Briggs

The Work of the
Benedictines of Solesmes
in the Plainsong Revival

THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

MUSIC
LIBRARY

[From the Transactions of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, — Vol. IV.]

THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF SOLESMES
IN THE PLAINS0N6 REVIVAL.

H. B. BRIGGS,

Hon. Secretary of the Plaiiisong and Mediaval Music Society.

LONDON :

FEINTED FOR THE SOCIETY BY

Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Her Majestv,

St. Martin's Lane.

^t (pauf^ 6«fe0iofo^icaf ^ociet^<

FOUNDED IhBRUARY CHi, 1879.

^rcsfijent.
THE VERY EEV. THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S.

Rt. Rev. The Lord Bishop of Argyll and

the Isles.
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B.A.A.
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! Veu. Archdeacon of London, D.D.
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i Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Canon
I St. Paul's.

j Rt. Rev. The Lord Bishop of Oxford.

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©ouncil.

(£7- 'fed January 2Stk, 1899.)

Chahmm—'Rev Lewis Gilbrktson, M.A., Minor Canon of St. Paul's.
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.Edw/—: Beli., M.A., F.S.A.
u. H. Birch, F.S.A.
Somers Clarke, F S.A.
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Leland L. Duncan, F.S.A.
Alfred Ebbs.
G. R. Fletcher, F.S.A.

Thomas Garratt.

James Horsbuegh.

E. C. Hulme.

G. W. Marshall."

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Arthur Taylor.

^on. Sbccittnrj),

E. J. Wells, 4, Mallinson Road, Wandsworth Common, S.W.

F. Gill, 38, John Street, Bedford Row, W.C.

I^on. lEOftor.
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THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF SOLESMES
IN THE PLAINSONG REVIVAL.

H. B. BRIGGS,

Hon. Sccrctaiy of the Plainsong and Mcdiaval Music Socicly.

In considering the Work of the Benedictines of Solesmes in the Plainsong Revival the
chief thing is to form some definite idea as to what they had to revive, and the difficulties
with which they had to contend. Plainsong is a system of music perfectly distinct from
modern measured music in harmony. It is essentially recitative music, founded on the
structure of a prose sentence, and developed from two original forms — the Psalm Tone and
the Antiphon. The Psalm Tone was in its turn a development of simple monotone by'
breaking off into a little cadence first at the end and afterwards at the middle of each verse.
The Antiphons, on the other hand, were recitative melodies, for the time-value of the notes
only depended on the length of the syllables, but they did not originate in monotoning,
but were little airs based on the rhythm of the prose text. These became very ornate later
on, as did also the psalmodic plainsong, so that it is only by a study of the structure that we
can decide whether a certain melody should be classed as psalmodic or as antiphonal plainsong.
)For all practical purposes we are obliged to go to monastic churches for the type of
worship in early times. On the one hand we know very little of what was done in ordinary
parish churches, and on the other we may assume tha't the services of the religious houses
would be first modelled on those in common use and afterwards serve as an ideal to be aimed
at. We must also remember that the music at monastic services was governed by different
conditions from those that ordinarily prevailed in parish churches. We may be sure that
somewhat similar influences have always affected these, though the fact of all church officers
having been in minor orders may have mitigated the objectionable surroundings of parochial
church music. But the Director of the Singers was probably not proof against the
seductions of a good teaching connection, and the choirmen were not unmindful of the effect
their sweet voices in a Gradual might produce on Cecilia or Chloe. And the congregations in
the fifth and sixth centuries did not consist only of Christian martyrs. In mediaeval times
they certainly approximated to our own people, for the ballad tells us how —

Little Musgrave stood at the church door
While the priest was at the Mass ;
But he took more thought of the fair ladyes
Than he did of our Lady's Grace.

No ! It is to the monastic sei-vices that we must look both for the ideal of public worship
and for an explanation of the growth of plainsong. Let us consider monastic conditions so
far as they concern the music.

8421f?<?

