Skip to main content

Full text of "St. Gregory and the Gregorian music"

See other formats


03; 


/ 


ST.    GREGORY 

AND  THE 

GREGORIAN     MUSIC 


BY 


E.    G.    P.    WYATT 


PUBLISHED   FOR   THE 

PLAINSONG  &  MEDIEVAL  MUSIC  SOCIETY. 

1904. 


ML 


PRINTED  BY  SPRAGUE  &  CO.,  LTD., 

46-5  EAST  HARDING  STREET,  FETTER  LANE,  B.C. 

LONDON. 


PREFACE. 


CHE  original  conception  of  this  little  book  was 
due  to  the  Rev.  W.  H.  FRERE,  and  it  could 
not  have  been  carried   out  at  all  without  his  help 
and  advice,  which  have  been  ungrudgingly  given. 

But  he  is  not  responsible  for  any  part  of  the 
book,  except  the  notes  on  the  tropes  and  the  third 
and  fourth  portraits  of  St.  Gregory.  Whatever  else 
in  the  book  is  of  any  value  has  been  compiled  from 
the  following  sources  : — 

MORIN. — "  Les  veritables   origines  du  Chant   Gre- 
gorien."     Maredsous,  1890. 

MORIN. — "  Revue    Benedictine,"    for    May,    1890. 
Maredsous. 

WAGNER. — "  Einfiihrung    in     die     Gregorianischen 
Melodien,"  Pt.  i.     Freiburg,  1901. 

FRERE. — "  Graduale  Sarisburiense."    Plainsong  and 
Mediaeval  Music  Society,  London,  1894. 

"  PALEOGRAPHIE     MUSICALE,"      Vols.     v.    and    vi. 
Solesmes,  1896. 

"  RASSEGNA  GREGORIANA,"  for  March — April,  June, 
and  July,  1903.     Rome. 

E.  G.  P.  WYATT. 


IMAGINES.AD.VIWMJEXPRE55AE 


S  AN   C 

FROPE.BEATI.GREGORmMAGNI.ECCLESIAM 

NECNON.EX.VITA.EIVSDEM.BEATI.GREGORII 

A.IO  ANNE  .DIAC  ON  O.LIB.IV:  C  AP.  LXXXIILE  T.LXXXI  V. 

CONSCRIPTA 


INTRODUCTION. 


CHE  Great  Pope,  the  thirteen  hundredth  anniversary 
of  whose  death  is  commemorated  on  March  the 
1 2th,  1904,  was  born  at  Rome,  probably  about 
the  year  540.  His  father,  Gordianus,  was  a  wealthy 
man  of  senatorial  rank ;  his  mother,  Silvia,  was  re- 
nowned for  her  virtues.  He  received  from  his  parents 
an  excellent  liberal  and  religious  education.  He  further 
applied  himself  to  the  study  of  law,  and — probably  at 
about  the  age  of  30 — was  made  praetor  of  Rome  by 
the  Emperor  Justin  II.  But  he  became  dissatisfied 
with  his  mode  of  life,  and  retiring  to  the  monastery  of 
St.  Andrew,  which  he  had  founded  on  the  Ccelian  hill, 
lived  there  as  monk  and  as  abbot.  He  had  long  been  an 
ardent  admirer  of  St.  Bennet  (who  had  been  dead  little 
more  than  thirty  years),  and  on  his  father's  death  had 
made  use  of  his  patrimony  to  found  six  other  monasteries 
in  Sicily.  He  was  not,  however,  allowed  to  enjoy  his 
retirement  at  St.  Andrew's  for  long,  for  Pope  Benedict  I. 
ordained  him  deacon,  and  sent  him  to  Constantinople 
as  his  apocrisiarius  or  confidential  agent.  Pelagius  II. 
continued  him  in  this  office,  making  use  of  him  especially 
to  appeal  to  the  Emperor  for  aid  against  the  Lombards, 
who,  while  settling  in  North  Italy,  were  wandering 
southwards,  devastating  the  country  as  they  went. 

When  he  was  at  length  recalled  to  Rome,  he  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  return  to  his  monastery.     The  Pope 


allowed  him  to  do  this,  but  employed  him  as  his 
secretary.  It  was  either  now,  or  just  before  he  went 
to  Constantinople,  that  there  occurred  the  famous  in- 
cident in  the  slave  market,  when,  struck  by  the  beauty  of 
some  lads  exposed  for  sale,  he  asked  what  was  the  name 
of  their  nation.  On  being  told,  "Angles,"  he  exclaimed, 
"Good,  for  they  have  the  faces  of  angels,  and  ought  to 
be  fellow-heirs  of  the  angels  in  heaven."  In  reply  to 
his  inquiry  as  to  the  name  of  their  native  province,  he 
was  told  that  its  inhabitants  were  called  Deiri.  He 
answered,  "  Good  ;  snatched  from  the  wrath,  and  called 
to  the  mercy  of  Christ."  What  was  the  name  of  the  king 
of  that  province?  The  answer  was  "  ^Elia."  Then  said  he, 
"Alleluia!  the  praise  of  God  ought  to  be  sung  in  those 
parts."  He  passed  on,  but  did  not  forget  the  incident, 
for  he  wrung  permission  from  the  Pope  to  go  himself  on 
a  mission  to  convert  the  Angles;  but  no  sooner  had  he 
started  than  the  Romans  clamoured  to  have  him  recalled, 
and  he  had  to  return.  He  did  not,  however,  forget  his 
interest  in  the  nation,  and  when  he  was  Pope  he  was 
able  to  carry  out  those  plans  which  earned  him  the 
affectionate  titles  of  "Gregory  our  Father,"  and  "The 
Apostle  of  the  English,"  from  those  who  owed  so  much 
to  him. 

In  590  Pope  Pelagius  died.  It  was  a  time  of  great 
misery  at  Rome ;  there  was  famine  and  a  pestilence  in  the 
city,  the  Tiber  overflowed  its  banks,  and  the  Lombards 
threatened  invasion.  The  Popes  were  virtually  the  rulers 
of  Rome  at  this  time,  and  all  the  inhabitants  turned  to 


DEPRECAMUR  TE  DOMINE 


D— i — • — '— 
E-  pre-  ca-  mur  Te,  Do- 


mi-  ne,       in  om-ni 


.    ;r-\-^- 


T=It 


^=a 


mi-  se-  ri-  cor-  di-   a  tu-     a,         ut  au-  fe-  ra-  tur 


?    f[    •     S»       •              •!     •     fU 

SS—  «•            S       !       .       .. 

i     Bl               "\       S      ,              "       "       IV 

B              •         1 

3 

i        g    i 

fu-ror  tu-   us      et    i-    ra    tu-      a        a   ci-vi-  ta-  te 


9 

ffi 

is-          ta,       et    de    do-  mo  san-cta     tu-       a;      quo- 


a 

ni-am    pec-    ca-    vi-  mus  :  Al-  le-     lu-     ya. 


Gregory  as  their  only  hope.  His  proved  abilities  and 
high  character  were  known  to  all,  and  he  was  unani- 
mously elected  by  the  clergy  and  the  people.  He  shrank, 
however,  from  the  office,  and  even  petitioned  the  Emperor 
Maurice  to  withhold  his  confirmation  of  the  election. 
While  waiting  for  the  Emperor's  answer,  Gregory  em- 
ployed the  occasion  in  preaching  to  the  people,  calling 
them  to  repentance.  A  Litany  was  sung  through  the 
streets  of  the  city  by  seven  companies  of  the  clergy 
and  people,  starting  from  different  churches  and  meeting 
at  the  Basilica  of  St.  Maria  Maggiore.  From  this 
litany,  perhaps,  was  taken  the  processional  antiphon, 
"  Deprecamur  Te  Domine,"  which  was  sung  by  Augustine 
and  his  companions  on  entering  Canterbury  at  the  outset 
of  their  English  mission.  At  length  the  confirmation  of 
his  election  arrived  from  the  Emperor,  and  though 
Gregory  still  tried  to  avoid  the  office,  he  was  eventually 
obliged  to  take  it,  and  was  consecrated  September  the 

3rd>  59°- 

During  the  thirteen  years  of  his  popedom,  Gregory 

had  full  scope  for  his  talents  as  administrator,  as  well  as 
ruler.  The  Eoman  Church  had  by  this  time  become 
possessed  of  a  great  "patrimony,"  and  Gregory  found 
time  in  the  midst  of  his  work  of  reforming  the  clergy 
and  purifying  the  morals  of  the  Church,  to  attend  to 
even  the  smallest  details  in  the  management  of  these 
great  estates.  His  letters  give  us  the  most  vivid  picture 
of  his  work  and  of  his  character.  In  them  he  is  con- 
stantly giving  directions  and  making  arrangements  that 


8 

no  injustice  should  be  done  to  even  the  meanest  peasant 
or  serf  on  these  estates ;  that  their  rents  should  be  fixed, 
and  no  capricious  exactions  demanded  of  them,  nor  sur- 
charges added  to  the  payments  legally  due  from  them. 
He  showed  to  the  Jews  a  toleration  and  consideration 
which  he  did  not  always  extend  to  schismatics,  heretics, 
and  heathen.  He  seems  to  have  reserved  his  most 
violent  language  for  Lombards  and  Patriarchs  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  called  worldly  or  negligent  bishops  to 
order,  and  in  particular  took  vigorous  measures  to  root 
out  simony,  which  was  very  prevalent.  He  sent 
Augustine  and  his  companions  to  England,  and  wrote 
them  letters  of  exhortation  and  instruction ;  he  found 
time  to  send  them  also  church  furniture,  vessels  and 
vestments,  and  a  number  of  books. 

