ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book deals with the use of mensural notation and note blackening. It describes mensural notation is an essential part of triple-time dance notation. Mensural notation was 'based on the idea of a chain of decreasing note-values', the maxima, longa, breve, semibreve and minim. Joachim Burmeister was certainly not alone in his apparent dislike of the varied mensural signs. Despite Praetorius' warning against its frequent use, it was the hemiola minor that survived its major counterpart as the principal way of expressing note blackening in the seventeenth century. The purpose of the note blackening is to indicate the presence of syncopated cross-rhythms in triple time and the reversal of the normal hierarchy: that which is normally weak becomes strong; that which is normally strong becomes weak. In France, note blackening was certainly used to warn the performer of the presence of cross-rhythms.