244 THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF

The monks represented the general population. They were not trained musicians like
our Minor Canons and Vicars Choral, but just the men in the street. They were not there-
fore the counterpart of even our parish choirs, but rather represented our congregations. On
the other hand, they came regularly to church, day in day out ; were animated by distinct
Christian fervour ; and looked upon all secular music much as English people regarded it on
Sundays thirty or forty years ago. Music in regular time represented to them at least dance
music and love songs, if not the more dreadful strains of the Heathen Temple. They would
consequently have nothing to do with it, and developed their own style — plainsong — from the
primitive recitation of their offices. The main body of it was very simple ; and though, after
a time, the more florid music was confined to picked singers, the flexible voices of the southern
races enabled all to join in the portions that were not reserved for the cantors. Plainsong i.s
from its origin essentially congregational, and if the simpler music cannot be caught up by a
congregation, after of course due experience of it, we may be sure that it is improperly
rendered.

We may divide the history of plainsong into three periods : Creation, — until the year
600, when St. Gregory collected and edited most of the chant. Vigour, — until A.D. 1200,
when harmonised music began to be successfully practised. And Decay, — until this centur)-,
when the revival set in.

The origin of the Psalm Tones may or may not be Hebraic. I am as much disposed to
think it Silurian. They are so simple (the evidently earlier ones I mean) that they might
have been composed yesterday in a Kindergarten, or at the beginning of time. But what is
certain about them is that they are pure recitative, i.e. that the text of the psalm-verses
governs the rhythm of the melody and the time-values of the single notes. This being the
essential principle of the short chants from which all psalmodic plainsong was derived, we
must naturally expect to find it- animating the more elaborate forms, such as Tracts and
Graduals, where single syllables carry a considerable number of notes. If therefore we find
that this principle is violated in the execution of the elaborate melodies, we may have a
•shrewd suspicion that the rendering has been corrupted, and must endeavour to find some
method of execution that will satisfy the requirements of the origin of plainsong. This is
what has been done by the Benedictines of Solesmes, and though of course they do not
claim to have said the last word on the restoration of the Chant, they do claim, and I think
rightly, to have established the general principles on which students must work in the
future.

The right and wrong methods are distinctly shown in even a simple syllabic Antiphon
sung in the two styles. The psalm tones being mainly recitative on one note could not go
very far wrong, though in their development as Anglican Chants they have, possibly through
the use of vocal harmonies, sunk very low. The Antiphons, however, being recitations to a
melody, were more capable of corruption, even when syllabic. In most churches in France,
for instance; you would hear the Antiphon Confitebor sung with every one of its sixteen
notes as a minim, thus taking at least fifteen seconds. As the Solesmes Fathers sing it, the
duration of the notes varies according to the accentuation of the words, and the antiphon
takes eight seconds.

Let us now see how it was possible for the chant to become so corrupt in its rendering.

Students who had access to great public libraries were of course acquainted with the
earliest MSS. containing musical notation, but this notation was a mere puzzle until it was

SOLESMES IN THE PLAINSONG REVIVAL. 245

solved on the revival of plainsong in France and Belgium in the forties. Dom Gueranger, who
was a former Abbot of Solesmes, was an active promoter of this revival, and consequently his
monks have become the present leaders of the movement in France. Students then learned
that the earliest notation in neums was composed of the acute and grave accents of the
grammarians, and consequently signified only that the voice was to ascend or descend, but
gave no pitch to the notes. It was in fact only a menioria technica to assist the singers in
remembering a melody which they had learned by ear. It was then shown that in the
eleventh centurj- these signs were put on to a stave, and formed the ordinary square notation,
giving the pitch of every note. And then it was proved that down to the end of the fifteenth
century all the MSS. of different- countries practically gave the same version of the chant.
We may therefore safely conclude that in the MSS. we have the melodies almost exactl}' as
they were sung in the ninth century, and probably as they were edited by St. Gregory some
two centuries earlier.

This was therefore the first work done by the Solesmes Fathers, viz. to pro\e that the.(
actual melodies in medieval MSS. are the original Chant.

