Franco of Cologne (EN)

Franco of Cologne, Franco von Köln, 13th century, music theorist. No detailed information about his life is available. He is the author of the treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis. For a long time, it was believed that the treatise was written by Franco of Paris. This view was based on Gerbert’s edition, which was based on a 14th-century Milanese manuscript (Biblioteca Ambrosiana D.5.inf.) containing the incipit: “Ars cantus mensurabilis edita a magistro Francone Parisiensi.”

It was also assumed that there were two theorists with the same name: Franco of Paris (Parisiensis) and Franco of Cologne (Coloniensis). This hypothesis was based on a statement by Anonymus IV (ed. Fritz Reckow, Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4, 2 vols., Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, vols. 4–5, Wiesbaden 1967, vol. 1): “Liber vel libri magistri Perotini erant in usu… in maiori parte usque in tempus magistri Franconis primi et alterius magistri Franconis de Colonia, qui inceperunt in suis libris aliter pra parte notare”.

Currently, following H. Besseler, it is assumed that there was only Franco of Cologne, most likely of German origin, as indicated by the term used by Jacob of Liège – “Franco Teutonicus” (Speculum musicae, book 7, ed. R. Bragard, “Corpus Scriptorum de Musica” 3, 1973). The most important source confirming Francon’s origin in Cologne is the explicit of the treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis from the Saint-Dié manuscript (Bibliothèque Municipale 42, fol. 43v): “Explicit magna ars mensurabilis musice reverendi viri cuiusdam domini Franconis, capellani domini pape necnon praeceptoris domus Coloniensium hospitalis sancti Johannis Jerosolimitani”. This reference allowed H. Besseler to establish some facts about the life of Francon of Cologne. He was a member of the Order of St. John and a papal chaplain. He served as the superior of the Order of St. John monastery in Cologne, which would indicate his noble origins. The phrase: “a Francone Parisiensi” was considered an indication of Francon of Cologne’s activities in Paris; this is confirmed, among others, by the testimony of Anonymus IV. According to Besseler, Franco of Cologne stayed in Paris around 1260 and wrote his only treatise, Ars cantus mensurabilis, there, now dated to around 1280.

Ars cantus mensurabilis is one of the oldest surviving codifications of compositional rules and, at the same time, the most comprehensive theoretical source for learning about the compositional techniques of the ars antiqua period. The greatest achievement of Francon of Cologne is the formulation of the principles of mensural notation, which consist in establishing rhythmic values and thus removing the ambiguities resulting from modal notation. He reduced the previous six modi to a single modus, whose organizing principle was perfectio, or the unit of the triple value of the longa (longa perfecta). Franco of Cologne also classified ligatures and established their rhythmic values. He stated that the form of the ligature cum proprietate comes from the ligature used in choral notation and means more than one note. According to Franco of Cologne’s findings, in ligatures cum proprietate et cum perfectione, the first note always has the value of a brevis, and the last note has the value of a longa; the absence of proprietas makes the first note a longa, and the absence of perfectio makes the last note a brevis; the absence of perfectio – as long as proprietas is preserved – does not mean that the first note has a brevis value; in the case of the cum opposita proprietate ligature, the first two notes (but no more) have semibreve values, and the middle notes (except for the second in the case of the cum opposita proprietate ligature) have breves values. These changes were reflected in a notation system known as Frankish notation. Perfectio also became the principle governing the selection of harmonies in the course of a piece, as Franco of Cologne insisted on the use of consonances at the beginning of each perfectio.

The authorship of the treatise Compendium discantus (ed. E. de Coussemaker, Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series, 4 vols., Paris 1864–78), which was attributed to Franco von Köln on the basis of the incipit “Ego Franco de Colonia…”, is now disputed. Franco von Köln may also have been a composer, as suggested by Jacob of Liège (ed. R. Bragard, Speculum musicae, book 7, p. 38: “Item videtur mihi Parisius audivisse triplum a magistro Francone, ut dicebatur, compositum…” / It seems to me that I heard in Paris a triplum composed, as it was said, by Master Francon …”). However, none of his compositions have survived. H. Besseler speculates that Franco of Cologne was the composer of the anonymously preserved 3-voice motet Homo luge/Homo miserabilis/Brumans est mors (Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, lit.115, f. 20v).

Literature: H. Riemann Geschichte der Musiktheorie, 2nd ed. Berlin 1921, repr. Hildesheim 1961; H. Besseler Studien zur Musik des Mittelalters, part 2: Die Molette von Franco von Köln bis Philipp von Vitry, “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft” VIII, 1926; G. Reese Music in the Middle Ages, New York 1940; F. Gennrich Abriss der Frankonischen Mensuralnotation, «Musikwissenschaftliche Studienbibliothek» I/II, Nieder-Modau 1946, 2nd ed. Darmstadt 1956; H. Besseler Franco von Köln, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. F. Blume, Kassel vol. 4, 1955; J.M. Chomiński Historia harmonii i kontrapunktu, vol. 1, Krakow 1958; W. Apel Die Notation der Polyphonen Musik, Leipzig 1962; G. Reaney The Question of Authorship in the Medieval Treatises on Music, “Musica Disciplina” XVIII, 1964; F. Reckow Proprietas und perfectio, “Acta Musicologica” XXXIX, 1967; W. Frobenius Zur Datierung von Francos „Ars cantus mensurabilis”, “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft” XXVII, 1970; W. Arlt, M. Haas Pariser modale Mehrstimmigkeit in einem Fragment der Basler Universitätsbibliothek, “Forum musicologicum”1, 1975; M. Huglo De Franco de Cologne à Jacques de Liège, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” 34–35, 1980–81; M. Haas Die Musiklehre im 13. Jahrhundert von Johannes de Garlandia bis Franco, in: Die Mittelalterliche Lehre von der Mehrstimmigkeit, Geschichte der Musiktheorie, ed. F. Zaminer, vol. 5, Darmstadt 1984; C.M. Atkinson Franco of Cologne on the Rhythm of Organum purum, “Early Music History” 9, 1990; A.M. Busse Berger Franco’s Notational Reforms: Acceptance and Resistance, in: Musik der mittelalterlichen Metropole: Räume, Identitäten und Kontexte der Musik in Köln und Mainz, ca. 900–1400, Tagungsbericht Mainz/Köln, Oktober 2014, ed. F. Kolb. “Beiträge zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte” 179. Berlin, Kassel 2016.