He  also  became  engaged  in  a  controversy  with  John 
the  Faster,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  about  the 
title  of  "Universal  Bishop,"  which  was  arrogated  to 
the  latter  by  himself  and  those  about  him.  It  was 
not  a  novelty,  but  Gregory  seems  to  have  seen  the 
danger  involved  in  its  continued  usage  to  the  power 
which  he  claimed  for  the  See  of  Rome.  A  whole  series 
of  his  letters  are  consequently  taken  up  with  his  vehe- 
ment, not  to  say  violent,  protests  against  John's  use  of 
the  title.  It  is  probably  in  connection  with  the  fact 
that  the  Emperor  Maurice  had  supported  the  Patriarch 
John  in  his  claim  of  equality  with  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
that  the  explanation  is  to  be  sought  of  a  circumstance 
which  remains  the  chief  blot  on  Gregory's  fame.  Maurice 


had  given  him  little  help  against  the  Lombards,  and  had 
in  various  ways  seemed  to  oppose  or  actually  opposed 
Gregory  in  some  of  his  reforms.  When,  therefore,  Phocas 
murdered  Maurice  and  usurped  his  throne,  the  Pope  wrote 
him  a  fulsome  letter  of  congratulation.  He  may  not 
have  been  fully  acquainted  with  the  infamous  character 
of  Phocas,  nor  have  fully  known  of  the  atrocious  manner 
in  which  he  had  murdered  the  Emperor  and  his  family, 
yet  he  must  have  known,  at  least,  that  he  was  a  traitor, 
a  murderer,  and  an  usurper.  Nothing  can  excuse  him — 
knowing  this — for  writing  in  such  a  strain,  saying  "Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest,"  and  "Let  the  heavens  rejoice 
and  let  the  earth  be  glad,"  at  the  hopes  aroused  by  the 
piety  of  the  new  Emperor. 

He  attached  great  importance  to  preaching,  and 
many  of  his  sermons  remain  to  this  day.  He  also  wrote 
"Liber  Pastoralis  Curae,"  a  treatise  on  the  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  Bishops.  This  book  had  immense  influence ; 
it  was  circulated  in  Spain  ;  the  Emperor  had  it  translated 
into  Greek ;  it  was  an  authoritative  text-book  in  Gaul 
for  centuries  ;  and  it  was  translated  into  Anglo-Saxon  by 
King  Alfred,  and  was  widely  disseminated  in  England. 
But  it  is  in  the  services  and  service-books  of  the  Church 
that  he  set  his  mark  most  conspicuously.  He  organized 
and  enriched  them,  even  the  Canon  of  the  Mass  in  which 
he  added  to  the  prayer  of  oblation  the  words  "  Diesque 
nostras  in  tua  pace  disponas."  The  work  which  has  been 
traditionally  ascribed  to  him  in  the  department  of  Church 
Music'  we  shall  enter  into  more  fully. 


10 

From  his  monastic  life  onwards  Gregory  seems  to 
have  suffered  from  bad  health,  due  in  part,  probably, 
to  his  extreme  asceticism  while  living  in  his  monastery. 
During  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  he  was  in  continual 
pain  from  gout,  which  makes  his  activity  and  his 
achievements  still  more  astonishing.  For  long  he  was 
confined  to  his  bed  altogether.  He  died  on  March 
I2th,  604.  In  contrast  to  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
his  accession  to  the  Papacy  was  greeted,  he  was  now 
accused  by  the  fickle  population  of  having  caused  the 
famine,  which  was  then  raging,  by  his  lavish  ex- 
penditure, though  the  latter  was  largely  due  to  the 
charitable  relief  which  he  habitually  gave  to  alleviate 
the  distress  which  prevailed  all  the  time  that  he  filled 
the  Papal  chair.  But  he  was  canonized  after  his 
death  by  universal  consent  in  the  West,  and  the 
Council  of  Cloveshoo,  in  747,  fixed  the  i2th  of  March 
for  his  veneration:  "That  the  birthday  of  the  blessed 
Pope  Gregory,  and  also  the  day  of  the  burial  of  St. 
Augustine  the  Archbishop  and  Confessor  (who  being 
sent  to  the  English  by  the  said  Pope,  our  father  Gregory, 
first  brought  the  knowledge  of  the  Faith,  the  sacrament 
of  Baptism,  and  the  notice  of  the  Heavenly  Country), 
which  is  the  26th  of  May,  be  honourably  observed 
by  all :  so  that  each  day  be  kept  with  a  cessation  from 
labour,  by  ecclesiastics  and  monastics ;  and  that  the 
name  of  our  blessed  father  and  doctor  Augustine  be 
always  mentioned  in  singing  the  Litany  after  the  in- 
vocation of  St.  Gregory." 


Mmmmmt 


II 


THE 

GREGORIAN   TRADITION. 


CHE  tradition  that  St.  Gregory  reformed  the  Plain- 
song  of  his  day,  especially  that  of  the  Antiphonale 
Missarum,  seems  to  have  been  held  universally 
till  1675,  when  Pierre  Gussanville  brought  out  an  edition 
of  Gregory's  works,  in  which  he  threw  doubts  on  the 
tradition.  He  was  followed  in  1729  by  George,  Baron 
d'  Eckhart,  a  friend  of  Leibnitz,  who  put  forward  the 
theory  that  it  was  Gregory  II.,  and  not  Gregory  I.,  who 
had  done  this  work.  In  1772,  at  Venice,  a  new  edition 
of  Gregory's  works  was  published  by  Gallicciolli ;  and  in 
this  were  reproduced  the  arguments  of  Eckhart,  leaving 
the  question  open  for  future  investigation.  Nothing 
more  was  heard  of  the  theory  till  1882,  when,  at  the 
Congress  of  Arezzo,  some  speakers  reproduced  the  doubts 
of  Eckhart  and  Gallicciolli. 

This  did  not  attract  much  attention  at  the  time,  and 
the  question  was  again  reopened  in  1890  by  M.  Gevaert 
in  a  lecture  given  in  the  presence  of  the  Academic  and 
of  the  King  of  the  Belgians.  The  earlier  "  doubters " 
had  argued  the  question  from  a  purely  historical  stand- 
point :  M.  Gevaert  lays  stress  especially  on  the  musical 
side  of  the  question.  Theirs  was  chiefly  negative ;  he 


12 

proposes  a  theory  of  his  own.  He  wishes  to  substitute 
Gregory  II.  or  III.  for  Gregory  I.  The  traditional  view 
has  been  upheld  against  him  by  Dom  Morin,  Dr.  Peter 
Wagner,  and  Rev.  W.  H.  Frere. 

The  Historical  Evidence  may  be  summarized  as 
follows,  working  backwards  from  a  time  when  the  Gre- 
gorian tradition  was  in  existence  beyond  all  question : — 

I. — JOHN  THE  DEACON  (c.  872),  Vita  St.  Gregorii, 
lib.  ii.,  cap.  vi.,  Antiphonarium  Centonizans,  Cantorum 
Constituit  Scholam.  "  In  the  house  of  the  Lord,  like  a 
most  wise  Solomon,  knowing  the  compunction  which 
the  sweetness  of  music  inspires,  he  compiled  for  the 
sake  of  the  singers  the  collection  called  '  Antiphoner,' 
which  is  of  so  great  usefulness.  He  founded  also  the 
School  of  Singers  who  to  this  day  perform  the  sacred 
chant  in  the  Holy  Roman  Church  according  to  in- 
structions received  from  him.  He  assigned  to  it  several 
estates,  and  had  two  houses  built  for  it,  one  situated 
at  the  foot  of  the  steps  of  the  Church  of  the  Apostle 
St.  Peter,  the  other  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  buildings 
of  the  patriarchal  palace  of  the  Lateran.  There  to-day 
are  still  shown  the  couch  on  which  he  reposed  while 
giving  his  singing  lessons ;  and  the  whip  with  which 
he  threatened  the  boys  is  still  preserved  and  venerated 
as  a  relic,  as  well  as  his  authentic  Antiphoner.  By  a 
clause  inserted  in  his  deed  of  gift,  he  laid  down  under 
pain  of  anathema  that  these  estates  should  be  divided 
between  the  two  portions  of  the  School  in  payment  for 
the  daily  service." — (Pair.  Lat.,  Ixxv.,  90.) 


13 

This  extract  may  be  taken  to  prove  that — 

1.  In  872  at  Rome  Gregory  I.  was  believed  to  be 

the  author  of  the  Antiphoner  which  bears  his 
name. 

2.  The  Schola  Cantorum  looked  upon  Gregory  I. 

as  its  founder  and  endower. 