But it may be asked. How could there be any necessity for proving what might almost be
assumed? Surely the printed books in use would in successive editions be merely transcripts
of the MSS. Nothing of the sort. Some French Dioceses were fairly conservative ; Lyons,
for instance, preserved its books free from corruption late into the eighteenth century, but
most were bitten with the mania for modernizing the chant. The ball was started in the
sixteenth century by Pope Pius IV, and it is not difficult to see the reason why.

Plainsong had been the creation of the monks for their own use. As long as they
practised it only themselves it remained pure, but in time they let in the professional musician, •
and corruptions followed. We need not think of the dangers surrounding even modern
choirs ; — we have only now to consider the history of the tenth century. At that time the
purveyors of music at fashionable churches found that the old plainsong was not sufficiently
up-to-date to please the class of people that corresponds to bur Sunday morning churchgoer.
and accordingly adopted the system o{ farcing, that is stuffing, the service with tropes. Between
every sentence of the Gloria in excelsis, for instance, they inserted another which they considered
was suitable to the day. The Engl^ Mass contains the last remains of this custom. First
comes the Kyrie eleison — " Lord have mercy upon us " — and then the trope " and incline our
hearts to keep this law." The craze for these tropes, which were inserted all through the service,
reached such a pitch in the tenth century that bands of singers — unfrocked monks many of
them — wandered about singing masses on festivals at churches where the choirs were not
sufficiently modern. Naturally, these special choirmen were not to be depended on for the
words they inserted, and the result was that these were often ribald and actually indecent. The
custom was therefore put down, but it had been the thin end of the wedge for the introduction
into public worship of other than the authorised music. It had probably not injured the
rendering of plainsong,- for these tropes were in the same style as the rest of the music, but it
paved the way for the next innovation. At the beginning of the eleventh century we find -
the first traces of harmonized music. Only a few examples remain, and we cannot read them,
because the notation was still the neumatic. By the beginning of the thirteenth century,
however, harmonized music had made great strides ; and a really fine example that still
pleases a modern audience survives in the six men's canon " Summer is a-coming in." It
was the only piece that was enthusiastically applauded at a performance I once heard of a

246 THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF

modern Opera where it was introduced, and of course the bulk of the audience did not know
that it had been composed nearly 700 years ago. In the twelfth century even we have
evidence that measured music in harmony had been introduced into the churches, for it was
already recognised as an abuse. The harmonies that were first used with the plain.song were
probably so simple that they did not much affect the recitative character of this music, but
the introduction of measured music must have had a very bad effect, because it led to a
confusion of the two styles. As the skill of the harmonists increased, there must have been
a continual temptation to treat the notes of the plainsong as if they had a fixed, instead of
an indefinite, time-value. We find that this was done, and a Benedictiis of the fourteenth
century exists in which the notes have all become semibreves. A facsimile of the original
forms Plate 40 in Early English Harmony (Quaritch). The plainsong is in the bass, and may
be seen in its proper notation in Sanctus III of The Ordinary of the Mass (ymc^n'i). The
right and the wrong renderings of this melody are palpably as different as they can be.
-V 'VWe cannot tell how far at first the application of harmony to plainsong corrupted the
rendering when it was sung in unison, but there can be little doubt that it did ultimately
destroy the art, and reduced the plainsong to long strings of semibreves, so that the service
was altogether intolerable. We have the evidence in Cranmer's wish for a syllabic plainsong,
and in the instructions given by Gregory XIII to Palestrina in 1579 to edit the service
books by abbreviating the chant. ^ He began on the Gradual, but scarcely completed the
Teviporale, and gave up the work in despair. The work was afterwards completed and
printed, but withdrawn. Another edition on the same lines was afterwards printed in 1614
at the Medicean Press under the auspices of Paul V. It has been reprinted at Ratisbon of
late years under a licence from the Pope to the printers, who have tried to make out that it is
the authorised Roman edition. Fortunately it is not so, or we should have to say. So much
the worse for Rome, for it is the greatest parody of plainsong that was ever issued. Let me
explain. I, The elaborate music of the Gradual may be considered to consist oi forituri (jU
certain prominent notes. It is, as a matter of fact, impossible to separate the notes of
ornament from their fundamentals without destroying the melody ; but let that pass — we
will suppose that it can be done. An abbreviation would consist in the omission of these
ornaments ; and if the same melody occurred two or three times to different words, it would
be simplified always in the same way, so that the resultant melodies would be uniform. You
will find in the MSS. that the melody to the Gradual Justus ut palvia occurs fifteen times
to different words, and save for slight variants, made according to the laws of plainsong, Ls
always the same. In the Ratisbon Gradual it is always altered in a different way, and very
materially, so that we have fifteen new melodies, not one of which would be recognised by
St. Gregory. | The Solesmes Fathers have shown this.. very thoroughly in their publication,
Palcographie Musicak, and effectually pricked the bladder of the authenticity of the Ratisbon
edition of the chant. But this is the edition that was first issued from Rome in 1614. It
was the first serious blow at the true version of the music, and it was brought about by the
corrupted rendering of the chant due to the introduction of vocal harmony.

