“The Master has Great Trouble, and Patience”: the manuscript compendium on the basic elements of music theory and plainchant singing from Pokrajinski arhiv Koper

Abstract

Pokrajinski arhiv Koper keeps an unfinished Italian manuscript compendium on the basic elements of music theory and plainchant singing from the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century. Its contents and terminology show connections with similar treatises of the Northern Italy of the period. It was possible to define one of its sources, and although there were probably more of them, many corrections and additions in the handwritten text also show their author’s authentic understanding of music, and his pedagogical orientation towards practice.