Hothby, John (EN)

Hothby John, Johannes de Anglia, Johannes Hothby, Johannes Octobus, Johannes Ottobus Anglicus, Giovanni Anglico Octobi, Ottobi, *ca. 1410, †1487, English composer and music theorist.

He completed his studies at Oxford and taught there in 1435. He joined the Carmelite Order. Before 1450, he travelled to Germany, France and Spain. Around 1450, he arrived in Italy. He studied in Pavia. At the turn of the 1450s and 1460s, he stayed in Florence, where he established ties with the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici, whom he may have taught and with whom he was still corresponding as late as 1469. In 1467, he was in Lucca, where he taught at the cathedral school. In 1486, he was summoned to England by Henry VII.

According to historians, Hothby’s works demonstrate that he made full use of the compositional techniques of his time; the influence of Dunstable is evident in his output. A characteristic feature of Hothby’s contrapuntal technique is the extensive use of imperfect consonances and the employment of fauxbourdon passages leading into cadences. Hothby sought to unify his compositions through the use of imitations of initial motifs and the repetition of these motifs in the individual sections of larger works, for example in the Magnificat (Et exultavit).

Hothby’s theoretical works comprise some 20 texts of a didactic, speculative and polemical nature. The composer’s most important theoretical work is Calliopea legale, devoted chiefly to the hexachordal system and solmisation. In an effort to incorporate the so-called voces fictae into the system of mutations, Hothby expanded the number of hexachords to include the series ut re mi fa sol la, built from the notes B♭, D, E♭, F♮, A♭, D♭ and E (traditionally, these were constructed only from C, F and G). In this way, each note of the scale could correspond to 6 solmisation syllables (traditionally, each note corresponded to a maximum of 3 syllables). The number of possible mutations increased accordingly. Hothby’s concept was not, however, taken up by later theorists, whilst the practice of solmisation developed towards simplifying the rules of mutation and limiting their number. Among Hothby’s didactic writings, treatises devoted to counterpoint predominate. Hothby attempted to express the rules of counterpoint in terms of the hexacordal system, which is particularly evident in his theory of ‘degrees’ (gradi), concerning the interval relationships between the tenor and the counterpoint. Hothby distinguished four degrees: grado di pari — the tenor and the counterpoint voice move within the same register; grado di quarta — the counterpoint is a fourth above the tenor (e.g. the tenor moves according to the hexachordum durum, whilst the counterpoint moves according to the natural hexachord); grado di quinta — the tenor moves according to the natural hexachord, whilst the counterpoint follows the hexachordum durum; grado di octava — the counterpoint is an octave above the tenor. Within the framework of his theory of counterpoint, Hothby also addressed the practical application of musica ficta and the problems of imitation and diminution. His polemical writings — Excitatio, Epistola and Dialogas — are directed against the innovations of Ramos de Pareja. In these, Hothby defends the hexachordal system and solmisation based on the Guido tradition, Pythagorean interval ratios and traditional terminology, which Ramos had attacked.

Literature: E. de Coussemaker Histoire de l’harmonie au moyen-âge, Paris 1852, reprint Hildesheim 1966 (contains Calliopea legale); L. Nerici Storia della musica in Lucca, Lukka 1879, reprint 1969; U. Kornmüller Johann Hothby, “Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch” VIII, 1893; A.W. Schmidt Die Calliopea legale des Johann Hothby, Leipzig 1897; H. Riemann Geschichte der Musiktheorie im 9.-19. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1898, Berlin 2nd edition. 1921; J. Wolf Musica practica Bartolomei Rami de Pareja, Leipzig 1901; M. Bukofzer Geschichte des englischen Diskants und des Fauxbourdons nach den theoretischen Quellen, Strasbourg 1936; D. Plamenac Keyboard Music of the 14th Century in Cod Faenza 117, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” IV, 1951; A. Seay The Dialogus Johannis Ottobi Anglia in arte musica, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” VIII, 1955; A. Seay Florence. The City of Hothby and Ramos, “Journal of the American Musicological Society”IX, 1956; K.-J. Sachs Der Contrapunctus im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert. Untersuchungen zum Terminus, zur Lehre und zu den Quellen, Beihefte zum “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft” XIII, 1974.