The Spirit of Gregorian Chant - Church Music Association of America

HISTORY AND TRADITION 31
improving the melodies by cutting down their enormous length,
which arose partly through a bad method of execution, and partly
through the Manieren [executions of virtuosity] of singers. . . . The
revision undertaken by the Congregation of Sacred Rites by order of
Pius IX, put the foundation of the Roman Chant on the system fol"
lowed since the Council of Trent." 1
A very pronounced endeavor on the part of many Catholic
musical theorists to arrive at light on the subject of traditional Chant
made itself evident during the latter half of the XIX century. The
1784 edition of treatises by the most important writers on music,
the great work of Gerbert, Benedictine Abbot of the Monastery of
St. Blaise, and the 1864-76 editions of the same matter continued by
the Flemish musical historian Coussemaker, were used as authorita'
tive sources for zealous study, and interest in liturgical Plainchant
was thoroughly reawakened.
Germany played an impressive part in this scientific music re'
search, which was taking place at the very time that Richard Wagner
was bringing the Opera back to its original destination as a musical
drama.
The definite restoration of Gregorian Chant came about as a
consequence of the general restoration of the Roman liturgy in
France, in which country the greatest confusion had reigned in the
realm of Plainchant since the time of the climax of the Gallican
movement in the XVII century, with its consequent break with the
Roman liturgy. This restoration is owing largely to the efforts of
Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., who founded, and became the
first Abbot of, the Benedictine Monastery of Solesmes. The same
eminent liturgist gave the impetus to the movement for the renewal
of Gregorian music by a return to its earliest known form. He laid
down the principle that "where the manuscripts of different periods
and different countries agree in their version of a melody, it may be
affirmed that the true Gregorian text has been discovered." 2 Much
assiduous study of the available manuscripts ensued as a result of
this movement. But the merit for the definite revival belongs chiefly
to the many years of arduous archeological labor of Dom Joseph
i C. F. Abdy Williams, Solesmes, Grove's Diet.
2 Pal. mus., Vol. I.