Organum (IXth and Xth Centuries)
Diaphony
Discant (XIIth Century)
Example of Organum, Diaphony, Discant
There was also a kind of diaphony in which a third voice was written as a bass, a fifth below the cantus firmus, but it was actually sung an octave higher than it was written and sounded much better that way. As it was not a bass at all it received the name of false bass or faux bourdon. This was the beginning of chords such as we use.
So, Hucbald started the science of harmony,—the study of chords. Hucbald called this ars organum—the art of organating or organizing.
Hucbald also invented a system of writing music on a staff. It was not a staff such as we use today for he wrote in the spaces the initials T and S. T meant that the singer was to sing a whole tone, S, a semitone or half-step. He used a six line staff and wrote words in script instead of notes like this:
