100 GREGORIAN CHANT

standard system of neumatic notation, that is, the system which is em-
ployed in the present-day books and which is essentially identical with

one that evolved in France during the twelfth century. To this we shall
add a survey of the earliest development as it manifests itself in the manu-
scriptsfrom the ninth through the twelfth centuries, and shall close with
a brief discussion of the problem of rhythm in Gregorian chant

THE STANDARD NOTATION

The neumatic signs can be divided into three groups: the basic neumes,
the liquescent neumes, and the repercussive neumes.

THE BASIC NEUMES

The following table shows the symbols of this group, arranged accord-
ing to the number of notes they contain.2

FIGURE 5
One note: punctum
virga 1
Two notes: podatus (pes) 3F
clivis (flexa) 4t
Three notes: scandicus

climacus

torculus (pes flexus)

porrectus (flexa resupina)

Four notes: scandicus flexus

porrectus flexus
climacus resupinus

torculus resupinus

pes subbipunctis

virga subtripunctis

virga praetripunctis

REMARKS:

a. Strictly speaking (that is, from the arithmetical

point of view) there
should be only one sign in the one-note category, as against two in the
two-note, four in the three-note, eight in the four-note, sixteen in tike five-
note group, etc. However, even the earliest manuscripts employ two signs
for single notes, one in the form of a
slanting or vertical stroke (virga, i.e.,
2 The rudiments of the neumatic notation, staff, clefs, etc., are explained in L xviiff.
 The Notation 101

rod, line), the other in the shape of a short horizontal dash or of a point
(punctum), and it is from these that the two signs of our table developed.
Originally the virga served to indicate a tone of high pitch or one reached
in ascending motion; the punctum, a tone of low
pitch or one reached in
descending motion. Such a distinction was useful and necessary at a time
when the neumes were not yet clearly notated on a staff. When this was
introduced, the distinction lost its significance and, as a result, the virga
tended to disappear. The process of its gradual elimination may be illus-
trated by an example, the Antiphon Assumpta est Maria [1606]. In a Ms
of the early eleventh century (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Cod. lat. 12601; see Wagner
II, 187) this Antiphon has virga signs on all the single notes of higher

pitch:

./ ////. //. ../.

Assumpta est Maria in caelum .... angeli .... benedicunt.

In a codex from the early twelfth century (Paris, B. N. lat. 12044) only
two of these virgae are left, the one on "cae(lum)" and that on "(bene)di-
(cunt)," while in the Liber usualis they are all replaced by the punctum.
In the modern books the virga is found very rarely, and without a distinc-
tive significance. It never occurs singly, but only within a melisma, as in
the Kyrie XI [46; last "Kyrie"] or, more often, at its beginning: e.g., in the
Tract Ecce sic [1290; on Gradual Laudate [1275; on "(cae)-
"(Ec)ce"], the
lis," "(excel)sis"], or the Alleluia Dulce lignum [1456; initial melisma].
Only in two of these instances does
it
represent a higher note.
b. The podatus (pes) has two squares written vertically one above the
other. These are invariably to be read in an ascending direction, beginning
with the lower note.
c. In the porrectus the first two tones are indicated, not by separate

squares, but by a slanting stroke starting and ending at the pitches to be

represented. This form is a mere convenience of writing, and should not
be interpreted as involving any sort of glissando.
d. The designation of the torculus as pes flexus shows that this three-
note neume was considered as a sort of combination of the pes and the
ftexa or, more proper, by a (downward) inflection. Simi-
as a pes followed

larly, the porrectus is a ftexa

resupina, that is, a ftexa followed by an up-

ward motion. The same terminology is used for the building-up of neumes
with four notes, such as the scandicus ftexus and the torculus resupinus.
It can also be used for the formation of neumes with five notes. Thus, in
the Gradual Benedictus es Domine [910] the first neume on "(Cheru)bim"
is a torculus resupinus flexus.

e. Another method of building up complex neumes is indicated by the

affixes subbipunctis and subtripunctis, terms which signify the addition,
to a simple neume, of two or three notes in descending motion. These
102 GREGORIAN CHANT
invariably appear in the form of lozenges, as in the climacus. Such descend-
ing formations, usually in scalar succession, are extremely frequent in the
Gregorian melodies, as a glance at almost any page of the Liber usualis
shows. In fact, the addition of sub*puncti is the most common way of

building up many-note neumes. Neumes with four sub-puncti are by no

means rare (e.g,, the porrectus subquadripunctis in the Alleluia Loquebar
[1369], or thepodatus subquadripunctis in the Alleluia Non vos relinquam
[856]), and
occasionally one finds examples of five sub-puncta, e.g.,
in the
Alleluia Levita [1595] and in the Alleluia Stabat sancta Maria [1633^. As
will be seen later (p. 389), it is no mere chance that all these examples
were quoted from Alleluias.
f. In
striking contrast to the frequency of fairly extended groups of
descending notes, ascending motion within a neume is usually limited to

three degrees, as in the scandicus and the scandicus flexus. The virga
praetripunctis, which consists of four ascending notes,' is rather rare and,
in fact, is not included among the neumes explained in L, although it
occurs, without a special name, in the table of neumes found on p. x of G.
Examples occur in the Antiphon O sacrum convivium [959, "me(moria)"]
and in the Alleluia Manum suam [1695, "pal(ma)" and "su(as)"]; these
are always written in the form of two closely joined podatus rather than
of a virga preceded by three puncta. More frequent is a modification of
thisneume in which one of the two inner notes is replaced by a quilisma,
an ornamenting sign to be explained later (pp. H3ff). See, e.g., the
Introit In nomine Domini [612] on "id(eo)"; the Responsory Angelus
Domini [774] on "(No)li(te)"; the Offertory Holocaustum [974] on "ca-
(pite)" etc. The Alleluia Tota pulchra [1318] has, in the opening section,
several examples of what would have to be termed a virga praetripunctis

subbipunctis, as well as a virga praequadripunctis.

Among the eight possible combinations in the four-note group there
g.
isone, high-low-high-high, which never seems to have received a status of
recognition and a name. It could be called porrectus resupinus. It is, in
fact,extremely rare, and the few examples to be found in the Liber usualis
(Tract Qui confidunt [561], on "(Jeru)sa(lem)" and "hoc"; Alleluia Ex-
sultate Deo [1026], middle of the first line) all involve the quilisma modi-
fication. It will be noticed that this form with three ascending notes,
closes
and its scarcity (which is
particularly striking if compared with the fre-
quent occurrence of its inverted counterpart, the pes subbipunctis) is, no
doubt, caused by the same disinclination for ascending motion which re-
sults in the virga praetripunctis being so much less frequent than the virga
subtripunctis.

A special case of some importance is the succession of two neumes joined

by a common pitch, e.g., of two clivis such as a-g g-e, or a podatusand clivis
 The Notation 103

f-a a-g, or a punctum and podatus f f-a, etc. Such neumes (more correctly,

combinations of two neumes) are known as pressus neumes. They are in-
teresting mainly because they have been the subject of rather heated con-
troversies among modern Gregorianists. The question involved may be
illustrated by Fig. 6, showing three possible methods of performance:

FIGURE 6

The first of these possibilities (a) would seem to represent the "natural"
method of performance, but this rarely enters into the discussion, it usually
being assumed that the common pitch is held over from the first to the
second neume. 8 The real issue is one of accentuation, that is, whether the
accent should fall on the first note of the group (b) or on the joining note
(c).
The former interpretation was advanced by Pothier, whose general
view was that in every neume a slight emphasis should be placed on the
first note. Consequently, he explained the pressus neumes as an excep-
tional suppression of the normal accent, in other words, as a syncopation.4
This view was strongly opposed by Mocquereau who, as we shall see later
[p. 127], introduced
a new theory of rhythm and accent in Gregorian chant,
and stated that "the effect of syncopation is foreign to the Gregorian art." 5
Consequently, the Liber usualis (p. xxv) says that the accent (icttis) should
fall on the doubled note. Gastou6 and Wagner more or less adopt Moc-

quereau's view which, however, was vehemently attacked in a more recent

publication by Juget. We cannot help feeling that the whole controversy
6

is, historically speaking, without point, since the two opposing camps take

it for granted that the common pitch is to be performed as a sustained

note, an assumption which can hardly be proved. At any rate, controversies

about such fine details are somewhat in the nature of "much ado about
nothing," particularly if we realize that we are ignorant about so many
problems of infinitely greater importance concerning the performance of
Gregorian chant.
3 Cf Mocquereau, "fitude et execution de 1'Apostrophe pressus
. .." (Ross. Greg., VI,
.

199),an attempt to prove the correctness of this assumption, by citing examples where
a pressus of one manuscript is represented in another manuscript as a single pitch or
marked by the sign cd, i.e., conjunctim. See, however, the exceptions mentioned on
pp. 2195.
4 Pothier, Les Melodies gregoriennes (1881), p. 46: "un effet analogue a celui de la
syncope en musique."
5 Le Nombre musical
grdgorien (2 vols., 1908, 1927), I, 128.
Gastoue*, Cows thtorique et pratique de chant grdgorien (1917), p. 18 (exceptions,
p. 19); Wagner, Elemente des gregorianischen Gesanges (2nd edition, 1916), p. 49; Juget,
Des Signes rythmtques de Dora Mocquereau et de leur malfaisance (1931), pp. 6ff.
104 GREGORIAN CHANT
THE LIQUESCENT NEUMES
This a group consisting not so much of new symbols as of variants of
is

the basic neumes, characterized by the use of a smaller head for the last
note. Some of these modified symbols received individual names, as fol-
lows:

FIGURE 7

epiphonus (liquescent podatus) T

cephalicus (liquescent flexa) -$

ancus (liquescent climacus)'? -fo

pinnosa (liquescent torculus) ~f-

porrectus liquescens
scandicus liquescens

Theliquescent neumes are also called semivocales, and both terms sug-
gest that a special kind of voice production is involved, with the last note
sung in a "fluid" or "half-voiced" manner, somewhat like a grace note that
is only lightly touched upon. Their nature appears clearly from the fact
that they are used almost exclusively when the text presents certain special

phonetic conditions: either two successive consonants as in angelus, inferni,

ubertas, mundi, hosanna, tollis, or two vowels forming a diphthong, as in
autem, euge, also alleluia. Obviously the liquescent neumes were designed
to facilitate the correct pronunciation of such words. In the case of two
successive consonants this may have been done by the insertion of a mute e
(half-vowel, semivocalis), e.g., an(e)gelus, in(e)fer(e)ni> which received the
liquescent note. In the case of a diphthong the phonetic process obviously
involves a separation of the diphthong into its component vowels, the sec-
ond of which was pronounced weak: a-u instead of au, or e-u instead of eu.
This, of course, is the correct Latin
pronunciation [see xxxvii]. It is in- L
teresting to notice that the liquescent neumes in a way form an exception
to (or, at least, a borderline case of) the basic principle that a neume can
never fall on more than one syllable. Actually, what appears in writing as
a single syllable with a neume, is separated into two syllables, the second
of which receives the last, liquescent note of the neume. 8
7
In the table of the Liber usualis (p. xxii) the ancus as well as the liquescent porrectus
are represented by the normal, non-liquescent forms. The correct form of the liquescent
porrectus occurs on the first line of p. 961, while that of the ancus seems not to have
been used.
8 Guido of Arezzo
gives the following description: Liquescunt vero in multis voces
more litterarum, ita ut inceptus modus unius ad alteram limpide transiens, nee finiri
videatur (Often [the neumes] are made liquescent according to the letters [of the text],
so that there seems to be a limpid transition from one pitch to another, withgut a finish);
see Pothier, "La note liquescente d'apres Guy d'Arezzo" (RCG, IX, 3).
 The Notation 105

Examples of liquescent neumes occur on almost any page of the Liber,

e.g.,
in Benedictus es Domine [3482] many times on "la-udabilis" as well
as on "patrum(e) nostrorum," "tem(e)plo/' "sanctum(e) reg(e)ni," "in-
tuen(e)s," "om(e)nes," etc. It is not always used if one or both of the two
consonants is a
sharp labial (especially t), as in benedictus, patrum, sanc-
tum, nostrorum, because these combinations present no difficulty of pro-
nunciation. 9 Finally it may be noticed that, while a liquescent neume nearly
always occurs in connection with the above-described phonetic peculiarity,
the reverse statement is not universally correct. First of all, there are numer-
ous cases in which a syllable of the type under consideration has a single
note (not a two- or three-note neume) which, of course is not capable of
liquescence. Thus, liquescence hardly exists in chants which are strictly or
prevailingly syllabic, such as simple Antiphons, Hymns, the melodies for
the Credo, etc. In the hymns the very fact that they are strophic chants
militates against the consistent use of liquescence even when a syllable is

sung to a podatus or clivis. However, the more elaborate chants also show
not a few instances of inattention to liquescence. mention
It will suffice to
the Antiphon and the Introit Dum medium
silentium, both for the Sun-
day after Christmas [433]; the Antiphon opens with a liquescent neume
("Dum(e) medium"), the Introit, with a normal podatus.
Particularly instructive for a study of the liquescent neumes are the
cases in which one and the same melody is used for several chants with
different texts. Such a situation exists in the verses of the Introits of a
given mode which, as will be seen later (p. 228), are all sung to the same
melody. The following table shows the beginning of the second half of the
melody for the third mode, with different texts. Those in the left column
employ the normal neumes, clivis and podatus, while in the others the
clivis is replaced by its liquescent variant, the cephalicus, in accordance

with the phonetic peculiarity offered by the words.

FIGURES

A more extended table, from the Introits of Mode IV, is given in Wagner H, 28.

Attention may be called to an interesting study by H. Freistedt,Die

liqueszierenden Noten des Gregorianischen Chorals (1929), in which the
customary explanation of the liquescent neumes, as outlined above, is re-
jected. Freistedt points out that the term semivocalis as employed by
the
9 See the detailed study in Pal. mus.f II, $7ff.
106 GREGORIAN CHANT
Latin grammarians denotes, not a "half-vowel," but a certain group of
consonants, namely, those that can be sustained in pronunciation, as /, I, m,
n, r, and s (voiced consonants). Accordingly, he maintains that in a word
like angelus the liquescent note falls, not on an inserted (e), but on the
consonant n which is
slightly sustained. This theory provides
an explana-
tion for the fact that in not a few cases a liquescent neume occurs in the
early manuscripts in connection with a single consonant, e.g. in dom-inus
or tim-ore. It also provides a more sensible explanation for the numerous
cases involving a doubled consonant, e.g., summo, which according to
the customary explanation would require the rather awkward rendition
sum(e)mo. However, Freistedt fails to give a satisfactory explanation for

the frequent occurrence of liquescence in connection with explosive (voice-

less) consonants like t and d, which, of course, cannot be sustained.

THE REPERCUSSIVE NEUMES

Normally, a neume is a syinbol for melodic motion, that is, progression
from one pitch to another. There are, however, a few neumes involving
the immediate repeat of a pitch, an effect known as repercussion. The most

important of these are the bistropha (distropha) and tristropha, represented

in the modern books by two or three puncta written close together and
placed on one syllable. In the early St. Gall manuscripts, however, they
appear not as two or three puncta but as two or three little hooks some-
"
what in the shape of an apostrophe: or '". In a few recent publications,
particularly the Ambrosian Gradual (Antiphonale Missarum juxta ritum
Sanctae Ecclesiae Mediolanensis, 1935) and the Antiphonale monasticum
(1934), the early form has been restored by the introduction of a special
form for these neumes, a method that is, no doubt, preferable to that of the
standard publications. Fig. 9 shows the various forms of the bistropha and
tristropha, together with a few other neumes of the strophicus-tamily.

FIGURE 9

St.GallMss. Standard Special

i. bistropha (distropha) D * **
8. tristropha }})

3. ??
,W ,W
4. flexa strophica /))

5. torculus strophicus rf)

6. bivirga }} ^

REMARKS:
a. Examples of the bistropha and tristropha can be found in practically
every Gradual. Occasionally several of these neumes occur in immediate
 The Notation 107

succession, resulting in a six- or seven-fold repercussion on the same pitch,

as in the phrase Ei of
Fig. 106 (p. 354). This is a standard formula em-
ployed for the close of many Graduals of the third mode, Exsurge e.g.,
autem [604], Salvos fac [447; also end of the respond], Eripe me [570; end
of the respond], Benedidte
[1654], etc. Another repercussion of seven notes
occurs at the beginning of the Offertory
Reges Tharsis [461], and one of
nine notes in the Gradual Quemadmodum [1478] on "(sui)vit."
b. The neumes given under no. 3, although not infrequent in certain
chants (see, e.g., the Offertory Exaltabo [528] and the Tract Qui habitat
[533 lines 2 and 4]) do not seem to have received an individual name. The
editors of the Liber usualis consider the form as a variant of the tristropha

(p. xxiii), while P.

Wagner designates them respectively as apostropha with
bistropha and apostropha with tristropha.^ Apostropha is the name for
the single hook of the St. Gall notation, exactly like our apostrophe. All
the various strophici are derived from this sign which, however, hardly
ever occurs singly.
c. The neumes nos. 4 and
5 show the addition of the apostropha at the
end of some of the basic neumes, apparently only those that close in
descending motion. Such formations are also referred to as oriscus neumes.
Originally the sign of the oriscus was different from the apostropha and
probably had a somewhat different meaning (see p. 1 1 1). At an early time,
however, it
disappeared and became identified with the apostropha.
d. The bivirga represents the high-pitch counterpart of the bistropha,
to which it stands in the same relation as the virga to the punctum. It occurs

very rarely in the old manuscripts as well as in the modern books. Examples
are found in the Responsories Jerusalem surge [718], Tenebrae [680,

"(excla)ma(vit)"], and Animam meam [681, "(adver)sa(rii)"], as well as in

the Alleluia Beatus vir Sanctus Martinus [1747, in the melisma].

There can be no question that in medieval practice these neumes were

performed as a real repercussion, that a fairly rapid reiteration of the
is,

same pitch. On this point we have the express testimony of a ninth-century

writer, Aurelianus of R6om6, who tells us that the tristropha was sung as
a rapid pulsation like a vibration of the hand. 11 Thus, the bistropha and
tristropha, particularly if they occur in lengthy combinations as in the
example given in Fig. 10, represent a true vocal tremolo, comparable to
10
Wagner 11, In Sunol's PaUographie, p. 5, the name distropha (tristropha)
123.
praepunctts is which describes the neume very well.
used,
11
Referring to the tristropha in the third introit tone, on "Sancto" and "semper"
[14] Aurelianus says: Sagax cantor, sagaciter
intends ut .trinum, ad instar manus
. .

reverberantis, facias celerem tctum (Wise singer, understand wisely that you should make
a quick pulsation, similar to the reverberation of the hand: G5, I, 57a). See C. Vivell,
"Les sons r<percut& dans le chant gr6gorien" (TG, XVIII, 43, 107); A. Mocquereau,
"Etude des strophicus" (Ross. Greg., VII, 96).
108 GREGORIAN CHANT
the violin tremolo. In modern singing this effect is never used, being
contemptuously referred to as "goat's trill" (in German, Bockstriller; in
French, chevrotement). It is not without interest, however, to notice that
itwas generally employed, under the name of trillo, as one of the most
important ornamentations of the monodic style in the early part of the
seventeenth century. 12 In the Solesmes books with modern notation the
strophici are reproduced as shown in Fig. 10 under (a), and
a note in the

preface of the Liber usualis (p. xxiii) says that the most perfect manner
of rendition would be a soft and delicate repercussion on each single note
(apostropha). In actual practice, as taught by the Solesmes school, the
reiterated pitches are combined into a single sound of double, triple,

quintuple, etc., duration, with a slight emphasis (ictus) on the first note
of each group, as shown under (b). Aside from the more or less complete

suppression of the repercussive effect, this manner of rendition results in

an undue prolongation of the sound. Aurelianus' reference to a "rapid
vibration of the hand" clearly shows that the historically correct per-
formance would be approximately as shown under (c).

FIGURE 10

There is reason to assume that at a certain period the tristropha involved

a lowering of pitch on the middle note (e.g., f-e-f), since in not a few cases
later manuscripts with diastematic notation reproduce it as a porrectus.

Similarly, the distropha is sometimes reproduced as a podatus (e.g., e-f).

Probably the interval involved was not exactly a full semitone, but smaller,
close to a quarter-tone, so that in diastematic notation the group could
with equal justification be represented as f-f-f (f-f) or f-e-f (e-f). 18

THE EARLY NEUMES

Various theories have been offered in explanation of the origin of the
neumes. The one generally accepted today interprets them as being derived
from the grammatical accents of Greek and Latin literature, the same ac-
cents that survive to the present day in the French language as accent aigu,
accent grave, and accent circonflexe. Originally these signs seem to have
indicated not so much accentuation (dynamic stress) as slight inflections
of the speaking voice. In fact, the very term accentus suggests such a semi-

is Caccini, in the Nuove musiche

preface to his of 1602. See HDM, under "Tremolo."
13 See P. "Die
Wagner, Diatonisierung des gregorianischen Gesanges durch das
liniensystem" (Ross. Greg., Ill [1903], 245; also in Greg. Rundschau, 111 [1904], 140, and,
in French, in TG, X
[1904], 144).
 The Notation 109

musical connotation, being derived from ad cantum (perhaps signum ad

cantum, sign for the song). Thus, the accentus acutus (high accent) indi-
cated a raising of the pitch, the accentus gravis a lowering, and the accentus
circumfieKUS a combination of both, perhaps with the voice going first
above, then below the normal pitch level. Some of the Latin grammarians
of the fifth and sixth centuries also mention the accentus anticircumftexus,
which would be the inversion of the circumflexus. Although the anti-
circumflexus played only a minor role in declamation, it survived in the
neumes of Gregorian chant. The resemblance between the accents and the

FIGURE 11

a. / \ /\ X
a. Accents i. acutus 2. gravis 3. circumflexus 4. anticircumflexus
b. Neumes i. virga .
punctum 3. clivis 4. podatus

early forms of the neumes is so striking as to constitute convincing evidence

of the evolutionary connection between the former and the latter. In fact,
an anonymous writer of the ninth century tells us that "the notational sign
called neuma originated from the accents." 1 The only sign that underwent
a noticeable modification is the accentus gravis, obviously because it en-

tailed a left-to-right motion of the pen which proved inconvenient in fluent

writing. In the earliest neumatic manuscripts from St. Gall it appears as a

little horizontal dash, 2 while later it was written as a dot or little square,

hence the name punctum (point). It is easy to see how combinations of the
four elementary signs led to the symbols for the various three-note and
four-note neumes. All the "basic" neumes are nothing but combinations of
the accent signs, and are therefore usually referred to as accent neumes.
In addition to these, the early manuscripts, particularly those from St.
Gall, employ a number of symbols of a somewhat different graph, character-
ized by the use of rounded lines in the form of a hook or of a half-circle.
These have been called hook neumes (G. Hakenneumen; Wagner), but
actually only some of them show a graph reminiscent of a hook. Perhaps
the term round neumes (G. Rundneumen) may be somewhat more appro-

priate, at least for those that do not clearly belong to the hook family.
1 Vatican Library, cod. 235, f 38': De accentibus toni oritur nota quae dicitur
lat. palat. .

neuma (cf. Wagner Handschin,

II, 355). in an article entitled "Bine alte Neumenschrift"

(Acta musicologica, XXII, 69) has called attention to a ninth-century fragment in which
the accentus acutus indicates, not a high tone, but a podatus.
2 This
sign has played an important role in the controversies about Gregorian rhythm.
Wagner considered it as a variety of the virga, called it virga jacens (horizontal virga),

and interpreted it as a sign for length (quarter-note; see Wagner 77, 381). Mocquereau re-
garded it as an early form of the punctum, called it punctum planum (level punctum),

and opposed Wagner's rhythmic interpretation (Nombre, I, 159).

HO GREGORIAN CHANT
In this group we find the various strophici already mentioned as well as
the early forms of the liquescent neumes shown in Fig. 12.

FIGURE 15!

C/ / cP P
i. epiphonus 2. cephalicus 3. pinnosa 4. scandicus liquescens

Finally, there are a few signs calling for special consideration, mainly
the salicus, oriscus, pressus, quilisma, and trigon [see Fig. 13].

FIGURE 13

salicus oriscus pressus franculus quilisma trigon

Early <gj ^57 A/T/T/^ A

Modern

At the outset it may be remarked that all these neumes are of a more
or less uncertain nature, as appears clearly from the conflicting interpre-
tations they have received at the hand of modern scholars. shall en- We
deavor to present the different views as objectively as possible.
a. The salicus indicates three pitches (sometimes four, very rarely five)

in ascending motion, as does the scandicus. It occurs almost exclusively

in the St. Gall manuscripts. Its graph differs from that of the scandicus in
that the middle pitch (in the four- or five-note forms, the penultimate
pitch) is represented, not by a dot, but by a hook opening toward the
bottom. Very likely this middle pitch was a "forbidden" chromatic tone,
for instance, in d-fJf-g, or even a quarter-tone, as in e-e+-f This assumption .

would explain the fact that the diastematic manuscripts represent the
salicus either as a normal scandicus (changing d-fJ-g into d-f-g) or as a
group with a unison at the beginning (changing e-e+-f into e e-f). Both
these forms appear in the Liber usualis under the name of salicus [p. xxi],
but a remark on p. xxiv warns the reader not to confuse the (ascending)
salicus with the scandicus, the difference being that the former has the
vertical episema placed under the middle note and that the note thus
marked should be emphasized and lengthened. This interpretation goes
back to Mocquereau, who explained and defended it in his Le Nombre
musical (vol. I, 3852). It is, however, open to doubt, and has indeed been
rejected by such scholars as Wagner and Gastou. It certainly cannot be
reconciled with their supposition that this middle pitch was an unstable
tone, chromatic or enharmonic. Such a tone would suggest a rather quick
passing over, a manner of performance which is perhaps also implied in
 The Notation 111

the term salicus, derived from Lat. salire, to

jump. Gastou^, seconding
calls the Solesmes view a "fausse 8
Wagner, interpretation."
b. The oriscus is a in name as well as in The
strange sign, meaning.
name has been explained as being derived from Greek horos, limit, end
(cf. horizon). It is indeed usually a sign for a note added at the end of a

neume, either in unison with the final note or a step above it. The standard
Solesmes books represent the oriscus by the normal while a punctum, spe-
reminiscent of the early oriscus, is used in the Antiphonale
cial sign,
monasticum [see p. xiii] and other publications. It is shown in Fig. 13.
4
According, to Mocquereau, the St. Gall manuscripts employ most fre-
quently the upper-degree oriscus, that is, at a pitch a semitone or a tone
above that of the preceding note. However, the unison oriscus is also very
common and occurs frequently between two torculus neumes, particularly
on the sub-semitonal degrees, c' and f, e.g., c'-d'-c' c' a-b-a or f-g-f / d-e-d
(oriscus in italics). Fig. 14 shows some examples from St. Gall 35^ together
with the modern equivalents. 6

FIGURE 14

Grad. Gloriosus, "sanctis"

Tract Comm<w&tf/'mota"

Grad. Tribulationes, "-nes"

Grad. Tribulationes/^m^-i"

Exactly what the oriscus means is very uncertain. Several scholars have
come to the conclusion that, once more, an unstable pitch is involved, not
in the oriscus itself but in the note that precedes it, because in a number
of cases a torculus-plus-oriscus appears in the diastematic sources either
as a torculus-plus-punctum (e.g., f-g-f f) or as a torculus resupinus (f-g-e-f).
assumed that the note preceding the oriscus was
It is therefore generally

midway between the e and the f, so that it could be reproduced either way
in diastematic notation. 6
It is obvious, however, that there is more involved in the oriscus than
this. Toascribe to a neumatic sign a "retroactive" function is certainly
not a very plausible explanation in itself. Moreover, it applies only to the
3 See 144; Origines, p. 175, fn. a.
Wagner 11,

5 For others, see Nombre, I, 37 if.

6 Nombre,
Wagner II, 143; Origines, p. 174, fn. 5; I, 375.
112 GREGORIAN CHANT
unison but does not account for the numerous cases where the
oriscus,
oriscus a degree higher than the preceding note, as in the first two
is

examples of Fig. 14. Finally, it should be noticed that the oriscus, though
normally attached to a neume, also occurs as an individual sign, placed
alone over a syllable. Several examples of this usage occur in the Antiphons
of the Codex Hartker, e.g.:

FIGURE 15

T T* - I TT
t
splendo-ribus sanctorum, ex utero
Ant. Tecum principium [412; Pal. mus.f IIJ, 52]

Other examples are found in Adhaesit, on "(De)us" (ibid., p. 59); in

Lapidabant judei, on "Qe)su" (p. 59); in the Responsory Isti sunt sancti,
on "su(a)" (p. 67), etc.
The striking and peculiar shape of this enigmatic symbol certainly sug-
gests that it had a special meaning of its own, probably that of a short
ornament. The first scholar to propose such an explanation was Houdard,

who described the oriscus as a "broderie d'6chapp6e," as an ornament in-

volving the upper and the lower neighbor note, e.g., f-g-e for an oriscus on
f.
7
He
based his explanation on the form of the oriscus, saying that the
symbol consists of an epiphonus and an inferior apostropha: v, $.
Wagner tried to show that the oriscus consists of two notes, a main note of
normal duration and a short passing note at the lower second. 8 Fig. 16
shows an example of a unison -oriscus and its various interpretations.