We have seen the same cause working in our own Church, and within living memory
too, I believe. The Anglican Chant was originally plainsong in harmony, and was no doubt
at first correctly rendered in free rhythm without any fixed time, although the exigencies
of the printing press required the use of modern notation. But the use of harmony must
have crippled the freedom of the rhythm to some extent, though I have little doubt that

SOLESMES IN THE PLAINSONG REVIVAL. 247

the traditional method of chanting survived, for Fetis, the Belgian musician, complains in
1831 that the chanting at St. Paul's and Westminster is very bad, because the choir do
not keep to the time in which the chants are written, but sing them according to the
length of the syllables. I suppose the grumblings of so great a man were listened to,
and the choirs were told to sing in time ; I have heard that the choir at Rochester were
thus specially instructed by a new organist. The next stftp has been to begin the fixed
m2asure at the end of the reciting note, and in many places the whole of the reciting note
is put into time. The effect is soothing and soporific, but it is not fair treatment for even an
Anglican Chant.

If plainsong in its simplest form could be so corrupted among us, we can understand
how it fared on the Continent during the birth of modernism in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Modern music had lost the crudities of the Middle Ages, and plain-
song had been robbed of all its life and vigour. The clever people who are always on
the alert to bring things that they do not understand down to their own level, which they
take to be the comprehension of the age, accordingly set to work to modernize plainsong.
Nivers, the organist of Louis XIV, in 1683, was a great hand at this. He slashed the melodies
about, put in accidentals where he fancied the tonality required them, and generally re-wrote
the chant to his great satisfaction. Millet and Bourgoing in the same century were also great
reformers in their own estimation, and they even got their mutilated versions accepted by
many Dioceses in France.

In the eighteenth century French organists amused themselves by writing masses which
they called plainsong, many of them, too, in harmony. As they gave a fixed time to every
note, they might just as well have printed them in modern notation ; but square notes were
ecclesiastical, so square notes they used. Many examples will be found in a volume first
published by La Feill^e in 1745 with Sequences, Hymn tunes, &c. He also gives vocal
harmonies to the Tones, turning them into distinct Anglican Chants by putting them into time
with the Tone in a middle part. French organists were also great in composing new Tones for
the psalms ; but as they were quite ignorant of the theory of the Tones, they are no better
specimens of plainsong than the worst Anglican Chants, — very often not so good. Unfor-
tunately many of our revivalists have accepted this debased plainsong as authentic.

The state of degradation to which plainsong had been reduced was bound to lead to a
revival. This began in 181 1 with a pamphlet published by A. E. Charon, a distinguished
musician, and the movement was aided by the adoption of the Roman Use in France, and
the disuse of the local service-books. But students were not satisfied with the music that
came from Rome, for it was not the music of the MSS., and the publication in 1848 of what
is known as the Mechlin Edition of the Gradual and Antiphoner brought matters to a head.

