st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
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214 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.<br />
One more topic remains to be noticed, and on this<br />
we may speak with perhaps the lea<strong>st</strong> reservation or<br />
qualification <strong>of</strong> all. That is,<br />
the merit <strong>of</strong> John <strong>of</strong><br />
Damascus as the author <strong>of</strong> hymns<br />
<strong>st</strong>ill used in the<br />
services <strong>of</strong> the Church. It is one te<strong>st</strong>imony to his<br />
greatness in this respect, that many hymns are attri<br />
buted to him, which in all probability were not his,<br />
the whole sy<strong>st</strong>em <strong>of</strong> modern church music<br />
and that<br />
is sometimes referred to him as well. A sort <strong>of</strong> haze<br />
surrounds him, from this point <strong>of</strong> view, which it is not<br />
easy to penetrate. Gerbert, in his "Hi<strong>st</strong>ory<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sacred<br />
1<br />
makes him perform the same service for the<br />
Music,"<br />
Ea<strong>st</strong>ern Church that Gregory the Great had done for<br />
the We<strong>st</strong>ern ;<br />
that is, as far as I under<strong>st</strong>and it, employ<br />
what we call notes, in<strong>st</strong>ead <strong>of</strong> letters <strong>of</strong> the alphabet, to<br />
indicate musical sounds, and certain marks or charac<br />
ters to betoken the intervals <strong>of</strong> the ascending or de<br />
scending scale. While in Latin service books, adds<br />
this authority, musical notes are not found before the<br />
1<br />
"DeCantuetMusica sacra, "auctoreMartino Gerbert o, 1774,<br />
vol. ii., p. I. He describes the invention as "novum facilioremque<br />
cantandi modum per notas musicas, loco Grsecorum<br />
characterum onum [sic, lege tomtm~\ seu chordam indicantium."<br />
The invention <strong>of</strong> marks to denote intervals (the scale ?) Gerbert<br />
assigns to Damascene on the authority <strong>of</strong> Zarlino. But the<br />
merit <strong>of</strong> this invention is denied him by Fetis, "Biographic<br />
universelle des Musiciens," 1862, t. iii., p. 433, although he<br />
admits that Damascene "doit etre considere comme le reformateur<br />
du chant de l glise grecque, c e<strong>st</strong> a dire, comme ayant<br />
attache son nom a 1 un des faits les plus importants de 1 hi<strong>st</strong>oire<br />
de 1 art." The second volume <strong>of</strong> Mr. Chappell s "<br />
Hi<strong>st</strong>ory <strong>of</strong><br />
Music," which would cover this period, has not yet, I believe,<br />
been published.