(fl ?c1400). Writer on music. He was presumably from St Ghislain in Hainaut and was possibly a member of its Benedictine community. One work by him is known, the Tractatulus de differentiis et gradibus cantorum, found only in St Paul im Lavanttal (A-SPL 264/4). Using highly coloured language, it surveys various kinds of musician. These comprise, firstly, those who know nothing about music, and who sing their parts in the reverse of the way they should; secondly, laymen, often ignorant of the art, who cultivate trained musicians so that natural industriousness and practice makes good their deficiencies, including certain clerics who compose difficult pieces for instruments; thirdly, those whose voices are defective but who study music and teach their pupils what they cannot perform themselves; and fourthly, those with fine voices and a knowledge of musical art, singing according to rule with modus, mensura, numerus and color. Among this latter group are female musicians who divide semitones into indivisible microtones. Medieval music theory does not lack passages that categorize musicians, usually according to the place of ars and usus in what they do, but Arnulf’s treatise is exceptional for being devoted entirely to this subject.
The date of his treatise is hard to discern, and it could perhaps be substantially later. If so, there is a distinct possibility that Arnulf is to be identified with the Florentine singer and composer Arnolfo Giliardi and/or the writer and musician Arnoul Greban.
MGG1 (H. Hüschen)
RiemannG
C. Page: ‘A Treatise on Musicians from ?c.1400: the Tractatulus de differentiis et gradibus cantorum by Arnulf de St Ghislain’, JRMA, cvii (1992), 1–21
CHRISTOPHER PAGE