FIGURE 16
Houdard Wagner Solesmes

c. The pressus was previously explained as a combination of two neumes

joined by the same pitch [p. 103]. Originally this effect was expressed by a

special sign, in the general form of an angular or wavy line with a dot
underneath. Mocquereau, who devotes an extended chapter to the study
of the "apostropha-pressus," 9 always represents the
pressus by the form
7 In Le Rythme du chant dit grdgorien (1898), pp. logff.
Concerning the main thesis of
this study, see p. 129.
& See his article, du Manuscrit 6ox de
"Quelques remarques sur la notation la Biblio-
thfcque Capitulaire de Lucques" (TG, XIV, 148).
*Nombre, 1, 300-332.
 The Notation 113

with the wavy line, while Wagner considers only the other form, which
seems to be the one more widely used in the early manuscripts. 10 The
pressus was known in two varieties, major and minor, the former distin-
guished by the addition of a little dash. In nearly all the tables of neumes
these are listed at the very end, for instance, in a crude hexameter: t

pressus mindr et mdior, non pluribus titor (and finally the minor and
11
major pressus, other [neumes] I do not employ).
According to Wagner, the pressus is derived from a more elementary
symbol consisting of a virga with a hook attached to the upper end, and
called franculus (from Lat. frangere, to break?). From concordances be-
tween chironomic and diastematic manuscripts it appears that the fran-
culus is nearly always replaced by a podatus, occasionally by a single note.
This would seem to indicate that the original franculus consisted of a main
note and an ornamenting upper neighbor note, thus forming the counter-
part of the oriscus which is characterized by an ornamenting lower neigh-
bor note. The pressus results from the addition to the franculus of a dot,
which always indicates a lower pitch. Accordingly, the pressus should have
about the same significance as a torculus, e.g., a-b-g. Actually, its equivalent
isalways a bistropha flexa, e.g., a-a-g. Very likely, the seeming contradiction
between the "a-b" of the franculus and the "a-a" of the pressus can be ex-
plained by assuming that the upper note of the franculus could vary from
as much as a whole-tone to as little as a quarter-tone. Possibly it was such
a microtonic interval that distinguished the pressus from seemingly identi-
cal forms.
Neither the franculus nor the microtonic intervals enter into the ex-
planations given by Mocquereau. He adduces numerous examples show-
ing that the special pressus symbol of the early sources is replaced, in other
manuscripts, by an ordinary neume, e.g., a clivis, joined in unison to the
preceding neume in other words, that it is identical with the pressus
forms of the modern publications. Fig. 17 shows an example from the
Communion Video [4i8]. 12

FIGURE 17

i_
-

The neumes in the upper row are from Einsiedeln 2*27, those below
ifr CH from St. Gall 33$. In the Solesmes editions the pressus formation is

reP laced bT a simple torculus, g-a-g.

unt

The quilisma is, no doubt, the most important among the special
d.

signs we are considering here. It is very frequent, particularly in the oldest

10
Wagner II, 1550*.
n Cf., e.g., Wagner 11, io6f. 12 Nombre, 1, 310.
114 GREGORIAN CHANT
manuscripts from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Accordingly, it was
introduced into the modern editions, where it is represented by a special
sign in the form of a jagged note occurring within a neume in ascending
motion. Usually the neighboring notes are each at the distance of a second
(e.g., f-g-a), but there are cases in which the lower neighbor is a third below
the quilisma (e.g., e-g-a). Examples showing the upper note at a wider dis-
tance than a second apparently do not exist.
As for the performance of the quilisma, the Liber usualis* following

Mocquereau, makes the unqualified statement that "it must always be

13

rendered lightly" and that "the note immediately before the quilisma
should be notably lengthened and emphasized" [p. xxv]. This interpreta-
tion is, no doubt, entirely gratuitous, particularly in its first part. To con-
sider the quilisma as a "lightly rendered" passing tone is a supposition
that is refuted by the notational symbol itself. It is impossible to assume
that a sign of such elaboration and striking appearance could have been
used to indicate nothing but a single tone to be rendered lightly. There
can be no question that it stands for a short ornamenting group involving
several pitches, in other words, that it is a stenographic sign similar to
those employed in modern notation to indicate a mordent, a turn, a trill,
exact meaning cannot be determined with certainty.
etc. Its The term is

undoubtedly derived from the Greek word kylisma (rolling), and it is in-

teresting to note that among the notational symbols of Byzantine chant

there a kylisma which shows a somewhat similar design (Fig. i8a) and
is

indicates an ornament, perhaps a trill. Fig. i8b shows a number of inter-

14
pretations given by Gastou6:

FIGURE 18

b. (J =

A different explanation has been given by C. Vivell, who observed that

15

in early Italian manuscripts the quilisma is written in an ascending form

[see Fig. 13], and that in later Italian manuscripts (eleventh-to-twelfth cen-
tury; transition from chironomic to diastematic notation) the quilisma
sign replaced by two dots in ascending position. From this he concludes
is

that the quilisma was an ascending portamento touching

upon the chro*
i&Nombre, I, 404; see also his "La Tradition rythmique gr^gorienne a propos du
quilisma" (Ross. Greg., V, 225).
14 Cours,
p. 19.
1C "Das Quilisma" (Greg. Rundschau, IV, V, several installments).
 The Notation 115

matic, or possibly even enharmonic, pitches between the fixed interval of

the third:

FIGURE IQ

As
for the lengthening of the
note(s) preceding the quilisma or, as
Mocquereau puts it, the "effect r<kroacti de retard ou m&ne de prolonge-
ment," 16 this view is, on the whole, well
supported by numerous examples
from early manuscripts (St. Gall, Metz) in which the note before the
quilisma carries a sign of prolongation, such as the Romanus letter t
(tenere, to hold), the horizontal episema, or actual doubling of the pitch.
Whether it is as universally valid as Mocquereau claims when he says "cette
rfegle ne souffre aucune exception," is another question. Certainly there
are cases where the "retroactive" prolongation is not indicated in the
source, as in St. Gall 359, where repeatedly the quilisma is preceded by a
clivis (sometimes a clivis with episema which, however, affects only its first

note, not the one before the quilisma):

FIGURE 20

f\cj fTcJ
a. Pal. mus.t ILii, 85-45, line 11 (bonum); line 12 (regft
b. ibid., ii-3x, line 2 (egressio); 12-53, line i
(first neume)

At any rate, the question concerning the note before the quilisma is, it
seems to me, of minor importance compared to that concerning the quilts-
ma itself.
e. The trigon (L. trigonum, triangle) is a neumatic sign consisting, in
itssimplest form, of three dots outlining a triangle. Composite forms are
the trigonum preceded and/or followed by one or two dots (praepunctis,

subpunctis), in which one or both of the two sides of the "triangle" consist
of four or even five dots. The trigonum, with its unusually "graphic" de-

sign, clearly suggests a melodic motion identical with that represented by

the torculus, e.g., b-c'-a. The difference between the two signs may have
been one of performance, that is, legato for the torculus and staccato for
the trigonum, or one of note-values, shorter in the latter than in the former.
Of greater importance and of more lasting significance, however, was a
difference of melodic description. While a torculus may indicate any
pitches outlining a low-high-low motion, the trigonum is much more lim-

16 Nombre, I, 399.
Il6 GREGORIAN CHANT
ited in this respect. A
comparison with its diastematic equivalents shows,
first of all, that in the
great majority of cases its highest tone is one of the
subsemitonal degrees, f, c', or b-fiat. This suggests that its initial interval
was always a semitone, e-f-(d), b-c'-(a), or a-b[>-(g). Actually, there is good
reason to assume that it was a microtonic interval, approximately a quar-
ter-tone. This is proved, almost beyond doubt, by the fact that the diaste-
matic manuscripts nearly always represent the trigonum as a bistropha
ftexa, that is, as f-f-(d), c'-c'-( a )> etc. Fig. 21 shows two examples of the
trigonum (from St. Gall ^55)), together with their later equivalents.

FIGURE 21

Ai*- b
Jf .,:. /7-*.-

de-du- cis ml- cus

a. Gradual Qui sedes, -ft. [336] b. Gradual Invent, "ft. [1130]

The first example is interesting because it shows one of the very rare
examples of a single apostropha.

The early neumes that have just been discussed represent the Franco-
German notation of the ninth to eleventh centuries, best known through
the Mss St. Gall 359, Gall 339, Einsiedeln 121, and St. Gall 390-391
St.

(Codex Hartker), all published in the volumes of the PaUographie musi-

cale. It ismainly in these sources that we find the "special neumes," salicus,
oriscus, pressus, franculus, quilisma, and trigonum, each of which involves
a peculiar effect such as microtonic intervals, staccato, portamento, or
ornamentations in the character of a trill or a turn. Such effects are also
indicated in the case of neumes that are only recorded in medieval treatises
under strange names such as tremula, vinnula (charming; pleasant; from
vinnus, lock of hair?), concinna (well put together, elegant), cincinnum
(from cincinnus, lock of hair?), sirenimpha (like the song of the sirens?),
etc. 17
Naturally it is impossible to determine the meaning of these terms, if
they ever had a definite one. There can be no doubt, however, that at a
certain time and in certain localities the chant was performed in a manner
which the later manuscripts and present-day books reflect only faintly.
17 in 1028, Adhe*mar de Chavannes (also known as the Monk of Angouleme) wrote:
c.

"All the French singers have learned the Roman notes (notam romanam) which they now
call French (franciscam)f except for the voces tremulas or vinnolas or collisibiles (from

collidere^ cf. collision) or secdbiles (from secare, to cut apart?). These the French have not
been able to express perfectly in their song, since, with their natural and barbaric voice,
they break the sounds in their throat (frangentes in gutture) rather than bring it forward
(exprimentes)." See, e.g., J. Handschin in Acta musicologica, XXII, 72.
 The Notation 117

Finally, we must mention certain subsidiary signs that are frequently

added to theneumes in the above-mentioned sources in order to clarify the
melodic motion or details of rhythm. These are the so-called Romanus
letters and the episema. The former are named after a somewhat
legendary
Romanus who, according to the St. Gall chronicler Ekkehard IV (d. 1030),
came from Rome to St. Gall at the time of Charlemagne and transplanted
the Roman chant to the German monastery. A letter written by Notker
Balbulus (d. 912) contains a table in which practically every letter of the
18
alphabet is explained as the abbreviation of some significant word, but
only a few of these letters are actually encountered in the musical sources.

MELODIC LETTERS
a ut altius elevetur admonet (warns to raise the voice)
I levare neumamneume)
(lift the
s sursum scandere upward)(step
d ut deprimatur (should be depressed)
i iusum vel inferius insinuat (insinuates "below")
e ut equalitur sonetur (should be sung in unison)

RHYTHMIC LETTERS
t trahere vel tenere (to drag or to hold)
x expectare (to await, to retard)
m mediocriter moderari melodiam (moderation, retard?)
c ut cito vel celeriter dicatur (should be sung quickly)

These letters Gall 35^ and, with particular frequency, in

occur in St.

Codex Einsiedeln 121 The melodic signs are, on the whole,

(Pal. mus., IV).
of little interest since they clarify only the direction of the motion without

giving the exact intervals, for which we have to depend upon the later
manuscripts in diastematic notation. The only exception is the sign e
(equaliter) for a unison, and this has indeed proved valuable for the in-
19 The
vestigation of certain questions. rhythmic letters, on the other hand,
have played a prominent role in the attempts to solve the problem of Gre-
gorian rhythm, which will be discussed later.
Of as great significance as the rhythmic letters is the episema, a hori-
zontal dash on top of a neume, especially a virga or a clivis. Several ex-

amples occur in die illustrations previously given, e.g., the virgae with
episema in Figs. 14 and or the clivis with episema in Figs. 17, 20, and
15,
21. Scholars are generally agreed that this indicates a prolongation. pro- A
longation may also be indicated by the use of a horizontal stroke in the

18 GS, I, Also Pal. mus., IV, 10; Nombre, I, 164.

95.
f
19 See R. J. Hesbert, "L'interpre*tation de l equaliter dans les manuscrits sangalliens"
(RG, XVIII, 161).
Il8 GREGORIAN CHANT
place of a dot, the punctum planum or virga jacens, as it has been called
(see p. 109, fn. 2). This occurs not only as an individual sign (e.g., in Fig. 15
on "ex" or in Fig. 21 on "(dedu)cis"), but also in scandicus and climacus
neumes, where frequently one or several of the dots are replaced by a stroke
(cf. Fig. 22, p. 120,
first column).

The extended use of such peculiarities as highly specialized neumes,

significative letters, and episematic modifications occurs particularly in the
St. Gall manuscripts, and sets them apart from other sources, written in

Italy, France, and England, which employ a much simpler notation, often
nothing but the basic neumes and their liquescent varieties. The historical
evaluation of this contrast is one of the points of contention among scholars.
In an interesting reversal of national interests, which certainly is to their
credit, most French scholars Houdard, Dechevrens, Mocquereau have
placed the greatest confidence in the St. Gall tradition, while some Ger-
mans, such as O. Fleischer (in his Neumenstudieri) and Wagner, have
considered them as hardly more than curiosities of local interest. Whatever
their value is, they do, of course, represent a tradition, if only a special one,
that cannot be disregarded.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEUMATIC NOTATION

Aside from a few eighth-century fragments, the earliest musical manu-
scripts date from the ninth century. In these, as well as in those of the next
century, the neumes are written in such a manner as to represent only the
general contour of the melodic motion, such as high-to-low (clivis), low-to
high (podatus), etc., without in any way indicating the pitches or intervals
involved. Thus, in the case of a podatus we can be sure that an ascending
motion is involved, but we cannot tell whether this motion comprises the
interval of a second, a third, or a fifth, nor whether it starts on c, on f, or
on some other pitch. Evidently these signs served only as a guide for singers
who knew the melodies more or less by heart, or for the choir leader who
may have interpreted them to the singers by appropriate movements of
the hand. Such neumes are called staffless, oratorical, cheironomic (Greek
for hand sign), or in campo aperto ("in the open field," i.e., without clear
orientation).
Shortly before the year 1000 we find the earliest traces of a more careful
manner of writing, designed to give a clearer visual indication of pitches
and intervals. Without actually writing a staff, the scribes imagined hori-
zontal lines representing lower or higher pitches, and wrote the neumes
not only in lower or higher positions, but also to a certain extent in various
degrees of elongation, so that a podatus standing for an ascending fourth
would reach up higher than one indicating an ascending second. Such
neumes are called diastematic, heightened, or intervallic. Notation of a
 The Notation 119

tentatively diastematic character appears for the first time in Italian and
1
Aquitanian (southern-French) manuscripts of the late tenth century.
Later sources of this type often have one or two lines scratched into the
parchment, lines which, however, have no fixed meaning, representing the
pitches d,f, g, etc., depending upon the range of the
melody. According to
a sixteenth-century chronicler this innovation was made at the monastery
of Corbie under its abbot Ratold (972-986): "In this time there started in
our monastery a new method of singing, from signs arranged by means of
lines and spaces Until then the Graduals and Antiphonals of our church
had no lines/' 2 This primitive method of diastematic notation persisted in
some countries long after Guido of Arezzo (died c. 1050) had brought
previous experiments to their final solution by introducing a system of
four lines representing intervals of a third, and by indicating the pitch
through colored lines (usually red for f, yellow or green for c') or clef let-
ters, mostly f and c'. To the present day, Gregorian chant is notated on a
four-line staff, with the clef-letters f and c>.

As was pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the numerous

manuscripts of chant fallinto national groups with strong characteristics

of penmanship and notational details. And even within the same coun-

try therewere individual schools centered around monasteries where the

chant was especially cultivated. Thus in France we have to distinguish
between neumatic manuscripts from Metz (in the East), Chartres (in the
West), and St. Martial at Limoges (in the South,
Aquitania); in Italy,
between those from Novara (North-West), Nonantola and Bologna (North-
East), and Benevento (South). Fig. 22 serves to illustrate the characteristic
traits of five important schools: St. Gall (German neumes); Metz (Mes-
sine neumes); St. Martial (Aquitanian neumes); northern France (square

neumes); and Benevento (Beneventan, Italian neumes).

The early neumes, particularly those from St. Gall and Metz, occur in
varied forms which have rhythmic significance, indicating that one or an-
other of the pitches involved is of longer duration. Especially conspicuous
in this respect are the various forms of the dimacus in the St. Gall manu-
The Messine notation indicates the tendency to dissolve the neu-
scripts.
matic signs into signs for individual pitches, a tendency which was fully
realized in the Aquitanian notation. Whenever single signs (dots, etc.) are
1
Wagner believes that the diastematic notation is the original system, developed in
and that the St. Gall Mss represent a deterioration of it. See Adler's Handbuch der
Italy,
Musikgeschichte, I (and ed., 1929), 96.
2 Gerbert, De Cantu, II, 61. In an article, "The Musical Notation of Guido of Arezzo"

(MD, V, 15), J. Smits van Waesberghe declares this text to be "not of the slightest histori-
a contemporary document, and is in-
cal value" (p. 49). It certainly lacks the authority of
cluded above only with the necessary reservation. On the other hand, it
should be noticed
that the report makes no claim for the fully developed Guidonian system with four lines,
but only for a tentatively diastematic notation, such as probably existed before Guido.
120 GREGORIAN CHANT
written in a strictly vertical arrangement, they are to read from top to
bottom [see the dimacus under II and III]. For further details the reader
isreferred to the Plates, which show the Mass chants for Easter Sunday as
they appear in manuscripts from the ninth to the twelfth century. The
following remarks are designed to facilitate their study.

FIGURE 22

II III IV VI

punctum, virga _ X n

podatus

clivis

scandicus

dimacus
x/c/*-
torculus

porrectus V ' V
scandicus flexus J
pes subbipunctus -A 1

I. St. Gall II. Messine III. Aquitanian IV. Northern French

V. Beneventan VI. Modern

PLATE i. St. Gall 35^ (c. goo). The earliest complete manuscript preserved. A
Cantatorium, which gives the full text and music only for the solo chants, Grad-
uals, Alleluias, and Tracts, the Introits, etc., being indicated by their incipits.

Incensum tantum (only incense to be used)

Static ad Sanctam Mariam (Stational Church)

^(ntiphon) Resurrexi et adhuc (Introit)

Psalmus. Domine probasti me (verse of the Introit)
U(esponsorium) G(raduale) Haec dies . . .

F(ersus) Confitemini Domino . . .

Alleluia Pascha nostrum . . .

The neumes of thefirst row are: clivis with letter t

(tenere); dimacus (with
episemaf); clivis; a special form of the podatus, sometimes called pes quassus
(N'ombre, I, 159); bistropha; dimacus; porrectus; virga with episema; podatus;
bivirga; bistropha; torculus; dimacus; virga with episema; porrectus with episema;
 The Notation 121

tristropha. Middle of line 2, on "(exul)te(mus)": clivis; climacus praebipunctis;

trigon (in later sources modified into a pressus, c'-c'-b). Line 3, several instances of
c (celeriter). Beginning of line 4: two
virga jacens (punctum planum) with e
(equaliter), probably meaning an a (today a c ); epiphonus; two virgae; clivis with
7

c (celeriter); climacus praebipunctis. Line 5, on "bonus": virga

(with episema?)*,
trivirga; two climacus in which the puncta are replaced by virga-jacens forms;
clivis with episema. Line
7, last neume, quilisma with episema.
Alleluia , line i: three puncta; pes quassus with episema, t, and / (aim fragore,
with a loud noise); torculus resupinus (probably b-d'-c'-d'; today b-d' d' d');
pressus with i (today omitted). Line 3: several climacus with one punctum and
one vz'rga jacens. Line 4: punctum; salicus "cum fragore."

PLATE n. St. Gall 332 (tenth century).

In die ad missam (on the day for the Mass)

A. Resurrexi et adhuc .
a(l\)e(\)uia a(ll)e(l)uia.. .

Ps(almus) D(orm)ne p(ro)6a(sti)

JRG. Haec dies V. Confitemini
. . . . . .

Alleluia Pascha nostrum . . .

V. Epulemur in azimis sinceritatis et veritatisP

O/(fertorium). Terra tremuit . . .

V. Notus in Judea . . . V. Et factus est . . .

V. Ibi confregit . . .
4

Co(mmunio). Pascha nostrum . . .

The have completely disappeared, and only the episema is

significant letters
retained. The
notational symbols are practically the same as in St. Gall 35^. Note
that the second clivis on "(exul)te(mus)" (after the trigon) has an episema, which
is missing in St. Gall 35^.

PLATE m. Codex Chartres 47 (c. 1000).

Contents are the same as in St. Gall 339.
The captions R., V. f Of., Co., are written in color, which hardly shows in the

photographic reproduction. Note that the Alleluia Pascha nostrum, y. Epulemur

is
only indicated, without music (line 7).
The marginal signs indicate the mode
and probably the example, for the Communion Pascha nostrum:
initial tone, for
ut in vi, that is: start with the first tone (ut of the hexachord) of the sixth mode. 5
The notation shows the characteristic traits of the French system, particularly
in the tendency to dissolve the neumes into single signs. Thus, the initial clivis of
Hec dies is written as two dots placed in a vertical line; the first neume on

"(exulte)mus" (beginning of line 5), a podatus subbipunctis, appears as a single

dot followed by three dots written vertically from top to bottom; and the scandicus
on "et" (same line) is given as two puncta and a virga. Of special interest is the
transformation of the trigon into a rectangular form. Note that dots written in a
be read downwards, in contrast to those appearing
vertical position are always to

3 For Alleluias with two verses, see p. 185.

4 For Offertories with verses, see pp. igaff.
5 The abbreviation em in the marginal note for the verse Ibi confregit stands perhaps
for emmeles, an early term for the subfinal.
122 GREGORIAN CHANT
in a slanting position. In order to save space, longer melismas frequently extend
beyond the syllable to which they belong, as for instance that for "(fe)dt" (line 4),
which continues above the neumes for "dominus." Obviously, the notation is com-
pletely non-diastematic.

PLATE rv. Museum, Egerton 857 (late eleventh century). Contents are
British
the same as in Gall 339, but without the Offertory verses.
St.

The neumes show a noticeable tendency toward diastematic writing. The nota-
tion is French (probably northern French), but does not show the characteristic
traits noticed in the Chartres manuscript. The climacus, in particular, is always
written in the earlier manner. This specimen is also interesting because it illus-
trates the beginning of the square neumes, particularly in the podatus, which

always has a little square for each of the two pitches, the lower one to the left, the

upper to the right of the connecting stroke (see, e.g., "quam" of Hec dies). In the
twelfth century it became customary to place both squares to the left of the stroke,
and became the final form of die podatus. The clivis, on the other hand, ap-
this

pears in a strange form (somewhat like the figure 7) which completely fails to
indicate or suggest the pitches involved. This appears from a consideration of
the beginning of Hec dies, where the first clivis stands for a-g, the second for a-f.

PLATE v, Paris, Bibl. nat. lat. 776 (from Albi, nth century). The beginning of
the Introit, Resurrexi et adhuc, is written in a highly decorative manner, with
the letters interspersed, for instance, u and r within the S. The Alleluia includes
two tropes, which are designated as P(ro)saJ
This is a pure example of the Aquitanian notation. Neumes of the earlier type,
written in a continuous graph, have almost completely disappeared. The dots, into
which they are segregated, are carefully arranged on lines scratched into the
parchment.

PLATE vi.
Montpellier H. 159 (nth century). This is a famous manuscript,
unique in its tonal arrangement of the Mass chants (tonale missarum), its "bilin-
gual" notation, in neumes as well as in letters, and its signs for quarter-tones. Our
page contains chants of the fourth mode, as indicated by the inscription deuterus
and the marginal indication /(agius). The first complete chant is the Introit
Resurrext, with the remaining portions of the Easter Mass, Ps. Domine probasti,
]JT. Hec dies, All. Pascha nostrum, Of. Terra tremuit, and Co. Pascha nostrum, indi-

cated on
the right margin.
The neumes are similar to those of Plate IV. Notice the incipient square form
of the podatus, e.g., on "sum" (line 2 of the page) and on "(mi)ra(bilis)" at the
beginning of line 4. The most important
feature is the letter notation, which
transcribes the non-diastematic neumes in a clearly readable form, making this one
of the earliest manuscripts that can be accurately deciphered. The letters have
their present-day meaning, but continue, above g, with the subsequent letters of

6 The
cephalicus appears in the shape of the figure 9. Repeatedly there occurs a
strange symbol in the form of a reclining 8, which is always followed by a punctum in
lower position. Both signs together replace a clivis of other Mas.
7 See 43gff for a discussion of Alleluias with
pp. tropes.
 %; *
^^'**
- ^ ^ ^
tneW v G>nArt^tnmi 300

V ipwfe mur- UIA TimtT rtncrr-t tacaT <**tt*rtnr

'
*'

in

to - ctif
'
-

1 bt can A r^tt *
ocfr- ttit Aj~tam ^
>

^-^^ / .^^ ^
TU rnirmbi

mttr* ttOrrtxaf &ertti JUBTUA, Atfx

Plate II. St. Gall jjp
I C-

-*/ /.

-' :
- "--
. , v..
;
J.^intM .!' 4U*"" 'MM, .

**

Plate III. Charlies

 ir J(*tf mum fm

fl'f .>

ma

f
v

A mur
ortrcmt
mix f

tn

f
v
,,
7
MK // 7>/v/,
'

mu r tna. Jtwtf

' V

Plate IV. London, Brit. Mus. gerton ^'5

t V'LL^.^1 2:^^.
: ^

Plate V. Paris, Bibl. nat.

 r jt"
if iw .

I + / / A'
.
xff f*,***
efltr JO/ It ui tt

K /

sfjf
I
M.
j
fu if

j/
/ / J
"
c- aflp.f.f^-fr
.WIT* WiC^o oT *fa.
M
'

. > / J I J /
4 f
* /I . / *
r |f ,4,, A , |

uo toivcueaiAM mi n&wwer J^At icLu u.

I
* JS js'J j / / / / / tf

fw
ft
ct'Jt'fwwdfc^iHpaf
f&rm a?

" J / / / x / / 7 / />
^
I /
J t

.fJ 4ii f t ^
xrM:*.^ omntA fr-
m v- tuff . \
flin^tC.
o J xv.,." i r^ y ^ J /I

(3 er f f ff- fitfrfe:> rfirV

A /
f" <*
rtwn cu

niwifmer if tf ftiw mcx*" mi nr-

Plate VI. Montpellier, Bibl. de llcole cle Med. H. i;y
 >
i
:

'

' . fS

-H j.r
V
* .,
.v* -a d
1 a fcS w
I r- i .;

*^
3 P * *i <t ?^ *iT ^**
* *
** *"
3 K
S
*~
* a %-^ ** n 5 1

*^, !* Ep <

**a *, f

'

\ JB !*! zj'8* ^^
,r s *^ b Ci ^
\ 4 '1^ '

r
 /

t.
r

Plate VIII. Paris, Bibl. nat. lat. 17436

 The Notation 1*3

the alphabet, so that- h, i, k, 1, m, n, o, p stand for a, b, c', d', e', P, g', and a'. 8
For instance, the letters fgh hg on "(posu)isti" ^ ine ^ indicate f g a a g. The
ornamental signs of the neumatic notation are reproduced in an interesting way,
the quilisma by a short wavy stroke, [see "(su)per" on line the oriscus by a
3],
small hook [see "(volunta)ti" at the beginning of line At the beginning of In
7].
voluntate (Introit for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost [1066]) repeated
use of the sign ^ is made, which indicates, without doubt, the quarter-tone or
some micro-interval below f. 9

PLATE vii. Rome, Vatican Libr. lat. 5319. This is one of the four sources of the
Old-Roman chant mentioned on p. 77. The Introit has two verses, Domine
probasti and Ecce a Domine, the first, as usual, designated as Ps(almus). The
Alleluia Pascha nostrum has the verse Aepulemur, as in St. Gall 339 (Plate II)
and in most of the earlier sources.
The notationan example of the Beneventan neumes, completely diastematic
is

with lines and In the original the F-line is red, the C-line yellow,
clef letters.
the others are scratched in without color. The melodies, as will easily be seen,
are completely different from those of the other manuscripts. (See the transcrip-
tion of Resurrexi, Fig. 167, p. 488).

PLATE vni. Paris, BibL nat

17436 (Antiphonal of Compiegne, with musical
lat.

entries of the eleventh century). This facsimile is given chiefly as an example of a

sequela with verb a [see p. 449]. It is written in an early, non-diastematic type of
Aquitanian neumes, which may be compared with the later, diastematic type of
Plate V. The elongated scrolls are signs of repeat, probably meaning denuo (again,
twice). For further details the version of Fulgens praeclara in A. Hughes, Anglo-
French Sequelae (1934), p. 41, may be consulted.

We need not carry this survey any farther, because with the beginning
of the thirteenth century the square neumes were universally adopted.

Only in Germany a special type of over-decorative script was cultivated,

the Gothic neumes, also called Hufnagelschrift because of their resem-
blance to horse-shoe nails. 10

THE NOTATION OF THE SOLESMES BOOKS

We owe the present-day books of Gregorian chant, such as the Graduate
Sacrosanctae Romanae Antiphonale Sacrosanctae Romanae
Ecclesiae, the
Ecclesiae, and the Liber usualis, to the Benedictine monks of Solesmes
who, under the leadership of Dom Gu6ranger (1805-75), Dom Pothier
(1835-1923), and Dom Mocquereau (1849-1930), did the spadework which
8 See
p. 152, system Anonymus
IL
$ See J. Gmelch, Die Vierteltonstufen im Messtonale von Montpellier (1911). Also, e.g.,
G. Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, p. 136.
10 See the table of neumes in Grove's Dictionary f III, 648 (omitted in the new edition,

1954) or in HJDM, "Neumes." They are obviously derived from the

s. v. late (twelfth-

century) Messine neumes.