3.  The  Schola  was  still  believed  to  possess  his 

"authenticum    Antiphonarium "    and    certain 
other  objects  connected  in  the  popular  mind 
with  the  memory  of  what  Gregory  had  done 
for  the  cause  of  the  ecclesiastical  chant. 
It  is  certainly  an  important  point  that  the  Schola 
itself  attributed  its  foundation  to  Gregory  I.     Such  a 
tradition  would  be  carefully  preserved  in  an  important 
corporation  like  this. 

A  further  witness  to  the  existence  of  St.  Gregory's 
couch  is  to  be  found  in  Notitia  Ecclesiarum  Urbis  Rom&, 
an  itinerary  assigned  by  de  Rossi  to  the  seventh  century, 
(de  Rossi,  Rom.  Sot.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  138—143.) 

II.— POPE  LEO  IV.  (847—855)  to  the  Abbot 
Honoratus,  Ex  registro  Leonis  IIIL  "There  is  some- 
thing quite  incredible,  the  sound  of  which  has  reached 
our  ears :  a  thing  which,  if  true,  tends  rather  to 
diminish  our  consideration  than  to  give  it  honour,  to 
obscure  it  rather  than  to  give  it  lustre.  It  appears  in 
short  that  you  feel  nothing  but  aversion  for  the  beau- 
tiful chant  of  St.  Gregory,  and  for  the  manner  of  singing 
and  reading  laid  down  and  taught  by  him  in  the 
Church,  so  that  you  are  in  disagreement  on  this  point 


H 

not  only  with  the  Holy  See,  which  is  near  to  you, 
but  also  with  almost  the  whole  Western  Church, 
with  all  who  use  Latin  to  offer  their  praises  to  the 
Eternal  King  and  pay  Him  the  tribute  of  harmonious 
sounds. 

"  All  these  Churches  have  received  with  so  much 
eagerness  and  ardent  affection  this  tradition  of  Gregory, 
and  after  having  received  it  unreservedly  they  find  so 
much  pleasure  in  it,  that  even  now  they  apply  to  us 
for  more  of  it,  thinking  that  perhaps  something  more 
which  they  do  not  know  of,  may  have  been  preserved 
among  us.  This  Holy  Pope  Gregory,  a  servant  of 
God  and  a  famous  preacher  and  a  wise  pastor,  who 
did  so  much  for  the  welfare  of  mankind,  he  it  was 
who  also  composed  this  chant,  which  we  sing  in  the 
Church  and  everywhere,  with  great  pains  and  with  a 
complete  knowledge  of  the  musical  art.  He  wished 
by  this  means  to  act  more  powerfully  upon  men's 
hearts  in  order  to  arouse  and  touch  them ;  and  in  fact 
the  sound  of  his  sweet  melodies  has  gathered  in  the 
Churches  not  merely  spiritual  men,  but  also  those  who 
are  less  cultivated  and  sensitive. 

"  I  pray  you  not  to  allow  yourself  to  remain  in 
disagreement  either  with  this  Church,  which  is  the 
chief  head  of  religion,  and  from  which  no  one  wishes 
to  stray,  or  with  all  those  Churches  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  if  you  love  to  live  in  complete  peace  and 
concord  with  the  Universal  Church.  For  if — which 
we  do  not  believe — your  aversion  for  our  instruction 


15 

and  for  the  tradition  of  our  holy  Pontiff  is  such  that 
you  are  not  willing  to  conform  in  every  point  to  our 
rite,  both  in  chants  and  lessons,  know  that  we  will 
repel  you  from  our  communion  ;  for  it  is  fitting  and 
healthful  for  you  to  follow  the  usages  for  which  the 
Roman  Church,  mother  of  all  and  mistress  of  you, 
shows  such  great  love  and  invincible  attachment. 
For  this  reason  we  order  you,  under  pain  of  excom- 
munication, to  conform  in  the  Churches  both  in 
singing  and  reading  exclusively  to  the  order  instituted 
by  the  Holy  Pope  Gregory  and  followed  by  us,  and 
without  fail  to  practise  and  sing  it  in  future  with 
the  utmost  zeal.  For  if — which  we  cannot  believe — 
anyone  shall  attempt  by  any  means  whatever  to  turn 
you  from  the  right  path  by  leading  you  to  a  tradition 
other  than  that  which  we  have  just  prescribed  to  you 
for  the  present  and  the  future,  we  not  only  order  that 
he  be  deprived  of  partaking  of  the  Holy  Body  and 
Blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  in  virtue  of  our 
proper  authority  and  that  of  all  our  predecessors,  we 
decree  that  in  punishment  of  his  audacity  and  pre- 
sumption he  remain  under  a  perpetual  anathema. "- 
(Cod.  Brit.  Mils.,  add.  8873,  fol.  168.) 

Pope  Leo,  the  author  of  this  letter,  had  himself  been 
a  pupil  at  this  same  monastery  of  St.  Martin.  From 
thence  also  the  priest  John,  the  Precentor  of  St.  Peter's, 
had  set  out  200  years  before  to  teach  the  English  the 
system  of  chanting  and  reading  followed  at  St.  Peter's. 
The  above  extract  throws  an  important  light  on  the 


i6 


progress  of  the  Gregorian  reform  of  the  ecclesiastical 
chant.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  century  a  powerful 
monastery  close  to  Rome  had  not  yet  adopted  it.  Com- 
pare with  this  fact  the  presence  of  the  Ambrosian  chant 
in  the  province  of  Capua  in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century  (Kienle,  in  Studien  und  Mittheilungen  des  Benedictine? 
und  Cistercienser-Orden,  1884,  p.  346),  and  the  Ambrosian 
rubrics  of  various  books  copied  a  little  later  for  churches 
at  Rome  itself  (Tomasi,  Opp.  vol.  vii.,  pp.  9  &>  10),  and  it 
will  be  seen  how  gradually  the  Gregorian  books  attained 
their  universal  supremacy. 

III. — HILDEMAR  (between  833  and  850),  author  of 
a  commentary  on  the  Rule  of  St.  Bennet,  speaks  of 
St.  Gregory  as  the  composer  of  the  "Roman  Office"  : 
"Beatus  Gregorius  qui  dicitur  Romanum  Officium  fe- 
cisse."  (Expositio  Regula  ab  Hildemavo  tradita,  p.  311, 
Ratisbon,  1880.) 

IV. — WALAFRID  STRABO  (807 — 849).  De  Ecclesias- 
ticavum  rerum  exordiis  et  increments  (composed  about  840). 
"The  tradition  is  that  St.  Gregory,  just  as  he  regulated 
the  order  of  the  masses  and  of  consecrations  [i.e.,  the 
Sacramentary  and  the  Pontifical  Rituale]  so  also  had 
the  greatest  part  in  the  arrangement  of  the  liturgical 
chants,  following  the  order  which  is  observed  to  this 
day  as  the  most  fitting :  as  is  commemorated  at  the 
head  of  the  Antiphoner."  (Op.  cit.  c.  xxi.,  Pair.  Lat., 
cxiv.,  948.) 

This   refers,    strictly    speaking,    to   the   Antiphonale 
Missarum.      But   the    following   extract  treats  directly 


of  the  chants  of  the  office  contained  in  the  Liber 
Responsorialis,  or  corresponding  volume  for  the  hour 
services. 

"  As  for  the  chants  for  use  at  the  different  hours, 
whether  of  the  day  or  of  the  night,  it  is  believed  that 
it  was  St.  Gregory  who  assigned  to  them  their  complete 
arrangement,  just  as  he  had  already  done,  as  we  have 
said,  for  the  Sacramentary."  (c.  xxv.,  958.) 

These  two  passages  establish  the  fact  that  there  was 
a  tradition  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  that 
St.  Gregory  set  in  order  the  ecclesiastical  music.  It 
seems  also  that  there  was  an  inscription  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Antiphoner  stating  as  a  fact  that  he  had  done 
this.  The  following  extract  helps  us  to  identify  what  this 
inscription  was. 

V. — AGOBARD  OF  LYONS  (779 — 840).  Liber  de  Cor- 
rections Antiphonarii,  c.  xv.,  Patv.  Lot.  civ.,  336.  "But 
because  the  inscription  serving  for  title  to  the  book 
in  question  [i.e.,  the  Antiphoner]  puts  in  the  forefront 
the  name  of  '  Gregorius  Praesul,'  thereupon  some 
people  imagine  that  the  work  was  composed  by  the 
Blessed  Gregory,  Pope  of  Rome  and  illustrious 
doctor." 

He  is  here  defending  the  chant  of  Lyons  against  the 
ultramontane  efforts  of  Amalarius  to  introduce  the  Roman 
ways.  He  goes  on  to  try  to  prove  that  the  Antiphoner 
defended  by  Amalarius  cannot  be  St.  Gregory's,  because 
he  had  forbidden  the  use  of  words  not  taken  directly  from 
Scripture. 


i8 


VI. — AMALARIUS  OF  METZ  (815 — 835)  is  undoubtedly 
the  person  who  played  the  foremost  part  in  the  fusion 
of  the  Galilean  element  with  the  rest  of  the  Gregorian  or 
Gelasian  Liturgy,  from  which  combination  has  come  in 
substance  the  Roman  Liturgy  in  use  to-day.  He  had 
travelled  much,  and  had  been  at  Rome.  He  is  a  weighty 
authority  in  the  present  question.  The  following  extracts 
are  taken  from  a  supplementary  chapter  of  his  De  Divinis 
Officiis,  published  by  Mabillon,  in  his  Vetera  Analefta 
(Paris,  1723).  He  is  speaking  of  the  Pope  Gregory  who  is 
the  author  of  the  Dialogues,  and  who  sent  St.  Augustine 
into  England. 

