Encoding Polyphony from Medieval Manuscripts Notated in Mensural Notation

Résumé

This panel submission for the 2021 Music Encoding Conference brings together five short papers that focuson the making of computer-readable encodings of polyphony in the notational style – mensural notation – inwhich it was originally copied. Mensural notation was used in the medieval West to encode polyphony fromthe late thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The Measuring Polyphony (MP) Online Editor, funded by an NEHDigital Humanities Advancement Grant, is a software that enables non-technical users to make Humdrum andMEI encodings of mensural notation, and links these encodings to digital images of the manuscripts in whichthese compositions were first notated. Topics explored by the authors include: the processes of, and the goalsinforming, the linking of manuscript images to music encodings; choices and compromises made in the development process of the MP Editor in order to facilitate its rapid deployment; and the implications of capturingdual encodings – a parts-based encoding that reflects the layout of the original source, and a score-basedencoding. Having two encodings of the music data is useful for a variety of activities, including performanceand analysis, but also within the editorial process, and for sharing data with other applications. The authorspresent two case studies that document the possibilities and potential in the interchange of music data between the MP Editor and other applications, specifically, MuRET, an optical music recognition (OMR) tool, andHumdrum analysis tools.