Musica Ficta, or Falsa, or Colorata

MUSICA FICTA, or Falsa, or Colorata (Cantus fictus), i.e. Feigned, or Artificial Music. One of the earliest discoveries made by the inventors of Figured Music was, the impossibility of writing a really euphonious Counterpoint upon a given Canto fermo, without the use of occasional semitones foreign to the Mode. The employment of such semitones, in Plain Chaunt, was as strictly forbidden by the good taste of all educated Musicians, as by the Bull of Pope John the 22nd. Hence,...