"  Amongst  the  monks  who  have  been  raised  to  the 
Supreme  Pontificate  can  be  cited  Denys,  and  Gregory 
of  incomparable  memory.  Now  Gregory,  amongst 
many  other  things  by  which  he  furthered  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  Church,  had  the  glory  of  being  the 
chief  organizer  of  the  Office  for  clerical  use."  (p.  93.) 

"  In  the  time  of  St.  Bennet  the  whole  order  of 
psalmody  had  not  yet  been  fixed  with  precision  in  the 
Psalter  and  the  Antiphoner  :  it  was  the  incomparable 
Pope  Gregory  of  holy  memory,  himself  a  zealous 
observer  of  the  rule  of  St.  Bennet  and  an  imitator 
of  his  monastic  perfection,  who  afterwards  regulated 
the  arrangement  of  it  under  the  direction  of  the  Holy 
Spirit."  (pp.  93—4.) 

"  Far  from  blaming  those  who  preserve  the  Gre- 
gorian usage,  they  should  rather  praise  them."  (p.  94.) 
"  In    the    authentic    model    of    St.    Gregory,    the 


19 

Alleluia  and  the  Gloria  are  suppressed  at  the  Mass  for 
Innocents'  Day,  in  order  to  express  the  grief  of  the 
mothers  or  of  the  Church."  (p.  96.) 

Amalarius  was  commissioned  by  Louis  the  Debonair 
to  procure  at  Rome  a  copy  of  the  Antiphoner  to  serve  as 
a  model  for  an  uniform  use  in  place  of  the  varying  uses 
then  to  be  found.  The  Pope  in  answer  to  his  request 
replied,  "  I  have  no  Antiphoner  that  I  can  send  to  my 
son  and  lord  the  Emperor.  Those  which  we  had,  were 
taken  to  France  by  Wala,  Abbot  of  Corbie,  when  he 
came  here  on  a  mission."  On  his  return  to  France, 
Amalarius  went  to  Corbie,  where  he  found  the  four 
volumes  brought  by  Wala.  They  contained  an  inscrip- 
tion saying  that  this  collection  was  put  in  order  by 
Pope  Adrian  I.  But  he  found  that  they  differed  from 
the  books  at  Metz,  which  were  older  still ;  so  in  despair 
he  made  a  compilation  of  his  own,  taking  from  each 
what  seemed  to  him  the  best. 

Now  it  has  been  argued  that  if  these  Antiphoners 
had  either  of  them  borne  the  name  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
Amalarius  would  not  have  had  the  audacity  to  alter 
them  in  this  manner,  nor  would  he  if  there  had  existed 
anywhere  in  Gaul  any  bearing  his  name.  But  this 
idea  has  arisen  from  the  confusion  attending  the  name 
"  antiphoner."  The  book  that  Amalarius  was  dealing 
with  was  not  the  Antiphoner  for  Mass,  but  the  Anti- 
phoner for  Divine  Service.  There  were  great  variations 
in  the  latter  in  different  localities  down  to  the  reform 
by  Pius  V.,  far  more  than  in  the  former.  When  the 


20 

"  famous  authentic  model  of  Gregory  "  is  spoken  of,  it  is 
the  Antiphonale  Missarum  which  is  meant. 

VII. — AMALARIUS,  Bishop  of  Treves  (809 — 814). 
Liber  Officionim,  from  a  MS.  at  Treves,  quoted  by  Morin, 
fol.  6,  De  Missa  Innocentium.  "  The  Mass  of  the  Inno- 
cents begins  in  the  Diurnal  with  this  Rubric  :  '  Gloria 
in  Excelsis  Deo  is  not  sung,  nor  Alleluia,  unless  it  be 
Sunday  ;  this  day  is  passed  in  a  sort  of  sadness.'  The 
Holy  Pope  Gregory,  in  whom  dwelt  in  very  truth  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  to  whom  is  due  the  composition  of 
this  office,  means  us  to  share  the  feelings  of  the  pious 
women  who  bewailed  and  lamented  the  death  of  the 
Innocents.  And  if  it  is  permitted  to  transgress  the 
order  of  so  great  a  Father,  it  would  equally  be  lawful 
to  chant  Alleluia  with  the  complete  office  of  the  day 
on  Good  Friday." 

It  is  a  question  here  of  the  Antiphoner  of  the 
Mass. 

(fol.  7.)  On  the  day  of  the  Epiphany  "we  lose  one 
of  the  chants  which  we  have  at  Christmas,  viz.,  the 
Invitatory.  St.  Gregory,  the  organizer  of  the  offices, 
meant  by  this  peculiarity  to  recall  to  our  memory 
as  strongly  as  he  could  what  passed  formerly  at  the 
time  of  the  accomplishment  of  the  mysteries  which 
we  honour.  That  is  why  we  chant  in  the  sixth  place 
the  psalm  which  we  had  avoided  in  the  beginning. 
It  is  true  that  certain  blunderers  treat  this  with  in- 
difference and  contempt,  thinking  it  much  better  to 
follow  the  ordinary  usage  of  each  day.  But,  as  we 


21 

have  already  said,  he  wished  by  this  to  distinguish" 
&c.,  &c. 

This   passage   refers    to    the    Antiphoner    of    the 

Office. 

(fol.  9 — 10.)    "  That  is  why  Gregory,  the  author 
of   our  office,  has  placed  Septuagesima 
However,  Gregory  the  institutor  of  our  office     .     . 
It   is   a   question   of  the    Antiphoner   and   of   the 

Sacramentary. 

(fol.  39.)  "  The  author  of  our  office,  who  is  none 
other  than  Gregory  .  .  . 

He  is  referring  to  a  portion  of  the  Antiphoner  of 

the  Mass. 

In  the  following  passage  Amalarius  distinguishes  the 
work  of  the  two  first  Gregories  as  to  the  Thursdays 
in  Lent. 

(fol.  1 02.)  "  The  Holy  Pope  Gregory  in  arranging 
the  offices  of  the  year  had  left  vacant  the  Thursdays  of 
Lent.  ...  A  long  time  after  him  another  Pope, 
Gregory  the  younger,  ordained  that  these  days  should 
also  be  celebrated  by  Masses  and  Prayers,  but  with 
less  solemnity,  and  he  borrowed  wherever  he  could 
material  to  form  the  offices  of  these  Thursdays." 

VIII. — POPE  ADRIAN  I.  (772 — 795).  A  MS.  from 
Saint  Martial  de  Limoges  contains  this  passage  (Paris, 
Bill.  Nat.,  No.  2400.)  "  Adrian  II.,  after  the  example 
of  his  predecessor  of  the  same  name,  completed  the 
Gregorian  Antiphoner  in  several  places.  He  also 
arranged  a  second  prologue  in  hexameter  verse  to  be 


22 

chanted  at  High  Mass  on  the  first  day  of  Advent. 
This  prologue  begins  in  the  same  way  as  another 
very  short  one  composed  by  the  first  Adrian  to  be 
sung  at  all  the  Masses  of  this  first  Sunday  in  Advent, 
but  that  of  Adrian  II.  is  composed  of  a  greater  number 
of  verses." 

We  have  seen  the  passage  in  which  Walafrid  Strabo 
speaks  of  the  inscription  at  the  beginning  of  the  Anti- 
phoner,  ascribing  its  origin  to  Gregory  I,,  and  again  that 
in  which  Agobard  of  Lyons  tells  us  that  the  inscription 
contained  the  words  "  Gregorius  Praesul."  There  are 
five  forms  extant  of  the  prologue  in  hexameter  verse. 
The  shortest,  and  therefore  the  one  probably  composed 
by  Adrian  I.,  is  as  follows : — 

"  Gregorius  Praesul  meritis  et  nomine  dignus 
Unde  genus  ducit,  summum  ascendit  honorem. 
Renovavit  monumenta  patrum  priorum  :  tune 
Composuit  hunc  libellum  musicae  artis 
Scholae  cantorum  anni  circuli :  Ad  te  levavi." 

All  the  five  forms  begin  with  the  same  two  first  lines. 
Eckhart  got  over  the  difficulty  caused  to  his  theory  by 
these  lines  by  supposing  that  "Gregorius  Praesul"  meant 
not  Gregory  the  Great,  but  Gregory  II.  But  he  does  not 
explain  how  "  Unde  genus  ducit,"  &c.,  can  refer  to  the 
latter.  But  it  fits  Gregory  I.  in  this  way  :  Pope  Felix 
was  his  great-great-grandfather  ;  so  that,  on  succeeding 
to  the  papacy,  he  as  it  were  entered  on  a  family  in- 
heritance. 

This  prologue  proves  that  the  Antiphoner  was  ascribed 


23 

by  tradition  to  St.   Gregory  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighth  century. 

