Preface
The Plainsong Melodies
The plainsong melodies contained in this book have, as far as possible, been taken from English sources, as seemed only natural and right in the case of an ‘English Hymnal’. Those for the Office Hymns are, without exception, taken from the MS. versions of the Sarum Antiphoner. Those in Part X are taken from the Sarum Processionale, as is also the music of No. 737. The Easter Gradual and Alleluya, 738, which takes the place of an Office Hymn at Evensong on Easter Day and the five following evenings, is taken from the Sarum Antiphoner: but inasmuch the Versicles in the ancient books changed each day, and it was impossible to find space for them all, it was thought best to give those from the Gradual and Alleluya of Easter Day from the Sarum Graduale, the words of which obviously formed the first of the whole series throughout the week. Of other plainsong melodies contained in the book, 10, 22, and 130 are taken from the Sarum Graduale, 155 and 351 from the Gradual edited by the Benedictines of Solesmes and printed at Tournay in 1883, and 317 from the Ghent Graduale. The rest (172, 253, 735, 736, 739, 740) are taken from various more or less ancient sources, mostly French.
The accompaniments to the plainsong have been given throughout in ‘white notes’, each note in the melody being represented in the treble by a minim, either in single notes, or joined into groups by a quaver bind, or tied by a slur, so as to correspond, note by note, and group by group, with the neumatic notation contained in the plainsong stave above. Although, from its association with the minim in modern music, this manner of notation has the disadvantage of suggesting a slower and heavier mode of execution than that which is proper to plainsong, it seemed better to adhere to a well known convention than to attempt to reproduce the free and rapid rhythm of the mediaeval melodies by new conventions of crotchets and quavers, or of semiquavers, which either run the risk of confusion between their relative values in modern music, or else
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