Johannes de Grocheio

Who was Johannes de Grocheio?

Johannes de Grocheio was a Parisian musical theorist of the early fourteenth century. His French name was Jean de Grouchy, but he is more commonly known by his Latinized name. A Master of Arts, he is the author of the treatise Ars musicae, an attempt to describe the music of his time as it was practiced in and around Paris.

He divides music into three categories:

Musica simplex

Composita

Ecclesiastica

Grocheio departed from Boethius' taxonomy, which divided music between music of the world, human music, and instrumental music.

Almost one-third of Grocheio's treatise is devoted to liturgical and composed music. The rest is devoted to secular music, and Grocheio surveyed its new social importance in a systematic and pedagogical fashion. Grocheio writes, for example, that "a good fiddler generally performs every kind of cantus and cantilena [cantilène], and every musical form."

Grocheio was also one of the first scholars to define a motet. He believed that the motet was "not intended for the vulgar who do not understand its finer points and derive no pleasure from hearing it: it is meant for educated people and those who look for refinement in art."