One would have thought that the simplest course for the Editors to take would have been
to transcribe some ancient Belgian manuscript ; but no, they must go out of their way to copy
the Gradual of Paul V. printed in 1614, the result of the abbreviations of Palestrina's successor,
Giovanelli, and for the Antiphoner they took the Lichtenstein Edition, printed at Venice
in 1580. A heated controversy immediately sprang up about these books, for every one who
had been studying the manuscripts of course rushed into the fray with the very plain argument
that the version was not an atom like the plainsong which had existed all over Europe until
the sixteenth century. The consequence was, that in 1 851 an edition was issued bytheReims-
Cambrai Commission, in which the Editors, taking for their original an early twelfth century

248 THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF

MS. recently discovered at Montpellier, tried to reproduce the original chant. \ They were,
however, also infected with the idea of correcting what they considered the mistakes of
medizeval singers, so that though the actual notes are fairly correct, there are so many
alterations in the grouping, and so many omissions of phrases, that the edition cannot
be implicitly trusted. > Other editions, such as those of Dijon, Digne, and Rennes, were
reprints of the corrupt seventeenth century versions before referred to, and were taken into
use in different French Dioceses. At Rouen and Besangon, as the Abbe Bonhomme says,
"they set the words of the liturgy to a chant which is of recent introduction into the
diocese."

But French ecclesiastics went on working at the subject, and controversy raged as hotly
there over the music as here over vestments. Lambillotte, Nisard, and Raillard published
facsimiles of MSS. and their interpretations of the neums. In 1878 the Ratisbon edition of the
Gradual, alluded to before, appeared under the quasi-endorsement of Rome, and the excitement
intensified. Students said, " This is a parody of plainsong " ; the other party replied, " This is
authorised by the Pope, therefore it is plainsong." As events have since shown, Rome had
not committed herself. The Ratisbon edition is recommended but not ordered, and the
Solesmes Method is used in the French Seminary at Rome, with the special approval of
the Pope.

The time was now ripe for someone to shake the glass and crystallize the floating opinions
of students of plainsong. The Benedictines of Solesmes had traditionally been specially
interested in the controversy, and in 1880 Dom Pothier published Les MModies Gregoriennes.
In that book he boldly went to the root of the matter, gathering together all the results of the
antiquarian studies which had accumulated during the previous half century, and put the
study of plainsong on the secure basis of an appeal to the most ancient documents, both as
regards notation and rendering. Ever since the corruption of plainsong which followed on
the development of m.easured music, emendators of the current versions had tried to find
some connection between plainsong and modern music. Firstly, they put it into fixed time ;
and then, when the result proved too utterly dreary, they abbreviated and amended the chant
on the theory that the composers had not known what they were about. Dom Pothier threw
this all aside, and enquired simply, What was the origin of plainsong ? On a satisfactory
answer to this enquiry depended the correct rendering of the melodies, and an explanation of
what seemed defects to the modernizers. The answer was, that plainsong was originally
simple recitative to a prose text ; that a prose text has a rhythm of its own, quite distinct
from the measured rhythm of poetry or modern music ; and that the rendering of plainsong
must therefore follow ihis prose rhythm, and not be subjected to the laws of an alien art.
This had been, of course, indistinctly perceived before, but the influence of modern measured
music had been too strong to allow of its being properly followed up. We all know an
instance of this influence in Tallis' Responses, where the plainsong is in the tenor. If the
plainsong alone happens to be used in a church it goes fairly well, though the subtle remini-
scences of measured nmsic, often aided by modern notation, generally make it drag. But if
the full harmonics are used, every syllable of the reciting note of the plainsong has a fixed
time given to it, and the result is simply absurd and inartistic. It is like a man doing a five
mile walk in the step of a minuet.

Lcs Melodies Gregoriennes seemed at once to supply what was wanted. It put into
concrete shape the ideas which had been in the air, and solved difficulties which individual

SOLESMES IN THE PLAINSONG REVIVAL. 249

students had found in every previous method. Whatever improvements on the Method might
be made, it was felt that here at least was a solid foundation to work on, and nineteen
years of controversy have not shaken that foundation.

