A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Maneria

MANERIA (Ital. Maniera). A word, transferred from the terminology of antient music to that of Plain Chaunt, in which it is applied to those combinations of Authentic and Plagal Modes, having a common Final, which are more familiarly called 'Mixed Modes.'

[ W. S. R. ]

Appendix, pp.709–10

MANERIA. A term, applied, in the early middle ages, to certain systematic arrangements of the Scale, analogous to the Mixed Modes of a somewhat later period. The roots of the several systems comprised in the series corresponded with the Finals of the Modes; each system comprehending one Authentic, and one Plagal Mode: consequently, the number of the Maneria was only half that of the Modes themselves. They were named and numbered in a barbarous mixture of Greek and Latin, thus:—Modes I and II were called Authentus et Plaga, Proti; III and IV, Authentus et Plaga, Deuteri; V and VI, Authentus et Plaga, Triti; and VII and VIII, Authentus et Plaga, Tetarti: i.e. the Authentic and Plagal, of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Maneria. When the number of Modes was increased, the pedantic faction affected to regard the Maneria of A and C as duplicates of the First and Second, at a different pitch; and hence originated the confusion mentioned in Dodecachordon. Afterwards, the necessary existence of six Maneria for the Twelve Modes was freely acknowledged.

[ W. S. R. ]