Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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496 SOLESMES SOLESMKS
however, rewarded when in 1904 the new Pope,
Pius X., who is well versed in music, established
a Papal Commission to prepare a new Official
Edition, and at the same time wrote to Dom
Paul Delatte, the present Abbot, appointing
the monks of Solesmes to be the editors. This
edition, known as the 'Vatican edition,' has,
up to the present date (1907), embraced the
Kyriale, or ordinary of the mass, and the
Commune Sanctorum. It is primarily based on
the Liber gradualis ' but in the preparation
;
of that work the
'
learned editor had not the
abundant means of research at his disposal
which have since been available ; J hence certain
deficiencies became apparent when the book
came into use. These are removed in the Vatican
edition, while the monks are issuing for
their own use a special Vatican edition containing
the marks of expression as performed by them.
The practical application ofthe laws ofRhythm
to the chant is described in the various
'
Methods oi Plain-Chant ' that have issued from
the Solesmes and other presses. The theory
underlying what is known to modern stndente
of plain-song as ' Free Rhythm ' may be briefly
described as follows. Free Rhythm arpse from
the setting of the words of Scripture to music
at a time when the idea that melody could
have a rhythm of its own, to which the words
sung must conform in respect of time-duration,
had not yet been thought of. Free Rhythm
practically obeys all the laws of modern musical
rhythm except that of definitely fixed timerelationship.
Writing in the 11th century,
when its laws were still understood, and when
what we call Free ' ' was called by musicians
'
Prose Rhythm,' Aribo says :
'
Good Prose
Rhythm requires that there should be a rough
balance in the gi-oups of syllables, and, naturally,
also in the groups of accents, and in the members
of sentences : but they are not to be subjected
to the rigorous laws of metre.'
In ' Syllabic Plain-song, ' in which each syllable
has a single note (or at most two or three notes
very occasionally), the accentuation of the
melody is ruled by that of the words. For
rhythmical purposes, as well as for the understanding
of the ideas to be expressed by them,
words are divided into accented and unaccented
syllables, and are also grouped into sentences
and ' members of sentences. ' This is a law of
all language, and Syllabic Plain-song is simply
prose language uttered in melody instead of
being spoken. The technical plain-song names
for sentences and members of sentences are
Distindiones major and minor, and the distinctiones
are separated by caesuras. At each
ofesura there is a Mora uUimae vocis (ritardwudo)
which obeys certain rules.
' Two monks are now engaged In visttlng all the chief libraries
ol Italy, Hrmed with letters of commendation from the Pope and
the Prime Minister. It is said that photographs are arriving at
Appnldurcomhe at the rate of 1000 a week, and the library possesses
some 500 complete codices in facsimile.
In Melismatic Plain-song,' of which the short
'
passage quoted ^elow is an example, the same
laws of ' distinctions,' caesureis, and ' morae ' are
applied, the syllables and words of prose being
represented in the melody by the groups of
neumes, which may not only occur in connection
with the single verbal syllables, but may
form long ' Melismata, ' apart from the words.
The technical name for the melisma is Pneuma,
'
i.e. ' Breathing,' which must not be confounded
with 'Neuma,' a note, or group of notes. The
intimate relation as to rhythm between the
neume in melody and the syllable in words is
shown by the fact that groups of notes are often
called Syllabae ' ' by the ancient writers. The
chant is now executed more rapidly than in
the days of the hammered ' ' style ; and the
notes have no relative time-value, but take
their duration from the syllables in Syllabic,
and from certain rules in Melismatic melody.
The opening phrase of the Gradual 'Justus
ut palma,' as found in the Ratisbon and Solesmes
books respectively, will serve to show the difference
between the two versions. The difference
in method of performance can only be observed
by a visit to one of the many churches in which
Solesmes Plain-song is now cultivated. Below
it is appended the Solesmes example in modern
i=c;
:X=^
tt
-•i^=X
Tit pal • Ilia flo - t6
T^J-P;;-
:3^5fl=v:
drus Li - ba - ni mul-ti-pli-(cabitQr)
Ju - stu8 ut pal • ina flo - ro
-Msft-t
'—^^^-^^^-rp^ztgr^
i
si - cut ce drus . . Li - ba nl
i^\.^:^^
. mul - tl - pU-(cabitur)
^^^^^^^^^^^
Ju - BtuB ut pal-ma flo>r