943, p. 41-67. Say, Albert, trans. Johannes de Grocheo: Concerning Music (De musica). Colorado Springs College Music Press, translations (1), Colorado Springs 1973 (2nd. ed). Page, Christopher. "Johannes de Grocheio on secular music: a corrected text and a new translation.” Plainsong and Medieval Music 2, no. 1 (1993): 17-41. Johannes de Grocheio. Ars Musice, ed. and trans. Constant J. Mews, John N. Crossley, Catherine Jeffreys, Leigh McKinnon, and Carol J. Williams. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2011.