Index

Performance Practice

 

Week 12: Plainchant Since the Late Nineteenth Century

Essay Titles

  1. Discuss modern methods of interpretating the rhythm of plainchant. Has the dichotomy between equalism and mensuralism been resolved?

  2. In what ways have media technologies influenced the awareness and interpretation of plainchant since the late nineteenth century?

  3. Critically assess the Solesmes principle of editing plainchant from the earliest available sources and its consequences for performance practice.

Reading

General Literature

  1. Lance W. Brunner, ‘The Performance of Plainchant: Some Preliminary Observations of the New Era’, Early Music, 10 (1982), 316–28 (jstor)

  2. Mary Berry, ‘Gregorian Chant: The Restoration of the Chant and Seventy-Five Years of Recording’, Early Music, 7 (1979),  197–217 (jstor)

  3. David Hiley, Western Plainchant (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)(particularly pp. 373–85) (library)

  4. Willi Apel, Gregorian Chant (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1958) (particularly chapter 2)

  5. Richard Crocker, An Introduction to Gregorian Chant (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2000) (particularly chapter 8) (library)

  6. Katharine Ellis, The Politics of Plainchant in fin-de-siècle France (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013) (library)

Equalism/Accentualism—‘Old Solesmes’ / Joseph Pothier

  1. Joseph Pothier, Les mélodies grégoriennes d'apres la tradition (Tournai: Desclée, Lefebvre & Co., 1880) archive.org

Equalism/Accentualism—‘Neo-Solesmes’ / André Mocquereau

  1. Lura F. Heckenlively, The Fundamentals of Gregorian Chant: A Simple Exposition of the Solesmes Principles Founded Mainly on Le Nombre Musical Grégorien of Dom André Mocquereau (Tournai: Desclée & Co., 1900) pp. 150–73

  2. Gregory Murray, The Accompaniment of Plainsong (London: Society of St Gregory the Great, 1947) pp. 20–7

  3. Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, A Manual of Gregorian Chant Compiled from the Solesmes Books and from Ancient Manuscripts (Rome & Tournai: Desclée, Lefebvre & Co., 1903) pp. xviii–xxii

Mensuralism

  1. R. John Blackley, ‘On Realizing Gregorian Chant’ and ‘Rhythm and Nuance in Chant’ Schola Antiqua website

  2. Antoine Dechevrens, Études de science musicale (Paris: Blanc, 1898) vol. 3

  3. Gregory Murray,'Gregorian Rhythm in the Gregorian Centuries: The Literary Evidence', Caecilia, 84 (1957) (web)

  4. ————, Gregorian Chant According to the Manuscripts (London: L.J. Carey, 1963) CC Watershed (comparative analysis of Alleluia: Pascha Nostrum pp. 73–5 with neumed example on p. 18 of the musical supplement)

Manuscript images

  1. Graduel de Laon F-LA Ms 239 IMSLP or Bibliothèque Municipale de Laon

  2. St Gall Codex 359 (c. 900) e-codices

  3. St Gall Codex 339 (tenth century) e-codices

  4. Einsiedeln Codex 121 e-codices

  5. Montpellier H. 159 IMSLP

  6. Many manuscripts reproduced in Paléographie musicale archive.org

Printed Chant Books

  1. Many chant books are available for download at CC Watershed and at Gregorian Books (the latter also includes a timeline of key events and publications)