Punctus

What it means

The punctus is the dot in mensural notation. Unlike today's augmentation dot, which always does the same thing, it has several meanings there that can be inferred only from context. The best known is augmentation: the dot turns a twofold value into a threefold one, that is, lengthens it by half — from this the modern dot developed. Alongside this stands the dot as a dividing sign, indicating where one counting unit ends and the next begins.

In the notation

It is written as a small dot beside or above the sign concerned. Which function is meant depends on the prevailing mensuration and on the position in the notated text: in threefold mensuration it often serves demarcation, in twofold mensuration augmentation. This distinction belongs among the more difficult points of the system, because the same sign achieves different things in different sources and periods and because scribes did not always proceed consistently.

Musical use

The dividing function is necessary only in a system that knows no barlines: it tells the singer which notes belong to one counting unit and prevents a group from being wrongly grouped. With the introduction of the barline in the seventeenth century this task became superfluous, and of the punctus only augmentation remained — in the form we know today, which can meanwhile also be doubled.

The punctus is to be distinguished from the dot above a note in modern notation, which means staccato and has nothing to do with duration; the position distinguishes the two — the augmentation dot stands to the right of the head, the staccato dot above or below it. It served as a dividing and augmentation dot.

Performance practice

When reading old sources it holds: clarify the mensuration first, then interpret the dot. For study, take a modern transcription and check in the critical report how the editor read contested dots; especially with dividing dots, the rhythmic shape of whole sections depends on this.