But though in an oaaz'o volume Dom Pothier might give the results of his studies, just as
has been done in English in T/ie E/e;ncnh- 0/ P/aiHsoii^, students naturally required proofs.
The Benedictines of Solesmes therefore undertook to publish such a series of ancient
manuscripts as would supply evidence that their teaching was correct. In 1S89 they
accordingly began to issue facsimiles of the principal MSS. in a series which they style
Palcographie Micsicale. Their first publication was a ninth or tenth century Gradual from
St. Gall in Switzerland, the earliest known to exist. This is written in what is called the
neumatic notation, which by itself is illegible, for the signs are only a memoria technica for the
music which had been learned by ear, but it can be translated by collating it with such a work
as the facsimile of a thirteenth century Sarum Gradual published by the Plainsong. and
Mediaeval Music Society. The two MSS. together give the chant as perfectly as any notation
can express recitative music. The square notes, it is known, have no time-value whatever ;
there is no such thing as longs and shorts in this notation, so that by itself it could not be
music. But the neumatic notation, although it does not express the pitch of the notes,
shows very plainly not only the longs and shorts in elaborate plainsong melodies, but a great
number of musical ornaments — trills, shakes, and turns— that were no doubt easy enough for
the first Italian singers, but have to be omitted by northern choirs. The Solesmes Fathers
have, however, used one of these ornaments to prove how observant the notators were of the
effect of different combinations of letters on the singing of recitative. If be sung two notes to
an open syllable like Ho in Holy, it will be found that a diff'erent effect is produced from that
by singing the same notes to the first syllable in Sanctus. With the open syllable the two
notes are both clearly produced, but in Sanctus the mouth closes for the purpose of sounding
the consonants net, and the second note accordingly almost disappears. Now this little
difference is indicated in the neumatic and also in the earliest square notation, and proves
two things : Firstly, that the composers and transcribers of the music were sufficiently skilled
artists to provide for this trifling detail. Secondly, that the music could not have been in
measured time ; for if it had been necessary to sing those two notes always in time, it would
have been quite possible, as in modern measured music, to have held the open vowel for
the time required, and let the consonants take care of themselves. The music was, however,
recitative, and the natural pronunciation of such a word as Sanctus required a different
rendering from such a word as Holy.: I happen to have compared an English with a Latin
word, but settings of the same melody to different Latin texts equally show that the notation
is altered to correspond with the syllable.

On completing the early Gradual the Benedictines next published over 200 facsimiles of
the same melody from as many MSS. of different countries and centuries. This was to prove
that the chant was practically uniform in all Westerfi Christendom until the corruptions of the
sixteenth century set in. Incidentally this publication showed that the Ratisbon Edition of
the Chant, which the publishers were trying to force on all our Roman brethren, was a mere
tissue of absurdities, and was no more like the song of St. Gregory than " God Save the
Queen " is like the " Marseillaise."

The next publication issued from Solesmes was another early Gradual in ncums, but
with the addition of some extra marks of expression termed Romanian Letters. In the text

25P THE WORK OF THE BENEDICTINES OF

accompanying this volume, the Fathers went deeply into the structure of plainsong, showing
that the whole system of its phrases depended on what was called the Cursus. This is the
law of prose rhythm affecting the close of every Latin sentence. Those of us who were
brought up on King Edward VI's Latin Grammar will remember these rules at the end of
the volume. I am afraid I took less interest in them years ago than I do now. They are
treated of in a Tract just published by Vincent, Recent Research in Plainsong.

The volume of the Palcographie now in course of issue is a facsimile of a unique
Ambrosian Choir Book at the British Museum. The material it contains has not yet been
sufficiently examined ; but so far it proves that certain melodies exist in one form in the
Ambrosian, and in another in the Gregorian Plainsong. This at least puts back the origin
of the chant until a time when these melodies were in their original shape. A study of the
two different ways in which they have been developed must certainly prove of great value
to us.

