(fl 1335). French theorist. His name appears in the text of the 14th-century motet Apollinis eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis lustrantibus/In omnem terram (PMFC, v, 50), listed third (after Johannes de Muris and Philippe de Vitry) among the 12 most illustrious musicians of the time. He held a canonicate at Sens in 1335, but one that did not require his presence.
Henricus is the author of a short treatise, Summula musice, preserved in a 15th-century copy as I-Vnm lat.Cl.VIII,24(3434), ff.10–44. It contains an introduction and five chapters, all primarily devoted to the elements of plainchant with some speculative overtones. The principal authorities cited are Guido of Arezzo, Odo of Cluny and Berno of Reichenau, with reliance, as is to be expected, upon Aristotelian doctrine. Of particular interest is Henricus’s classification of music, for he did not use the Boethian divisions of mundana, humana and instrumentalis, but instead presented his own tripartite scheme: supercelestis, celestis and subcelestis. This last category includes the two Boethian divisions humana and instrumentalis, with a secondary subdivision into vocalis and instrumentalis. The treatise is concerned solely with the former. It emphasizes the proposition that art consists of rules, since this makes the task of the artist easier.
It has been suggested that he may be identifiable with the ‘Henricus’ who wrote the text of the motet Portio nature/Ida capillorum/Ante thronum (see Egidius de Pusiex).
F.A. Gallo: ‘La definizione e la classificazione della musica nella “Summula” di Henricus Helene’, Jucunda laudatio, i (1963), 3–6
ALBERT SEAY/R