ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to bridge that gap by sketching a historically defensible outlines of musical structure as it was understood by its "native speakers and presents a number of ideas to stimulate such studies in the future. In the late 1200s a system of "mensural" music evolved, where differently shaped notes represented tones of different durations. Polyphony and counterpoint thus have their origins in the desire of musicians to exalt and amplify an important chant. A listener's ability to anticipate a satisfying close on a perfect interval was aided by the compositional use of stereotyped and coordinated melodic formulas in both voices, formulas that habitually terminated on the final tone of a phrase. As taught to young musicians, the Rule encapsulated a quite specific linkage of four factors: Scale step, contour in the bass, perfection/imperfection, and dissonance. In the European classical tradition, the status of music as a language has long been a subject of debate.