Besides these works of antiquarian research, the Fathers have also issued an Edition of
the Service Books, the Gradual, the Antiphoner, &c., which give the Chant in the form in
which it is found in the MSS. Here and there we find slightly different versions from those
in the Sarum MSS., and in these cases I believe our English Books, as often as not, give the
correct reading ; but the Solesmes Edition for all practical purposes gives the chant as it was
sung, certainly in the ninth century, and probably in the seventh, after it had been edited b}'
St. Gregory.

The Fathers print these works and others on many abstruse subjects at their own
printing press, supervising the workmen that they employ, and managing everything in a
thoroughly businesslike manner. They vv'cre turned out of their Abbey for some time by the
French Laws, and were compelled to live in cottages in the village and hold their services in
the Parish Church, but they have now been allowed to live in their own house again, and
hold their services in their Abbey Church. This is a fine building on the banks of the Sarthe,
and the forty or fifty monks seated in the Choir sing the service well. Of course, only the
Schola Cantornm sings the elaborate chants, but the whole body of monks sings the ordinary
music. I always think they are so much more fortunate than our own poor Cathedral
clergy, who are compelled to attend services without once opening their lips. No wonder
that rules of attendance have to be made for them ! Listening to Psalms sung by other
people must be very dreary work.

The services at the Abbey now form the model for France, and every day the Solesmes
system of rendering plainsong is spreading through the country and is being taught in the
Seminaries. Visitors from all parts come to hear the singing, and correct the ideas that they
have formed from a study of the theoretical works the monks have published, for as the music
is entirely vocal, and independent of the notation, it is only by actual practice and experi-
ence that a correct tradition can be again created. At Solesmes even they find that slight
improvements can be continually introduced, and it is most interesting to discuss with Dom
Mocquereau the various little differences in method and phrasing which present themselves.
He and I, for instance, are not quite at one as to the tempo at which the melodies should be
taken, for he would take them rather slower than I like. The last time I was there I
complained that tlie Introit and Gradual had dragged a little. He replied, smiling, that the
choir had been rather slow, and he thought of hurrying them up, but remembered that I was
in church; so let them go on. The next day the tempo was, however, a little quicker — just

SOLESMES IN THE PLAINSONG REVIVAL. 251

the pace I like myself. The French visitors to the Abbey are of course all accustomed to
the old lento style, and accordingly, as he says, complain that his choir sing too quickly. I
am, however, convinced from some special specimens that the Scliola sang for us, that the
rhythm and melody are lost if the tempo is not sufficiently quick. The whole effect of the
\owgfiorituri depends on the phrasing, and if the chant is too slow the phrasing disappears.
There is a great reaction now in France among the devout-minded against the Masses in
modern music which have been the fashion ; and though a Service in what is not the vulgar tongue
affords some justification for the use of music that one only listens to, there is little doubt
that plainsong, now that the revival shows that it is really effective and artistic music, will
come again into general use. The use of Latin also does not seem so strange to the French as
it would to us, for the likeness between French and Latin apparently enables even the peasantry
to sing the Creed and Gloria in exxelsis with understanding. The elaborate music of Introits
or Graduals is, for popular purposes, independent of the words and purely subjective, so that
it occupies much the same position as our anthems. The Benedictines have, of course, a great
advantage over us in forming a traditional rendering, for though the monks are moved from
one Abbey to another, there is continuity in the teaching. With us, in our parish churches,
a priest or an organist may be moved, and there is an end of everything, as with St. Barnabas,
Fimlico, but there is some hope of our being able to form a tradition in our Sisterhood Chapels.
Our monasteries have still to be revived ; but at the church of the Cowley Fathers a true
tradition is being formed, though as the Fathers in residence change oftener than the Monks
at Solesmes, they have to depend on boys, who unfortunately grow older and go away. I am,
however, glad to know that Cowley serves in some degree for us as Solesmes does for France.
All priests who go there are enchanted with the singing, and say how different it is from what
they have generally heard called Gregorian music. We may therefore look to them to carry
on amongst us the work of the Benedictines of Solesmes in the revival of plainsong.

542169

I.— The Society shall be called "St. Paul's Ecclesiological Societt," and shall consist of a President,
Vice-Presidents, Members, and Honorai-y Members.