IX. — EGBERT,  Archbishop  of  York  (732 — 766),  is  a 
still  more  important  witness.  Born  about  678,  he  was 
ordained  deacon  at  Rome,  and  received  the  archiepiscopal 
pallium  from  Gregory  III.  in  735.  He  was  the  disciple 
and  friend  of  Bede,  the  confidant  and  benefactor  of 
St.  Boniface,  and  the  teacher  of  Alcuin.  Shortly  after 
he  became  archbishop  he  composed  a  work  addressed  to 
his  brother  bishops,  and  called  De  Institution*  Catholica. 
The  following  extracts  from  it  refer  to  the  Ember-day 
Fasts. 

"  As  for  us  in  the  Church  of  England,  we  always 
observe  the  Fast  of  the  First  Month  in  the  first  week 
of  Lent,  relying  on  the  authority  of  our  teacher, 
St.  Gregory,  who  has  thus  regulated  it  in  the  model 
which  he  has  handed  down  to  us  in  his  Antiphoner 
and  his  Missal  through  the  medium  of  our  pedagogue 
the  Blessed  Augustine."  (Patr.  Lat.  Ixxxix.,  441.) 

"  As  for  the  Fast  of  the  Fourth  Month,  the  same 
St.  Gregory,  by  the  same  envoy,  has  prescribed  in  his 
Antiphoner  and  his  Missal  the  week  which  follows 
Pentecost  as  that  in  which  the  Church  of  England 
ought  to  celebrate  it.  And  this  is  attested  not  only  by 
our  own  Antiphoners,  but  also  by  those  which  we 
have  inspected  with  their  corresponding  missals  in 
the  Churches  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul."  (Ibid.} 

Egbert  brings  us  back  to  the  seventh  century,  but 
during  that  century  (the  beginning  of  which  saw  the 


24 

death  of  Gregory)  we  have  no  direct  evidence.  There 
are  some  considerations,  however,  which  may  account 
for  this. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  very  little  light  thrown 
on  the  history  of  St.  Gregory  by  the  sources  of  the 
seventh  century.  Apart  from  his  Registrum  there  is 
little  recorded  that  would  by  itself  justify  his  surname  of 
the  Great.  In  the  Liber  Pontificalis  there  are  only  a 
few  lines  about  him,  whilst  the  Hellenic  Popes,  who 
sat  in  the  Papal  chair  from  685  to  741,  have  detailed 
biographies,  generally  very  laudatory.  The  mission  of 
Augustine  for  the  conversion  of  England  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  most  striking  facts  in  Gregory's  life  ;  but  the 
only  chronicler  of  the  seventh  century  who  mentions  it 
is  the  Continuator  of  Prosper.  Is  it  surprising,  then, 
that  there  is  a  still  more  profound  silence  on  a  fact 
less  calculated  to  attract  outside  attention,  such  as  is 
the  recasting  of  the  liturgical  books  peculiar  to  the 
Church  at  Rome  ? 

In  the  second  place,  care  must  be  taken  not  to  apply 
the  ideas  of  to-day  to  another  age.  It  must  not  be 
supposed  that  the  Gregorian  Reform  was  promulgated 
throughout  the  Western  Churches  in  the  same  manner, 
for  instance,  as  the  Reform  of  Pius  V.  The  modern 
system  of  centralization  did  not  then  exist.  When 
Gregory  took  the  liturgical  books  in  hand,  he  had  at 
first  in  view  only  the  Papal  chapel,  and  the  churches 
at  Rome  under  his  immediate  supervision.  It  was  their 
importation  into  England  in  the  lifetime  of  *>t.  Augustine, 


7 


p  posit*  -ttuazai+pjcnjiiiji  •urimjuamum 

«»  /" 

p  cdnicmuiiur:fi-ibfaiiicnti 


K  ;r 


J -•  t      A        f  ^     -S  ~tepilericnf3:Cptnxtr   h&n 


25 

and  into  the  Prankish  Empire  two  hundred  years  after, 
under  the  pressure  exerted  by  the  first  Carlovingians, 
which  gave  the  greatest  impetus  to  their  universal  use. 
In  Italy,  on  the  contrary,  and  even  at  Rome,  it  came 
about  gradually  only  through  the  insistence  of  such 
Popes  as  Leo  IV.  and  Stephen  X.  that  the  Gregorian 
Chant  in  the  end  completely  supplanted  that  in  use  in 
early  times  in  the  Peninsula.  This  explains  why  the 
first  witnesses  in  favour  of  the  Gregorian  tradition  come 
to  us  from  England  and  Carlovingian  Gaul. 

Again,  one  ought  not  to  expect  to  find  the  chroniclers 
laying  stress  on  the  Gregorian  origin  of  the  Roman 
books  in  the  lifetime  of  those  who  were  contemporaries 
and  disciples  of  the  great  Pope,  and  who  had  themselves 
introduced  the  book  from  Rome.  The  fact  would  be 
taken  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  would  not  be  till  these 
had  passed  away  that  a  tradition  would  begin  to  form, 
and  stress  be  laid  on  the  fact ;  and  this  brings  us  to  the 
date  of  Archbishop  Egbert. 

Besides,  who  would  have  suspected  the  full  im- 
portance of  this  Gregorian  form,  and,  in  particular, 
have  foreseen  that  it  would  put  a  limit  to  the  period 
of  elaboration  of  the  Western  liturgy  ?  So  many  Popes 
had  already  taken  the  matter  in  hand.  The  great  work 
of  Gregory  was  to  organize,  set  in  order,  and  fix.  But 
only  time  can  show  what  is  really  fixed.  The  greatness 
of  his  work  is  only  apparent  after  having  remained 
unaltered  for  centuries. 

These  considerations  tend  to  show  that  there  is  no 


26 

cause  for  surprise  that  it  should  have  taken  so  long  for 
people  to  realize  the  greatness  of  Gregory's  work  in 
setting  in  order  the  music  of  the  Church. 

INTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

The  oldest  Antiphoners  that  we  possess  are  some  two 
hundred  years  later  than  Gregory  I.  But  they  possess 
two  peculiarities  which  raise  a  presumption  in  favour  of 
an  origin  at  least  as  old  as  St.  Gregory. 

The  first  peculiarity  lies  in  the  version  of  Scripture 
from  which  are  taken  the  portions  to  which  the  music 
is  set.  This  version  is  the  old  Latin  one  known  as 
11  Itala."  Now  even  if  at  the  time  of  St.  Gregory  it  had 
not  entirely  given  place  to  the  Vulgate,  yet  from  his  time 
onwards  the  latter  prevailed  universally  (except  for  the 
Psalter,  which  was  retained  at  Rome  till  the  time  of 
Pius  V.,  and  is  still  used  at  St.  Peter's),  not  only  in 
Rome,  but  in  all  the  West ;  so  much  so,  that  St.  Isidore 
of  Seville  could  assert  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventh 
century,  that  St.  Jerome's  version  had  already  been  taken 
into  use  by  all  the  Churches  as  preferable  to  the  ancient 
one.  It  is  natural  to  seek  the  explanation  of  preserving 
an  obsolete  text  of  the  words  in  the  respect  felt  for  the 
melodies  to  which  they  were  set.  It  is,  therefore,  reason- 
able to  conclude  that  these  melodies  existed  for  the  most 
part  before  the  definite  abandonment  of  the  Itala  at 
Rome,  that  is  to  say  before  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century. 

The    second    peculiarity   which    supports   this   con- 


27 

elusion  is  to  be  found  in  the  comparison  of  the  Offices, 
known  to  have  been  added  since  the  time  of  St.  Gregory, 
with  the  older  portion  of  the  Antiphoner.  With  very 
few,  and  those  very  doubtful,  exceptions,  the  materials 
for  these  are  all  taken  from  older  Offices.  Sometimes 
both  words  and  tunes  are  transferred  bodily  ;  sometimes 
new  words  are  set  to  the  old  melodies. 

There  are  certain  Masses  of  Saints,  the  chants  for 
which  were  taken  from  those  which  later  were  collected 
together  to  form  the  Common.  For  the  Feasts  of  the 
Annunciation,  the  Assumption,  and  the  Nativity  of  the 
Virgin,  all  the  chants  were  taken  from  older  Masses,  e.g., 
from  the  masses  of  Advent  and  of  certain  Virgins  and 
Martyrs.  The  Procession  of  the  Purification,  both  words 
and  melody,  was  borrowed  from  the  Greeks  by  Pope 
Sergius.  For  the  Mass  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Holy 
Cross  all  the  chants  were  taken  from  elsewhere,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  Communion.  The  Intvoit  and 
the  Gradual  were  taken  from  Maundy  Thursday,  the 
Alleluia  from  Friday  in  Easter  week,  and  the  Offertory 
from  Maundy  Thursday,  or  the  Second  Mass  for  Christ- 
mas-day. The  Intvoit  for  the  Purification  is  borrowed 
from  the  Eighth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

The  compositions  either  in  the  Sanctorale  or  the 
Temporale  of  the  Mass  that  can  be  definitely  dated 
as  introduced  after  the  death  of  St.  Gregory  are  very  few, 
and  may  perhaps  have  been  borrowed,  with  the  Festivals 
themselves,  from  outside  by  the  Roman  Church. 

