The Spirit of Gregorian Chant - Church Music Association of America

INTRODUCTION 11
accidental, we mean even in the very handwriting of liturgical
chant.
"Let us not forget, however, that true unity is not that which
would be restricted to the usages of a single epoch: such, even if
one should obtain it, is not that great and vast unity which char
acterizes the institutions of the Church: not only is it necessary
for unity that all places should be united, but that all epochs should
be. Through it, each age is put in communion with previous ages.
Thus it is, for that which concerns Plainchant, that during long
centuries the melodies of St. Gregory, preserved intact, remained
the same everywhere, with certain variants no doubt, but slight
variants, which do not hinder our finding them again, everywhere
and in every epoch, always easy to recognise and always similar
to one another." 1
Thanks to the tremendous archeological labors of this ven'
erable monk and his successors, we shall see that a tradition existed
which preserved not alone the modulation as well as the rhythm
of Gregorian Chant, but even the forms of a notation proper to
this musical art.
Not only is the necessity for a return to history and tradition
the prerequisite for a proper understanding of any art, whichever
it may be, but the genuine student owes it to his personal develop'
ment to inquire into the labors which have made possible the har'
vest which awaits him; nor will he know how to appreciate it
adequately, to say nothing of adding unto the same, until he has
relived, so to speak, the generations which have preceded him.
Let us hear of this cultivation of the ideal from the mouth
of a master who both taught and practiced it. Vincent dlndy,
in his opening address at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, Novem"
ber 2, 1900, spoke the following words: "Art is a microcosm,
which passes like the world itself through successive periods of
youth, maturity and age; which never perishes, but continually
renews itself. It is not a closed circle, but a spiral, perpetually
ascending and progressing. I intend to make my pupils follow
iCh. I.