Miscellany with texts on music theory Miscellany with texts on music theory

The main contents of this miscellany are the ‚Scolica enchiriadis‘ and the ‚Musica enchiriadis‘, texts serving as a didactic treatise and practical introduction into music theory. Both works are closely related and were probably composed around the year 900 by abbot Hoger from the Benedictine monastery of Werden (today part of the city of Essen).

The musical notation used here, the so-called dasia-notation, was an attempt to write down polyphonic music, but did not gain wide distribution. Nevertheless, Hoger’s work is regarded as the essential step in the development of polyphonic music in the Western tradition.

Henry II probably received the manuscript from Mathilda, abbess of the collegiate house of Essen near Werden and a cousin of emperor Ottos III, maybe from the latter’s hands or after his death.