Hucbald
Hucbald ( – 20 June 930; also Hucbaldus or Hubaldus) was a Benedictine monk active as a music theorist, poet, composer, teacher, and hagiographer. He was long associated with the Saint-Amand Abbey, so is often known as Hucbald of St Amand. Deeply influenced by Boethius' "De Institutione Musica", Hucbald's ("De") "Musica", formerly known as "De harmonica institutione", aims at reconciling through many notated examples ancient Greek music theory and the contemporary practice of Gregorian chant. Among the leading music theorists of the Carolingian era, he was likely a near contemporary of fellow theorist Aurelian of Réôme, the unknown author  of the "Musica enchiriadis", as well as the anonymous authors of other music theory texts "Commemeratio brevis", "Alia musica" and "De modis". Life. Born in Northern France, about 850, Hucbald's exact birthplace and date are unknown. He studied at Elnone Abbey (later named Saint-Amand Abbey, after its 7th-century founder) where his uncle Milo was chief master of studies ("scholasticus"), in the diocese of Doornik. Hucbald made rapid progress in the sciences of the "quadrivium", including that of practical music, and, according to a laudatory 11th-century biographical account, at an early age composed a hymn in honour  of St Andrew, which met with such success as to excite the jealousy of his uncle. It is said that Hucbald in consequence was compelled to leave St Amand and to seek protection from the bishop of Nevers. He was also a companion of studies of such future masters as Remigius of Auxerre and Heiric of Auxerre, perhaps as a disciple of the court philosopher Johannes Scottus Eriugena ('John the Scot', i.e., Irish). In 872 he was back again at Saint-Amand as the successor in the headmastership of the monastery school of his uncle, to whom he would have  been presumably reconciled. Between 883 and 900 Hucbald went on several missions of reforming and reconstructing, after Norman destructions, various schools of music, including those of St. Bertin and Rheims. In 900, however, he returned to Saint-Amand, where he remained to the day of his death on 20 June 930. Works. Theory. The only theoretical work which can positively be ascribed to him is his "Musica" (formerly known as "De harmonica institutione"), probably written about 880. The work shows considerable influence from the writings of Boethius, and by extension Ptolemy. The "Musica enchiriadis", published with other writings of minor  importance in Gerbert's "Scriptores de Musica", and containing a complete system of musical science as well as instructions regarding notation, has now been proved to have originated elsewhere about the same time and to have been the work of unknown writers belonging to the same intellectual "milieu". This work is celebrated chiefly for an essay on a new form of notation described today as Daseian notation and its readable transmission of the first record of Western polyphonic music. Compositions. A few sacred compositions can be somewhat securely attributed to Hucbald, some are found in the Winchester Troper and Sarum  antiphoner. Literary sources suggest that he wrote many other now lost works. Among his works is the noted song "Carmina clarisonae calvis cantate Camenae" for Charles the Bald. In 146 hexameters, the beginning of each verse begins with the letter C, initial of "Carolus Calvus".