124 GREGORIAN CHANT
Without their efforts the
led to the restoration of the medieval tradition.
study of Gregorian chant would be immensely more difficult, as would,
for instance, the study of the works of Bach without the volumes of the
Bach Gesellschaft, or that of Machaut, Josquin, and Palestrina without
the modern editions of their complete works. Although none of these pub-
licationscan wholly replace the original sources least of all in the field
of chant, the complete repertory of which far exceeds the contents of the
modern books they provide a reliable basis of ample proportions which
the student may safely use for numerous investigations.
There is, however, a certain difference between the editorial principles
and methods employed in the volumes of the Bach Gesellschaft (as well as
in the other musicological publications just mentioned) and those adopted
by the monks of Solesmes. Aware of their primary obligation which, of
course, was to the Church rather than to musicology, they aimed at an
edition that would not only restore the medieval tradition but also make
it a
part of the present-day liturgy, so that the old melodies would be sung
again after more than a thousand years, as indeed they now are. Conse-
quently it was felt necessary that some indications which would facilitate
their performance by present-day singers and choirs should be added to the

original melodies. Useful and perhaps indispensable though they may be,
they tend to put the Solesmes books into the same category as, for example,
a practical edition of Bach with its customary trappings of phrase marks,
dynamic signs, etc. In either case it is important for the student to know
what is authentic and what is an editorial addition.
The series of modern publications of Gregorian chant started with the
Liber gradualis prepared by Dom Pothier and published, in two editions,
in 1883 and 18Q5- 1 Here the only editorial signs are vertical strokes of two
different lengths designed to indicate the end of phrases or of sections.

They more or less agree with the full bar and the half bar of the later
editions, prepared under the direction of Mocquereau, the author of a

special theory and practice of Gregorian rhythm generally known as the

Solesmes method. He obtained permission from the Sacred Congregation
of Rites in Rome to incorporate his method into the new editions (Solesmes

edition) which, consequently, contain considerably more material of an

editorial nature. In addition to the above-mentioned phrase marks the
Solesmes editions make consistent use of five other signs: the quarter bar,
the comma, the dot, the horizontal episema, and the vertical episema. Fol-
lowing is a brief explanation of these signs.
a. The full bar, half bar, quarter bar, and comma are signs for phrasing
or breathing [see, for example, the Gradual In sole, L
344], Without ques-
tioning their practical usefulness, we may well (and often have to) disre-
gard them in our analytical studies, except for the full bar, extending
i See p. 17.
 The Notation 125

through the entire staff like the modern bar line. This bar often serves to
separate melodic units which are of basic importance particularly in the
Tracts, Responsories, and Graduals, as will be seen later. 2 None of these
signs occur in the medieval manuscripts.
b. The dot, called punctum-mora mora, length, duration), is placed
(L.
after a note or, occasionally in neumes, above it. It doubles the value of the
affected note, making it a quarter-note rather than an eighth-note. Like
the phrase signs, the dot does not occur in the early sources.
c. The horizontal
episema (Gr. additional sign) is a horizontal stroke
placed over a note or, occasionally, a group of two, three, or four notes
[see the end of the Offertory Posuisti, L 438]. In the Solesmes system it in-
dicates a slight lengthening of the notes above which it appears [see L, p.

xx]. These horizontal episemas are not editorial marks, as are the other
signs. They were adopted from the early St. Gall manuscripts which, as we
have seen, frequently employ the episema particularly in connection with
the virga and the clivis and also letters that pertain to details of rhythm.

Mocquereau and his followers have given a prominent role to these manu-
scripts, which they have termed "rhythmic manuscripts." The Solesmes
3

episema is also used where the rhythmic manuscripts have the letter t or a
specially formed neume believed to indicate lengthening of a note. For
instance, in the Gradual Haec dies [778] the episema over the initial neume
reproduces the t of the Codex St. Gall 555* [see Plate I]; that over the fourth
neume stems from the special form of the podatus; those over the two
climacus groups in the melisma "bo(nus)" stem from the climacus form
with horizontal strokes (punctum planum) instead of dots. Now and then
a rhythmic indication of the original is reproduced as punctum-mora, e.g.,
in the "special podatus with episema" near the beginning of the final
melisma on "(e)jus."
d. Finally, extensive and consistent use is made of the vertical episema,
a short vertical dash placed above or, occasionally, beneath a note. More
than any other sign, this is bound up with Mocquereau's interpretation of
Gregorian chant and the Solesmes method of singing derived from it. This
method employs, in a very prominent position, the so-called ictus, i.e., a
subtle emphasis or impulse which recurs on every second or third note, re-

sulting in small rhythmic entities (feet) of two or three notes, often in

irregular alternation. The rules for the placement of the ictus are fully
explained on p. xxviii of the Liber usualis. The vertical episema serves
to indicate the position of the ictus in all those cases in which it is not
apparent from the general rules. Needless to say, there is no trace of the
vertical episema in any of the medieval sources, and the historical validity
of the ictus theory is, to put it mildly, highly questionable. We shall return

2 See, the tables on pp. 271, 273.

e.g.,
3 See,
e.g., Sunol, PaUographie, pp. 13 iff.
126 GREGORIAN CHANT
to this problem in the next section, dealing with the rhythm of Gregorian
chant

THE PROBLEM OF RHYTHM

Some time ago, when I told a friend
of mine about work on the
my
present book he said: "How can you write a book on Gregorian chant; you
don't know anything about its rhythm." It is true that I don't know any-

thing about Gregorian rhythm, anything certain, that is nor does any-
body else. In contrast to my friend, however, I do not consider a knowledge
of this matter a sine qua non, or ignorance of it a serious obstacle to fruit-
ful and valid investigation in our field. On the contrary, I cannot help

feeling that the importance of the rhythmic problem has been somewhat
exaggerated. The numerous efforts made in this direction appear to me
like so many answers to a question that was never raised. This does not
mean to say that Gregorian chant had no rhythm. Music without rhythm
isobviously a contradiction in itself. However, rhythm is not the same as
a fixed rhythmic system, that is, a clearly formulated and consistently ap-
plied set of rules governing the duration of the notes and other matters
pertaining to rhythm in the most general sense of the word. It is toward
the discovery of some such system that the efforts of so many scholars have
been directed without any incontestable or generally accepted result.
Could it be that they were chasing a phantom, .that they were trying to
find something that never existed? I believe so, for at least two reasons.
One is that the melodies of the chant, in their specific melodic design, lend
themselves to a rhythmic (or better, a-rhythmic?) rendition of the greatest
flexibility and variability, similar to what we find in so many folkmelodies
(e.g., American Indian) of a "rhapsodic" character. In such folkmelodies
rhythm is present only as an accessory, not as a preconditioning element as
it is in tunes
pertaining to dancing. Their rhythmic structure, if that is
what it should be called, is so evasive that it is bound to undergo variations
from individual to individual, and even more so from generation to genera-
tion. It seems to me that Gregorian chant is
equally susceptible to such
vicissitudes.
The other reason is, that I am convinced there would be some tangible
evidence of systematic rhythm either in the musical sources or in the
medieval treatises if there ever had been a stable tradition in this field
comparable to that which we find in the purely melodic aspect of the
chant.True enough, there are the "rhythmic manuscripts" such as St. Gall
355>,which, no doubt, represent an effort in the direction of indication of
some rhythmic details. However, they are extremely limited in number
and locale, their importance as testimonials of the "true chant" has been
contested, and their indications more than anything else have been the
 The Notation 127

source of disagreement and controversy among scholars. The latter remark

applies also to the few hints about rhythm that have been found in
medieval treatises. Every one of them has been interpreted as evidence of
opposite theories.
In view of this state of affairs at least, the way I see them I would like

nothing better than to close this chapter right here. Since, however, the
problem still looms large in the minds of scholars and students, it cannot
very well be omitted in a book on Gregorian chant without inviting strong
criticism. We shall therefore give a short resum of the various theories
that have been proposed.
It is customary to group these theories and their proponents into two

categories equalist and mensuralist. The chief difference is that the

former admit only one basic time-value, while the latter insist that various
time-values are involved. To the former group belong Pothier and Mocque-
reau; to the latter, Houdard, Riemann, Dechevrens, Fleury, Jeannin,
Wagner, and, more recently, Lipphardt and Jammers.
I. Pothier. Pothier
developed his ideas about Gregorian rhythm in his
Les Melodies gregoriennes (iSSi). 1 It is difficult to gain an entirely clear
picture of his ideas from this book, and even more so from the writings of
the few followers he had. 2 Although he is usually, and to a certain degree
perhaps properly, considered an equalist, he repeatedly speaks about "des
notes plus longues et d'autres plus breves" (p. 184), and even says that
there are "plusieurs sortes de longues, comme aussi plusieurs sortes de
br&ves" (p. 185). Obviously what he had in mind is a "free rhythm" ad-
mitting numerous subtle deviations from the basic time unit. Beyond this,
he considered the Latin text with its accents a basic factor of the rhythmic
life, particularly in the syllabic and neumatic chants or passages, in which
the textual accent should make itself felt in the performance as a stress of
the corresponding note of the melody. In melismatic passages the accent
falls on the first note of each neume. His theory has been termed: "free

oratoric rhythm."
II.Mocquereau. In opposition to Pothier, Mocquereau developed what
has become known as the Solesmes systefn or, in distinction from Pothier's
theory, as "free musical rhythm." He proposed this first in vol. VII of the
it in great detail in his Le Nombre
Paleographie musicale and elaborated
musical. His system is
incorporated in the modern publications of the
Solesmes edition, which usually carry the remark: rhythmicis signis a Soles-
1 Dom Gajard, in an article "Le Chant grgorien et la Mthode de Solesmes" (RG,
XXIX, as, etc.)mentions a book by Gontier, Mdthode raisonne de plainchant (1859) as a
first attempt in this direction (pp. ayf). This may have been in opposition to others who
interpreted the neumes in terms of sixteenth-century mensural notation, e.g., the climacus
as a longa followed by two semibreves.
2 For instance, Dom Lucien David, Le Rythme verbal et mitsical dans le chant romain

(1933). For a relatively clear summary see Gajard's article (fn. i), p. 29.
128 GREGORIAN CHANT
mensibus monachis diligenter ornatum (carefully provided by the Monks
of Solesmes with rhythmic signs). He is much more an "equalist" than
Pothier, insisting, as he does, on a "rythme precis" as the foundation of
the performance. All notes have equal value except for those marked by
the horizontal episema, which are to be slightly lengthened, and those
marked by the punctum-mora, which are to be approximately doubled.
The latter occur only at the end of phrases or sections. However, doubled
and even tripled values also result from unison groups, as in the pressus
or in the distropha and tristropha. More fundamentally different and novel,
however, are his views about accentuation. Completely discarding Pothier's
idea of the text and of stress (intensite) as governing elements, he considers
the rhythm as a purely musical phenomenon, as a motion consisting of
6lan and repos (arsis and thesis; approximately, up-beat and down-beat).
These follow, not in regular patterns, but in irregular successions of groups
of two or three notes. The constantly recurring "impulse" involved in this
performance, the ictus, is indicated by the vertical episema whenever
necessary. These elementary groups, always binary or ternary, are com-
bined into rhythmic division of higher orders, incises, members, phrases,
and periods. For the clarification of these ideas and for teaching purposes
extensive use is made of cheironomic drawings (chironomie), wave-like
lines drawn between and above the notes in order to give a visual impres-
sion of the mouvement rythmique.

Mocquereau's system has not only been universally adopted in the

churches but has also found ardent admirers elsewhere. Perhaps its main
merit lies in the field of musical education, where it has effectively counter-
acted the mechanizing influence of time-beating. In fact, Mocquereau him-
self seems to have considered it as such, rather than claiming historical
correctness for it.
Certainly, there is no historical foundation whatever for
the central part of his theory, the binary and ternary groups with the
ictus. 9 He devoted painstaking research to the "rhythmic
manuscripts,"
from which he adopted the various signs for prolongation (episema, letters
t, x> m), disregarding, however, the signs for acceleration (c) or those that
indicate various degrees of intensity (f, cum fragore; k, clange). Thus, his
work represents a mixture of historical exactitude and ingenious fancy.
Considered aesthetically, its aim is to avoid manifest effects by introducing
3
Among his most outspoken critics were M. Emmanuel and Gastoue" who, in a re-
view of Le Nombre musical (TG, XIV, 258) said: "La tolerance que Dom M. a obtenue de
Rome pour ses signes rythmiques lui permet par un abus singulier d'aller au bout de
son dessin, qui est d'imposer 'au monde entier* son interpretation personelle des rythmes
mdivaux. II est temps de protester centre
cette prevention, peu justified. II ne faut pas

que les practitiens du

plain-chant se laissent r^genter par un savant qui defend sa
propre gloire, avec trop de partialiteY' An excellent presentation and well-balanced
criticism of Mocquereau's method is found in G. Reese, Music in the Middle
Ages, pp.
1415.
 The Notation 129

various layers of emphasis that balance each other, such as the textual
accent, the ictus, and the episema. In an ideal case (which is often realized)
these three kinds of "stress" would
appear each at a different place.
III. As for the mensuralists, we can
only briefly indicate the appallingly
different results they have arrived at, often
upon the basis of the same
sources (St. Gall 55^; Codex Hartker) and the same theorists (e.g., Guido).
Houdard. Each neumatic symbol has the same temporal value (quar-
a.

ter-note). Thus, the punctum and virga have the duration of a quarter-
note; in the podatus and clivis each tone is an eighth-note; a climacus, etc.,
isreproduced as eighth-note triplets; a four-tone neume as sixteenth-notes,
etc.See Le rythme du chant gregorien (1898).
b. Riemann.
Transcription in strict 4/4-meter and phrases of four
measures, on the basis of the text, which is arbitrarily forced into Am-
brosian-hymn meter [see Handbuch der Musikgeschichte Lii, (1905), p. 34]:

Da
//. // /../.. //
I mi- hi in / dis- co / caput Jo- annis bap-/ ti- stae /
/ / / . . / / . / .
/ /
Jet contri-/ status est rex / propter jusju- /ran- dum /

c. Dechevrens. After an early

attempt (Etudes de science musicale, 1898)
he proposed in Les vraies melodies gregoriennes (1902) a rendition of the
Vesper Antiphons in regular meter (4/4, 2/4). The rendition is based on
the neumes of the Codex Hartker, which are interpreted as variable de-

pending upon the neighboring neumes. Thus, a virga with episema is a

half-note if followed by a virga (quarter-note), but a dotted quarter-note
if followed by a punctum (eighth-note). He makes extended use of grace
4
notes, e.g., for the quilisma and for the liquescent podatus.
d. Fleury. He emphasized the importance of the St. Gall episema and
the Romanus letters for prolongation, interpreting them as indications for

exactly doubled values (half-notes), the sign c (celeriter) as an indication

for halved values (eighth-notes). The three note values are combined ac-
cording to principles of the metrical feet. He gives no examples of tran-

scription. [See Ueber Choralrhythmus (transl. by Bonvin, in Publikationen

der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft,Beihefte, 1907).]
e. Wagner. Originally a champion of the Pothier-type of free rhythm

(Neumenkunde, ist edition, 1905), he later proposed an interpretation in

measured values(eighth-note, quarter-note, dotted quarter-note),
but with-
out meter. His main tenet was that the virga as well as the punctum
planum (which he called virga jacens) indicate doubled values, which are
4 In the
appendix to Les vraies melodies, Dechevrens gives two transcriptions of the
Vesptral, in Notation rythmique ancienne (1) and in Notation rythmique moderne (II).
Both are practically identical, save for the addition of bar-lines and meter in the latter.
He revised his
theory once more in Composition littSraire et composition musicale (1910).
For an example see Gajard's article (fn. i), p. 23.
l$o GREGORIAN CHANT
increased to triple values (dotted quarter-note) by the episema. He also
assigned a fixed metrical scheme to each neume. [See Wagner II, 3538:; also
Adler's Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft I, (1924), 93 and losff.]
f. Jeannin. He admits only two time values, quarter- and eighth-note,

which are arranged in irregular measures, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, etc., at least for
simple chants such as Antiphons. [See Etudes sur le rythme grdgorien
(19*6).]
g. Lipphardt studied the Antiphons
on the basis of the Codex Hartker,
and, in contrast to Dechevrens [see under c.], arrived at a rendition in
triple meter, essentially an alternation of longs and short
in the manner
of the first rhythmic mode. [See "Studien zur Rhythmik der Antiphonen"
(Die Musikforschung III, (1950), 47, 224).] Similar results had been formu-
lated by Sowa, in Quellen zur Transformation der Antiphonen (1935).
h. Jammers also studied the Antiphons as found in the Codex Hartker,
with more careful attention to the neumatic symbols. Like Dechevrens, he
concludes that all the Antiphons are essentially in 4/4-meter. [See Der

Gregorianische Rhythmus (1937)-]

For the purpose of further illustration, examples from the various men-
suralists are given in Fig. 23. In one case and another it has been possible
to show the same melody in different rhythmic interpretations. These are
grouped together.
If, in conclusion, I am permitted to express my own views, I would say

that for the over-all tradition of the chant the method of Pothier comes as
close to being a plausible and practicable solution as may be expected. It
recommends itself by the fact that it involves no "difficult
problem" and,
11
for that reason, no "ingenious solution. Its main premises, the importance
of the textual accent and of the first note of each neume, are clearly im-
plied in, and easily intelligible from, the notation as we find it in the great
majority of the manuscripts. I would not, however, advocate a strictly
equalistic performance of the melodies. In the neumatic and melismatic
chants particularly I would admit subtle nuances of rhythm on the basis
of Houdard's theory, the merits of which, it seems to me, have been slighted
or altogether overlooked. I would not go as far as to maintain that a five-
note neume should be sung inexactly the same time as one of two or three
notes,but the idea of subtly varying the speed according to the number
of notes found in a neume appeals to me, because it is as
simple and
natural as the principles advocated by Pothier.
In offering these suggestions I do not mean to exclude the possibility of
seeking, and perhaps finding, special solutions for individual rhythmic
manuscripts, such as St. Gall 359 and 33^ Einsiedeln 121, or the Codex
Hartker. Here the main question is whether the rhythmic signs or letters
indicate only nuances (Mocquereau) or really different note values (men-
suralists). I agree with the position taken by practically every musicologist
 The Notation
FIGURE 23

Sta - tu it e . i Do . mi

s
Ill'l 1
1 1

-go pru- ft si -
ma, quo pro- $n> <fe- ris

Da mi- hi
|
.
TT
i.
nnr^TE
indis-co. caputjoannis
... K y \
11

bap-tis*tae
I |

et
1

*
r
con-tria - ta-tua est rex propter jus-ju-ran-dum.

PlPffUr Mil BIT p

vc-ni -at bi-bat: et de ven-trc e* jus fluent aquae, vivac.

a. Houdard (after Gaudeamus, in Lc Rythme du chant grdgorien, p. 195)

b. Riemann (Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, I.ii, 34)
c. Dedievrens (Les mates melodies grtgoriennes, Vesp^ral I, p. 78)
e. Wagner (Adler, Handbuch, 1, 112)
f.
Jeannin (Etudes sur le rythme grdgorien, p. 26)
g. Lipphardt (Die Musikforschung, III, 235)
h. Jammers (Der gregorianische Rhythmus, Examples, p. 46)

that the latter interpretation is correct. 5 Of all the various renditions listed
above it seems to me that those given by Wagner are by far the best, because
notions
they are free from preconceived notions such as regular meter,
which belong to a considerably later period of music and which, if applied
to the Gregorian melodies, always involve some deviation from, or forced
interpretation of, the original. Wagner, on the contrary, has given rhythmic
interpretations which reflect every detail and nuance of such highly com-
5 To quote only one of the most recent statements: "The outstanding trait of Gregorian
cantillation, mentioned through all the Middle Ages, though neglected today, is the
writers insist again and again on a
mingling of short and long notes; the contemporary
careful distinction between the two values." (C. Sachs, Rhythm and Tempo, 1953, p. 152).
See also the remarks in Stablein's article "Choral" (MGG, especially pp. i288ff)-
132 GREGORIAN CHANT
plex notations as that of St. Gall 555* and of similar manuscripts of the
ninth and tenth centuries. By the consistent application of the principle
that the stroke (virga or virga jacens) represents a long value, the dot

(punctum) a short one, he has succeeded in giving plausible explanations

for the various modifications of the neumes, for instance, the different
forms of the podatus or the dimacus to which we have called attention in
our description of Plate I [see p. 120]. His table showing the rhythmic
6
equivalents of all the neumes provides a solid basis for the interpretation
of the early manuscripts, and his transcriptions of the Graduals Sciant

gentes and Specie tua, as well as of other melodies, demonstrate the prac-
tical applicability of his method, 7
I am less confident about Wagner's attempts to apply the same rhythmic
interpretation to such a late source as a German manuscript of the fifteenth
8
century. All evidence points to the fact that the rhythmic performance of
chant was an early practice which was lost after c. 1000. One of the most
eloquent testimonies comes from Aribo, who, in his De Musica of c. 1070,
says: "In earlier times not only the inventors of melodies but also the
singers themselves used great circumspection that everything should be in-
vented and sung in proportion (proportionaliter et invenirent et canerent).
This consideration perished some time ago and is now entirely buried." 9
e
Wagner II, 395ff; a short excerpt also in Adler's Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, I
(and ed., 1929), 93.
7 See
Wagner 11, 405; Adler's Handbuch, pp. 105, ii2f. Wagner points out that different
early manuscripts, such as St. Gall 35$ and Einsiedeln 12 i, often show different rhythmic
readings [Handbuch, p. 112]. This fact, however, does not invalidate the premise of

Wagner's research. It only shows that rhythm (in the sense as we understand it here)
was an accessory element which was greatly variable in time and locale. Each of the early
manuscripts has its own rhythm.
8 See Adler's Handbuch,
p. 107.
9 GS, II, 22^a; also
J. Smits van Waesberghe, Aribonis De Musica (1951), p. 49. Unless
we admit the possibility that the melodies themselves underwent fundamental changes
that caused them to lose their "proportion" (of phrases?) a surmise never seriously con-
sidered by Gregorianists Aribo's remark can only refer to proportional note-values.
CHAPTER THREE

The Tonality

THE CHURCH MODES

tonal basis of Gregorian chant is a system of eight tonalities,
-known as church modes. Each of these is an octave-segment of the
diatonic (Omajor) scale, with one of its tones playing the role of a central
tone or tonic, comparable to the tone C in the C-major scale. The octave
range is called ambitus, the central tone, finalis. There are four such finales,
namely, d, e, f, and g. To each of these belong two modes which differ in
their ambitus: one of them starts with the final and extends to its upper
octave, while the other starts a fourth below the final and extends to the
fifth above it. Those of the former type are called authentic, of the latter,

plagal. For the complete system, two sets of names were used. The older
1

terminology employs the Greek terms protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetrar-
dus (first, second, third, fourth) for the finals and uses the terms authentic
or plagal for additional distinction. The other terminology, more com-
monly employed from the tenth century to the present day, simply num-
bers them from one to eight:

MODE FINALIS AMBITUS

Protus authenticus Primus tonus i d d-d'
Protus plagius Secundust. 2 d A-a
*
Deuterus auth. Tertiust. 3 e e-e'
Deuterus plag. Quartust, 4 e B-b
Trims auth. Quintust. 5 f f-P
Trims plag. Sextust. 6 f c-c'

Tetrardus auth. Septimus t. 7 g g-g'

Tetrardus plag. Octavus t. 8 g d-d'

Yet another terminology reverts to ancient Greek theory, in which the

names Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, and others were employed
to designate octave species or complete scales. Modern scholars have made
l Fom Gr. plagios, slanting, sideways, subsidiary. The Commemoratio brevis employs
the terms auctoralis and subjugalis.

133
!4 GREGORIAN CHANT
numerous attempts problem of the relationship between the
to solve the
two theoretical systems, the Greek and the medieval, without having been
able to arrive at a universally accepted answer. For our purpose it suffices
to say that the above names were applied in Greek theory to octave seg-
ments starting respectively on e, d, c, and B; while in the system of the
church modes they denote octaves starting respectively on d, e, f, and g,
so that they are synonymous with protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetrardus.
The by the prefix hypo-, so that hypodorian
plagal varieties are indicated
is the second mode, hypophrygian the fourth, etc. Considering everything,
it is
probably best not to use the Greek names at all in connection with
2
Gregorian chant.
It is hardly necessary to point out that each of the eight modes represents
a tonal realm of individual structure, the basic difference being the posi-
tion of the half-tones with regard to the final. Thus, in mode i the half-
tones (e-f and b-c') begin at the second and sixth degrees; in mode 3 at the
firstand fifth; in mode 5 at the fourth and seventh; and in mode 7 at the
third and sixth; while in the plagal modes one is above, the other below
the final.
The
four authentic modes are sometimes called Ambrosian, the others
Gregorian, with the implication (or explicit statement) that the former
11
were "invented" by St. "added by St. Gregory. There
Ambrose, the latter
is not the least bit of evidence to
support this story, nor even to make it
or First of there is no difference, as to tonal
appear probable possible. all,

structure in general, between the Ambrosian and the Gregorian reper-

tories, both of which employ the complete system of eight modes in gen-

erally the same way. Both repertories, moreover, give clear evidence of
having been formed some time before the system of the eight modes was
established. Otherwise there could not be so many melodies as there actu-

ally are that do not conform in one way or another with the theoretical
system. The earliest allusion to this is found in a fragmentary treatise by
Alcuin (735-804), friend and adviser of Charlemagne [see List of Sources,
p. 54, no. 17], Very likely it was in this period, sometimes called the
"Carolingian Renaissance/' that the tonal aspect of the Gregorian reper-
tory became the subject of investigation and classification. The impulse
for this may have come from Byzantium which exercised considerable
influence on Western thought during the eighth century. Not only are the
2 Most of the important employ the names protus, deuterus, etc., or primus
theorists
secundus, etc. The earliest mention of the Greek scale designations is in the Mustca
cnchiriadis: ". protus autentus or plagis, deuterus autentus or plagis, or modus Dorius,
. .

Phyrgius, Lydius, etc., names that have come from the vocabulary of the gentiles" (GSt I,

i5gb). Exceptional, because of its exclusive use of the Greek names, is a tenth-century
treatise -written in Old High German and ascribed to Notker, in which, however, the
terms Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian denote the scales on c, d, e
respectively
and f, not on d, e, f, and g (De octo modis; GSj I, 98).
 The Tonality 135

early designations, protus, deuterus, etc., authenticus, plagius, all derived

from Greek words, but thejiystem of eight modes has an exact counterpart
in Byzantine theory, where it is known as octoechos (eight tones). In short,
the term "tonal basis" used in the first sentence of this chapter is correct
only in the technical, not in the historical sense of the word.
Occasionally we shall employ a term which occurs in some of the medi-
eval treatises and which, although
rarely used by modern musicologists
and Gregorianists, nevertheless not devoid of usefulness. This is the term
is

maneria, which implies a classification, not of eight, but of four categories,

one for each of the finals. Thus, the four maneriae are the protus, deuterus,
and and 3
tritus, tetrardus, without the subdivision into authentic plagal.
The previous statement that the ambitus of each mode is an octave, is a
somewhat artificial simplification, for most of the Gregorian melodies re-
quire the addition of one degree below the bottom note of the octave seg-
ment, which thus becomes extended to a ninth. This additional tone is
required especially in the authentic modes, in which it represents the
degree below the final, a degree often touched upon in cadential or semi-
cadential formulae, but which may also occur elsewhere during the course
of the melody. It is called subfinalis or subtonium modi, the former name
being less commendable because it properly applies only to the authentic
modes.
While the earliest medieval theorists recognize only the octave ambitus
dividing it into a fifth plus fourth (diapente, diatessaron) in the authentic
modes and into a fourth plus fifth in the plagal modes a more realistic

point of view prevails in the tenth-century Dialogus in musica of Oddo of

Cluny (or one of his pupils; see List of Sources, no. 25). Here we find the
octave ambitus enlarged not only by the subtonium modi, in all the modes
except the sixth, but also often by one degree above the octave, so that
the total range becomes a tenth. The following table shows Oddo's ex-
4
planations in a condensed form:

AMBITUS ACCORDING TO ODDO

AUTHENTIC PLAGAL
Mode: i. c-d' (ninth) 2. G-b (tenth)
3. d-e' (ninth) 4. A-c' (tenth)
5. e-P (ninth) 6. c-d7 (ninth)
7, f-a' 8. c-e' (tenth)
(tenth)

In modern explanations the modes are usually described as having yet

another characteristic property, i.e., the so-called dominant, a secondary
3 See G. Reese, Music in the Middle Ages,
p. 153. Cf. GS, II, g66a (Tonale S. Bernardi)
and CS, II, i57a (Guido de Caroli-Loco, Guide of Cherlieu). Probably the Tonale is also
by Guido (d. 1158); see "Bernhard von Clairevaux" in MGG.
4 G5, I, 2 59 ff.
136 GREGORIAN CHANT
tonal center which, as a rule, is a fifth above the final in the authentic
modes, and a third above it in the plagal modes. However, the dominant
can hardly be said to be a characteristic of the mode, because the great
majority of the melodies of a given mode fail to show any clear evidence
of the dominant. Nor does the dominant occur in any of the medieval

descriptions of the modes. Actually, the dominant is a characteristic prop-

not of a mode in general, but of a few special melodies associated with
erty,
thatmode, such as the psalm tones or other recitation tones. In these the
dominant (more properly called tenor) does play a prominent role as the
pitch for the recitation while, on the other hand, the basic characteristics
of the mode, final and ambitus, are often absent. Naturally, among the

many thousands of chants there are not a few in which the dominant is
among the melodies of the second mode
clearly recognizable. Particularly
number which emphasize the f as a reciting pitch, e.g., the Anti-
there are a

phon Dominus Jesus [661], the Introit Dominus dixit [392], the Com-
munion Dominus regit [567], or the Offertory Ad te Domine levavi [321].
Many others, however, show no evidence of it. Moreover, in some chants
with a recognizable recitation tone or pitch of emphasis this is not the
pitch of the psalm-tone tenor. Thus, several Introits of the fourth mode,
e.g., Accipite [890], Involuntate [1066], Judica me [603], or Misericordia
[816], show recitation on f or g, rather than on the tenor of the psalm tone,
which is a. On the whole, it cannot be said that the dominant is a char-
mode; it is a characteristic of the recitation tones associated
acteristic of the
with the mode and of a number of melodies derived from or related to
these recitation tones.

