Preface
of the caesura in the line to which it is set, and is not necessarily a pause or a breathmark, but is rather an indication of the metrical structure of the line, and should be treated as such, and no more. In the reciting of Latin Sapphics or Elegiacs a good reader will always make the presence of the caesura felt, and the beauty of the rhythm depends to a great extent upon the relative distribution of accent and quantity in its immediate neighbourhood; but it does not necessarily imply a break in the line, or any such pause as would fitly be represented by a comma or a semicolon. Precisely the same thing is true with regard to the good singing of plainsong melodies set to these metres. They must not be treated as a schoolboy treats his nonsense verses, but they must be fitted intelligently to the text after the manner of good reading.
In connexion with this subject, a few words with regard to two particular instances will not be out of place: viz. the first line of No. 621 and the second line of No. 624. By comparing the Sarum version with other versions of the same lines, it becomes clear that, at some period prior to the introduction of the stave, the neumatic notation of these lines was modified to secure their right phrasing. Thus, in the first line of No. 621, we have a hexameter with the double caesura:–
Glória, laus, | et honor tibi sit, | Rex Christe Redémptor.
The due emphasizing of the first caesura is secured by the double notes on the syllable laus, thus securing a natural pause, and nothing more is here required: while the second caesura is sufficiently marked by the conclusion of one musical phrase and the commencement of another. In the second line of No. 624 we have a pentameter in which the caesura does not correspond with the grammatical punctuation of the line:–
Qua Deus inférnum | vicit, et astra tenet.
In good reading, the caesura will be marked, not by an abrupt break after the syllable num, but by an extra stress and prolongation of the previous accented syllable of the word: while a slight break after vicit, more of the nature of a dotted note than of a pause,
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