Textbook of Gregorian Chant (1930) - MusicaSacra

Introduction. xiij.
could never say that the words had been " set to music "; the music
springs up out of the words themselves in which it lay latent and
contained in embryo. Dom Mocquereau's definition melodieuse
langue x describes the chant far better than music : indeed if one
did not fear to be accused of poetical exaggeration, one might well
apply to it the poet's line :
" Speech half asleep or song half awake ". 2
When music breaks away and takes her revenge in the jubilus
and other neumatic passages which sing but do not speak, this is
someting quite exceptional and temporary. The modern professional
singer regards words as a more hindrance to music, a
groundwork or scaffolding to be covered up, left behind or escaped
from as quickly as possible. But the Gregorian singer must treat
words as holy things, and for this it is essential to appreciate the
grave beauty of the Church's Latin. 3 It is more important — and
more difficult, owing to our common neglect of careful diction —
for English-speaking students to acquire a good style of recitative
than it is for them to master the ornate pieces in the Gradual
or the Antiphonary. To read the text aloud, with correct
accent, clear enunciation and well-balanced phrasing — realising
that the laws of free rhythm are largely the laws of cultivated
speech, 4 the " rhythm of prose " — this is the best preparation for
singing the chant.
When text and melody have been sufficiently studied there
remains the crucial question of whether and how much the chant
admits of "expression". Is it to be frigidly hieratic, one stiff,
severe line of notes, or are the fine shades to be exaggerated until
something emotional and theatrical results? The first extreme
would be preferable to the second, but a happy mean is to be
sought for in this as in most things. Personal taste must first of
all be set aside. The voice, our voice, is such an intensely intimate
part of us that this is bound to involve some sacrifice. Those who
consent to go to school with the Church and study her interpretation
will learn not only what to say to God, but in what tone
and accent. Besides giving them the text and the melody, she
trains her obedient children to the exact kind and degree of feeling
to be put into the rendering. The best manuscripts of the best
period abound in rhythmical signs, showing how the neums are to
be produced. But it must be understood from the first that when
Holy Church " teaches, prays, meditates, mourns and jubilates in
1 Nombre musicalgrigorien^ Vol. I, Introduction, p. 6.
a ROBERT BROWNING, Flower Fancies.
3 DOM SHEBBEARE, op. tit. — « Justine WARD, op. tit.