Finally, mention may be made of attempts to describe and define the

church modes, not as abstract scale formations determined by final, am-
bitus, and possibly pitch of emphasis, but as categories characterized by a
number of standard formulae or motives recurring in the melodies of that
mode. This phenomenon, often referred to in modern musicological
studies as "melody type," 6 is fairly clearly evident in various musical cul-
tures of the East; e.g., in the Byzantine and Armenian echoi (octoechos,

system of eight echoi}, in the Syrian risqolo, the Javanese patet, the Hindu
ragd; and the Arabian maqam. Whether a similar state of affairs existed in
Roman chant at an early time, as some scholars have maintained, is en-
tirely conjectural. The repertory as we know it shows hardly any evidence
for such a surmise. True enough, standard formulae
play a prominent
Responsories, and
role in certain types of chant, particularly in the Tracts,
Graduals; but the method employed in them seems to have little more in
common with the "melody-type" phenomenon than the general principle
of standard formulae which, of course, can be
applied to widely different
procedures. At any rate, the standard-formula method is a characteristic
6 See HDM, s.v.
"Melody Type."
 The Tonality 137

only of certain special categories, not of a mode. The Tracts of the eighth
mode have different formulae from those of the Responsories of the eighth
mode; and neither of these, nor any others, recur consistently in the over-
all repertory of this mode.

MODAL CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION

With the exception of some very simple chants such as the recitation
tones for the prayers and readings [g8ff], each Gregorian melody is assigned
to one of the eight modes. The basis of this classification is the final note
of the melody. According to whether this is d, e, f, or g, the chant is in the

category of protus (modes i and 2), deuterus (3 and 4), tritus (5 and 6), or
tetrardus (7 and 8). The range of the melody determines the choice be-
tween the authentic or plagal variety. In the modern books the mode is

indicated by a figure placed underneath the title,

offert - or Comm -

e.g.: *
5*
[480, 481]. The modalclassification is also indicated in the index (by the

figure preceding the initial word of the chant), and this makes it easy to
examine the frequency of each mode in the over-all repertory as well as
in the various types of chant. The following table provides an insight into
this question.

TABLE OF MODAL DISTRIBUTION1

Maneria: Pr. Dt. Tr. Tet.

Mode: 12 34 56 78
1. Introits (L) 29 18 34 18 12 12 16 18
2. Introits (Cod. Einsiedeln) 29 18 26 20 10 12 19 13
3. Graduals (L) 15 23 14 5 57 o 14 i

4. Graduals (St. Gall Mss) 35 13 47 15

5. Alleluias (L) 48 25 14 23 62 28 24
6. Alleluias (different melodies) 33 14 8 13 32 23 18
7. Tracts (L) o 18 o o o o o 29
8. Offertories (L) 22 21 .15 24 8 12 i 27
9. Offertories (Codex Einsiedeln) 27 27 17 30
10. Communions (L) 39 17 10 17 14 18 16 29
11. Communions (Cod. Einsiedeln) 25 18 9 18 1421 15 25
12. Antiphons (Cod. Lucca) 369 132 90 167 32 73 252 449
13. Antiphons (Regino) 336 55 99 137 30 34 196 348
14. Responsories (Codex Hartker) 91 79 62 78 38 22 125 139
15. Hymns (L) 32 20 15 21 02 3 35

iThe tabulations marked L are taken from the Liber usualis. Those referring to
medieval manuscripts have been taken from the following books: nos. 2, 4, 91 11, 12 from
P. Ferretti, Esihetique grdgorienne (1938), pp. 276, 161, 195, 276, 247; no. 12 from

Wagner III, 303; no. 13 from AfGG, s.v. "Antiphon" (B. Stablein).
1^8 GREGORIAN CHANT
To start with the most numerous chants, the Antiphons, a glance at the
table shows two facts: a decided preference for the modes i and 8, and a

relatively weak representation of the modes 5 and 6, that is, of the f-tonality
(tritus). Very dose to the Antiphons in regard to modal distribution are
the Alleluias, as appears from the following table showing the percentages
for the four maneriae, i.e., authentic and modal combined in one group:

D E F G
Antiphons 32 16 7 45 (%)
Alleluias 44 20 5 32 (%)

Most of the other chants show essentially the same picture, though with
a tendency toward a more even participation of all the modes, a
tendency
which is
particularly evident in the Introits and Communions. A striking
contrast, however, presented by the Graduals, Tracts, and Hymns. In
is

the Graduals the tritus tonality, usually the weakest, becomes

by far the
strongest, represented by almost one-half of the total. No less
striking is
the complete absence within this maneria of the
plagal variety, that is, of
mode 6. Mode 8, which has a full share in all the other chants, is repre-
sented by only one example, Dilexisti justitiam [12 16], 2 Yet another
plagal
mode, mode 4, is very rare in the Graduals. The five examples given in L
are actually reduced to two melodies, that of Domine
praevenisti [1207]
which is also used for Benedicta et venerabilis and Dolorosa et
[1264]
lacrimabilis [1633^, an(i that of Tenuisti manum [591] which recurs, with
some omissions, in Memor fui [1580].
A very peculiar situation exists in the Graduals of mode 2. This mode
seems to be rather fully its number
represented, being second only to that
of mode 5. From the musical
point of view, however, this number is highly
deceptive, since all the Graduals of mode 2 employ one and the same
melody or, to put it more correctly, a small number of fixed melodic phrases
that recur in various combinations.
They are all representatives of one
and the same melodic type, usually referred to as the Justus
"Gradual-type
ut palma" [see p. 357]. An
exception is the Gradual Adjutor meus [G 1
15],
which, together with its modern adaptations, Improperium and
Repleta
assigned to the second mode. Actually it is vaguely related to the
est, is
Graduals of the first mode and could just as well be classified as such
[see
PP- 35 lf]- In any case, this does not affect the general picture of modal
distribution in the Graduals, which can be
briefly described as one in
which the plagal modes are represented
only by a very small number of
melodies. It is tempting to speculate on the historical
significance of this
fact by
interpreting it as evidence of an early stage of Gregorian tonality
in which this was limited to the authentic modes, in other
words, as evi-
2 In G also Deus vitam [G 1*8] and Deus exaudi both having the same melody.
[G 156],
 The Tonality 139

dence in favor of the "Ambrosian-versus-Gregorian-modes" theory previ-

ously alluded to. However, it should be noticed that the Gradual of Easter
Sunday, Haec dies unquestionably one of the oldest in the whole group
belongs to the second mode. Moreover, an entirely different picture of
modal distribution is
presented by another type of chant no less ancient
than the Graduals, that is, the Tracts.

Turning we are confronted with the most striking aspect of

to these,

Gregorian tonality, there being Tracts in no modes other than the second
and the eighth. As in the case of the Graduals of mode 2, the figures given
in our table eighteen for mode 2 and twenty-nine for mode 8 are de-
ceptive, since in each of these two modes we find a situation quite similar
to that presented by the Graduals of mode 2, characterized by the exten-
sive use of standard phrases which recur in all the melodies [see pp. 5158].
This method of "composition," often referred to as centonization, is the
very opposite of "original creation" and unquestionably represents a very
archaic technique. It bears a striking resemblance to the ta' amim tech-

nique which plays an important role in Jewish chant [see p. 363]. On the
basis of these considerations P. Wagner has come to the conclusion that the

plagal scales of the deuterus and tetrardus are the "urchristliche Tonarten"
3
(arch-Christian tonalities). In this connection it is interesting to notice
that centonization plays an important role in yet another category of
chants, the Responsories of Matins. Unlike the Tracts, Responsories exist
in all the modes, but those of modes 2 and 8 stand apart from the others
because of their much more extended and consistent use of standard

phrases and centonization technique. Thus, the Responsories provide ad-

ditional evidence for the theory that the plagal scales of the deuterus and
tetrardus occupied a special place in the formative process leading to the

fullydeveloped system of the church modes.

The tendency, previously noticed in the Antiphons and Alleluias, to
avoid the tritus is most fully realized in the hymns. Not a single hymn in
the fifthmode is found in the Liber, and the more complete collections
given in the Antiphonals include only one such melody, Aeterne rector

[AR 867] = Orbis patrator [AM 1069], obviously of a late date, as appears
from its cadential formula, e-c-d-e-f (e-c-d-f-f in AM). The two hymns in
the sixth are given in the Liber are Stabat mater [1424] and
mode which
Virgo virginum [1424], both sung to the same melody, for the late Feast
of die Seven Dolours. Originally, the Stabat mater (text by Jacopone da
Todi, d. 1306?) was composed as a sequence [i634T]. The Antiphonals
have three other hymns in the sixth mode.
The question is often raised as to whether there exists in Gregorian
chant a tendency toward tonal unification between the chants sung during
one and the same service, for instance, at Mass or at Matins of a given
3
Wagner III, 525.
140 GREGORIAN CHANT
feast. The answer is an unequivocal "no." As a rule, the chants show no
attempt whatever at tonal organization.
The only exceptions are certain
Offices of late feasts, for which chants were occasionally written in a seriate
with modes 2,
arrangement of modes, starting with mode i and continuing
3, etc. Thus the five Antiphons for Vespers of Trinity Sunday [914] as well
as those for Lauds and Vespers of Corpus Christi [939, 956] are successively
in modes i, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The same principle occurs in the nine Respon-
sories of Matins which, for both feasts, employ the order of the eight
modes in the first eight Responsories, the ninth being in mode 4 (for
4 In the
Trinity) or in mode i (for Corpus Christi). present-day liturgy for
Corpus Christi [g26fF|
the original order is somewhat modified, as shown
here:

4- 5- 6 -

Original: Panis quern (4) Coenantibus (5) Acceptt (6)

Present: Coenantibus (5) Accepit (6) Ego sum (7)

The last Responsory of the original series, Unus pants (i), is replaced by
the Te Deum.

MODAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MELODIES

On the basis of the above-described system of the church modes and
classification of the chants, we shall now turn to the important question

concerning the "practical application of the system" or (to avoid any

implication of precedence) the relationship between the modal theory
and the melodies themselves. A
comprehensive investigation of this prob-
lem would involve the individual consideration of nearly all the chants
of the Gregorian repertory and, therefore, would require not only an ex-
cessive amount of labor and time but also a much greater portion of this
book than can reasonably be allotted to it. On the other hand, to base
the study on a limited number of examples picked at random here and
there may mean to admit the dangerous element of chance or, even worse,
of preconceived notions. Probably the best way out of this dilemma is to
investigate the problem on the basis of a clearly circumscribed segment
of the repertory, such as exists in the various types of chant. shall We
select the Communions, which commend themselves for this
purpose be-
cause of the relative shortness and simplicity of their melodies as well as
by the fairly even distribution of the modes. Using these chants as a point
of departure, we shall draw on other chants in order to make the
picture
more complete.
It may be stated at the outset that the answer to our initial
question
* See,
e.g., Wagner III, 349, 351.
 The Tonality 141

willbe far less simple and unequivocal than may be expected; far less so,
indeed, than would be the answer to an analogous question in a more
recent period of music for instance, the question as to the relationship
between the system of major-minor tonalities and the compositions by
Haydn or Mozart. While there are numerous chants that readily fall in line
with the theory of the church modes, there aremany others that do not.
Examples of non-conformity are especially frequent in the Communions,
and this fact is an additional reason for selecting them as the basis of our
study. They represent, in a convenient frame, nearly all the aspects of
Gregorian tonality, from the simplest to the most perplexing.
In the subsequent study we shall start with a consideration of the regular
chants, those which fully conform with the theoretical system, proceeding
thereafter to those that show some irregularity of tonal (or modal) be-
havior. Such irregularity may result from one or several of the following
factors: limited ambitus, excessive ambitus, use of b-flat, transposition,
each of which will be considered in a separate section. The material for the
investigations are the chants as given in the modern publications, par-
ticularly the Liber usualis. This remark is not quite as superfluous as it
may appear to be at first thought. It means that we shall rely on the
Solesmes editions not only for the melodies as such, but also for their
modal assignment. Can we assume that these data are entirely reliable?
In general, the answer to question is undoubtedly positive, since in
this
the great majority of cases the mode is clearly apparent from the final
and the ambitus. There are, however, not a few melodies, probably more
than two hundred, whose modal assignment presents problems of one
kind or another. The most problematic are those considered in our last
section, entitled "Modal Ambiguity." 1

THE REGULAR CHANTS

As a point of departure, there is indicated below for each mode one
Communion which fully accords with the theoretical requirements of
finalis and ambitus.

Mode i: Viderunt omnes [410] Mode 5: Dico vobis [984]

2: -Ego sum pastor [439] 6: Exsultavit [35?]

3: Gustate [1015] 7: Dicite [337]

4: Quoddico [1173] 8: Modicum [824]
l To my knowledge, this is the first attempt at a detailed description of Gregorian
tonality, assuredly one of the most difficult problems of the chant. I am fully aware of
its limitations, but I
hope that it will provide a basis for further studies of a more ample
scope and of a more definitive character. A
very useful study of some of the aspects in-
volved, especially of the theoretical foundation, is F. S. Andrews, Mediaeval Modal
Theory (unpublished dissertation, Cornell University, 1935).
14* GREGORIAN CHANT
Although these eight melodies are certainly not sufficient in themselves
to prove anything, they are nonetheless indicative of certain traits which
we will find confirmed by the investigation of additional material. One of
these is a contrast between the authentic and the plagal modes in the
extent to which .they utilize the degrees of their respective ranges. The
melodies of the authentic modes move freely within their full ambitus,
with perhaps the exception of the subfinal and the octave above the final,
which are only occasionally touched upon. In the plagal melodies, on the
other hand, the upper fifth is the only part of the ambitus fully exploited,
while the notes below the final are rarely used, in some cases only once.
The difference can be conveniently indicated by the modern term tessitura
which "differs from range in that it does not take into account a few
isolated notes of extraordinarily high or low pitch." 2 The difference, then,
is that in the authentic modes the tessitura comprises most of the ambitus,

while in the plagal modes it takes up only its upper fifth.

Another important trait, noticeable at least in some of the examples, is
the tendency toward what may be called tonal (or modal) instability. The
meaning of this term will become clear if we draw upon a modern (though
not too modern) example for comparison. In a melody by Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven we can take it for
granted that its tonality is established not
only by the final cadence but from the very outset, being achieved by the
constant emphasis on the characteristic degrees of the scale, tonic, fifth,
third, etc. Nowhere in the wide boundaries of major-minor tonality is

there place for a melody such as shown here:

FIGURE 24

=t=t=

It is precisely this tonal behavior to which the term "tonal instability"

refers, and which, though impossible in music of a more recent period, not
only occurs frequently in Gregorian chant but actually forms a character-
istic trait of some of its modes. As the reader
may perceive from a pe-
rusal of the above eight Communions, and as can
easily be confirmed by
many other examples, the melodies of the deuterus, with the final on e
(modes 3 and 4) are the ones most liable to tonal instability. There are
numerous chants in this group whose opening phrases, through their out-
line and cadential points, suggest any other
tonality than E; among the
shorter chants there are not a few in which this
tonality is never estab-
lished until the very last note
appears, the Introit Intret oratio [541] being
an example in point. In fact, it is quite difficult to find a chant such as the
Responsory Omnes amid [671] in which the E-tonality is indicated by the
first cadence at least, though hardly by the opening notes.
2 HDM, s.v. "Tessitura."
 The Tonality 143

In contrast to the peculiar evasiveness of the deuterus, tonal stability

prevails in the tetrardus, particularly in the melodies o the seventh mode
which, it will be noticed, comes closest of all the modes to the modern
major. Of this, the Communion Dicite indicated above is a characteristic
example, with its cadences on g, d', b, and g. In the two other groups,
protus and tritus, the situation is more ambivalent although tonal stability
seems to prevail. Possibly a detailed study of the complete repertory, di-
vided according to types and modes, would lead to more definite statements
than we are able to make. As a modest contribution to such a study, the
Alleluias of mode i may be considered briefly. Each of these begins with a
well-defined opening phrase accompanying the word "Alleluia." Among
the thirty-three different melodies found in this group there are eighteen
in which this opening phrase ends on d, seven on a, three on f, and five
on g. The
general impression is that of tonal stability established at the
very beginning of the melody by a cadence either on the "tonic" or on
the "dominant."
We must leave it to the reader to examine other chants of the "regular"
type which will serve to put the previous explanations on a fuller and
more secure basis. In order to facilitate this important task, there follows
a list of additional examples for each mode.

Mode i: Antiphon Apertis thesauris [463]; Alleluia Laudem Domini

[448]; Introit Exsurge [504]; Hymn Deus tuorum militum [419].
Mode 2: Antiphon Ante luciferum [463]; Introit Veni et ostende [343];
Alleluia Dies sanctificatus [409]; Offertory Ad te Domine [321]; Re-
sponsory Comedetis [927].
Mode 3: Antiphon Adhaereat [297]; Gradual Adjutor [498]; Alleluia
Cognoverunt [817]; Offertory [620]; Responsory O
Domine exaudi
magnum mysterium [382].
Mode 4: Antiphon Candor est [1380]; Hymn Ad regias [814]; Introit
Reminiscere [545]; Responsory Quern vidistis [377].
Mode 5: Antiphon Domine tu mihi [661]; Introit Loquebar [1215]; Of-
fertory Expectans [1043]; Responsory Flange [722].
Mode 6: Introit Esto mihi [511]; Offertory Domine in auxilium [1046].
Mode 7: Introit Puer natus [408]; Gradual Benedictus Dominus [478];
Alleluia Exivi [831]; Responsory Beata [383].
Mode 8: Introit Ad te levavi [318];Alleluia Angelus Domini [786]; Of-
fertory Beata es [1272]; Responsory Astiterunt [732].
The reader wishing to enlarge this list will soon discover that, except
for a few groups such as mode 2 and mode 7, it is not too easy to find
perfectly regular examples, that is, melodies fully conforming with the
theoretical system. In the field of the Communions, which we selected as
the basis of our study, an examination of the complete repertory shows
that in two modes, mode 4 and mode 5, the examples previously given are
144 GREGORIAN CHANT
the only ones that could be called regular; and that in all the other modes,
with the sole exception of mode 7, the number of regular examples is less
than that of melodies showing some irregularity of their tonal (or modal)
behavior. We shall now turn to a consideration of the various aspects of
this phenomenon.

LIMITED RANGE
The distinction between the authentic and the plagal mode of the same
final (manerid) is based on the ambitus. Common
to both is a range ex-
tended from the sub-final to the fifth above the final. Therefore the dis-
tinction depends upon the degrees above the fifth or those below the
sub-final. If none of
these degrees occur in a given melody, the situation
is, a priori, ambivalent, as, for instance, in a melody closing on d and

confined to the range from c to a (schematically represented by the symbol

d:c-a),which theoretically could be assigned to mode i as well as to mode 2.
One may be inclined to dismiss the whole question as rather moot, pre-
ferring in such cases simply to indicate the maneria, about which there
is no doubt. Actually, the
question has practical significance for chants
such as Antiphons, Introits, and Responsories (formerly also Communions),
since these are connected with a Psalm or a psalm verse sung to a standard
"tone" (psalm tone, etc.), which is selected according to the mode of the
chant.
As early as the beginning of the eleventh century, theorists discuss the
problem presented by the small-range melodies, and inform us that they
should be considered as plagal. Thus, Berno of Reichenau says: "If a chant
does not reach up to the fifth nor include the lower fourth, it is customary
3
to consider it as
plagal because of its shortness and imperfection." This
rfieans that chants of the type d:c-g and d:B-g should be regarded as plagal,
as indeed they always are. 4 A
little treatise, Quomodo de arithmetica

procedit musica, states that a chant is authentic if it descends one or two

degrees below the final and ascends one or more degrees above the fifth
(e.g., d:c-b); plagal if it extends more than two degrees below the final,
even though going up one or two degrees above the fifth (e.g., d: A-c'); and
also plagal if it has a small range, not exceeding a fifth
(e.g., d:og or
d:d-a).
An examination of the chants shows that these rules are by no means
regularly observed. To start with the last statement, it suffices to point out
that among the chants of the type g:g-d' there are two, the Alleluia Crastina
die [361] and the Antiphon Terra tremuit [641], which are assigned to

4 With the
possible exception of some Antiphons, since in this category modal assign-
ment depends primarily on melodic types. See pp. 223, 394ff.
5 G5, II, 6oa.
 The Tonality 145

mode while the Antiphons Magnificatus est [364] and Responsum

8,

accepit [1366] are assigned to mode 7. The second statement of the Quo-
modo treatise concerns melodies with an excessive range (more than an
octave), which will be considered in the next chapter. As for the first state-
ment, we should like to postpone its consideration until after the study
of a type which, although the most interesting of the various small-range

configurations, is not mentioned by Berno nor in the Quomodo treatise:

these are melodies which extend from the sub-final to the upper fifth

(d:c-a), thus employing exactly that range common to both authentic and

plagal ambitus. Turning to a study of these chants, we may begin once

more with a list of the Communions that fall under this category:

Mode i: Petite [843]; Amen dico [1206]; Visionem [1587],

2: Dominus Jesus [657]; Vos qui secuti [1614],

4: Memento verbi [1065].

8: Introibo [508]; Pater si non [601]; Spiritus ubi vult [906];
Panem caeli [1495].

It appears that most of the subfinal-to-fifth Communions occur in the

protus and tetrardus, while, on the other hand, there are no examples of
the triius. This means that all the Communions with the final on f have
an ambitus clearly indicative of either mode 5 or mode 6. As for the modal
assignment, this exclusively plagal in the deuterus (mode 4) and tetrardus
is

(mode 8), but predominantly authentic in the protus (modes i, 2).

Naturally, the number of chants included in this list is too small to
serve as a basis for general conclusions. Interestingly enough, however, a
fuller investigation confirms each of these findings. Following is a tabu-
lation based on all the chants of the Liber usualis:*

CHANTS WITH SUBFINAL-TO-FIFTH RANGE

MODE TOTAL ADVENT TO EASTER
Protus i c. 35 10 [331; 338; 365; 373; 443; 463; 466; 468; 550; 771]
2 C. 22 7 [427; 59<>; 651; 657; 663; 736; 770]
Deuterus 3 o o

Tritus
4
oo
600
5
c. 10 2 [336; 443]

Tetrardus 7 o o
8 c. 50 17 [333; 376; 406; 474; 508; 513; 580; 622; 624; 630;
640; 666; etc.]

6
Hymns and Short Responsories have been disregarded. The preparatory work for
this tabulation was done during a Seminar on Gregorian Chant (UCLA, Summer 1954)

by Miss Diane Kestin and Messrs. Sidney H. Appleman, William P. Malm, and Clyde E.
Sorensen. The figures of the "Total" column are approximate, while those from Advent
to Easter have been checked and can be assumed to be correct.
146 GREGORIAN CHANT
REMARKS:
a. Chants of completely absent in the tritus, relatively rare
this type are
in the deuterus, and particularly frequent in the protus and tetrardus.
Their absence in the tritus results largely from the fact that the subtonium
below f is practically never used, so that chants in the tritus either stay
above the final, in which case they are authentic, or go two or more de-
grees below it, thus becoming plagal. Naturally, for a proper evaluation
of the figures given in the tabulation, the fact should be borne in mind that
in the total repertory of chants the protus and tetrardus occupy a consider-
ably more prominent place than the other two, there being approximately
750 chants in the protus, 450 in the deuterus, 250 in the tritus, and 900 in
the tetrardus. This, however, changes the result only by degrees, without
affecting its general validity. Percentage-wise, chants of the type under
consideration are most frequent in the protus (c. 12%), about half as
frequent in the tetrardus, and half again as frequent in the deuterus.
b. Another question of interest concerns the distribution of the small-

range melodies among the various types of chant. As may be expected, the
largest share, approximately one-half of the total, is held by the Antiphons
which, because of their shortness and simplicity of style, are bound to
include many melodies of a limited range. Contrary to expectation, how-
ever, the chants next in frequency are the Alleluias, with close to one-fifth
of the total. The Alleluias are commonly thought of as highly ornate,
melismatic chants. This they are indeed; nevertheless a surprisingly large
number of them are confined to a rather small range.
c. As for the modal assignment within each maneria, our figures con-

firm what was suggested by the Communions, that is, a near-exclusive

preference for the plagal assignment, except in the protus where assign-
ment to the authentic mode clearly prevails. It is not easy to find a con-
vincing reason for the strikingly different procedure encountered in the
protus. Nearly all the "authentic" melodies are short Antiphons which
move to a large extent within the third or fourth above the final, touching
the fifth only a few times, as Ecce in nubibus [331], Levate capita [365;
same melody], or Erat Pater [468]. In some cases the authentic assignment
could perhaps be defended because of certain details of the melodic design,
such as the ascending motion, from d to a, at the beginning of Germinavit
radix [443] and oiPostulavi [771]; the high beginning, with f-a, in Diffusa
est [373]; or the jump d-a that occurs twice in Tribus miraculis
[466].

We can now return to the statement of the treatise Quomodo, according

to which chants ascending one or two degrees above the fifth are to be
considered as authentic, even though they descend one or two degrees be-
low the final. Without examining all the various
configurations referred
to in this statement, we shall confine ourselves to the simplest of them, that
the one with an ambitus from the subfinal
is,
up to the sixth above the final
 The Tonality 147

(type d:c-b). Considering the fact that the sixth lies outside the plagal
ambitus, one would expect to find the judgment of the treatise fully borne
out by the facts. Actually this is far from being the case. The over-all
picture presented by the subfinal-to-sixth chants is not much different from
that of subfinal-to-fif th chants, only slightly more balanced in favor of the
authentic assignment:

CHANTS WITH SUBFINAL-TO-SIXTH RANGE

MODE ADVENT TO EASTER
Protus i 13 [356; 357; 357; 412; 420; 426; 483; 491; 494; 515; 652;
692; 694]
* 2 [405; 474]
Deuterus 3 i
[333]
4 6 [428; 462; 484; 654; 708; 781]
Tritus 5 o
6 o
Tetrardus 7 6 [398; 491; 578; 588; 726; 782]
8 6 [320; 371; 482; 557; 761; 783]

The strikingly large number of examples in mode i is explained by the

fact that nearly all of them are Antiphons modelled after exactly the same
standard theme which is characterized by a rising fifth (usually: c-d-a-b-a)
at or near the beginning, and often by a recitation on the fifth degree. 7 By
contrast, the two examples of the second mode, the Antiphon Et Jesus and
particularly the Alleluia Dominus regnavit, show an emphasis on f, which
is the
reciting note (tenor) of the second mode (more correctly, of the
second psalm tone). Thus the distinction between authentic and plagal
chants is justified by inner criteria, that is, certain characteristics of the
melodic line which often assume decisive importance in cases where the ex-
ternal criterion of the ambitus fails.
As for the assignments in the deuterus and tetrardus, most of them can
be explained in a similar way. In the deuterus group, the Antiphon Ecce
Dominus [333] is the only melody which shows an emphasis on the fifth
degree (b), while all the others move mainly around the lower pitches, a, g,
and even f [see the Introit Omnis terra, 484], touching only occasionally
upon the c' and upon the b which, moreover, is usually lowered to b-flat.
Similar distinctions prevail in the tetrardus group. Several melodies of
mode 7 begin with a rising fifth (Antiphon Facta est [398]; Responsory
Recessit [726]), while others begin directly with the fifth degree and empha-

during the further course of the melody (Antiphons Cum angelis

size it

[588]and Et ecce [782]). The melodies of mode 8, on the other hand, move
mainly around the fourth degree, c', which is the tenor of the eighth psalm
tone.
7 Gevaert,
Mtlopde, th&me 4 (p. 236) and thtme 5 (p. 238). The opening motive fre-

quently appears with b-flat, see p. 153.

148 GREGORIAN CHANT
The foregoing explanations will suffice to illustrate the importance of
the internal criteria in the question of modal assignment for melodies of
an ambivalent ambitus. We may
only add that occasionally they assume
the decisive role even against the clear evidence of an unequivocal ambitus.
An example in point is the Offertory Benedixisti [337] which, in view of
itsambitus (e:d-d'), is clearly authentic; nevertheless it is assigned to mode
4 because of its internal characteristics, which are the same as the ones
shown by the fourth-mode melodies of the above table.
Although in the great majority of cases the modal assignment of the

small-range melodies is corroborated by internal evidence, this is not al-

ways so. There are a number of chants in which the inner criteria them-
selves are uncertain or ambivalent, so that they fail to provide a basis for a
some cases the assignment is rather clearly
clear-cut decision. Moreover, in
contradicted by the melodic design, a striking example being the Com-
munion Mirabantur [491], for which mode 8 would seem to be much more
proper than mode 7. Following are a few other chants whose modal assign-
ment could be challenged:
Mode i ors: Antiphons Venit lumen [463]; Postulavi [771]; Erat Pater
[468].
Alleluias Repleti fructu [1545]; Ego sum pastor [818]; O
quam bonus [898]; Dominus regnavit [405].
Communion Vos qui secuti [1392].
Mode 7 or 8: Alleluias Vos estis [1548]; Videbitis [1483],

Most of these chants contain some phrases suggestive of the authentic,

others of the plagal, mode. Usually the decision is made in favor of the
mode indicated by the opening phrase. We
shall see later [p. 173] that in
the ninth and tenth centuries the mode of a chant, particularly of the
Antiphons, was determined by its beginning, even if this was in contradic-
tion to the mode (or rather, maneria) indicated by the final.

