Preface
ago, and corresponds with that in use in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. No attempt has been made to restore the Quilisma in places where it may or may not have occurred in earlier versions of the hymn melodies than those given in the Sarum choroliturgical MSS. It was also clearly undesirable to use liquescent notes in the case of hymn melodies which are meant to be used for several verses in which they might or might not accord with the text: and this being so, it seemed best also to omit them entirely in the melodies of the prose portions of the book. The structure and pronunciation of English words differ so much from those of the Latin language, that it seems an open question, which is best decided by each choirmaster, to what extent the rules for gliding over the last letter of diphthongs and double consonants in Latin are applicable to the English language. Even in the case of Latin, Guido of Arezzo tells us that, if the liquescent note be sung like an ordinary full note, not only no harm will be done, but that, on the contrary, the effect is often all the better[1]! The liquescent note has, therefore, as a general rule been turned into a full note wherever it was an essential part of the melody, while it has been omitted altogether in cases where it was inserted in the MSS. merely as a portamento.
With regard to the use of bars and double bars, the bar always represents a pause or half close, corresponding to the ends of the lines of hymns, or to the use of the colon in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer. The double bar indicates either a full close, or else a change of voices (e. g. from two clerks to the chorus). In the latter case care must be taken not to make pauses, as if for a full close, in cases where (e. g. page 890) neither the words nor the course of the melody require it.
The half bar has been employed, as in the Solesmes and all other modern editions of plainsong music, for minor pauses in the melody. In the case of melodies set to prose texts it denotes a breath mark; but this is not necessarily the case when it is employed in melodies which are set to metrical words. In this case it denotes the occurrence
- ↑ Micrologus, cap. xv ‘Si autern eam [vocem] vie plenius proferre non liquefaciens, nihil nocet, saepe autem magis placet.’
xxii