It  is  a  reasonable  conclusion  to  draw,  then,  that  the 


28 

addition  of  these  portions  in  the  seventh  century  shows 
at  least  a  great  diminution  of  musical  productive  power, 
and  that  the  bulk  of  the  Antiphoner  of  the  Mass  must 
have  been  composed  before  this  date.  This  inference  is 
supported  by  the  conclusion  which  M.  Gevaert  draws 
from  his  examination  of  the  Antiphons  of  Divine  Service 
(La  Mdop'ee  Antique,  p.  175),  viz.,  that  the  Golden  Age 
for  compositions  of  this  class  was  the  period  540 — 600. 
The  natural  deduction  from  this  is  that  the  main  settle- 
ment of  the  Antiphoner  of  the  Mass  fell  within  the 
same  period. 

Still  it  may  not  have  been  wholly  due  to  a  cessation 
of  musical  activity  that  new  music  for  the  Mass  gradually 
ceased  to  be  written  in  the  course  of  the  seventh  century, 
for  a  certain  amount  of  music  still  continued  to  be  written 
for  the  Hour  Services.  It  may  have  been  due  to  a 
feeling  that  the  book  was  a  closed  and  settled  one  after 
a  final  and  authoritative  revision  such  as  St.  Gregory's  is 
traditionally  held  to  have  been,  and  that  it  was  pre- 
sumptuous to  add  to  it.  But  whichever  view  is  taken  of 
this,  the  Gregorian  tradition  is  equally  supported. 

A  further  support  to  the  claims  of  Gregory  I.  as 
against  Gregory  II.  is  to  be  found  in  an  examination 
of  the  Communions  of  the  Masses  of  Lent.  These 
form  a  series  taken  from  the  Psalms  in  numerical  order, 
i.  to  xxvi.,  with  the  exception  of  five  for  which  have 
been  substituted  texts  taken  from  the  Gospel.  The 
Thursdays  in  Lent,  however,  form  an  exception  to  this 
scheme  ;  they  are  interpolations  breaking  the  order  of  it. 


29 

Now  we  know  that  they  were  added  by  Gregory  II.; 
therefore  the  original  scheme  of  the  Masses  of  Lent, 
at  least,  was  drawn  up  before  the  time  of  Gregory  II. 
Of  the  twenty-four  pieces  contained  in  the  masses  for  the 
first  six  Thursdays  in  Lent,  twenty-one  appear  in  the 
Sundays  after  Trinity.  It  seems  certain  that  the  Thurs- 
days in  Lent  must  have  borrowed  from  the  Sundays 
after  Trinity,  and  not  vice  versa;  this  is  supported  by  the 
fact  that  the  Graduals  and  Offertories  of  the  Thursdays 
in  Lent  are  all  borrowed,  and  of  the  Sundays  after 
Trinity  hardly  any.  So  this  addition,  which  we  know 
to  be  of  the  date  of  Gregory  II.,  was  made  to  a 
scheme  already  in  existence,  and  both  words  and 
music  were  borrowed  from  other  parts  of  the  Anti- 
phonale  Missarum. 

As  against  the  claims  made  for  the  Hellenic  Popes 
of  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  it  is  worth  while  to 
examine  the  music  which  it  is  probable  was  introduced 
by  Hellenic  influence  during  that  time,  and  compare  it 
with  the  bulk  of  the  "Gregorian."  The  tropes  and  the 
melodies  from  which  the  sequences  developed  probably 
come  under  this  head,  and  some  specimens  of  these  may 
may  be  seen  in  the  Winchester  Troper  (Ed.  Rev.  W.  H. 
Frere,  H.  Bradshaw  Society,  1894).  An  examination  of 
these  melodies  will  show  that  their  structure  is  entirely 
unlike  the  structure  of  the  Gregorian  melodies,  especially 
in  the  close  with  a  rise  from  the  note  below  the  final  to 
the  final,  which  continually  occurs  at  the  end  of  the 
phrases.  This  will  be  very  clear  from  the  accompanying 


3° 

melody,  Cithara,  from  which  the  sequence  Rex  Omnipotens 
was  formed.  This  form  of  close  appears  at  the  end  of 
each  of  the  first  five  sections,  and  again  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  and  eighth.  In  the  rest  of  the  sequence,  the 
melody  rises  to  a  higher  range,  and  the  close  appears 
a  fifth  higher  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections,  a  fourth 
higher  in  the  eleventh  and  thirteenth,  and  a  whole 
octave  higher  in  the  twelfth.  This  transposition  of  the 
range  of  the  melody  is  more  developed  here  than  in 
most  sequence  melodies,  but  some  such  transposition 
is  a  prominent  characteristic  of  many  of  them.  There  is 
nothing  at  all  like  it  in  the  genuine  Roman  chant. 


IN  WHAT  DID  THE  WORK  OF  ST.  GREGORY 
CONSIST? 

John  the  Deacon  describes  his  Antiphoner  as  a 
"cento"  (Antiphonarium  Centonem  compilavit],  and  speaks  of 
him,  as  we  have  seen,  as  "Antiphonarium  centonizans." 
"  Cento "  is  a  Low  Latin  word  meaning  patchwork, 
combination,  or  compilation.  "  Antiphonarius  cento  " 
would  therefore  mean  an  Antiphoner  compiled  from 
various  sources.  And  this  is  the  character  of  the 
Gregorian  Antiphoner  of  the  Mass,  even  of  the  nucleus 
which  remains  after  omitting  the  parts  known  to  have 
been  added  since  Gregory's  time.  Indeed  the  whole 
phrase  quoted  above  has  a  ring  of  truth  about  it,  and 
makes  the  tradition  which  he  reports  of  a  more  genuine 
historical  character,  for  if  it  had  been  a  mere  vague 


CITHARA 


.1    i>J    8t   — 
H    —   '*    J" 


»    ma.    • 


*  J 


g  s 


n 


i-iv 


f-£^ 


3% 


tradition  in  glorification  of  St.  Gregory,  he  would  have 
been  more  likely  to  have  spoken  of  him  as  the  composer 
of  the  Antiphoner,  and  not  as  a  mere  compiler.  The 
oldest  part  of  the  book  is  formed  of  the  Feasts  celebrated 
in  honour  of  events  and  saints  spoken  of  in  Scripture, 
and  of  the  oldest  Roman  Saints.  The  Masses  for  these 
are  taken  from  Scripture,  especially  from  the  Psalms. 
For  Feasts  of  non- Roman  origin,  the  text  is  taken  from 
the  Church  from  which  they  are  introduced  ;  e.g.,  the 
Feast  of  St.  Agatha  from  the  Sicilian  Church,  or  the 
Feasts  coming  from  the  Greek  Church  which  were 
translated  from  the  Greek.  The  want  of  uniformity  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  text  is  seen  by  comparing  the 
different  classes  of  chants  in  Codex  St.  Gall,  329.  As  a 
rule,  the  words  of  one  and  the  same  Mass  are  all  of 
different  origin.  The  most  ancient  part  of  the  Masses 
is  the  Graduals  and  Tracts,  and  all  these  (which  are  the 
most  ancient  solos  of  the  Mass)  in  the  Gregorian  nucleus 
are  taken  from  Biblical  sources.  This  part  of  the 
"  cento  Antiphonarius  "  is  put  together  in  one  system 
after  an  established  tradition.  In  the  oldest  Feasts  there 
are  Psalm-graduals,  but  Introits  taken  from  other  books 
of  the  Bible.  The  parts  other  than  the  Gradual  and 
Tract  were  chosen  on  a  different  system,  a  considerable 
number  in  fact  have  words  not  taken  from  the  Bible 
at  all.  The  Communions,  again,  form  a  class  by  them- 
selves, and  were  sometimes  chosen  with  special  reference 
to  the  Gospel  for  the  day,  which  is  the  case  with  no 
other  class  of  the  texts  of  the  chants. 


32 

Now  this  editing  of  the  texts  must  have  implied  the 
editing  of  the  music  also.  In  the  middle  ages  the  choir 
played  a  more  important  part  than  they  do  to-day  in  the 
Roman  Church.  For  now  the  Service  is  complete  with- 
out their  part,  as  the  priest  says  the  whole  Service 
whether  the  choir  is  there  or  not.  But  formerly  it 
was  different  ;  all  listened  or  took  part,  including  the 
celebrant,  while  the  choir  sang.  The  latter  had  a  very 
definite  share  in  the  liturgical  order,  which  was  incom- 
plete without  them  ;  in  particular,  the  soloists  had  full 
scope  for  their  talents  in  the  chants  between  the  Epistle 
and  Gospel.  In  view  of  this  intimate  relation  between 
the  choir  and  the  altar,  a  revision  of  the  text  must 
almost  necessarily  have  implied  a  revision  of  the  music. 
And  this  is  probably  the  chief  part  of  his  musical  reform ; 
in  the  saying  about  him,  ascribed  to  Pope  Adrian  II., 
"  Ipse  Patrum  monumenta  sequens  venovamt  et  auxit." 