EXCESSIVE RANGE

This category includes chants whose range exceeds the authentic as well
as the plagal ambitus. The minimal range for such melodies is that of an
octave starting two degrees below the final and going up to the sixth above
it for instance, from c to c' in the deuterus, where the low c is outside the
authentic ambitus, the high c' outside the plagal. By going one or two
steps below or above the octave the range may increase to that of a ninth,
tenth, or occasionally even an eleventh, as in the Gradual Qui sedes [335].*
As may be expected, the modal assignment, whether authentic or plagal,
of these chants is as variable as in the field of chants with a limited
range.
s We are not
considering here the case of an extended ambitus resulting from the
combination of a lower-range respond and a higher-range verse,
frequently encountered
in the Graduals and Offertories. See
pp. 150!
 The Tonality 149

No end would be served by entering into a detailed consideration of this

question. We shall limit ourself to a list of examples which will enable the
reader to form an idea as to whether, or to what an extent, the assignments
find their justification in specific traits such as have been indicated for the

small-range melodies.

CHANTS WITH EXCESSIVE RANGE

A. Extending Two Degrees below the Final

Protus: none
Deuterus:
e:c-c' All. Beatus quern [1479] Mode 3
Com. Exsulta [406] 4
Off. Doctrinam [1513] 4
e:c-d> Ant. Dixit autem [1409] 3
Com. Jerusalem [563] 4
Ant. Postquam surrexit [660] 4
Tritus:
f:d-d> Com. Intellige clamor em [549] 5
f:d-e' Com. Dicit Dominus [487] 6
f:d-f Com. Quinque prudentes [1228] 5
Grad. Exaltent eum [1331] 5
Tetrardus:
g:e-e' Ant. Dixi iniquis [640] 7
Com. Hoc Corpus [573] 8
All. Haec est vera [1508] 8

B. Extending Three Degrees below the Final

Qui docti [1466]

De venire [1499]
Contra spem [1353"*]
Tupuer [1505]
Timete Dominum [1726]
Stetit Angelus [1656]

Quemadmodum desiderat [1478] 5

Ecce sic [1292] 6
Respice in me [981] 6
Qui mihi [1141] 5
Laetabitur [1149] 5

Ecce apparebit [332] 7

Video caelos [418] 8
Fili quid [477] 8
Precatus est [1030] 8
Beata Agnes [1338] 8
150 GREGORIAN CHANT
A separate and particularly interesting category
of melodies with an
excessive range is formed by chants consisting of two or more distinct sec-
tions, each of which employs a different ambitus. Quite a number of

examples of this type are found among the responsorial chants, consisting
of a respond sung by the choir and one or more verses sung by a soloist.
The types we have to consider in this connection are the Graduals and the
Offertories. 9 The normal phenomenon in these chants is that the range of
the verse is one or two tones higher than that of the respond. A typical
example is the Gradual Beatus vir [i 136], mode 5, which has the range d-e'
in the respond, f-f in the verse. Here, as in most of the Graduals of this
mode, the difference in range is apparent to the eye by the use of two
different positions for the c-clef. In a few cases the difference of range is
more considerable:

MODE RESPOND VERSE TOTAL RANGE

Gr. Jacta cogitatum [982] 7 g:f-f d-g' eleventh

Sciant gentes [506] i d:c-c' d-f eleventh
Suscepimus [1562] 5 f:oc' f-f eleventh
Universi [320] i d:A-b c-e' twelfth
Domine praevenisti [1207] 4 e:c-c' A-c' tenth

Iii two of these Graduals, Suscepimus and Universi, the respond moves
as clearly in the plagal ambitus as does the verse in the authentic. Natu-

rally this precludes a "correct" assignment to either variety. The most

sensible thing to do is to renounce this distinction altogether and indicate
only the maneria protus, deuterus, following the precedent of the
etc.
Codex Montpellier [see p. 167]. More than any other Gradual, Universi,
which stands at the very beginning of the liturgical year, has presented a
thorny problem. Pothier, in his Liber gradualis of 1895, marked it 2.et i.;

Wagner strongly insisted that it is in mode s;

10 and in the Graduate
Romanum given as mode i. Perhaps it is not merely a printer's error
it is

that on
p. 320 of the Liber usualis it is marked i, while in the Index (p.
1895) it appears with the symbol 2. We
shall briefly return to this question
in the chapter on the Graduals [p.
352].
In the Offertories a difference of range between the respond and the
verse or the verses (not a few Offertories have more than one is even
verse)
more frequent and more pronounced than in the Graduals. It will be suf-
ficient to indicate a few particularly striking examples: 11
9 From the stylistic point of view, the Offertories have to be considered as responsorial
chants, although originally they belonged to the antiphonal type.
10
Wagner III, 375.
11
Page references are to C. Ott, Offertoriale sive Versus Offertoriorum (1935).
 The Tonality

OFFERTORY

Super flumina (p. 119)

Ad te Domine (5)
Laudate Dominum (40)
Deus Deus meus (66)
Anima nostra (145)
Tollite portas (14)
Dextera Domini (25)
Sicut in holocausto (92)
Desiderium (90)
Gloriabuntur (135)
Immittit angelus (102)

Nowhere in the entire repertory of Gregorian chant (except in the late

sequences) do we find melodies of such a wide range as among the Offer-

tories of the second mode. Some of these, e.g., Ad te fiomine, Laudate

Dominum, and Anima nostra, exploit the lower part of their gamut in the
respond, the higher part in the verses. Even more exceptional and remark-
able are Tollite portas and Dextera Domini which start with a respond

transposed to the upper fifth, and therefore moving in a high range, but
descend to the lowest pitches in one of the verses. Tollite portas is unique
in the entire repertory of Gregorian chant because of its two-octave range
and of its use of the low F, a pitch not admitted by any of the theorists of
the tenth or eleventh centuries:

d-B|? c- A-B[>-G G G-F B[> c-d-c

2. e- um et su-per

In some Offertories the contrast between the various sections becomes

even more striking if we consider the tessitura rather than the range. For
instance, in Deus Deus meus the last verse touches upon the lower notes of
the range (c, d, e) only at the beginning and at the end, moving mainly
'

within the fifth from f to c7 , while the second verse rarely goes beyond the
f or g. In chants like this one is almost led to assume that the verses were
sung by different soloists.
Naturally, no "correct" modal assignment can be expected in chants of
such an excessive range. Confronted with the problem of accounting for
melodies moving in the authentic as well as in the plagal ambitus, later
theorists coined the terms tonus plusquamperfectus, mixtus, and commix-
tus, thus merely conceding that the system of the eight modes is not appli-
cable. 12 For melodies with an excessive range the simpler system of the
four maneriae: protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetrardus provides a much
12 See, Marchettus de Padua's Luddarium of c. 1309 (GSf III, 101).
e.g.,
15* GREGORIAN CHANT
more suitable basis of tonal classification. True enough, the modal system
does not work too well either for melodies with a limited range, but here
it is indispensable because this group includes a considerable number of
chants which have
Antiphons, Introits, Communions, and Responsories
to be classified according to modes because of their connection with a psalm
tone, introit tone, etc. Finally, the fact should not be overlooked that the
chants with a limited or excessive range, numerous though they are, con-
stitute only a fraction of the total repertory. In the great majority of chants
the eight-mode system does provide a workable and valuable basis for tonal
classification and investigation.

THE B-FLAT
Considering the admirable variety of tonal realms afforded by the eight-
mode system on a strictly diatonic basis (a variety much greater than the
major-minor system was able to elicit from the much fuller material af-
forded by the chromatic scale), one cannot help pondering about the rea-
sons that led to the addition of the b-flat, the single "black sheep," as it
were, among the "pure-white" flock of the Gregorian pitches. Whatever
answer may be given to this question the most obvious one being that it
was added in order to avoid the tritone above f it is interesting to notice
that the b-flat is not officially recognized in the earliest treatises containing
information about the tonal material of the chant. This appears most
clearly from a consideration of the various systems of letter designation
advocated by the theorists of the ninth century: 13

Modern: A Bd c b f
e fc" g a c' d' e' a' b'
Scholia enchiriadis: ABODE F G H KLMNOP
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOP I
g'

Anonymus
Hucbaldi Musica:
II:
FGABGDEFGABGDEFG
The first indication of the recognition of the b-flat occurs in the Divisio
monochordi of the so-called Anonymus de la Page, which employs the
II, adding the letter R for the b-flat. The tenth- 14
system of Anonymus
century Dialogus de musica generally ascribed to Oddo of Cluny [see List
of Sources, p. 55, no. 25] is the earliest treatise to distinguish the b-flat
from the b-natural by the use of two shapes of the letter b, the b rotundum
(round b) for the former, and the b durum (hard, angular b) for the latter,
forms which persist in our present-day signs and Does this mean that
\> \\.

the b-flat represents an innovation of the ninth century? We can only raise
this question without
trying to give an answer. At any rate, it should be
necessarily mean ab-
realized that absence of official recognition does not
sence de facto. As we shall see
[pp. 1621], there is good reason to assume
13 GS, I, and 118.
209, 342,
14 A. de la
J. Fage, Essais de diphtirographie musicale (1864), p. 73.
 The Tonality 153

that originally the tonal material of the chant included also other chro-
matic notes, mainly the e-flat and the f-sharp, which, however, were never

adopted into the theoretical system.

Turning from the theoretical to the practical sources, it is hardly neces-
sary to state that the earliest musical manuscripts, that is those written in
neumes without indication of pitch or intervals, never prescribe a b-flat.
Perhaps the first
manuscript to do so is the Codex Montpellier of the
eleventh century which, in addition to staffless neumes, notates the chants
by means of the letter system of Anonymus 77, in which the degree of b is
represented by the letter i. Similar to Oddo's two shapes of the b, the Codex
Montpellier employs two shapes of the i, an upright (i) for the b-natural
and a slanting (i) for the b-flat. 15 Diastematic manuscripts dating from
about the same time, such as the Beneventan Gradual and the Codex Lucca
of the eleventh century, indicate the b-flat in the usual manner, as do all
the later sources.
A
comparative study of these sources reveals a situation disconcertingly
similar to the one that exists in polyphonic music of the thirteenth through
the sixteenth centuries, where to the present day scholars argue about
musica ficta and editorial accidentals. A detailed investigation of the b-flat
in the medieval manuscripts of Gregorian chant still remains to be under-
taken, but there can be little doubt that it would reveal hundreds of cases in
which one manuscript shows a b-flat at a certain place where it is absent
in another source of equal authority. An important preparatory study is

J. Jeannin's "Du
b&nol grgorien" [TG xxv, 1928, pp. 143, 175], in
si

which he points to the numerous "contradictions entre excellents . . .

t&noins de la tradition," the contradictions between equally excellent

sources.
The similarity between the Gregorian b-flat and that of early polyphonic
music also extends to the modern publications which, in either case, show
a tendency to conform with nineteenth-century principles of tonality by
introducing numerous chromatic alterations that are, to say the least, o
doubtful authenticity. Certainly, the basic Solesmes editions, Liber usualis,
Graduate, and Antiphonale^ contain numerous b-flats which cannot be
justified. In a recent article, "Du r61e des principales families de manu-
scripts" [RG xxx, 1951, p. 6], J. Gajard reproached the editors for their
"dfrence pour les habitudes de 1'oreille moderne," the deference to the
habits of the modern ear. The case most frequently noted is the formula

c-d-a-b^-a found at the beginning of many Introits and Antiphons of the

first mode. According to the best manuscripts this should read: c-d-a-b-a.
The faulty version of the standard Solesmes books has indeed been cor-
rected in more recent publications based on more exacting principles of
15 See,
e.g., the facsimile in Sunol's PaUographie, p. 395: g hih (line i, "populi"); h i

k i h (line 3, "e-os").
154 GREGORIAN CHANT
research and
scholarship: in the Antiphonale monasticum (1934),
e.g.,
which contains the Office Hours according to the Benedictine (not the
official Roman) the Officium et Missa ultimi Tridui Majoris Hebdo-
rites;
madae (1947), containing the Office and Mass for the last three days of
Holy Week (also Easter Sunday) according to the monastic rites; and the
In Node Nativitatis Domini, juxta ritum monasticum (1936), a similar edi-
tion of the liturgy of the Nativity. In these books the Antiphons Traditor
autem Posuerunt
[652],
Tecum principium [412], and others appear
[694],
without a flat. Similar corrections should be made for many Introits, e.g.,
Rorate [353] and Gaudeamus [437], not only at the beginning but also at
other places where the Liber usualis has a b-flat. 16
Nor are the Solesmes editions always consistent in the application of
the b-flat. This appears particularly from the study of chants employing
standard phrases, that is, complete melodic units that are transferred from
one chant to another, a procedure which is of basic importance in the
17
Tracts, Responsorie's, and Graduals. Occasionally such a phrase appears
with a b-flat in one chant, without it in another. An example in point is a

phrase employed for the close of several Responsories of the fourth mode
(end of the respond), e.g.,
in Aestimatus sum Quern vidistis [377],
[733],
Qui Lazarum [1786], and Subvenite [1765]. In the first two chants this
phrase appears with a b-natural, resulting in a tritone formation, f-g-a-b,
which is changed into f-g-a-b^ in the last two.
Earlier editions of the chant are even more inaccurate in this respect.

Thus, the Liber responsorialis, published in 1895, shows the Responsory

Sicut ovis (p. 339) with a flat for every note b, while the Liber usualis [716]
and the Officium . . . Tridui (p. 196) have it entirely without b-flat, a
version born out by the medieval manuscripts such as the Codex Worcester

[PaL mus., XII, Plates, p. 126]. There are many similar cases in which future
research will lead to a correct version.
Many others, however, will probably
always remain doubtful because of the lack of agreement between the
sources.
In spite of the great uncertainty in details, some general principles con-
cerning the b-flat can be unequivocally stated. First of all, the use of the
altered pitch does not affect the classification according to maneriae and
modes, which rests on the
Thus, a melody on d was considered a
final.

protus, regardless of whether employed the b-natural, the b-flat, or both.

it

Theoretically speaking, each of the four standard scales is available in two

varieties; one with the semitone b-c', the other with the semitone a-b|j,

Codex Lucca the Antiphon Hodie Christus natus [413] does not have a
the
single flat (see Pal. mus., IX, facsimiles, p. 59). The flat is extremely rare in this manu-
script, but not entirely absent. Thus, it does occur in the Responsory Oremus omncs
(ibid., p. 494) in connection with a direct tritone, on "Dominum:"f-b|j b|j-a-g . . .
 The Tonality 155

the former a fifth, the latter a fourth above the fixed semitone e-f (or, if
this occurs in the higher octave, e'-P, the former a fourth, the latter a fifth
below it):
FIGURE 25
B-natural B-flat

protus

deuterus

tritus

be noticed that each of these eight scales represents a different

It will
term is understood to indicate the position of the two
tonality, if this
semitonal intervals with respect to the final. The only exception is the
b-flat tetrardus which, aside from a transposition at the distance of a
fourth, identical
is with the b-natural protus. However, this does not mean
that, owing to the addition of the b-flat, the number of maneriae is raised
from four to seven or that of the modes from eight to fourteen. Such an
increase of tonalities would presuppose the existence of a number of chants

making consistent use of the b-flat, side by side with others which employ
the b-natural exclusively. Actually there is no such dichotomy. Practically
all the chants are either strictly diatonic or show a fluctuation between the
b-natural and the b-flat. There are a few chants in the tritus (particularly
in the sixth mode; see p. ig6) there are "completely flattened," but prob-

ably all of them are either of a late date or owe their "F-major" tonality
to the conforming tendencies of modern editors. At any rate, their number
is be negligible.
so small as to
In order to provide a basis for the study of the b-flat, as it occurs in the
various modes, a list of Communions follows:

Mode i: Data est [803]; Amen dico [1077]; Ecce virgo [356].
2: Multitude* [1337]; Potum meum [620]; Tu puer [1502].
3: Qui meditabitur [529]; Scapulis suis [537].
4: Semel juravi [1132]; Tanto tempore [1450].
5: Adversum me [611]; Non vos relinquam [899]; Intellige [549]-
6: Defructu [1031]; Diffusa est [1572].
7: none
8: Domine memorabor [1046]; Omnes gentes [449]; Dum venerii
156 GREGORIAN CHANT
From these examples, together with others found in various categories
of chant (Graduals, Antiphons, etc.), the following general conclusions
can be drawn:
Mode i shows fluctuation between b-natural and b-flat, the latter being
often introduced when the b occurs as a peak tone (a-b-a) or in a tritone
position (f-b or b-f). As was indicated previously (p. 153),
the beginning
of Amen dico, where the b occurs above the ascending fifth (c-d-a-b-a)
should probably have a b-natural.
In mode 2 the b lies outside the proper ambitus. Whenever it occurs,
as a peak tone, it is invariably b-flat.
The occurrence, not at all infrequent and documented by the best
sources, of the b-flat inmodes 3 and 4 is the strangest phenomenon in the
field under consideration. In both these modes the b (natural), situated a
fifth above the final, holds such an important position in the scale that it

cannot be altered without impairing the very nature of the mode. How-
ever, we have already pointed out (p. 142) that the two modes of the
deuterus are greatly given to instability and variability of tonal structure.
Internal cadences on f are found in practically every melody of some ex-
tension, and these account for many of the b-flats, e.g., that on "ve-(ritas)"
in Scapulis suis. However, even cadences on e quite frequently have a
b-flat because of a preceding f, as on "ac nocte" in Qui meditabitur [529],
or on "alleluia" in Tanto tempore [1450]. In fact, cadential formulae with
the general outline of f-b^-e are among the most characteristic traits of

nearly all melodies in the modes 3 and 4. One of the most striking instances
of the use of the b-flat occurs at the end of the initial phrase of Tanto

tempore, which closes on the low b-flat (B-flat), thus employing for its
cadential point a note foreign not only to the mode but also to the medieval

gamut. Parenthetically, it may be remarked that the B-flat occurs in a stand-

ard formulae of the Responsories of mode 2 (see Fig. 94, p. 333: Gi).
Mode
5 presents a situation similar to mode i, that is, fluctuation be-
tween the b-natural and the b-flat. Not a few melodies employ the flat
throughout, in which case the resulting tonality is the modern
major. A
nearly perfect example Adversum
is me [611], the only b-natural occurring
in the liquescent clivis (cephalicus) on "mul(titudine)." 18 Intellige [549],
on the other hand, has b-natural throughout, except for the final cadence.
The Responsory Flange quasi virgo [722] may be cited as one of the rela-
tively few examples of an extended chant of mode 5 without a b-flat.
Mode 6 seems to be very similar to mode 5 in its use of the b-flat. Two
extreme examples are the Responsories Tradiderunt [686] and Accepit
Jesus [932], both of which are completely "flattened," the former by trans-
position on c', the latter by its
having (at least in L) a b-flat signature.
is For the rules
governing the validity of the flat in the Solesmes editions, see L, p.
xviii.
 The Tonality 157

Mode 7 is the only one that remains virtually untouched by the b-flat,
thus retaining its characteristic interval, the major third. The special
problem presented by the Antiphon Urbs fortitudinis [332] will be con-
sidered later (p. 177!:).
Mode 8, for which the major third would seem to be equally typical,
does not show the same resistance. The difference is caused by the fact
that, in the plagal mode, the subfinal frequently serves as an inner caden-
tial point. These cadences on f entail the b-flat, as is shown by the Com-

munions mentioned in our table as well as by numerous other chants,

e.g.,
the Tracts of the eighth mode. One of the standard formulae of
these Tracts (gs of Fig. 89 on p. 320; see Nunc dimittis [1363], on

"(popu)lo(rum)") shows the b-flat and the b-natural in such close succes-
sion as almost to convey the impression of true chromaticism.

TRANSPOSITION
The system of the church modes is built upon the foundation of four
final notes, that is, d, e, f, andevery chant should close on one
g. Properly,
of these pitches. There are, however, not a few melodies which employ

higher notes for their finals, namely the so-called affinales (co-finals) a, b,
and c'. 19 This phenomenon is generally referred to as transposition, the
surmise being that originally such chants did close on one the four basic
finals and that, for some reason or other, they were later sung and notated
from the original one. The evidence for this surmise
at a pitch different
and the reasons why some chants were transposed are questions to be con-
sidered later.Our first task is to acquaint ourselves with the facts, thus
providing a basis for the discussion of the various problems involved in this
matter.
The only transpositions that can cause a chant to close on a, b, or c' are
those to the upper fifth or upper fourth, for instance, from d to a or from
e to a. Theoretically, the co-finals could also be reached by transpositions

up a second (from g to a) or up a major third (from f to a, or from g to b).

However, these are impossible because of the chromatic tones that would
result. For instance, transposition up a second would entail an f-sharp

(for e) and a c-sharp (for b), or would presuppose an e-flat and b-flat in
the original position. We shall see later that such transpositions probably
did occur. However, they always involved a modification of some intervals
and therefore are not transpositions in the strict sense of the word. More-
over, they seem to have taken place only within the four basic finals (e.g.,
from f to g), and therefore need not be considered here where we are con-
cerned with transpositions leading from a finalis to an affinalis.
19 A few chants,
probably all of a late date, close on the low c, e.g., the Alleluia
Beatus vir Sanctus Martinus [1747] and the processional Antiphon Cum audisset populus
[586] for Palm Sunday.
158 GREGORIAN CHANT
fourth and fifth also produce in-
Naturally, transpositions to the upper
admissible chromatics, namely e-flat (upper fourth of b-flat) and f-sharp
(upper fifth ofb-natural).The difference is that here the chromatic tones
have their origin in the degree of b, and therefore disappear if this is
to the upper fourth is possible
chromatically altered. Thus, transposition
if (and only if)
the basic scale has a b-natural, while transposition to the
the b-flat. In
upper fifth is possible if (and only if) the basic scale employs
addition, certain transpositions are ruled out for other reasons, for instance
inadmissible finals (b-flat, d') or a range exceeding the Gregorian gamut.
The 26, serves to illustrate the possibilities of transposing
diagram, Fig.
the modes (the symbols i:t|, etc.,
stand for mode i with b-natural, etc.).

FIGURE 26

Transposing to Fourth Transposing to Fifth

i:t

8 4:\

5. *ft

(OW)

8 &

0>)00

a 74; 8:k (e)

Notes:
a. final would be g b. scale would have f-sharp
c. scale would have e-flat d. final would be b-flat
e. mode 3 too high f. mode 5 too high
g. mode 7 too high h. final would be d'

To sum up: modes i and 2, with b-flat, can be transposed to the upper
fifth; modes 3 and 4, with b-natural, to the upper fourth; mode 4, with
b-flat, to the upper fifth; mode 6, with upper fifth; and mode
b-flat, to the
8, with b-natural, to the upper fourth. Modes 5 and 7 cannot properly be
 The Tonality 159

transposed because the resulting range exceeds the Gregorian gamut.

Transposition would be possible only for specific melodies with a limited
ambitus. We have seen, however, that such chants are likely to be classified
as plagal rather than as authentic. By grouping the transposed modes ac-

cording to affinales, we arrive at the following picture:

Co-final a: Modes i:|>; s:[>; yty 4:^

b: Mode 4:^
c': Modes 6: b; 8:lj.

Turning now to the melodies themselves, we find the preceding theoreti-

cal demonstration fully borne out. There exist examples for each of the
transpositions represented in the diagram, while, as far as I can see, there
are none for those that have been ruled out.20 A seeming exception is the
Offertory Eripe me . . . Domine [605] which is in the third mode and closes
on b. Actually, this is not a transposed chant at all, as appears from its

range which extends from d to d'. The

the incomplete
final b results from
reproduction in modern editions, which omit the verses of the Offertories.
The complete version, given in Ott, p. go, shows, after the second verse, a
restatement of the respond with a different ending which correctly closes
on e. As for the truly transposed chants, the following list of examples will
suffice to give a general view of the situation.

TRANSPOSED CHANTS21

FINAL a

Mode i:

Com. *Pa$ser invenit [556]

Intx. *Exaudi Domine [854]

Mode 2:

Com. *Cantabo [963]; Cantate Domino [83$]

Intr. Venite adoremus [G 371]
All Graduals, e.g., *Haec dies [778], *Justus ut palma [1201], etc
All. Confitemini . . et invocate [1060]
Off. Tollite [362]; Exaltabo [528]; Dextera [656]; Vir erat [1069]

Resp. Sancta et immaculata [384]; Locutus est [LR 402]

Ant. Magnum haereditatis [444]

Mode 3:
Com. *Beatus servus [1203]

Johner, in his A New School of Gregorian Chant (1914), p. 57, includes mode 5
20 D.

among those that can be transposed to the fifth. Perhaps there are some examples with a
limited range, from b or c' to g/ On the other hand, he omits mode 8, for which there is
.

at leastone example, indicated in our list of Transposed Chants.

21 The asterisk indicates chants
having a b-natural as well as a b-flat; see p. 163.
l6o GREGORIAN CHANT
Mode 4:
Ant *Factus sum [730]; *Apud Dominum [412]; *Ecce veniet [324]; Ex

Aegypto [1081]; and many others of the same type. 22

FINAL b
Mode 4:
Com. Tollite hostias [1058]; Dilexisti [1241]; Per signum [1457]
Off. Domine fac mecum [G 133]
Gloria I [16]
FINAL C>

Mode 6:
Com. *Circuibo [1009]
Off. *In virtute [1205]
Resp. Twdiderunt [686]; *Gaude Maria [PM 146]
Mode 8:

Resp. *Jesum tradidit [687]

It may be noticed that nearly allthe transposed chants are plagal, and that

transpositions to the final a are by far the most frequent.

Wecan now turn to the various questions and problems arising in con-
nection with the transposed chants. The most urgent, of course, is: are we
justified in considering the chants closing on a, b, and c' as "transposed?"
If so, why were they transposed? The obvious answer to the second question
would be that this was done in order to bring them into a more convenient

range; but this answer is hardly satisfactory since hundreds of other chants
continued to be sung at the lowest part of the medieval gamut. As for the
first
question, one might be inclined to answer it in the positive because the
co-finals lie outside the system of the church modes. Once more, this argu-
ment carries little weight since it is universally recognized that this system
is not the historical basis for the Gregorian melodies, but represents a
relatively late attempt at tonal classification.
Fortunately, we can give a very definite answer to each of these questions.
The question as to whether the chants are transposed is to be answered in
the positive, provided this term is properly understood. It does not neces-
sarily imply that they were originally sung at a lower pitch and later
brought up to a higher one. In order to understand the issue involved we
have to bear in mind that originally the chants were not notated at all,
or if they were, that this was done in a staffless notation which, aside from
22 This
group of Antiphons (thtme ap of Gevaert's Milopie, pp. 322-30) will receive
our attention on several other occasions; see pp. 162, 399. They require for the Psalm the
fourth tone in "another position of the same tone" [L 115], specified by the terminations
c, A
or A* (the normal terminations of the fourth tone are g and E). In the index of
AM these Antiphons are distinguished by the use of the italic figure 4. The correspond-
ing psalm tone is called Quartus modus "alteratus" seu cum alteratione chromatica
[AM 1215]. Actually, the "chromatic alteration is present, not in the psalm tone, but in
the Antiphons.
 The Tonality 161

many other uncertainties, of pitch whatsoever. This

contains no indication
means that they could be sung any pitch that was convenient or cus-
at

tomary. The only things that mattered were the intervallic relationships
in other words, the position of the semitones with regard to the final but
these are, of course, entirely independent of the pitch, whether (to use
modern equivalents) d, e, or f-sharp. This state of affairs underwent a radi-
cal change with the introduction of the staff and of diastematic notation.
This made it necessary to allocate each chant in such a way that its semi-
tones were properly represented on the staff. The majority of the chants
apparently offered no great problems in this respect, or if there were
problems (e.g., quarter-tones) they were solved by some compromise. In a
number of cases, however, a satisfactory solution could be found only if
the chants were notated at a higher pitch, so that they closed on one of the
co-finals, and these are the chants that we usually call "transposed." Some-
what more properly we might say that they were notated so as to appear
in transposition.
As for the reason for the "transposition," this was done, not in order to
bring them into a more convenient range, but because of the intervallic
structure of the melody, which could be represented in staff notation (or
letter notation) only if the melody was interpreted as closing on one of the
co-finals. The most convincing proof of this exists in a passage found in the

Prologus ad tonarium by Berno [see List of Sources, p. 54, no. 16]. Because
of their unusually informative character, we quote the major part of
Berno's explanations: 23

Itshould be noticed that there exists such a concordance between the lower
finalsand those a fifth above them that certain melodies are found to close on
the latter as if they were regular finals. ... In a miraculous way it happens that
the [basic] finals have associates not only at the upper fifth, as we have said, but
24 . Indeed, each mode, whether
also comparable ones at the upper fourth. . .

authentic or plagal, is found to recur in a miraculous and divine concordance if

considered at a fourth from its location, ... in such a manner that a good number
of melodies, if begun on their [proper] final or, as the case may be, at some
other tone above or below it do not come out well because of the lack of semi-
23 GSf II, "Notandum vero est , . .*' We offer a somewhat simplified translation,
74b:
in which, the Greek terms mese, etc., are replaced by their modern equivalents. The
e.g.,
basic work on chromaticism in Gregorian chant is G. Jacobsthal, Die chromatische
Alteration im liturgischen Gesang der abendlandischen Kirche (1897). More than twenty
years earlier, R. Schlecht had called attention to chromaticism in the chant, in Caedlia

(ed.Hermesdorff, Trier), 1874. Chromaticism also plays a role in several articles by J.