II. — Candidates for Membership sliall be proiwsed by a Member, seconded by another Member, and submitted to
the Council for election.

III.— The entrance fee shall be 26. 6d., and the Annual Subscription Vs. 6d. a year for those who desire to receive
copies of the Transactions, and Ss. a year for those who do not desire to receive such copies. Life-Members may
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without the Ti'ansactions. Subscriptions become due on January Ist in each year. If the Subscription of any Member
should be one full year in arrear, the Council may declare hisSIcmbersbip to have ceased, after due application ha»
been made.

rV. — Honorary Members (limited to six) shall be proposed by the Council, and elected by a Q-eneral Meeting.
They shall enjoy all privileges of Membership, except that of voting at Meetings.

V. — Vice-Pi-esidents shall be proposed by the Council and elected by a Groneral Meeting.

VI.— The President, elected Trustee, Treasurer, and Secretary, together with fourteen elected Members, shall form
the Council; they shall conduct the affairs of the Society. Four of the elected Members of the Council shall retire in
rotation each year, but shall be eligible for re-election at the Annual Meeting.

VII.— The election of the Treasurer, and Secretary, shall take i^lace at the Annual Meeting, and shall be determined
by a show of hands, unless a ballot be demanded by not less than one- fourth of the Members present.

VIII. — The President shall take the Chair at the Meetings of the Society, regulate discussions, and enforce the
Eulcs.

IX. — In the absence of the President, the Chair shall be occupied by a Vice-President, or by a Member elected by
the Meeting.

X. — The Chairman shall, in addition to his own vote, have a casting vote when the numbers are equal.

XI.— The Trustees, in whose names the invested funds of the Society are held, shall be the Chairman of the Council,
the Secretary, and one Member elected by the Council.

XII. — The Treasurer shall hold the current funds of the Society, receive Subscriptions, and make all payments
sanctioned by the Council : the accounts shall be balanced to December 31st, and, when audited by two Members elected
at a General Meeting, shall be laid before the Annual Meeting.

XIII.— The Editor of Die Society's Transactions shall be appointed by the Council.

XIV.— The Secretary shall attend the Society's Meetings, send out all Notices to Members, and keep the Minutes of
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XV. — The Council shall meet as often as business may require, four to form a quorum ; they shall fill up vacancies
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XVI. — The Society shall meet at least twelve times during the year, at such time and place as may be arranged by
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XVII, — An Extraordinary Meeting may be convened by order of the Council, or upon a requisition signed by
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XVIII.— The Annual Meeting shall be held as soon after St. Paul's Day (January 25th) as possible.

XIX. — No alteration of these Rules shall be made except at an Annual Meeting, or at an Extraordinary Meeting
called for the purpose.

The Transactions of the Society may be obtained on application to the Hon. Sec,
E. J. Wells, 4, Mallinson Eoad, Wandsworth Common, S.W. ; or to Messrs. Hakrison & Sons,
.59, Pall Mall, S.W. Applications for copies at Members' prices should be made to Mr. Wells.
Prices. To Mcmlcrs. Vol. I., Part I. (out of print). Parts II., Ill, IV., V., 2s. 6d. each.

Vol. II., Parts I., II., III., IV., V., 2s. 6d. each ; or the five Parts

together, 10s.
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Vol. IV., Parts I., II., III., IV., 3.s. 6d. each.
To Non-Members. Vol. I., Part I. (out of print). Parts II., III., IV., V., 3s. 6d. each.

Vol. II., Parts I., II., III., IV„ V., 3s. 6d. each ; or the five Parts

together 13s. 6d.
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or the five Parts together, 13s. 6d.
Vol. IV., Parts I, II., III., IV., 5s. each.
Separate Copies of Mr. W. H. St. John Hope's Paper o)i English Liturgical Colours (40 pp.,
with comparative Table) may be obtained by Members, at Is. Gd. ; Non-Members, 2s. 6d.

Postage in all cases extra.

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below

.iim

^\}\} } 9 1951

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1974

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1993

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