What  was  the  musical  material  on  which  he  had  to 
work,  which  he  had  to  put  into  shape,  and  to  which  he 
added  new  pieces  ?  It  is  probably  substantially  repre- 
sented by  the  Ambrosian  chant  as  we  find  it  in  the 
oldest  MSS.  It  seems  most  likely  that  it  is  the  musical 
counterpart  of  the  primitive  liturgy  organized,  as  is 
supposed,  about  the  epoch  of  Pope  Damasus,  of  which 
the  Ambrosian,  Gallican,  Mozarabic,  and  Celtic  are 
so  many  variations,  due  to  national  characteristics. 
Documentary  proof  of  this  is  but  scanty,  but  a  study 
of  the  Lessons  used  at  Mass  supports  the  theory  as 
far  as  the  text  is  concerned.  It  is  further  recorded 


ANTIPHON 


GREGORIAN 


AMBROSIAN 


-• — • — 8 • — •- 


O    Sa-  pi-  en-  ti-    a,  quae  ex    o-    re  Al- 


O    Sa-  pi-  en-  ti-    a,  quae  ex    o-    re   Al- 


• 

•              i 

'••••!•       • 

•              •      « 

• 

1 

.    .    al    r*— a=y 


tis-sim-  i    pro-ces-  si-  sti         at-  tin-gis    a     fi-  ne 


i*!>    p.     • 


us-que  ad    fi-nem,  for-  ti-    ter       su-    a-   vi-  ter-que 


-— . t 


us-que  ad    fi-nem,  for-  ti-    ter       su-  a-   vi-  ter 


1— g— ^— — y-^^ 


dis-  po-nens        om-ni-  a  :  ve-  ni    ad  do-cen-dum  nos 


£ 


-m • •- 


$=f 


? 


dis- po-nens  que  om-ni-  a  :  ve- ni    ad    do-cen-dum  nos 


vi-  am  pru-den-ti-  ae. 


-P. — ;— V 


vi-  am  sci-  en-  ti-  ae. 


GREGORIAN 


AMBROSIAN 


INTROIT 

.Li — _...  n.  A: 


f — — p— p>— 3— A- *ftf«=fr-3 


— m m — 

Gau-  de-  a-   mus  om-nes  in    Do-    mi-     no, 

i  -  -  .-3».       •        j»t      j 


*a"V      '- 


Lae-te-  mur  om-nes    in    Do-    mi-    no, 


J PM— ^--     %•        1  PV* •—    '         —    -— 5-S-n 

di-  em  fes-  turn  ce-  le-  bran-    tes     in  ho-     no-      re 


h 


-i 


di-  em  fes- turn   ce-   le-   bran-   tes    ob  ho-  no-     rem 
E          .      " .— Hr 


!A- 


i— a 


•     •         •• 


A-  ga-  thae    mar-    ty-  ris  :  de  cu-jus  pas-si-  o-      ne 


^ 


A-  ga-  thae    mar-  ty-  ris  :  de  cu-jus       tro-phae-  o 


j      ,     aM— ^y^g— y. 


^ 


^ 


gau-dent  an-    ge-        li,       et    col-  lau-  dant 


"jji         "        H[GZ^ 


"•^  ni^'V^' 


gau-dent  an-     ge-        li,      et     col-  lau-    dant 


,                        .       .           .... 

•1 

•  i  -^ 

•*^i      % 

Fi- 

li- 

um 

De-      i. 

V 

A 

a 

11  .A^"     % 

S» 

§1                * 

afl      , 

*    Fi- 

li- 

S1 
um 

De-      i. 

GRADUAL 


GREGORIAN 


AMBROSIAN 


ft   =3— n.  V  .JU-— *V 


Ex  Si-  on 


spe-     ci-             es 
— J •SiV3»^ 


Ex    Si-     on  spe-      ci-  es 


5— I 


de-    co-    ris     e-    jus  :  De-    us  ma-  ni- 


J=^-^=^=I=^ 


de-    co-    ris    e-     jus  :  De-    us  ma-  ni- 


fe-  ste      ve- 


-A- 


m-     et. 


fe-          ste     ve- 


m-     et. 


S^   ^*1^7^-«— £ 


".  Con-gre-  ga- 


te    il- 


f.  Con-gre-  ga- 


te     il- 


/E     P 

91 

-M*J 

1      fi 

»3ZC 

ES3 

*\  p«"%      £      B 

* 

li 

sane-  tos              e-  jus,    qui  or-   di      na- 

ve- 

i      . 

.      J 

8      fa* 

_>.       -  •-  _ 

•?      ^a 

•ft 

»     '*        !;"*•••      .PL 

.     a     ">    ^> 

lie     sane-    tos          e-    jus,  qui  or-    di-    na- 


ve 


runt 


te-  sta-  men-  turn 


runt 


te-  sta-  men-  turn 


jus 


i-  per  sa-  cri-  fi-   ci- 


e- 


jus 


su-  per  sa-  cri-  fi-   ci- 


a. 


a. 


33 

that  at  Monte  Cassino  the  Ambrosian  chant  was 
fused  with  the  Gregorian  by  order  of  Pope  Stephen 
IX.  (1057 — 8).  Here  the  Pre-Gregorian  chant  is  simply 
called  Ambrosian. 

The  theory  is  further  supported  by  a  comparison  of 
the  most  ancient  MSS.  of  the  Milanese  chant  with 
the  Gregorian  Antiphoner.  A  considerable  number  of 
melodies  are  practically  identical  with  those  in  the 
Roman  books.  The  framework,  so  to  speak,  is  the 
same,  but  the  details  and  embellishments  often  differ. 
The  Ambrosian  melodies  are  sometimes  rather  bald,  and 
often  excessively  florid ;  the  extremely  long  neums 
which  they  often  contain  appear  to  have  been  due  to 
Greek  influence.  The  Gregorian,  on  the  other  hand, 
appear  to  have  been  in  some  places  pruned,  in  others 
expanded,  with  the  result  that  they  give  the  impression 
of  being  better  balanced ;  the  different  parts  of  the 
musical  phrases  are  more  justly  proportioned.  In  the 
Ambrosian  melodies  the  B  natural  occurs  very  constantly, 
and  gives  them  a  masculine  flavour,  sometimes  amounting 
to  harshness. 

The  examples  here  given  will  enable  some  idea  to 
be  formed  of  the  advance  made  by  the  Gregorian 
version  upon  the  Ambrosian,  both  in  music  and  text. 

But  Pope  Adrian  II.  says  of  St.  Gregory  not  merely 
"renovavit,"  but  "auxit."  He  not  only  edited  and 
adapted  the  old  melodies,  but  provided  new  ones  for 
the  new  texts  which  he  added  to  the  cycle  of  liturgical 
worship.  What  were  these  musical  additions  ? 


34 

He  extended  the  use  of  Alleluia  to  all  Sundays  and 
Festivals  throughout  the  year  except  in  Septuagesima, 
and  it  is  probable  that  he  added  new  melodies  for  the 
new  Alleluias.  It  is  significant  that  the  Alleluias  are 
the  least  stable  part  of  the  Antiphoner.  At  all  events, 
the  Ambrosian  alleluiatic  verses  differ  entirely  from  the 
Gregorian.  The  same  consideration  applies  to  the  tracts, 
the  use  of  which  he  extended  in  Septuagesima. 

Another  tendency  of  Gregory's  reform  was  his  marked 
desire  to  harmonize  the  text  of  the  Communions  with 
that  of  the  Gospel  of  the  day.  There  are  a  considerable 
number  of  these,  hardly  any  traces  of  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Ambrosian  books.  It  is,  then,  reasonable 
to  ascribe  to  St.  Gregory  an  important  part  in  the 
composition  of  these  chants. 

The  further  important  question  arises,  did  Gregory 
carry  out  this  musical  work  himself,  or  was  it  done  by 
others  under  his  direction  ? 

It  is  natural  to  think  of  his  Schola  Cantorum  in  this 
connection.  The  foundation  of  this  must  have  had  a 
profound  effect  both  on  the  standard  of  the  performance 
of  the  chant,  and  on  the  spread  of  the  Gregorian  reform. 
Books  were  scarce  in  those  days,  and  musical  notation 
defective.  Teaching  was  chiefly  by  word  of  mouth. 
The  Director  of  the  Choir  had  his  manuscript  to  teach 
from,  and  his  pupils  had  to  learn  the  melodies  by  heart. 
The  chief  singer  also  had  his  liber  cantatwius  from  which 
to  sing  the  solos,  such  as  the  Graduals  and  Tracts. 
The  School  was,  necessarily,  not  merely  for  teaching 


35 

correct  versions  of  the  chant,  but  for  preserving  the 
correct  tradition  of  the  method  of  performance.  Most 
of  the  seventh  century  popes  were  connected  with  the 
School  or  proceeded  from  it. 

The  skilled  musicians  belonging  to  this  School  may 
have  helped  to  carry  out  the  reform  under  Gregory's 
direction.  But  no  tradition  appears  to  have  been  pre- 
served to  that  effect,  and  the  unity  and  uniform  charac- 
teristics seem  to  point  to  the  work  of  one  genius,  even 
in  the  smallest  details ;  and  the  characteristics  there 
displayed  seem  to  fit  in  with  what  we  know  from 
other  sources  of  his  character,  in  his  writings  and  in 
his  actions. 