Borremans (TG, XIX, XX
[1913/14]), in which he discusses Alleluias in versions of
Cistercian and Premonstratensian manuscripts. Apparently he had no knowledge o the
studies by Schlecht and Jacobsthal, since he says in conclusion: "II y a dans la thorie
actuelle du chant gregorien une lacune grave qu'il importe de combler a tout prix."
24 The "concordance" at the upper fourth presupposes, of course, the use of the b-flat,

e.g., d-e-f-g
= g-a-b^-c' (or, of the f-sharp, e.g., d-e-fjf-g
= g-a-b-c'?).
l62 GREGORIAN CHANT
tones; if, however, they are begun at the higher level, then they continue smoothly
without detriment to any pitch and close quite properly on the associated final.
In order to illustrate this more clearly, let us take as an example the following
antiphons of the fourth mode: Factus sum, O mors ero, Sion renovaberis, Sion
noli timere, and Vade iam. If you try to begin these antiphons on g, a third
above their [proper] final [that is, e], your melody will be defective because you
will not find a semitone at the place where it should be. If, however, you consider
the tone a [as a final] and if, and b-natural,
through the interposition of the b-flat

you begin these antiphons on c', you melody can be

will notice that the entire

sung without any damage, until it closes on the associate final a. Similarly, if you
insist on beginning the antiphons of the same mode, Ad te Dominum levavi and
Ex Aegypto vocavi on their (proper) final, you will see that in the middle part
they won't come out right. If, however, you begin them on a, they can be sung
without distortion (dispendium, loss) of the neumes, until they close on the same
note [on which they began]. People who don't see this maintain that these anti-
phons and similar ones belong to the seventh rather than to the fourth mode,
although they don't deny that they close in the fourth.
The same defect of notation (defectus neumarum) occurs in the communion
Beatus servus of the third mode, unless it is transposed from e to a. ... If you
start to sing the communion of the eighth mode, De fructu operum, on its final

[i.e., g], you will see that in the middle the melody does not come out properly,
because of the semitones. If, however, it is started on c', you will notice that the
entire series [of tones] of this melody is related, in an orderly progression, to its
associated final [i.e., c'].
The same thing may happen at the distance of a fifth. Unless the antiphons of
the sixth mode, Alias oves habeo and Domine qui operati mnt, are transposed
to the upper fifth (in quintum transponantur locum), that is, from f to c', they
in no way retain their order in the regular monochord.

The meaning of these explanations becomes immediately clear if we

consider one of the transposed modes of our table, for instance, the deu-
terus raised to the fourth, and replace in this the b-flat by a b-natural.
This means, in the original position, to replace the f by an f-sharp, and it
is this
f-sharp to which Berno alludes when he says, in connection with the
Antiphons Factus sum and others, that "you will not find a semitone at
the place where it should be." Obviously, there existed melodies which
involved, at different places, progressions such as e-f-g and e-f #-g, thus
presupposing the availability of a semitonal cluster (e, f, f#, g) which
occurs in the medieval gamut only at a place a fourth above (a, b^, btj,
c').Thus it is only by transposing the entire melody to the upper fourth
that the pitches involved can be expressed in the
"regular monochord"
and in writing. Conversely, it appears that originally these chants were
sung a fourth below their notated pitch, e.g., Factus sum?*
sum as well as the other Antiphons mentioned by Berno together with it be-
25 Factus

long to the previously mentioned th&me 29 of Gevaert's Mtlopde. Gevaert changes them
into what he believes to be their original form, with a close on b instead of on a.
 The Tonality 163

FIGURE 27

Fac-tus sum si- cut ho-mo si- ne ad-ju-to - ri o, in -termer- tu- os Ii-ber.
_l
original

Perhaps it is not superfluous to remark that expressions such as "sung

a fourth below" do not have quite the same meaning here as they have in
present-day practice. The difference is in the frame of reference, which
consists not so much of actual pitches but of the theoretical degrees of
the diatonic scale as represented by the tone-letters.
If we apply the same line of reasoning to a transposition of a fifth, our
table shows that normally all the modes involved include only the b-natu-
ral, the fifth above e. It is
possible, however, to introduce into such a
transposed mode which, in the original position, would correspond
a b-flat

to an e-flat. Assuming that there were melodies including d-e-f as well as

f-e[j-d,
it
appears that the degrees involved (d, e|>, e, f) are available only
in the semitonal group a, b[>, bl], c', in other words, only by transposi-
tion to the upper fifth. Since the examples, Alias oves and Domine qui>
cited by Berno are not found in the modern books, 26 we reproduce here
two relevant passages from the Communion Circuibo [1009]:

FIGURE 28

Dp -mi-
'

Cif-cu- i- bo. . . can- ta- tx> . . .

original

We can now make the following general statement: If a chant transposed

to the upper fourth (modes 3 and 4 on a, mode 8 on c') contains a b-natural,
this indicates an f-sharp in the original melody. If a chant transposed to
the upper fifth (modes i and 2 on a, mode 4 on b, mode 6 on cr ) contains
a b-flat, this indicates an e-flat in the original melody. Our table of Trans-
posed Chants [p. 159] includes a number of additional examples, marked
by an asterisk.
The earliest clear evidence of chromatically altered tones is found in
the Scholia enchiriadis of c. 900, in which a considerable number of penta-
chords (scale segments comprising a fifth) are accurately indicated by means
26 Alias oves is given in A and AM, but as an untransposed melody of the eighth mode.
See, however, Gevaert, p. 199. Domine qui operati sunt occurs in the Codex Lucca (Pal.
mus.f IX, Plates, p. 475), transposed on tf but without b-flat.
164 GREGORIAN CHANT
of daseian signs. 27 In addition to diatonic pentachords such as c-d-e-f-g and

d-e-f-g-a (both upward and downward)

the author describes formations such
as c-d-ej^-f-g (upand down), c-d-e-fjf-g (up and down), as well as others of
a mixed type, e.g., ascending with e-flat and descending with e-natural. He
calls these chromatic variants absonia. We may therefore assume that in
the ninth century and possibly even earlier singers made use of the e-flat
and f-sharp, probably without fully realizing that, in doing so, they were
for that matter,
transgressing the boundaries of the tonal system which,
may not as yet have existed or have been universally recognized. Gradually,
musicians must have become aware that such usage was not quite proper.
The very name absonia (off-sound) which the author of the Scholia enchi-
riadis uses indicates a slight disapproval, and this attitude is even more
evident when he calls them vitium (vice) and compares them to "bar-
barisms and solecisms" in poetry. Such designations are on a level with
the terms musica ficta and musica falsa by which writers of the fourteenth
century condoned the use of chromatic alterations in polyphonic music.
After all, it was not until the twentieth century that the chromatic tones
received a status fully equal to that of the diatonic tones.
Whatever the attitude toward the e-flat and f-sharp may have been in
those early days, the development of musical theory was not favorable to
them. The first obstacle must have occurred when the tone-letters were
introduced. We have seen (p. 152) that the earliest systems of letter desig-
nation were purely diatonic. The first indication of recognized chro-
maticism exists in the addition, to the diatonic series A to P, of the letter
R for b-flat. It would have been easy to add the letter S for e-flat and T
for f-sharp, but apparently these tones were so rare in comparison with
the b-flat (which, we must remember, is almost a diatonic degree in the
tritus) that this was not done. When Oddo (who seems to have taken a
hostile attitude toward the chromatic tones) introduced his new system of
letters,from a to g, he provided for two b's, the b rotundum and the b
quadratum,; but neither for two e's nor for two f s. The general accept-
28

ance of this system more or less implies the abolishment of the e-flat and
the f-sharp. In many cases they were probably modified into some adjacent
degree. Transposition into the recognized chromaticism of the b was their
only means of survival, and it is in the few melodies of this type that we
can trace them.
27 GSf I, 1752. For an explanation of the daseian signs, see, e.g., W. Apel, Notation of
Polyphonic Music (1942), p. 204.
showing the transpositions of the diatonic scale, G to a', Oddo con-
28 in his tables

sistently uses the letter m (mysticum?) whenever a chromatic tone occurs, e.g., A B d m
for G A B c transposed a second upward [GS, I,
274]. Later he speaks about "quampluria
mysteria" which he disregards "ne tenerum lectorem magis suffocare superfluis cibis, quam
lacte nutrire videremur" (lest we should seem to suffocate the
gentle reader -with super-
fluous food, rather than nourish him with
milk).
 The Tonality 165

A second obstacle, even more definitive, was the staff notation which
developed shortly after the letter notation. Essentially diatonic, like the
oldest systems of letters, it borrowed from Oddo the two shapes of the
letter b (^ and t)) which, whenever necessary, were
placed in front of the
note indicating the pitch b. Although the same signs could have been used
equally well for the pitches e and f, this was never done in Gregorian
chant. 29
The theory that chants closing on an affinalis are transposed in order to
accommodate (or disguise) chromatic pitches, does not necessarily apply
to every chant closing on a, b, or c'. Our table of Transposed Chants con-
tains a number of melodies (those lacking the asterisk) that do not include
the crucial pitches b-flat for transpositions of a fifth, b-natural for trans-

positions of a fourth indicative of hidden chromaticism. It is perhaps

no mere coincidence that most of these are Offertories, a type of chant
characterized by numerous exceptional traits, among them a tendency to
move in unusual ranges. It is entirely conceivable that some of the Offer-
tories were originally and always sung at a high level of pitch and that,

strictly speaking, they should not be listed with the chants which we have

good reason to assume were transposed. The same line of reasoning applies
even more cogently to certain chants of a late date, such as the Kyrie IV
or the Antiphon Ave regina [274], the former closing on a, the latter on c'.
With other melodies closing on one of the affinales the question of "trans-
posed or not transposed" is difficult to decide. Examples in point are the
numerous Graduals of the type Justus ut palma, all in the second mode
and closing on a. In the Solesmes version each of these closely related
melodies has one b-flat, e.g., Justus ut palma [1201] on "cedrus," Haec dies
[778] on "Haec," and it is this b-flat that accounts for their being con-
sidered as transposed chants. 30 However, Ferretti states that the b-flat of
Haec dies is not authentic, an assertion that would remove the only tangi-
ble evidence for transposition. 31 There is no point in quibbling over single

examples. What matters is the general principle, and this is placed beyond
doubt, mainly by Berno's testimony. 32

29 The only exception I have found is an e-flat in the final melisma of the second
verse of the Offertory In virtute: c'-a-f f-g-efc f-d [Ott, p. 153].
30 See
Wagner 111, 370. The b-flats occur in standard phrases, Ax and A* of our table
on p. 360.
31
Esthttique, p. 163.
an article, "L'Insuffisance du systeme d'6criture guidonien" (ACI, p. 202), D.
32 in
Delalande attempts to prove the existence of chromatic tones on the basis of evidence
provided by certain variants found in German manuscripts, particularly the replacement
of a second by a third (e.g., e'-f'-e' by e'-g'-e'), which have long been recognized as a

peculiarity of the "German chorale dialect" (Wagner). According to Delalande, this

phenomenon shows that originally there was a "note mobile*' (f-sharp), which was low-
ered (to f) in the Latin, but raised (to g) in the German sources.
l66 GREGORIAN CHANT
MODAL AMBIGUITY
In the preceding explanations we have considered what may be called
"open transpositions," this term referring to the fact that the transposition
is apparent from the use of the co-finals, a, b, and c'. There is reason to

assume that transposition also occurred within the four basic finals, d, e, f,
g, and these could be termed "hidden transpositions,"
because the melodies
do not show any outward sign of being transposed. Obviously each such
case involves a change of mode, a modal ambiguity. What we are con-
cerned with, actually is not the problem of authentic-versus-plagal arising
with melodies of a limited or excessive ambitus, but ambiguity of maneria.
This is a most interesting, but also highly complex phenomenon. The
whole problem arises from the fact that, in a considerable number of cases,
the medieval sources show a striking disagreement of modal assignment,
one and the same chant being classified as mode i in one source, 3 in an-
other, 6 in a third, and 8 in a fourth (to quote an extreme example).
Before entering upon our explanations, it will be well to describe the
source material pertinent to the question at hand. It falls into three cate-
gories: theoretical treatises, tonaries, and liturgical books (Graduals, An-
tiphonals). A typical example of a theorist providing information about
modal assignment is Aurelianus, who in Chapters X to XVIII of his Musica
disciplincfiz discusses the eight modes and indicates individual chants rep-
resentative of each mode. Significantly, he limits himself to Antiphons, In-
troits, Offertories, Responsories, and Communions, that is, to those chants
for which, because of their connection with a recitation tone (psalm tone,
introit tone, etc.), the modal assignment is of practical significance, but
excludes the Graduals and Alleluias for which it has
only theoretical
interest. 84 Considerably more extensive material
the is
provided by the
tonaries, e.g., the Tonarius of Regino, from c. 900. They contain more or
lesscomplete lists of Antiphons, Introits, Communions, etc., grouped ac-
cording to modes. Again, Graduals and Alleluias are disregarded, but also
the Offertories. As for the liturgical books, the earliest source of informa-
tion is the Gradual of Corbie of c. goo which, although without musical
notation, indicates the modes of the Introits and Communions by marginal
signs, AP and PP for authenticus protus and plagis proti (first mode, second
mode) and similar ones for the other six modes. 85 In the neumatic Codex
Einsiedeln 121 (PaL mus., IV) the modes of the Introits and Communions
are identifiable through their psalm verses, while the Codex Chartres 47
(PaL mus., XI) has marginal indications of the mode, as can be seen on
Plate III [see the explanations, p. 121]. A
central position in this question
33 See the List of Sources,
p. 54, also for the tonaries, etc., mentioned subsequently.
34 The fact that Aurelianus includes the Offertories in his
"catalogue of modes" is of
great historical interest. See p. 512.
35 See
Sextuplex, p. cxxiii.
 The Tonality 167

is held by the Codex Montpellier, in which the Mass chants are grouped
according to their modes. Here we find modal indications ior all die Mass
chants, Introits and Communions as well as Graduals, Alleluias, and Of-
fertories. The Graduals are grouped, not according to modes, but accord-

ing to maneriae, and in many cases the respond and the verse dairy in-
dividual modal designations, PL (plagius) and At. (authenticus), e.g.:

PL Up. Adiutor raeus. At. y. Confundantur.

The main source for the modal assignment of the Office chants is the
Codex Hartker, in which the mode of each chant is indicated by Latin
or Greek letters:

a = Mode i u = Mode 2
e = Modeg ^=Mode4
i = Mode 5 y = Mode 6
o = Mode 7 co = Mode 8
The Codex Lucca adds to each Antiphon the Eu o u a e, that is, the
termination of the psalm tone,86 thus giving an indirect indication of the
mode of the Antiphon.
In the great majority of cases these sources agree in their modal desig-
nations, but the number of chants carrying different assignments is by no
means inconsiderable. As for the Mass chants, a comprehensive study of
modal ambiguity has been made by U. Bomm, in his important study,
Der Wechsel der Modalitatsbestimmung in der Tradition der Messgesange
im IX. bis XIII. Jahrhundert (1929). This deals with close to one hundred
Mass chants which occur with different designations of the mode, a num-
ber which represents a little less than one-tenth of the total Mass repertory
(c.
1100 chants). No similarly complete study exists for the Office chants,
but the number of cases is here probably even higher. Thus, there may be
three hundred or more chants the modal assignment of which is prob-
lematic. It may be noticed that, at least in the Mass chants studied by
Bomm, the ambiguity does not (or not primarily) involve that of authentic-
versus-plagal, which we have considered in connection with the chants of
limited or excessive ambitus, but rather a decision between different
maneriae. The problems presented by these chants are not only of practical
significance (in the Introits, Communions, etc.), but also important from
the historical and analytical point of view. Their examination affords an
interesting insight into the evolutionary processes of the chant and illumi-
nates certain special traits of its tonal behavior.
For some unexplained reason, modal ambiguity prevails in the Com-
ae See
p. 2so.
l68 GREGORIAN CHANT
munions to a much larger extent (about one-fifth
of the total) than in any
other type of Mass chant. It is least frequent in the Graduals. The list

of chants included in Bomm's

study consists of fourteen Introits, four
Graduals (excluding duplications of a melody with different texts), seven-
teen Alleluias, nineteen Offertories, and thirty-eight Communions. From
this ample material we shall select a few examples which illustrate the
causes and reasons for the variation that exists in the field of modal assign-
ment. In many cases these reasons are by no means clear, and we can
only speculate upon what this or that writer
had in mind when he
ascribed a chant to this or that mode. One of the most striking examples
in point is the Communion De fructu [1031], which appears in the modern
books as an f:c-c' melody properly assigned to mode 6. The medieval
sources, however, are by no means unanimous on this point. Both Aure-
lianus and Regino ascribe the melody to mode 3, as does also the Gradual
of Corbie. In Berno's Tonarius and in the Graduate Sarisburiense it ap-

pears as mode 8, and in Guide's Tonarius as mode i, while the designation

as mode 6 occurs in the Codex Montpellier. It is very difficult, if not im-

possible, to say what caused such an appalling disagreement. The extended

commentaries which Jacobsthal and Bomm devote to this melody (the
former on pp. 52-58 and 136-178; the latter on pp. 60-61 and 97-103) are
sufficientevidence of the highly problematic character of this Communion
which, no doubt, underwent certain changes during the ninth, tenth, and
later centuries. Fortunately, there exist some examples of a less complex
nature, and it is on these that we shall draw for the subsequent explana-
tions, which are designed to expose some of the reasons for differences in
modal assignment.
By far the simplest case is that of melodies with a small range. have We
already noticed that a small range is bound to lead to uncertainty in the
distinction between the authentic and the plagal mode of the same maneria

(p. 144). It may, however, cause more essential variations of modal assign-
ment, involving a shift from one maneria to another. A case in point is that
of a melody using the scale segment known as the hexachord, that is, six
notes with a semitone between the third and the fourth degree. If this
hexachord occurs in the position g-a-b-c'-d'-e' (hexachordum durum), the
melody would be a tetrardus, on g. However, the same hexachord occurs
on f f-g-a-b^-c'-d', and in this position the melody would be a tritus. An
:

example in point is the Communion Tu mandasti [1062] which in L as

well as in most of the medieval sources (Corbie, Regino, Berno, Guido)
occurs as a tritus (mode 5), notated in f, g, a,
ty, c', and d'. However, two
sources (Montpellier, Salisbury) have it notated on g, so that it becomes
a tetrardus (mode 7). The latter notation and assignment would seem to
be preferable because it does away with the continuous b-flat of the tritus-
version. Since, however, the is far the older of the
*n*ws-designation by
 The Tonality 169

two, we have to accept it as the original and proper one. Possibly, the Com-
munion was not always sung with a "b-flat signature/' but with vacillation
between b-flat and b-natural, in which case it would have to be a tritus. A
similar example is the Alleluia Benedictus es [904, 911), a purely penta-
chordal melody which occurs in L as mode 8 (g-a-b-c'-d'), in Montpellier
as mode6 (/-g-a-b^-c 7 ). The same ambiguity exists in its musical model,
the Alleluia Crastina die [361], which, however, seems to have been uni-

versally assigned tomode 8.

The same ambiguity may occur in melodies of a more extended range,
ifthe tonal material within this range shows a gap. Thus, c-d-/-g-a-b[) (/ is
the final) is equivalent to d-e-g-a-b-c'. An example in point is the Com-
munion Venite post me [1306], which L as well as most of the medieval
sources notate as a tetrardus on g (mode 8). Corbie, however, designates it
as authenticus tritus, and Berno lists it under the Communions of the

plagis which means that the melody is interpreted as being on f.

triti,

Probably a number
of similar examples occur among the Antiphons, many
of which have a limited or defective range.
If a melody exploits the full range of a mode, ambiguity of assignment
often involves some melodic variant or hidden chromaticism. The Anti-
phons Postquam surrexit and Si ego Dominus from Maundy Thursday
[660, 662] are given in the standard Solesmes books as melodies with a
range from c to d' and closing on e, and assigned to mode 4. In an appendix
to the more recent Officium . Tridui,
.
containing the chants of Maundy
.

Thursday "ad fidem codicum restitutae," they appear transposed to the

upper fourth and are labelled: i transp. The transposition alone would
not, of course, account for the change of mode, from 4 to i. This results
from the fact that in the new version (which appears to be the original
reading) the final is lowered from a to g or, if we disregard the transposi-
tion, from e to d, as shown in Fig. 29 (Antiphon Postquam):

FIGURE 29

Liber usualis Officium tridui untransposed

The difference of assignment not only extends to the maneria, which

changes from the deuterus to the protus, but also involves a change from
the plagal to the authentic variety. The plagal designation of L is obviously
based on the fact that the melody, although extending as high as d7 touches ,

(only once, in the closing cadence) upon the c, which is a third below the
final. With the final lowered from e to d, this c becomes the subfinal, with
the result that the authentic designation becomes imperative.
As has been mentioned before, in many cases of multiple assignment
IfO GREGORIAN CHANT
itsraison d'etre cannot be definitely ascertained, particularly if the differ-
the melody the
ing designation occurs in sources that fail to give (as, e.g.,
Gradual of Corbie or the tonaries) or which have it notated in nondiaste-
matic neumes (e.g., the Codex Einsiedeln). To this group belong many
of the examples discussed by Jacobsthal and Bomm, whose explanations
are often necessarily tentative and inconclusive. There are, however, some
chants in which the situation appears to be reasonably clear and un-
equivocal, among them the following:
Communion Principes. L [1238]: mode i; Regino, Corbie, Einsie-
i.

deln: mode 3.
The melody, as it is given in L, extends from d to d', with b-flat and
b-natural. The assignment to the third mode probably means that it was
considered as extending from e to e', a position which requires the f-sharp
for the second degree. Strictly speaking, a c-sharp would be necessary in

place of the b-natural, but probably the c-natural

was used throughout:

FIGURE 30

A
Liber
mode i

Regino
mode 3
ty

s. Communion Ego damavi. L [1073], mode 8; Montpellier: mode 6.

In Montpellier the melody is a fifth higher, but with a different end-
ing which closes, not on d', but on c'. Since the melody is assigned to mode
6, it will have to be transposed to close on f, that is, a fifth below the
notated pitch. This leads to the same version as in L, except for the cadence.
Moreover, this cadence includes a b-flat, which becomes an e-flat in the
transposition:

FIGURE 31

Liber
modeS
8 E go da-ma.* vi . . . ver - ba me- a.

Montpellier
mode 6
& ^ S* 7% ^ "

transposed m f m
mode 6 f* * *"3 *'i
<$ ff^i^c^

Thus, the transposition involves here a melodic variant as well as a chro-

matic degree.
 The Tonality 171

3. Alleluia Laetatus sum. L [329]: mode i; Montpellier: mode 3.

As in the previous case, Montpellier shows the melody notated a fifth
higher, but otherwise identical (aside from minor variants), thus closing
on a. Because of the designation as a deuterus, with a final on e, transposi-
tion to the lower fourth is
required. In addition, the Montpellier melody
fluctuates between and b-natural, the latter being used for the initial
b-flat

section of the verse, from "Laetatus" to "domum," the former, for the

opening "Alleluia" as well as for the close of the verse, from "Domini" to
"ibimus" (as in most of the Alleluias, the close of the verse restates the

melody for the Alleluia). This "modulation," from b-flat to b-natural to

b-flat, appears in the transposed version as one from f-natural to f-sharp to
f-natural:

Al-le-... V.Laeu. .,. mi- hi ...Do-

Montpellier
mode 3 3
transposed
mode 3

A comparison of theand the third version shows that the middle

first

section (B) is transposed from d to e, while the first and last sections (A
and C) change from the d-mode (protus) to the e-mode (deuterus). Exactly
the same situation occurs in the Alleluia Timebunt gentes [1056], which

Montpellier notates on a, with b-flat from the beginning to "reges," b-natu-

ral for "terrae gloriam tuam," and return to b-flat for the final melisma.

4. Communion Circuibo. L [1009], Guido, St. Gall 381: mode 6; Cor-

bie, Berno, Einsiedeln, Montpellier: mode 8; Regino: mode 2.

Although this example is somewhat more problematic than the others,

it isworth considering because of the multiplicity of assignments and
transpositions involved. Both L and Montpellier have it in transposed
notation, on c', with alternation of b-flat and b-natural, and with the same
melody, except for an extra note on b-flat near the end, on "(di)cam,"
which does not occur in L (nor in Einsiedeln). However, while L and some
of the medieval sources assign the melody to mode 6, Montpellier and
others characterize it as mode 8. The former designation implies trans-
position to the lower fifth, on f, with alternation of e-flat and e-natural;
the latter, to the lower fourth, on g, with f-natural and f-sharp. Finally,

Regino assigns the melody to mode 2, which may mean that he heard it
on d, a fourth below the g-position which perhaps could be considered as
the original one. Thus, the melody may have occurred in four different

positions:
 GREGORIAN CHANT
FIGURE 33

Liber, Montpellier
notated
Cir-cu- i- bo ...can- bo- ...-cam Do-mi- no.
A
transposed to f
mode 6

transposed to g
mode 8

transposed to d
mode 2

The presence, in Montpellier, of the b-flat (transposed: f), i.e., of the

sub ionium (whole-tone below the tonic) shortly before the close justifies
and, in fact, demands the assignment to the g-mode. Whether Regino's
indication, mode 2, actually means that he heard the melody transposed
down to d, is not certain. 37
If so, there is little doubt that the passage on

"cantabo," which in strict transposition would show a c-sharp, was modi-

fied, perhaps as is indicated by the "editorial" accidentals.
be noticed that all our examples of ambiguous modal classifica-
It will

tion, whether resulting from incomplete range or from chromatic altera-

tions, involve transpositions between neighboring maneriae f more specifi-

cally, between protus and deuterus, or between tritus and tetrardus, and
this statement can be extended to all the melodies falling under this
classification. The reason is, of course, that the two former maneriae are
related to each other by having a minor third, while the other two have
a major third. The essential character of these degrees practically pre-
cludes exchange from one pair to the other. The only exchange possible
would be between the protus and the tetrardus with b-flat, but these scales
are actually identical, so that, at least theoretically, any melody of the
protus (particularly mode 2) could also be assigned to the tetrardus with
b-flat (particularly mode 8 in which, as we have seen, the b-flat is
quite
common).
This does not mean that modal ambiguity between protus and tritus or
between deuterus and tetrardus never occurs. Actually a number of such
cases exist, but probably all of these
belong to a different category, to
which we shall now turn.
As has been pointed out previously (p. 142), a considerable number of
chants show a vacillation between two or more tonal realms, a tonal in-
stability which expresses itself most clearly in the use of intermediate
cadences that are totally unrelated to the final cadence. This
phenomenon
is
particularly frequent in, in fact characteristic of, the deuterus modes,
but not at all confined to these.
37 Cf.
Jacobsthal, pp. 5off; Bomm, pp. 58ff.
 The Tonality 173

Less obvious than the phenomenon itself is its connection with the
problem under consideration here, that ambiguity of modal assignment.
is,

No transposition is involved in the melodies of this group, nor variants of

transmission resulting in a different final. What is the reason for assigning
different modes (properly speaking, different maneriae) to a chant with an
unvariable final? The answer is that in the earliest period of modal theory
it was the beginning rather than the end of a melody which determined
the modal assignment, at least in the Antiphons, Introits, and Commun-
ions.Strange though may this at first seem to be, there aregood reasons for
it.After all, the beginning of a melody is at least as important from the

point of view of "tonal impression" as its conclusion, and if we consider

an example such as the Offertory Laetentur caeli [394], which from the
beginning almost to the end is a clear example of a second mode, it is

rather incongruous to label it: mode 3, only because the final note is e.
There was, however, a more cogent reason for considering the beginning
of a melody as the mode-determining factor, a reason most clearly apparent
in the Antiphons of the Office Hours (Vespers, etc.), which today are sung
before and after a Psalm, but originally were repeated after each of its
verses (see p. 187):

AVi AV2 A Vs... AVn A

In this rondo-like concatenation foremost attention was given to tonal
unity of the whole. This was achieved by providing, for the verses, eight
recitation melodies (psalm tones), one for each mode, and by selecting
the psalm tone according to the mode of the Antiphon; for example, the
first psalm tone for an
Antiphon in the first mode, the second tone for an
Antiphon in the second mode, Moreover, most of the psalm tones were
etc.

provided with a number of different closing formulae (terminations) de-

signed to make a smooth transition to the initial note of the subsequent
Antiphon. From this it appears that an important part of the scheme,
38

namely, the selection of the psalm tone, depends upon the mode of the
Antiphon. In the majority of the cases this poses no problem. If, however,
the Antiphon is of instable tonality, starting in one mode and closing in
another, a decision has to be made. The present-day practice, which de-
veloped in the mid-tenth century, is to consider the end of the Antiphon,
in particular the final note, as the decisive criterion, a procedure which
connects the Antiphon with the subsequent verse and gives the Antiphon
somewhat the character of an introduction. Originally, however, it was
the beginning of the Antiphon which determined the psalm tone, so that
the Antiphon appears as a postlude to the verse, which, no doubt, is its

proper function. Indeed, one might perhaps conclude that originally the
38 For more details, see 2i8ff.
pp.
174 GREGORIAN CHANT
Antiphon was not sung at all before the Psalm, and that the performance
consisted purely of verse plus Antiphon:

Vi + A,
This arrangement clearly reveals the importance
of the beginning of the

Antiphon, since it is thissection that forms the point of connection with

the preceding verse. Essentially the same situation existed in the Introits
and Communions which, probably as late as the ninth century, were sung
with a more or less complete Psalm exactly like the Office Psalms. 39
The theorists of the ninth century speak very clearly about this point.
Both Aurelianus and Regino antiphonal chants it is the
insist that in the

beginning that determines the mode, and that only in the elaborate chants
of the responsorial type is the mode determined by the final.

