Preface
involve a very complicated and bewildering system of slurring. If it he remembered that, while the notes in the plainsong stave itself take their rhythm and form from the words to which they are sung, the accompaniment takes its time and rhythm solely from the plainsong (and not vice versa), and if it be further remembered that every note in plainsong is (in itself) equal and short, and that a single note, or a simple group of two or three notes, correspond as nearly as possible in execution to the letters, one, two, or three, of a syllable in language well read or spoken, the desired effect will he produced[1]. The lower parts of the accompaniment, while noted in minims, semibreves, and breves in relation to the melody which they accompany, must of course take their time from the free rhythm of the latter. In order to emphasize the complete dependence for its time and rhythm upon the plainsong melody, no attempt has been made in the accompaniment to indicate, by means of pauses or other marks of expression, any details with regard to execution beyond those which already find their place in the plainsong stave. The correct phrasing of plainsong can never be arrived at by means of analogies from measured music set forth in modern notation; it is a separate art in itself, and like other arts has its own methods which require and deserve careful study and instruction, and cannot be otherwise acquired.
The plainsong notation employed is similar to that which was revived by the Benedictines at Solesmes about a quarter of a century
- ↑ Guidonis Aretini Micrologus, cap. xv ‘Igitur quemadnaodum in metris sunt litterae et syllabae, partes, ac versus; ita et in harmonia sunt phthongi, id est, soni, quorum unus, duo, vel tres aptantur in syllabas, ipsaeque solae vel duplicatae neumam, id est, partem constituunt cantilenae; et pars usa ye! phires distinctionem faciunt, id est congruum respirationis locum’, &c. Now that Guido of Arezzo’s Micrologus has been rendered accessible by the learned Benedictine, Dom. A. Amelli's scholarly reprint (Rome, Desclée, Lefebvre et S. Edit. Pont., 1904), every teacher of plainsong should read this chapter, headed ‘De commoda componenda modulatione’. It is impossible to treat of the matter further here: all that is to be said on the subject will be found in Dom. Pothier’s Mélodies Grégoriennes, chaps. vi-ix. Much useful information with regard to the execution of plainsong will also be found in the preface to A Manual of Gregorian Chant, Desclée, Lefebvre & Co., Tournai, 1903.
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