A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Macicotaticum

MACICOTATICUM or MACHICOTAGE. A species of ornamentation, applied to Plain Chaunt melodies, by means of extraneous notes inserted between those of the true Canto fermo, after the manner of what, in modern music, would be called fioritura. To the once prevalent custom of Machicotage in France are to be attributed many of the corruptions observable in Gallican Office Books before the late careful revisions. The Processionale Parisiense (Paris 1787) directs that the melodies shall be machicotée by the Clergy, and continued by the Choir 'sine macicotatico': and, in former times, the Ecclesiastics entrusted with the duty of so singing them, were called Maceconiei, or Machicots.

[ W. S. R. ]