AURELIANUS:
It should well be noticed that in the Offertories, Responsories [i.e., Respon-
sories of Matins as well as Graduals] and Invitatories the mode (tonus) should
be sought only at the point where the verses are inserted [i.e.,
at the end of the

Offertory, Gradual, etc.] ____ In the Introits, however, as well as in the Antiphons
and Communions the mode should always be looked for at the beginning.4 **

REGINO:

The wise singer should observe most diligently to pay attention to the be-
ginning of Antiphons, Introits, and Communions rather than to their end, in
respect to their mode. In the Responsories, on the contrary, he should consider
the end and close rather than the beginning.41

It perhaps significant that Aurelianus, who wrote about 850, speaks

is

only about the beginning of the Antiphons, etc., while Regino, some forty
years later, mentions both the beginning and the close, although insisting
that the former should be regarded as decisive. Yet another thirty or forty
years later, Oddo clearly pronounces the modern point of view in the fol-
lowing words, placed right at the beginning of the Prooemium (Introduc-
tion) to his tonary, in which he obviously addresses himself to the monks
of his abbey:

The formulae for the chant, which I have procured for you in writing, designed
to show how every singer of the church should execute the tones for the Anti-

phons, Introits, or Communions, should be most diligently studied by whoever

wants to attain the peak of mastery in the ecclesiastical chant. Whoever . . .

so See
pp.
*o GS, I, 44b: Notandum sane The somewhat puzzling ubi fines versuum intromit-
. . .

tuntur has been translated as "where the verses are inserted." Cf. Bomm,
p. 176.
*i GS, I, 2$ib.
 The Tonality 175

wishes to gain full knowledge of the chant, should read these formulae [i.e., the
psalm tones and their terminations (differ entias)] every day, and when he is
about to begin the Antiphon, he should not look at its opening, but quickly
run to its end, and whichever tone he finds there, in that he should begin the
. . .*2
psalm.

Later writers are unanimous in adopting this view:

GUIDO:

If you begin a chant, you don't know what will follow; if, however, you have
finished it, you know what has preceded. Therefore, it is the final tone which

should rather be considered. 43

COTTO:
One should not make hasty judgment about the modes, but rather should he
upon which all judgment about the mode depends.
cautiously wait until the end
Otherwise, if he has judged the mode prematurely, he may repent not to have
remained silent when the end refutes his pronouncement. 4 *

From Cotto's statement it would appear that still in his day (c. 1080)
there were musicians who considered the beginning of an Antiphon as the
decisive mark of modality.

Regino's De Harmonica Institutione is

particularly revealing for the
question of tonal instability and the modal ambiguity that results from
it. The above-quoted remark only the concluding sentence of a whole
is

paragraph in -which he discusses Antiphons called nothae (bastards), that

is, "degenerate and non-legitimate Antiphons which begin in one mode,

belong to another in the middle, and finish in a third/' For the purpose
of illustration he enumerates fourteen Antiphons and twelve Introits,

adding with each a remark such as: "a tertio tono incipiunt, sed octavo
finiuntur." Among the Antiphons we find Ex Aegypto, Ad te Domine,
Sion renovaberis, O
mors, and Vade iam> that is, the same group of
Antiphons which Berno uses in order to illustrate the presence of a chro-
matic f-sharp, saying that "some people maintain that they belong to the
42 GS, I, 248a.
Mtcrologus, cap. xi: Incepto enim
43 . . .
(GS} II, iaa; ed. by Hermesdorff, p. 68; ed. by
Smits van Waesberghe, p. 144).
44 De Musica,
cap. xvi: Cantus toni . . (GS, II, 25 ib). See also J. Smits van Waes-
.

berghe, Johannes Affligemensis, De Musica cum Tonario (1950), p. 111. Waesberghe main-
tains that Johannes, usually called Cotto and regarded as an Englishman (Cotton),

actually was a Belgian connected with the abbey of Afflighem. This theory has been dis-
puted by Ellinwood [Notesf VIII (1950), 650] but once more defended by Waesberghe
[MZ>, VI (1952), 139]. Although Waesberghe's arguments have considerable weight, we
see no reason to drop the name Cotto by which the author of the treatise has been known
for a long time.
X/^6
GREGORIAN CHANT
seventh rather than to the fourth mode, although they don't deny that
they close in the fourth" [see p. 162].
This remark is clearly addressed to
Regino his disciples) who, about a hundred years before Berno, says
(or
indeed: "a septimo toiio incipiunt, et in quarto finiuntur tono." The
in the fact that
ambiguity of his modal assignment finds its justification
in all these Antiphons the first and second phrases of the melody definitely

suggest the seventh mode, the cadences being respectively

on d' and g,
while it is only in the short concluding phrase that the fourth mode makes
45
its appearance:

Cadence on: d' g bj>-a

Factus sum sicut homo since adjutorio inter mortuos liber
Ex Aegypto . . . meum veniet ut salvet populum meum
Sion renovaberis et videbitis . , . tuum qui venturus est in te
O mors, ero mors tua morsus tuus ero inferne
Sion noli timere ecce Deus tuus veniet, alleluia.

Regino's interpretation is entirely convincing if we read these Antiphons

in their present-day notation. It is rather less so if, following Berno, we
consider this as a transposition from an original notation a fourth below,
as we did in the section on Transposition [p. 162]. Here the cadential
points of the beginning change to a and d, tones both of which are foreign
to the seventh mode. However, the melodic line, with its characteristic

f-sharp, remains, of course, the same, regardless of the pitch. In this con-
nection it is interesting to notice that in the Commemoratio brevis [see
Antiphon Ex Aegypto is assigned to the second
List of Sources, no. 23] the
mode. 46 The simplest explanation for such an assignment is to consider
the melody transposed to the lower fourth [as in our illustration for Factus
sum, p. 163], but with an f-natural instead of the f-sharp and, of course,
with the beginning as the mode-determining element.
In addition to the group of Antiphons we have just considered, Regino
mentions several others as "imbued with ambiguity and doubt" (ambigui-
tatibus et dubietatibus permixtae), but judging from his description all of
these must have existed in his day with melodies different or varying from
those that have reached us. Relatively clear cases are the Antiphons Qui
odit [262] andEJ respicientes [783], both of which he describes as beginning
in mode 3 and closing in mode 8 (final g), while the preserved melodies close
on e. We must assume that there existed an earlier version in which they
had g as a final. Similar examples are mentioned by Aurelianus who says
that the Antiphons Puer Jesus [437] and Vobis datum est
[510] begin in
45 See the
reproduction of Factus sum, Fig. 27, p. 163; also p. 160, fn. 22.
46 GS, I,
217. Later manuscripts, such as the Tonary of Oddo, the Codex Hartker, and
the Codex Montpellier assign the Antiphons of this type to mode 4. See
Mtlopte, pp. 205-
12.
 The Tonality 177

mode 6 but close in mode i (final d), in contrast to the present versions
which have them in mode 6 throughout, with f as a final. 47 Actually, these
versions are suspicious because they involve a cadential motion from the
lower fourth, c-f (c-d-f for Vobis datum est), which is extremely rare in
48
Gregorian chant and which strikes one as being out of place, especially
in such simple chants as these Antiphons. Fortunately, Aurelianus* ex-
planations permit us to state with a high degree of probability how these
changes came about. He says that, as long as the Psalm is sung, the Anti-
phons should be sung with their proper ending which, in his day, was in
the first mode, hence on d. For the last repeat, however, i.e., after the last
verse of the Psalm, they should close in the same mode in which they begin,
that is, on f The reason for this modification is obvious. Since for him (as
.

well as Regino) it is the beginning of the Antiphon which is the decisive

tonal criterion, the Antiphons Puer Jesus and Vobis datum est both require
the sixth psalm tone (actually that of the Magnificat) for each verse. Thus,
the entire chant, with its alternation of verses and Antiphons, proceeds
in the sixth mode, except for the d-cadences of the Antiphons. These mat-
ter little as long as they occur in the middle, where they have the function
of an inner cadence, resulting in a momentary modulation which actually
introduces a rather desirable element of tonal variation. In the last state-
ment, however, the inner cadence becomes the final cadence and, as such,
constitutes a violation of the basic principle of tonal unity. It is therefore

necessary to change the final note in the last statement of the Antiphon:

FIGURE 34

[i Ptt-cr sus ...De- o cc ho- mi-ni-bus."

Je-

V.l. Ma-gni
- fi- cat ... me -a Do-miaum. Pa-er ...

flV.
********* II
^^
V.2.Et ex sul-ta-vit. . .sa-lu-ta-ri me - o. Pu-er .,.

Vi 2. Si -cut e-rat . . . sae-cu-lorum. A -men. Pa-er ... ho - mi-ni-bus.

It isonly natural that, with the omission of all the inner repeats of the
Antiphon, its melody survived in the varied form of the final statement.
One of the thorniest problems (discussed at length by Jacobsthal) is pre-
sented by the Antiphon Urbs fortitudinis [332], a chant of mode 7 with
b-flat in the first half, b-natural in the second. Oddo lists it under the

47 GS, I,
soa, b.
48 See
p. 266.
178 GREGORIAN CHANT

"Quinta differentia septimi toni," but Regino assigns it to mode i (there-

fore with and f-sharp), and in the Alia musica it is said to begin in the
firstand to end in the eighth mode (GS, I, i4oa). Perhaps we have here a
similar case to that of Puer Jesus: Originally Urbs fortitudinis started on d
and closed on g,
but a modified ending was employed for its final state-
ment, after the Psalm (sung to the first psalm tone). It survived with this
modified ending as an Antiphon of mode i (Regino), but since it also had
an f and f-sharp, it was finally transposed to mode 7 (Oddo).
It remains to consider briefly some of the other cantus nothi mentioned

by Regino, namely, the Introits. As with the Antiphons, several of his

examples are no longer clear to us, no doubt because of changes that oc-
curred after him. Four or five of them, however, are quite clear, and these
are listed below, together with two Communions that belong to the same
49
class of can tus nothi, although they are not mentioned by Regino:

Intr* Deus dum egrederis [89?]: Modes 8 and 4 (or 3)

Victricem manum [796]: Modes 3 and 8
Accipite jocunditatem [890]: Modes 8 and 4
Eduxit Dominus [804]: Modes 4 and 8 (as to mode 4, transpose the
beginning to the lower fifth).
Com. Domus mea [i 253]
: Modes 7 and 5
Unam petti [1005]: Modes 5 and 7

To conclude these lengthy and often involved explanations we should

like to call attention to a relatively little-known treatise of the late eleventh

century, preserved in the Codex lat. 1492 of the University Library of

Leipzig, and published in H. Sowa, Quellen zur Transformation der Anti-
phonen (1935). Its first
part is number of which
a tonary of Antiphons, a
receive commentaries indicative of modal changes. 60 The tonary is fol-
lowed by a short treatise, in which the author distinguishes between trans-
formatio and trdnspositio, saying that there is between these "a great but
rather useful difference." Transpositio is caused by the "lack of a semi-
tone" and involves change into a co-final (affinis), while transformatio
means a change "into the final of another mode" (vox alterius modi). It

appears that what we have called "modal ambiguity" could well be sub-
sumed under the term "transformation."
49 Additional
examples are given by Berno [see GS, II, 73!)]. See also Pal mus.t XIV,
208, 211, for Introits and Communions which occur in Beneventan Graduals with end-
ings and, therefore, modal indications different from those of the Roman books.
60 Some of these which
"ambiguous" Antiphons are discussed in Sowa's publications,
thus forms a counterpart to Bomm's study of the Mass chants.
CHAPTER FOUR

Methods and Forms of Psalmody

'N
A PREVIOUS chapter we have discussed the importance of the
I Psalms as a source of texts for the Gregorian repertory, Office as
well as Mass. Weshall now examine the musical aspect of this phenomenon,
as reflected in the various methods of psalm singing and in the resulting
forms.

DIRECT PSALMODY
The simplest method of psalm singing is the so-called direct psalmody,
which means that the Psalm is sung straight, without any additional text
such as occurs in the other types of psalmody. Natural though it is, this
method is rarely employed in Gregorian chant. It is most clearly repre-
sented by the psalmus directaneus (psalmus in directum, sometimes mis-
spelled indirectum) which is used for some Psalms sung during the Little
Hours of certain days of a somber character, for which an especially simple
manner of singing was deemed proper:
Ps. 145, Lauda anima mea: Vespers of the Office of the Dead [1776]
Ps. 129, De profundis: Lauds of the Office of the Dead [1805]
Ps. 69, Deus in adjutorium: Procession of Rogation Days [839]
1
Ps. 4, 90, and 133 at Compline of Holy Saturday [76s]

In all of these cases the music consists of a very elementary recitation

formula which is repeated for every verse, somewhat similar to a strophic
song. The resulting form can be indicated by the scheme:

AAA . , . A.

In addition to this type of direct psalmody, which belongs to the Office,

there is another which occurs in the Mass, namely, the Tracts. Originally,

1
According to Ferretti, Esthdtique, p. 155, direct psalmody was also prescribed for the
Psalms of the Lesser Hours of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday,
which in present-day usage are merely said [L 654, etc.].

179
l8o GREGORIAN CHANT
each Tract also was a complete Psalm sung in essentially the same manner
as the Psalms in directum of the Office. However, in keeping with the much
the Mass, the melodies were, or became
greater liturgical importance of
considerably more elaborate and extended, including numerous melismas
and showing only scant traces of the recitation style characteristic of the
Office Psalms. With melodies of such richness which, for a single verse,
easily take ten times as long to perform it became impossible to sing
complete Psalms, not a few of which have twenty or more verses. The
resulting conflict between music and text was solved in favor of the former,
as it was psalmody where a similar
also in all the other departments of
situation arose. As the melodies grew more and more elaborate, the Psalms
were reduced by omitting more and more verses, so that none of the extant
Tracts, except the very short Laudate Dominum (Ps. 116), represents a
complete Psalm; most of them consist of four or five verses. As for the
music, the simple repeat scheme of the psalmus in directum was replaced
or, at least greatly modified by a complex process based on the interchange
of standard phrases, which will be studied in detail later [see pp. 3152].

RESPONSORIAL PSALMODY
This is a type of psalmody characterized by the alternation of a soloist
and a group of singers, originally the congregation, later the church choir

(schola cantorum). The ancient Jewish roots of this method are clearly
recognizable in Ps. 136, whose every verse closes with the words: "for his
mercy endureth for ever"; in Ps. 118, which has the same refrain at the
end of y. i to 4 and 29; or in Ps. 32 and 87, several verses of which close
with the word "Selah." That responsorial singing was not limited to the
choral-refrain practice nor to the few Psalms for which this is expressly
indicated, appears from a number of passages found in the Talmudic
writings in which various methods of singing a Psalm with congregational
participation are described. One method is for the leader to sing the first
1

half of each verse, while the group answers with the second. Another is to
have each half-verse immediately repeated by the group. Yet another is
the use of a choral refrain consisting of a short exclamation such as
"Alleluia" or "Selah." Finally there is the possibility of having the first

by the group after each of the subsequent half-verses.

half-verse restated
Here the congregation participates by singing a refrain which is taken
from the Psalm itself. This method is of particular interest because it is
the one that was adopted in Christian practice. In the earliest examples
1 SeeA. Z. Idelsohn, Jewish Music in its Development,
pp. aof and, particularly, H.
Avenary, "Formal Structure of Psalms and Canticles in Early Christian and Jewish
Chant" (MJD,VII, i).
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 181

of Christian responsorial psalmody, especially in the Graduals, the choral

refrain (respond) is indeed taken from the Psalm itself. 2 Later, however,
sentences from other parts of Scripture were used for the responds.
Turning from Jewish to early Christian sources, the Church Father
Tertullian (c. i$$-c. 222), St. Athanasius (d. 373), the Spanish pilgrim
Etheria (fl.
c.
380) and St. Basil (c. 330-79) are among those who tell us
about responsorial psalm singing in Carthage, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and
other places of the Orient. 8 Particularly illuminating are the words of
Isidore of Seville (c. 570-636): "Responsorial songs were adopted by the
Italians a long time ago, and are thus called because the chorus in con-
sonance gives answer (respondent) to the solo singer (uno canente)." 4 Such
psalms must have been performed according to a rondo-like scheme such
as:

R Vi R V2 R V3 . . . R Vn R,
where Vi, Va, etc. are the verses of a psalm, sung by a soloist, and R a
refrain sung by the chorus.
At some time, possibly as early as the fourth century, when the Church,
having been officially recognized by Constantine the Great (ruled 306-337),
entered into period of flowering, elaborate methods of singing
its first

developed, resulting in more extended melodies not only for the psalm
verses but also for the respond which, originally sung by the congregation,
was now entrusted to the trained church choir. Also from the textual point
of view there was a tendency toward extension, since responds in the
character of short exclamations such as "For his mercy endureth forever,"
or "Selah" disappeared, being universally replaced by complete sentences
adopted from, or similar to, a psalm verse. Obviously it was impossible to
sing entire Psalms, with ten or more verses, in this manner. The remedy
taken was the same we observed in the Tracts, that is, a reduction of the
number of psalm verses. Probably because of the presence of the respond,
the reduction here went much further, so that in most cases only one
psalm verse remained. It is in this stage that responsorial psalmody sur-
vives in the Office, where it is represented by the Responsories of Matins,
and in the Mass where it is represented by the responsorium graduate, that
is,the Gradual. The latter consists now of a respond followed by a single
verse, R V, but the fuller form R V R, which represents the medieval

practice, is also permitted [see L 320]. The Responsories of Matins have

forms such as R V R' (Immolabit, 926), RV R' R (Flange, 722), R Vi
2 See the table on
p. 91.
3 See List of Data,
pp. jgf, nos, 10, 15, 24, 27,
4 Ibid., no. 53.
l82 GREGORIAN CHANT
R' V2 R" (Subvenite, 1765), R V R' D R (Hodie, 375), or R V R' D R>
5
(Quern vidistis, 377).

R', R", indicate successively shortened versions of the respond, resulting

etc.,

from the omission of its first half, two-thirds, etc., so that only the concluding

section is retained. The places are indicated

corresponding in the text of the re-

spond by the signs Rather confusingly, the asterisk is also, and more
*, f, J.

generally, used in the modern books for an entirely different purpose, that is, to
indicate where in performance a solo incipit comes to an end and the chorus
asterisk in Subvenite, while the second
picks up. This is the meaning of the first

(at "Suscipientes") indicates die beginning of R'. The letter D in the above and
in several subsequent schemes stands for the so-called Doxology (word of praise):
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto: Sicut erat in principle, et nunc, et semper,
et in secula seculorum. Amen (literally: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Ghost: as was in the beginning, and [is] now, and always, and in the ages of
ages. Amen). At an early time this was added to Psalms as
a final verse, and it
survives in this position in various types of psalmody. In the Responsories it oc-
curs in its older form, comprising only the first sentence, Gloria . . . Sancto . 6

Among the various forms given above for the Responsories, the shortest,
RV R', is the normal one. The more extended forms are usually reserved
for the last Responsory of each Nocturn, as appears from the following
table:

RV R' R: Nos. 3, 6, 9 of Maundy Thursday [6s8ff), Good Friday

[67iff], Holy Saturday [7i6ff]
R V R' D R': Nos. 3, 6, 8 of Nativity [375ff] and Corpus Christi [gaGffJ;
Nos. 2 of Easter Sunday [775] and Whit Sunday [875] 7
R Vi R' Va R': Nos. 3, 6, 9 of the Office of the Dead [17850*]
R V R D R: 7
No. i of Nativity [375] and Easter Sunday [774]

The Liber responsorialis, which contains the service of Matins for

numerous in the fuller, monastic structure with four Re-
feasts, usually

sponsories for each Nocturn, has the form RV

R' for the first three, and
RV R' D
R' for the fourth Responsory of each Nocturn.
There survive a few chants showing the rondo structure of responsorial
psalmody in a more complete form. One of the most interesting examples
occurs in Easter Week. There are six Graduals in this week, from Easter
Sunday [778] to Friday [801], each showing the simple form R V (R). The
5
Properly speaking, the Responsories do not fall under the category of responsorial
psalmody, since their texts, responds as well as verses, are rarely taken from the Psalms.
See pp. 95!.
6 This text is known as the Lesser
Doxology, in distinction from the Greater Doxology,
the Gloria in excelsis from the Mass Ordinary.
7 On these feasts the last Responsory is
replaced by the Te Deum. See p. **, fh. 5.
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 183

remarkable fact, however, is that they all use the same respond: Haec dies,

quam Dominus:
fecit exsultemus and laetemur in ea, and that this, as well
as all the verses (except for one), is taken from the same Psalm, Ps. 117:

Respond: Haec dies Ps. 117:23

Verse, Sunday: Confitemini Domino 1 17: i

Monday: Dicat nunc Israel 117:2

Tuesday: Dicant nunc qui redempti sunt 106: a

Wednesday: Dextera Domini 117:16

Thursday: Lapidem quern reprobaverunt 117:21
Friday: Benedictus qui venit 117:25

Moreover, the melodies used for the different verses are nearly identical.
The conclusion is almost inescapable that originally these six Graduals
formed one extended responsorium graduate with six verses that was sung
on Easter Sunday, but later distributed over the whole Easter Week. Un-
equivocal confirmation of this theory is found in the Gradual of Mont-
Blandin, which indicates for Easter Sunday the Haec dies with six verses
as above, the only difference being that the third verse is Dicat nunc
domus Aaron, that is, y. 3 of Ps. 117, so that we have here the original

form in which all the verses are taken from the same psalm in ascending
order. 8
Another interesting case is the Gradual Tenuisti [591] from Palm Sun-
day, which is striking for its unusually long verse, Quam bonus. Actually
this verse comprises y. i (Quam bonus Israel Deus rectis corde), y. 2

(Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, pene effusi sunt gressus met), and y. 3
(Quia zelavi in peccatoribus, pacem peccatorum videns) of Ps. 72, while
the respond is y. 23 of the same Psalm [see L 635^. Probably these were
originally treated as separate verses, with repeat of the respond, either full
or in part, after each verse. 9
Nor are these the only indications of an early Gradual with several
verses. The Gradual Ecce quam bonum [1071] from the Twenty-Second
8 See
Sextuplex, p. 100, no. 80. The theory regarding the Easter Gradual was ad-
vanced by Wagner (I, 79). However, his statement (ibid., fn. i) that the complete Haec
dies with all its original verses occurs in the Graduate Compendiense of Migne's Patrologia
latina vol. 78, p. 678, is erroneous. The text given in Migne under the title Liber anti-

phonarius is actually taken from the Codex of Mont-Blandin, not from the Codex of
Compi&gne, in spite of Migne's repeated references to Compendiensis. The mistake goes
back to 'earlier editions which Migne used as his source. See the explanations in Sextu-
plex, p. xvi, fn. i.
9 Gastou> who
proposed this reconstruction (Cows, pp. 1411), states that the Gradual
Tenuisti "fut, au moyen age, execut conformement a la coupe du texte original, et avec
autant de reprises." I am not aware of any documentary evidence that would justify the
unequivocal statement "it was executed/' since all the early manuscripts give it with
'

only one long verse. However, Gastou's interpretation is certainly a plausible and even
probable conjecture.
!84 GREGORIAN CHANT
Sunday after Pentecost was sung with two verses, Sicut unguentum and
Mandavit Dominus, as late as the eleventh century. 10 Only the first of these
survived. Furthermore, there good reason to believe that originally a
is

number of Tracts of the second mode, perhaps all of them, were Graduals;
in other words, that they were sung, not in directum as they were later,
but with the first verse repeated, like a refrain, after each of the subsequent
verses. The clearest example occurs in the Mass of Wednesday in Holy
Week, which today has the Gradual Ne avertas and the Tract Domine
exaudi [614]. However, the Ordo Officii in Domo S. Benedicti says that at
this Mass there were "read two lessons, and sung two graduals, each one
with five verses." No traces of a five-verse Gradual Ne avertas survive, but
the Tract Domine exaudi has indeed five verses and is actually called
graduate in the Graduals of Monza and Compiegne. Moreover, one of the
most important early liturgists, Amalarius, in describing the ceremony of
Wednesday in Holy Week, calls the Domine exaudi a responsorium and
states that it has five verses. In the Consuetudines of the monastery of
Corbie this chant appears already under the name of tractus, but is de-
scribed as having the form of a Gradual, with repeats of the initial verse
sung by the entire "conventus monachorum." Similar evidence exists in
the case of other chants, now classified as Tracts of mode 2, which origi-
nally were Graduals with several verses, as appears from the designations
responsorium or responsorium graduale with which they occur in the
earliest manuscripts. From this it has been concluded that the whole

group of Tracts of the second mode originally were Graduals, with several
verses and choral refrains, and that at some time before the tenth century
the repeats of the first verse were omitted, a process by which the chant
adopted a form similar to that of the real and original Tracts, that is, those
of the eighth mode. 11

Among the Responsories there are several with more than one verse
(not counting the Doxology verse). Three examples with two verses, all
from the Office of the Dead, have been mentioned previously in our table
showing various forms of the Responsories [p. 182]. The most complete
Responsory on record is the Libera me de morte from the Burial
. . .

Service which has five verses in the Codex Hartker, six in the Codex
Worcester, and seven in the Codex Lucca. 12 In its late-medieval and
present-day form it has three verses. Next in completeness is the Aspiciens
a longe from Matins of the First Sunday of Advent, with three verses and
the Doxology. Following is a list of Responsories with two or more verses:

10 Thus in the Graduals of

Compiegne, Senlis (Sextuplex, p. 136, no. 1200), St. Gall
55^ (Wagner I, 296), Lucca (Pal. mus, IX), etc.
11 For fuller discussions of this
question see Wagner 7, 78; Ferretti, Esthttique, pp.
Sextuplex, p.li.
12 Cf. Pal. mus., Ser. 2, 1 XII IX
(Hartker), 392; (Worcester), 438; (Lucca), 557.
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 185

Domine quando veneris [1787]: R Vi R' 2 R'

Ne recorderis [1792]: R Vi R' Vz R'
Libera me . . . de viis [1798]: R Vj. R' V2 R'
Aspidens a longe [PM 18]: R Vi R7 V2 R" V3 R" D R
Libera me ... de morte [1767]: R Vi R' V2 R" V3 R
Iste Johannes [PM 33]: R Vi R' V2 R' V3 R'
M6?dm vito [PM 45]: R Va R' V2 R D R'
7

Brief mention only need be made here of the short Responsories (respon-
soria brevia or responsoriola), which are sung after the Chapter of the
Lesser Hours and of Compline. These are short chants in a simple style,
with repeat forms such as R R V R' D R or simply R V D. The complete
form is used for Prime [229], Compline [269], and normally for Terce
[237], the short one for Sext [243], None [247] and Terce during Advent,
Lent, and Paschal Time [2381]. The short Responsories of the Proper of
the Time generally follow the same scheme, e.g., on Christmas Eve [359,
363, 364] and Nativity [407, 411, 411], Each Responsory is followed by a
so<alled versicle, consisting of two short sentences sung to the same melody,
a very simple recitation formula. These versicles, however, are not really
a part of the Responsory, since they are also sung after hymns [see, e.g., L
118].
In addition to the Graduals and Responsories, the Alleluias are usually
placed in the category of responsorial psalmody. They have the form A'
A V A, where A' stands for the word "Alleluia/* and A for the same word
(and melody) followed by a melisma, the so-called jubilus. It should be
noted, however, that in the Alleluias the verse is probably not a remnant
of an earlier, more complete form (as is the case in the Graduals and
Responsories), but results from a later addition. Originally, the Alleluia
was not a psalmodic chant. As late as the sixth century it was nothing but
the word Alleluia itself followed by an extended jubilus, as we know from
Cassiodorus (c. 485-^ 58o). 18 Perhaps it was not until the time of St.
Gregory that a full text, usually taken from the Psalms and therefore called
verse, was added to the Alleluia. In the earliest Mss we find a few Alleluias
with two verses, as, e.g., in the Codex St. Gall 35^ which contains twelve
such Alleluias, mostly for high feasts. Thus the Easter Alleluia has the
verses Pascha nostrum and Epulemur [see Plate I], that for Easter Monday
the verses Angelus Domini and Benedictus es, and that for Holy Innocents
the verses Laudate pueri and Sit nornen Domini. None of these Alleluias
with two verses survived in later practice.

ANTIPHONAL PSALMODY
While direct psalmody is entirely soloistic and responsorial psalmody
calls for alternation, of a soloist and the choir, antiphonal psalmody is

is See List of Data,

p. 41, no. 45.
l86 GREGORIAN CHANT
characterized by the use of alternating half-choruses. Such singing is occa-
sionally mentioned in the Bible: for instance, after David's return from
the victory over the Philistines, "And the women answered one another
as they played" (Sam. 18:7); or at the celebration after the wall of Jerusalem
had been built, "Then I ... appointed two great companies of them that

gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall . . and .

