Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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416 SEQUENCE SEQUENTIA
which is from the slow moveraeut, is further
remarkable as an example of a peculiar manipulation
of the device by which modern composers
have obtained very impressive results. This is
the change of emphasis in the successive steps
of which it is composed. For instance, if the
characteristic group consists of three chords of
equal length, and the time in which it occurs
is a square one, it is clear that the chord which
is emphatic in the first step will be weakest in
the next, and vice versa. This form will be most
easily understood from an outline example :
I
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A passage at the beginning of the Presto at the
end of Beethoven's Leonora Overture, No. 3, is
a good example of a sequence of this kind in a
single part. It begins in the following quotation
at*
^^tea^l^^
The extension of the characteristic group of
a sequence is almost unlimited, but it will be
obvious at once that in harmonic sequences the
shorter and simpler they are the more immediately
they will be understood. In long-limbed
sequences the hearer may soon perceive that
there is a principle of order underlying what he
hears, though its exact nature may always elude
his apprehension, and in respect of the larger
branches of form this is a decided advantage.
Among short -limbed emphatic sequences in
modern music, the one of eight steps which
occurs towards the end of the first full portion
of the overture to Die ' Meistersitiger ' is conspicuous,
and it has the advantage of being
slightly irregular. The long-limbed sequences
are sometimes elaborately concealed, so that the
underlying source of order in the progression
can only with difficulty be unravelled. A
remarkable example of a very complicated
sequence of this kind is a passage in Schumann's
Fantasia in C major (op. 17), in the movement
in E|j, marked Moderate? con energia,' beginning
at the 58 th bar. The passage is too long
'
to quote, but the clue to the mystery :—
may be
extracted somewhat after this manner
SIsS
In order to see how this has been manipulated
reference must be made to the original.
A species of sequence which is familiar in
modern music is that in which a figure or
melody is repeated a tone higher ; this has
been termed a Rosalia. [See arite, p. 141.]
Another, which is equally characteristic, is a
repetition of a figure or passage a semitone
higher ; an example from the Eroica Symphony
is quoted in vol. iii. p. 235 of this Dictionary.
The device has never been bound to rigid
exactness, because it is easy to follow, and
slight deviations seasonably introduced are
often happy in effect. In fact its virtue does
not consist so much in the exactness of transposition
as in the intelligibility of analogous
repetitions.
If the musical idea is sufficiently
interesting to carry the attention with it, the
sequence wiU perform its function adequately
even if it be slightly irregular both in its
harmonic steps and in its melodic features ; and
this happens to be the case both in the example
from the slow movement of Beethoven's Sonata
in Bb, and in the passage quoted from Schumann's
Fantasia. It is not so, however, with
the crude harmonic successions which are more
commonly met with ; for they are like diagrams,
and if they are not exact they are good for
nothing. c. H. H. P. ,
SEQUENTIA {Prosa; Eng. Sequence, or
Prose). A hymn of peculiar structure, which
owes its name to its position in the Mass ; it
appears there as the continuation or sequence
of the Gradual and Alleluia. It originally was
a long jubilus or melody without words, attached
to the a of the Alleluia. (See Teope.) In
the 9th century in France words were adapted
to the notes, and these were called a 'Prose,'
because* they followed the lines of the music
and not any scheme of metre. When these compositions
had thus won a place for themselves,
fresh ones came to be written in regular metre,
and the old name Prose being unsuitable gave
way to the new name Sequence. From the
12th century to the 15th century such compositions
were most popular ; and many of the
most beautiful specimens we possess were written
by the great Hymnologists who flourished during
these productive periods. Mediseval OflSce-
Books contain innumerable sequences of striking
originality ; but at the last revision of the
Roman liturgy, by direction of the Council of
Trent, the greater number, of these were expunged.
Five, however, have been retained
in the current missal ; and these five occupy
a very prominent position in the services in
which they are incorporated, as well as in the
history of ecclesiastical music.
1. The sequence appointed for Easter Sunday
is 'Victimae paschali,' the oldest now in use,
and in reality a Prose, written by Wipe in the
first half of the 11th century.
2. The sequence for Whitsunday,
'
Veni
Sanote Spiritus, ' in rhymed triplets of Trochaic
Dimeter Catalectic, was written probably by
Innocent III. at the end of the 12th century
;