1
the other went over against them
. . . ." (Neh. laigi-gS). Philo of Alex-
. .

andria (born c. 20 AD.) gives an interesting description of antiphonal

singing among the Therapeuts, a Jewish sect near Alexandria: "After the
meal they form two choruses, one of men, the other of women
. . . Then
they sing hymns to God in many meters and melodies, partly together and
partly alternating (antiphonois)." About A.D. 300 Eusebius, bishop of
Caesarea in Palestine, mentions Philo's report and says that the same prac-
tice exists among the Christians of his time. In the early fourth century,

antiphonal singing flourished in eastern Syria in the secluded Christian

communities that form the root of monastic life. Two monks transplanted
it to the orthodox Church of Antioch in order to combat the Arians who

had found in the hymns of Bardesanes (d. 223) a very popular form of
worship. Apparently antiphonal singing, with its characteristic element of
liveliness and active participation, proved effective. Near the end of the
fourth century St. Basil introduced it in Nicea, St. Chrysostom in Con-
stantinople, and Ambrose in Milan, whence it spread to all the other
centers of the Latin church. 2
The traditional term for this method of singing, antiphony, is derived
from the Greek word antiphonos counter-sound), which in Greek
(literally,

theory denoted the octave in contradistinction to symphonos, the unison,

and paraphonos, the fifth. The original meaning of the term suggests that,
in the earliest days of antiphonal singing, the second of the two alternating
groups consisted of women or children singing an octave higher than the
men. In fact, Philo expressly says that one chorus was formed by men,
the other by women.
Aside from this, nothing specific is known about the early manner of
antiphonal singing. St. Basil is the first to mention it as a method of singing
the Psalms. It is plausible to assume that all the verses of the Psalm were

sung same
to the melody, probably nothing more than a simple recitation
formula, and that the two choruses, under the guidance of their leaders,
alternated either from verse to verse or in half-verses. It is this method
that survived in the psalmus in directum, which at an early time may well
have been performed by two groups.
At some time, possibly as early as the fourth century, the cantus anti-
1 There is, however, no evidence for the
antiphonal singing of Psalms. See the article
by Avenary mentioned on p. 180, m. i.
2 See List of Data, nos. si, 30.
pp. g8ff, i, 17,
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 187

phonarius was enriched by the addition of a short text sung before and
after each verse, and called antiphona. There resulted a refrain-like struc-
ture similar to, and perhaps suggested by the cantus responsorius:

AVi AVs AV 3 ...AVn A.

Usually, the report of Etheria (c. 380) is regarded as the first evidence for
this stage of antiphonal singing. Previously [see pp.
45!!]
we pointed
out that the evidence not entirely convincing, but there can be hardly
is

any doubt that the method of singing Psalms with an interspersed Anti-
phon originated at about this time. In fact, the church historian Sozomenos
informs us that c. 362, because of the anti-Christian edicts of Julian the
Apostate (361-363), the relics of the Martyr St. Babylas were brought to a
safe place in Antiochia, and that during the accompanying procession the

"experts" sang a Psalm (Ps. 96?), while the people repeated after each
verse: Gonjusi sunt omnes 3
y. 7). This report is also interesting
(Ps. 96,
because it shows the popular, one might almost say, "activistic" nature
of early antiphonal psalmody.
The introduction of the additional text (and melody) brought about a
noteworthy change in the meaning of the term antiphonal psalmody, that
the change from a term descriptive of performance (alternating choirs)
is,

toone indicative of structure (refrain form). How completely the original

meaning of the term was lost appears from the fact the psalrmis in directum
is
generally considered as a type in opposition to antiphonal (as well as
responsorial) psalmody, although actually it is the purest representative
of antiphonal psalmody in the proper meaning of the term*
While in responsorial psalmody the refrain is a natural part of the
structure, it forms a rather extraneous and arbitrary element in antiphonal

psalmody, a willful addition which may well be regarded as the earliest

instance of troping. Responsorial psalmody is impossible without a re-
frain, the respond,which provides that contrast between solo and choral
performance that is essential in responsorial singing. Antiphonal singing,
on the other hand, is in no way predicated upon the use of a refrain. In
fact, it is not at all clear how this refrain, the Antiphon, was fitted into
the antiphonal (that is, double-chorus) method of performance. We can

only speculate whether it was

sung by both choirs combined, or whether
itwas also sung antiphonally by being divided into two phrases, a method
which seems to have been practiced in the ninth or tenth century under
the name of ad antiphonam respondere.

Migne, Pair, graeca 67, p. 1275. Sozomenos also reports that under Theodosius (379-
8

95) the Arians, divided into groups, sang Psalms antiphonally, with the addition of
"closing sentences" (akroteleutia) written according to their dogma, and that St. John
Chrysostom (d. 407) "urged the people of his flock to sing Psalms in a similar way" (Patr.
graeca 67, p. 1535). Perhaps akroteleutia is the Doxology.
l88 GREGORIAN CHANT
The extraneous character of the Antiphons is also clearly noticeable in
their musical style. In the responsorial chants both the responds and verses
are rather similar to each other and, in fact, are often closely related
through the use of identical or similar musical material. greater con- No
trast,on the other hand, can be imagined than that between the monotone
recitation of a psalm verse and the free melodic flow of an Antiphon. It is
this very contrast which provides both an historical explanation and an
aesthetic justification for the introduction of the Antiphons.
As in the case of responsorial psalmody, the full form of antiphonal
psalmody, with its refrain-like repeat of the Antiphon, proved too long;
therefore it was reduced by omitting either verses of the Psalm or repeats
of the Antiphon, The full form, however, may still be seen in a few spe-
cial chants, such as the Invitatory Psalm, Venite exsultemus, of Matins

[368, etc., with varying Antiphons]; the Canticle

Nunc dimittis as sung
during the distribution of the candles at Purification [1357; with the Anti-
phon Lumen ad revelationem]; or the Versus Psalmi 44. cum Antiphona,
in tono olim usitato (in the tone formerly used) as given in Variae Preces
for the Feast of Assumption [VP 201]:*

Venite exsultemus: A A Va A V2 A' Vs A V* A' V5 A D A' A

Nunc dimittis:* A Vi A Vs A Va A Di A D 2 A
Eructavit cor meum: A Vi Vs A Va V* A Vs Ve A Vr Vs A Di Da A
By far the most frequent type of antiphonal psalmody is that represented
by the Office Psalms sung during the Office Hours, from Matins to Com-

pline. Here the Psalms are sung complete, with the Doxology added at the
end to form two additional verses; but the Antiphon is sung only before
the first and after the final verse:

AViV2Va...Vn DiD 2 A,
and its initial statement is often reduced to an
incipit [see p. 217]. How-
ever, even in this greatly curtailed form the Office Psalms betray their

original refrain structure by an interesting detail, that is, the differentiae,

a number of different formulae provided for the conclusion of the psalm
tone (i.e.,
the recitation melody employed for all the verses) for the purpose
of making a smooth connection between the end of the Psalm (D 2) and
^Ferretti (Esthttiquc, p. 2515) and others (e.g., Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary,
p. 100) consider the Invitatory as a responsorial, not an antiphonal Psalm. True enough,
it is sung today (and probably was in medieval practice) in a
responsorial manner, but so
are all the antiphonal Psalms. Certainly, from the point of view of musical style the
Invitatory is as close to antiphonal psalmody as it is different from the responsorial
types. Moreover, all the responsorial types are post-lesson chants, while the Invitatory
has the function of an "introit" for Matins.
5 D! and Da stand for the first and the second half of the Doxology, each of which is
treated as a single verse.
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 189

the beginning of the Antiphon sung thereafter [see p. 218]. According to

this function, the specific differentia would be required only for the last
verse of the Doxology. Actually it used at the end of every verse, thus
is

showing that originally the Antiphon was indeed repeated after each
verse.
Theantiphonal chants of the Mass are the Introit, the Offertory, and
the Communion, or, as they are occasionally called in the early books, Anti-
phona ad Introitum, Antiphona ad Offertorium, and Antiphona ad Com-
munionem. Each of these items is a chant accompanying a liturgical ac-
gifts, and distribution of the
tion: entrance of the priest, offering of the

Holy Wafers. This puts them into a marked contrast to the responsorial
chants, the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories (as well as to the purely
solo Tracts), which are contemplative postludes to the reading from
Scripture. There can be no doubt that this distinction is the result, not
of coincidence, but of careful planning guided by a fine feeling for the

liturgical property and propriety of each type, a feeling which also mani-
in a basic difference of the musical styles: the responsorial "les-
fests itself

son-chants" are highly melismatic, while the antiphonal "action-chants"

employ a relatively simpler style. An exception are the Offertories which,
in the course of time, acquired richly ornate melodies so that from the
stylistic point of view they belong to the responsorial category.

Considering the fact that the melodies of the antiphonal Mass chants
are simpler (and, consequently, shorter) than those of the responsorial

group, one might expect to find here fuller forms, with several verses and
refrain-like repeats of the Antiphon. Such forms did indeed exist at a
relatively late date, between the eighth and twelfth centuries, when the
responsorial chants had long since been reduced to their simple form.
Eventually, however, the tendency toward reduction caught up with the
antiphonal chants as well, leading to even more severely curtailed forms.
The Introit was reduced to one verse and the Doxology, preceded and
followed by the Antiphon: A V D A. In the Communion the Psalm was
completely eliminated, so that only the Antiphon remained a complete
reversal of its original function. The Offertories retained their verses, from
one to four, throughout the Middle Ages, and did not lose them until the
fourteenth century. Today the Offertories are similar to the Communions
in that they consist only of the Antiphon. Only in the Mass of the Dead
do we find a Communion, Lux aeterna, and an Offertory, Domine Jesu
Christe, with a verse.

Evidence of theearly, more complete forms just alluded to is found, first

of all, in certain literary documents called Ordo Romanus, which contain
rather detailed descriptions of the Mass as celebrated by the pope. The
earliest of these, usually referred to as Ordo Romanus Gerbert> dates from
the early eighth century (c. 700-730); the next, universally called Ordo
100 GREGORIAN CHANT
half of the eighth century;
Romanus primus, was written in the second
and the third, known as the Ordo of St.-Amand, dates from the ninth cen-
6 The first of these sources describes the Introit as
tury. consisting of the
first and second half of the Doxology, and another
verse of a Psalm, the first
each
verse,of these in alternation with the Antiphon which is also
psalm
taken from the same Psalm:

AVi ADi ADs AV2 A

The Ordo Romanus primus contains a minute description of the cere-
at the sacristy
monial that opened the pontifical Mass: the pope arriving
and being clothed with the sacred vestments; the dignitaries gathering
there and entering the nave of the church; the solemn procession to the
altar; thepope inspecting the "Sancta" (consecrated bread), prostrating
himself in prayer and giving the kiss of peace to the priests, after which
he gives the sign for the Gloria, that is, the beginning of the Doxology;
another prayer by the pope who kneels before the altar together with the
priests; die priests risingand saluting the altar, during which ceremony
the Sicut erat, that is, the second part of the Doxology, is sung by the
choir; finally the pope also rising, kissing the Gospel and the altar, and
returning to his throne. No doubt the major part of this long ceremonial
was accompanied by the singing of the Introit, and it is obvious that even
the fuller form indicated above would not nearly have sufficed to fill the
time. Probably the Introit started with an indefinite number of verses
of the Psalm, sung in alternation with the Antiphon until the pope gave
the signal to sing the Gloria and, somewhat later, the Sicut erat. The final
part of the ceremony was once more accompanied by psalm verses, the
so-called versus ad repetendum (or, simply, repetenda), that is, one or two
additional verses added ad libitum depending upon the time required to
finish the action. An Introit sung according to this scheme must have had
a form somewhat like the following:

A Vi A V2 A Vs A Di A D 2 A V* A Vs A (V4 VB = repetenda)
,

It is
interesting to notice that this form shows the same structure as the
one actually described in the earlier Ordo Romanus (the Anonymus Ger-
bert), but in greater fullness. In each case the Doxology appears in the
middle, preceded and followed by one or several verses of the Psalm.
Naturally, the elaborate ceremony of the pontifical Mass in Rome was a
unique phenomenon. In other churches the introductory celebrations were
much simpler and less time-consuming, so that considerably shortened
Introits were sufficient. The early form is still
partly preserved in the
See List of Sources, p. 53, nos. 4 to 6. The
following explanations are taken from
J. Froger, Les Chants de la messe aux Vllle et IXe si&clcs (1950).
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 191

eleventh-century Ms St. Gall 381, in which the initial Psalm is already

reduced to a single verse, but one or two verses ad repetendum after the
7 but
Doxology are fully indicated. In the later codices these disappear,
occasionally we find evidence that the Antiphon was repeated, not only
at the end, but also between the verse and the Doxology: A V A D A. 8
Finally it
may be observed that to the present day the verse of the Introit
ismarked, not y, (Verse), as in the Graduals, Responsories, Tracts, etc.,
but Ps. (Psalm), a last reminder of the fact that
originally it was a com-
plete Psalm.
The magnificent prelude of the pontifical Mass, as described in the
sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, is matched by a scarcely less
impressive postlude, the Communion, during which everyone present
received a piece of the consecrated bread and a sip of the consecrated
wine, in representation of the flesh and blood of Christ. First the pope,
seated on his throne, received the communion from the archdeacon (archi-

diaconus); then the bishops received theirs from the pope; the first bishop
attended to the other members of the clergy; and finally the bread and
wine was given to the people. Except for the communion of the pope,
which took place in silence, the whole ceremony was accompanied by the
choir singing the chant called Communion. Like the Introit, this con-
sisted of a whole Psalm or as much of it as was needed, followed by the
Gloria Patri and a final verse ad repetendum, the whole enframed by the

Antiphon: "If there are many clerks participating in the communion, the
entirePsalm is sung with the Antiphon, until the priest makes the sign
of the cross on his forehead to sing the Gloria Patri. And after the Gloria
9
a verse of the Psalm is repeated and
finally the Antiphon is sung." Al-
though this description does not specify the repeat of the Antiphon after
each verse, there is little doubt that this was actually done. The early
form of the Communion, therefore, corresponded in every detail to that
of the Introit. Like this, it was greatly curtailed in the ensuing centuries,
because the practice of giving Communion individually to every member
of the clergy and to the people was abandoned. For a while the Com-
munion underwent the same process of reduction as the Introit, as ap-
pears particularly from the previously mentioned Codex St. Gall 381, in
which the Communions have exactly the same form as the Introits one
verse, the Doxology, and one or two verses ad repetendum. For instance,
7 The Gradual of Laon
(Pal. mus., X) had a versus ad repetendum for every Introit,
but these were carefully erased at a later time. Some of them are still visible, e.g., Intr.
Esto mihi; Ps. In te Domine; Ad R. Inclina (p. 34). For the Easter Introit with two
verses, see Plate IV.
8 The Consuetudines
antiquae Cluniacensium prescribed for the Mass of Sunday that
the Antiphon should be sung half after the verse, and full after the Doxology.
Froger [fn, 6], pp. 371".
1Q2 GREGORIAN CHANT
the Communion
Circuibo from the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost [1009]
10
appears there in the following form:

C(ommunio): Circuibo et immolabo . . .

(Ps.): Dominus mea et salus mea quern timebo.

illuminatio
ad -R(epetendum): Dominus protector vitae meae a quo trepidabo.
ad R.: Exaudi domine vocem meam qua clamavi: miserere mei et exaudi
me.

The Doxology is not indicated, but its insertion after the Psalm was
taken for granted, as well as the repeats of the Antiphon. For the Com-
munion of Easter Sunday, Pascha nostrum [781], the same codex prescribes
as many as six versus ad repentendum, after the initial verse (Ps.) and the
Doxology:
A Ps A D A Vi A Va A V3 A V* A Ve A Ve A
In the twelfth century only the initial verse (Ps.) and the Doxology
remained, at least in some sources, leading to a form exactly like that of
the present Introit. Moreover, the parallelism between the Introit and
the Communion is enhanced by the fact that the verses of the latter were
always sung to the same eight recitation melodies (one for each mode)
that were, and still are, used for the verses of the former [see p. 228].
Eventually, however, the Communions lost the last vestiges of psalm
verses, the only exception being that of the Mass for the Dead, Lux
aeterna, which to the present day has retained a verse, Requiem aeternam,
as well as the repeat of the second half of the Antiphon, Cum sanctis

Finally we have to consider the Offertory, that is, the chant which ac-
companies the offering of bread and wine at the altar. Originally every
member of the clergy and of the congregation participated in this pious
act by bringing gifts which were consecrated and of which they received a

part during the Communion. The usage of singing a Psalm during this
action existed in Carthage as early as the fourth century, as we know
from St. Augustine who speaks about "the custom, just started at Carthage,
of singing hymns from the Book of Psalms, either before the offering or
during the distribution of what has been offered." The Ordines romani
12

10 See the facsimile

reproduction in Wagner II, 264. In the Gradual of St. Yrieix
(eleventh century) the Communion Viderunt omnes [410] appears in the following form:
Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri. Ps. Jubilate Domino omnis terra, cantate
et exultate et psallite. Viderunt nostri). (Gloria Patri
(. . . seculorum amen. Salutare
. .
.)

(.
. .
nostri): A V A D A' (Pal. mus.,
XIII, Plates, p. 21).
11 The Sacred
Congregation of Rites has recently approved the reintroduction of the
full Introit, with several verses (see JRG, XXVI
[1947], 146). Attempts in the same direc-
tion are made for the Communion.
12 See List of Data,
p. 41, no. 33.
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 193

give indication about the chant of the Offertory. All we

little specific

hear that "the pope descends to receive the offerings of the people, and
is

gives a sign to the archdeacon of the schola (choir) to say the offertory"
[Ordo of St. -Amand\, and that for the conclusion, "the pope inclines a
little to the altar, looks at the schola, and
gives them the sign for silence"
[Ordo Romanus primus]. The express reference to the schola suggests that
at this time the Offertory was still an antiphonal chant, probably an entire
Psalm or the major part of it sung antiphonally, similar to the Introit
and the Communion. In the earliest musical manuscripts, however, it ap-
pears already as a responsorial chant, with highly florid melodies, and with
from one to three verses. It was not until the twelfth century that the
Offertories lost their verses, the only exception being that of the Mass
for the Dead, Domine Jesu Christe, which to the present day has retained
one verse, Hostias et preces [1813].
The Offertories with their medieval verses have been published by C.
Ott under the title of Offertoriale sive versus Offertoriorum (1935). Among
the no Offertories of this collection, we find about a dozen with one verse,
c. seventy with two, twenty-five with three, and one, Vir erat from the
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, with four. In most of them repeat
of the Antiphon or, usually, of its second half is indicated, so that the fol-

lowing form emerges as the normal one:

AViA' V2 A'
Those for the highest feasts usually have three verses, e.g.:

NATIVITY: Tut sunt caeli, y. i. Magnus et metuendus, y. 2. Misericordia,

y. 3. Tu humiliasti
EPIPHANY: Reges Tharsis, y. i. Deus judicium, y. 2. Suscipiant monies,
y. 3. Orietur in diebus
SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY: Bonum est confiteri, y. i. Quam magnificata, y. 2.
Ecce inimici; y. 3. Exaltabitur
ASH WEDNESDAY: Domine exaudi, y. i. Ne avertas, y. 2. Quia oblitus sum,
y. 3. Tu exsurgens
EASTER SUNDAY: Terra tremuit, y. i. Notus in Judaea, y. 2. Et factus est,
y. 3. Ibi confregit [cf. Plates II, III, IV, etc.]
PENTECOST: Confirma hoc, y. i. Cantate Domino, y* 2. In ecclesiis, y. 3.
Regna terrae
Also those for the oldest of Saints, e.g., St. John the Baptist.

In a number of Offertories with several verses the repeat of the Antiphon

is not indicated, or not indicated after each verse. In the great majority of

the cases, this is probably due to scribal negligence. For instance, it can
safely be assumed that in Scapulis suis [Ott, p. 32]
the second part of the
1Q4 GREGORIAN CHANT
Antiphon, from Scuto, is repeated, not only after y. i and y. 3, where it
it is not. In other cases the
is
prescribed, but also after y. 2, where repeat
is necessary in order to bring the piece to its proper close, on the final of
its mode. An example in point is Bonum est confiteri [Ott, p. 26] which, be-

ing in mode 8, requires g as the final, which indeed appears as the last note
of the Antiphon. The last verse, however, closes on e, an obvious impos-
sibility for a composition in the eighth mode.
It appears that the Antiphon

has to be repeated after the last verse, as well as after the two others which
employ the same cadential formula as the final verse. Still other Offertories
reveal their repeat structure through the presence of a peculiarity that
could be called musical rhyme. This consists in the use, at the end of each
verse, of the same cadential formula which, in the Antiphon, immediately
precedes its second part (that is, the part which is repeated after each
verse), as follows (A', A" are the first and second part of the Antiphon):

Thus the repeated refrain (A") each time is introduced and announced
by the same connecting formula. An example is the Offertory Confor-
tamini [Ott, p. 9], from which the three passages pertaining to the present
question are reproduced in Fig. 35. Others are Deus tu convertens, Laeten-

FIGURE 35

A. C

. V" E J*
a
8
-
'
^
-^J H
"
I

'

*
-
"
**

a":
V-
retrl- bu- ct iu-dl-ci- um :
Ipse ve- ni- et

1
I:

,
et cla-
I-
m
'
^
e*
R.
rit
.

lingua
>
mu-to-
""
rum. * Ipse veniet.

^=s=&
f.*
c- ius Emma- nu- *
el. Ipse veniet.

tur caeli (in which each verse terminates with the complete A'), Tui sunt
caeli, Domine vivifica (y. only), i
(y. 2), Eripe me . . .
Domine fac mecum
Domine, etc. While in these Offertories the repeat of the Antiphon (or,
rather, its second half) is properly indicated, there are others lacking this
indication but showing exactly the same peculiarity of identical cadential
formulae in the middle of the Antiphon and at the end of the verses; e.g.,
De profundis [Ott,p. 126], from which three passages are reproduced in
Fig. 36, the first from the inner melisma, "meam," of the Antiphon, the
others from the close of the two verses. It is obvious that the
respond
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 195

FIGURE 36

nem me- am : <j c pro- fun- dis

scrvi tu-

should be repeated, not from the beginning but after the melisma [for
more details regarding this Offertory see p. 371]. A similar example is
Super flumina [Ott, p. 119], the first verse of which borrows its ending
from the melisma "flevimus" of the Antiphon, thus suggesting repeat of
its dosing section, "dum recordaremur tui, Sion."

Finally it should be noticed that in a few Offertories the refrain is taken,

not from the Antiphon, but from the closing section of the first veirse.
Thus, after the third verse of Benedictus es in labiis [Ott, p. 28] the
. . .

indication for repeat reads: "*In labiis vel *Aufer a plebe," giving an
option between the repeat of the closing section of the Antiphon or- that
of the first verse. 13 Similar cases are Super flumina [Ott, p. 119], where the

repeat "*Qui dixerunt" after y. 3 refers to the closing section of y. 2;

Mihi autem [Ott, p. 128; repeat "*Nimis" from y. i], and Anima nostra
[Ott, p. 145], where the melody indicated for the repeat "*Laqueus" shows
that this is the "Laqueus contritus est nos, liberati sumus" from the end of
y. i, not from the end of the Antiphon which closes with the same words,
but set to a different melody.
These and other structural peculiarities14 place the Offertories in a
category all their own. No other type of chant shows so many variants
of its basic structure. In reality these variants are even more numerous
than appears from a study of Ott's publication, since not a few Offertories
occur in different manuscripts with different numbers of verses or with
divergent indications for the repeat of the Antiphon. It is not easy to give
a satisfactory explanation for the great amount of structural variability
found in these chants. Froger tries to account for their "physionomie si
15
originale" by considering them as representatives of "po&ie lyrique,"
Musically, the refrain "In labiis" is preferable, since it starts with e, thus making
13

for a smooth connection with the verses, all of which close on e. The refrain "Aufer a
plebe" starts with c* and therefore would produce an upward leap of a sixth.
14 For more details, see pp. 37off.
16
Froger [fn. 6], p. 89.
ig6 GREGORIAN CHANT
but it is difficult to see how this designation, if at all applicable to
Grego-
rian chant, could serve to distinguish the Offertories from the Introits or
Graduals, in which we find texts no less "poetic" and "lyrical" than those
of .the Offertories. A
more prosaic, but probably more reasonable, expla-
nation that the Offertories have survived only in a relatively late form,
is

dating from the second half of the ninth century [see pp. 375, 513],

QUESTIONS OF PERFORMANCE
Originally and properly, the terms responsorial and antiphonal pertain
to matters of performance, the former indicating the alternation between
a soloist and a choir, the latter, between two choirs. In later usage they
acquired somewhat different meanings, becoming primarily associated
with differentiations in the field of musical style (responsorial = elaborate;
antiphonal = simple) or of forms and types (responsorial = Graduals,
Alleluias, etc.; antiphonal =
Introits, Communions, etc.). The question
arises whether and to what extent the original meaning survived in the

practice of the Middle Ages and of the present day; in other words, whether
all or some of the responsorial chants continued to be sung responsorially,
the antiphonal chants antiphonally.
As for the responsorial chants, the answer is As
clearly in the positive.
far as can be ascertained, the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories of
Matins were always, and are at present, sung responsorially, the verse or
verses being entrusted to the soloist, the respond to the choir; e.g.,

A .v A .P. .5*

(straight lines indicate choral, dotted lines solo performance). In the twelfth
century, if not earlier, this method was modified in such a way that the

beginning of the respond was sung by the soloist, and the conclusion of the
verse by the choir. Each of these contrasting sections comprise from one
to three words, marked off from the rest by an asterisk, e.g. [409]:

IJT. Viderunt omnes * fines terrae . . . omnis terra, y. Notum fecit

Dominus . . . ante conspectum gentium revelavit * justitiam suam.i

The use of a solo opening means that the chant is intoned by the solo

singer, a practice which is

justifiable not only aesthetically but also from
a practical point of view, the soloist assuming the role of one who gives
the pitch to the choir. It is equally imperative, on aesthetic grounds, that
each chant should be closed by the choir, and this principle is also uni-
versally observed. It operates automatically if the Gradual is sung in its
1 This manner of
performance is of basic importance in the organa of the School of
Notre-Dame (Leoninus, Perotinus; c. 1200), in which the solo sections only have poly-
phonic music, the choral sections being sung in plainsong.
 Methods and Forms of Psalmody 197

early, fuller form,with the respond repeated after the verse. In this case
the verse sung entirely by the soloist. The later custom of omitting the
is

repeat of the respond necessitated the introduction of a choral close for

the verse. The present-day Roman rite permits both the full and the
shorterform of the Gradual. Following is a schematic representation
showing the alternation of soloist and choir in the responsorial chants
(the sign indicates a choral section with solo opening, the sign ...

a solo section with choral close): 2

Gradual: R^ y_ or ^R_ V. R,
Responsory; R_ V K/ or R_ V. B/ ^
Alleluia: A A^+j^ V_ A+j_ (A = Alleluia; = jubilus)
j

Turning now to the question of antiphonal singing, we face a more dif-

problem. As far as the authorized present-day practice is concerned,
ficult

antiphony has completely disappeared in what is called "antiphonal"

chants. The Psalms are sung in alternation between the cantor (soloist)
and the choir, the former singing the first, the latter the second half of
each verse. 3 Some monasteries, particularly in Germany, employ an antiph-
onal performance two half-choirs alternate with full verses, while the
Antiphon sung by both groups together, except for a solo incipit. As
is

for the medieval practice, this seems to have varied. As has been previously

pointed out, antiphonal singing was introduced as a decidedly "popular"

(perhaps, more precisely, popularizing) method of worship. It found its
way into the Church because of its activistic, even propagandistic qualities,
not dissimilar to those found today in the Salvation Army. It is easy to
understand that these qualities were of the highest value for the Church
when she was fighting for survival, but it is also understandable that they
lost their importance when the victory was won, and when the general
character of the worship changed from exuberant jubilation to pious de-
votion. According to recent investigations, the Psalms were sung, in the
sixth century and later, in a responsorial manner, the verses by a soloist
and the Antiphon after each verse by the entire group of monks.4 In the
ninth century, however, Amalarius says that "the antiphon is begun by
one singer of one choir, and in accordance with its mode the psalm is sung
by the two choirs (in alternation); but in the antiphon itself both choirs
join."
5
Thus, both the "responsorialists" and the "antiphonalists" of the
2 See the indications L,
p. xv, also pp. 32off.
3See 251.
4 Cf. C. Gindele,
"Doppelchor und Psalmvortrag im Friihmittelalter" (Die Musikfor-

schung, VI [1953], 296).

5 De Ecclesiastico Officio, IV, 7: Antiphona inchoatur ab uno unius chori; et ad eius
symphontam psalmus cantatur per duos choros; ipsa enim, id est antiphona, coniunguntur
simul duo chori (ed. Hanssens, II, 433).
igS GREGORIAN CHANT
present day can cite historical authority for their views, the former from
the sixth to the eighth, the latter from the ninth and possibly the fourth
century.
Turning to the antiphonal chants of the Mass, the Introit is the only
one of sufficient extension to permit alternation of performing bodies.
Nothing definite seems to be known about the medieval practice. At pres-
ent, it is performed responsorially; e.g.:

Cantor Choir
Ant. Ad te levavi *animam meam . . . non confundantur.

Cantor Choir
Ps. Vias teas, Domine demonstra mihi: *et semitas tuas edoce me.

Cantor Choir
Dox. Gloria Patri . . . Sancto. *Sicut . . , saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Choir
Ant. Ad te levavi , . . non confundantur.

The Roman usage prescribes one cantor on weekdays and Simple Feasts,
two on other Feasts and Sundays, and four on Solemn Feasts. 6 Thus, on the
last-mentioned occasions, the effect approaches antiphony.
Antiphonal singing is employed today mainly for chants that have no
connection with antiphonal psalmody; e.g., the Kyrie, the Gloria, the
Hymns, the Sequences, or the bilingual Sanctus of Good Friday [705], It is
also used for the Tracts which have completely lost their solo character.
The verses of the Tract are sung alternately by two choirs (or by the cantors
and the full choir)y except for the opening and the closing passage (marked
off by an asterisk), the former of which is given to a soloist, the latter to
both choirs combined.
L, p. xv.
 3
Stylistic Analysis