In  conclusion  it  is  submitted  that  the  evidence  here 
put  forward,  though  in  some  respects  rather  scanty, 
yet,  in  the  absence  of  any  strong  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
is  quite  sufficient  to  justify  the  tradition  that  St.  Gregory 
was  the  organiser,  reformer,  and  to  some  extent  the 
author  of  the  Antiphoner  of  the  Mass.  It  is,  of  course, 
more  difficult  to  say  definitely  what  his  work  actually 
was  in  these  three  divisions,  but  a  quite  sufficient 
amount  of  certainty  has  been  attained  for  us  to  realize 
the  extent  and  the  nature  of  the  debt  which  succeeding 
ages  have  owed  to  the  great  Pope,  and  so  far  the 
attacks  that  have  been  made  on  the  tradition  have  only 
resulted  in  setting  it  on  a  firmer  and  more  definite 
basis. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  ST.  GREGORY. 

The  oldest  portrait  of  which  we  have  a  record  is  one 
of  which  a  very  full  description  was  given  by  John  the 
Deacon,  Gregory's  biographer.  This  likeness  was  to 
be  seen  in  John's  day  (in  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth 
century)  in  Gregory's  house,  which  he  had  converted 
into  a  monastery,  in  a  small  room  behind  the  brethren's 
store-room  or  granary.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  circular 
plaster  frame.  Probably  the  whole  figure  was  not  repre- 
sented ;  at  all  events,  the  following  description  which 
he  gives  stops  at  the  hands. 

"  His  figure  was  of  ordinary  height,  and  was  well 
made  ;  his  face  was  a  happy  medium  between  the  length 
of  his  father's  and  the  roundness  of  his  mother's  face,  so 
that  with  a  certain  roundness  it  seemed  to  be  of  a  very 
comely  length,  his  beard  being  like  his  father's,  of  a 
rather  tawny  colour,  and  of  moderate  length.  He  was 
rather  bald,  so  that  in  the  middle  of  his  forehead  he  had 
two  small  neat  curls,  twisted  towards  the  right ;  the 
crown  of  his  head  was  round  and  large,  his  darkish  hair 
being  nicely  curled  and  hanging  down  as  far  as  the 
middle  of  his  ear ;  his  forehead  was  high,  his  eyebrows 
long  and  elevated ;  his  eyes  had  dark  pupils,  and  though 
not  large  were  open,  under  full  eyelids ;  his  nose  from 
the  starting-point  of  his  curving  eyebrows  being  thin  and 
straight,  broader  about  the  middle,  slightly  aquiline, 
and  expanded  at  the  nostrils ;  his  mouth  was  red,  lips 
thick  and  sub-divided;  his  cheeks  were  well-shaped,  and 


37 

his  chin  of  a  comely  prominence  from  the  confines  of  the 
jaws;  his  colour  was  swarthy  and  ruddy,  not,  as  it  after- 
wards became,  unhealthy  looking;  his  expression  was 
kindly ;  he  had  beautiful  hands,  with  tapering  fingers, 
well  adapted  for  writing." 

The  description  goes  on  to  say  that  Gregory  wore 
the  penula  (cloak)  of  chestnut  colour,  and  over  it  the 
sacred  pall,  and  that  in  his  hands  he  carried  the  book 
of  the  Gospel.  We  learn,  further,  that  he  did  not  have 
the  round  nimbus,  but  a  rectangular  or  square  one,  with 
which  it  was  the  custom  to  adorn  the  heads  of  portraits 
of  eminent  people  in  their  life-time.  John  considers  this 
a  sure  proof  that  the  painting  was  executed  during  the 
life  of  the  saint ;  if  it  had  been  done  after  his  death, 
he  would  have  been  given  a  circular  nimbus. 

In  the  same  monastery  were  portraits  of  his  father 
and  mother,  Gordianus  and  Silvia.  But  of  course  all 
have  been  destroyed. 

The  portrait  (frontispiece)  here  reproduced  is  a  re- 
construction from  John  the  Deacon's  description,  made 
by  Angelo  Rocca,  Bishop  of  Tagaste,  and  a  noted 
archaeologist  of  his  time  (1597).  He  combined  the 
three  portraits  in  one. 

Another  reconstruction  from  John  the  Deacon's  de- 
scription may  be  seen  in  Rassegna  Gregonana  for  June, 
1903.  This  follows  the  description  more  closely  than 
does  that  of  Rocca. 

At  a  later  date  there  grew  up  the  custom  of  repre- 
senting St.  Gregory  always  with  a  dove.  According  to 


John  the  Deacon  it  was  already  customary  in  his  day 
(c.  872).  This  is  seen  in  our  second  illustration 
(opposite  page  n),  taken  from  the  Antiphoner  of  the 
monk  Hartker  of  St.  Gall  (date  between  986  and  ion). 
This  illustration  has  the  characteristics  found  in  the 
greater  number  of  representations  of  Gregory ;  the  dove 
(the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost)  is  represented  as 
inspiring  him,  and  he  is  dictating  to  the  scribe,  who 
is  said  to  be  the  deacon  Peter.  The  veneration  felt 
for  his  writings,  and  in  particular  those  of  the  eccles- 
iastical chant,  was  such  that  they  were  felt  to  be  due 
directly  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Here 
the  Pope  is  represented  as  wearing  an  alb,  a  dalmatic, 
a  planeta  and  over  it  the  sacred  pall,  and  on  his  left 
forearm,  a  maniple. 

The  third  picture  (opposite  page  16)  is  prefixed  to 
two  Coronation  Services  in  a  miscellaneous  volume 
formerly  belonging  to  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  on  a 
page  now  numbered  8.  The  pages  9 — 18  comprise 
a  Coronation  Service  of  the  x./xi.  century,  and  on 
pp.  19 — 29  there  follows  another  service  of  the  xiiith 
century.  On  p.  30  is  another  picture,  probably  of 
German  workmanship,  representing  a  man  writing. 
Each  seems  to  be  independent  of  its  surrounding 
leaves ;  there  seems  no  connection  between  the  two, 
unless  it  be  that  they  depict  the  same  person. 

The  former  of  the  two  clearly  depicts  St.  Gregory ; 
it  has  been  constantly  said  on  the  strength  of  the  legend 
above,  "Dunstani  Archiepiscopi,"  that  it  represents  St. 


39 

Dunstan,  but  the  dove  points  clearly  to  St.  Gregory ; 
the  legend  is  possibly  a  later  addition,  and  if  St.  Dunstan 
is  to  be  found  upon  the  page  at  all  it  is  in  the  archie- 
piscopal  figure  kissing  the  toe  of  the  great  figure.  This 
act  of  homage  suggests  that  the  large  figure  represents 
a  Pope.  Moreover,  St.  Dunstan  is  shown  prostrate  at 
the  feet  of  Christ  in  another  picture,  which  may  very 
possibly  be  from  the  saint's  own  hand;  it  is,  therefore, 
reasonable  to  identify  him  with  the  figure  below. 
Possibly  also  it  may  be  suggested  that  this  picture, 
too,  represents  St.  Dunstan's  handiwork. 

St.  Gregory  wears  a  pall  over  a  yellow  chasuble, 
and  over  this  above  is  a  red  fringe  ornament  which  is 
probably  a  rational.  The  purple  dalmatic  with  scarlet 
border  is  very  conspicuous  under  his  chasuble ;  the 
under-vestments  are  less  distinct,  but  the  ends  of  the 
stole  show  over  a  very  dark  garment,  which  is,  perhaps, 
a  tunicle.  The  mitre  is  of  very  early  shape.  The  archie- 
piscopal  figure  below  wears  a  similar  mitre,  a  pall  over  a 
light  green  chasuble;  underneath  a  pink  dalmatic  and 
a  purple  show  at  the  arms,  as  well  as  below. 

The  monk  who  balances  him  is  in  a  white  habit,  but 
the  figure  kneeling  below  is  in  a  black  habit  of  the  same 
pattern,  ungirt,  and  with  a  cowl. 

The  colouring  of  the  whole  is  crude,  and  the  drawing 
lacks  delicacy. 

The  fourth  portrait  (opposite  page  24)  is  taken  from 
a  MS.  of  The  Dialogues  of  St.  Gregory  (Harl.  3011),  at 
the  British  Museum,  /.  69  v.,  at  the  end  of  the  3rd  book. 


4° 

The  background  is  bright  green,  with  a  brown  border 
round  it.  It  is  a  brown-ink  drawing,  with  some  yellow 
wash.  The  inscription  above  it  is  Teodericus  depinxit  hanc 
imaginem  Gngorium  patvcm.  It  exemplifies  once  again  the 
symbol  of  the  dove,  which  is  here  evidently  not  con- 
nected specially  with  the  musical  work  of  St.  Gregory, 
but  with  his  literary  efforts  as  a  whole. 


THE  PLAIN  SONG  AND  MEDIAEVAL 
MUSIC  SOCIETY. 


PRESIDENT. 

THE  RIGHT  HON.  THE  EARL  OF  DYSART. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

THK  RIGHT  REV.  THE  BISHOP  OF  ARGYLL  AND  THE  ISLES. 
SIR  HICKMAN  B.  BACON,  BART. 

SIR  J.F.  BRIDGE,  Mus.  Doc. 

THE  RIGHT  HON.  THE  VISCOUNT  HALIFAX. 

THE  VERY  REV.  VERNON  STALEY. 

H.  ELLIS  WOOLDRIDGE,  Esg. 


REV.  MAURICE  BELL. 
W.J.  BIRKBECK,  Esg. 
REV.  A.E.  BRIGGS. 
R.  A.  BRIGGS,  ESQ. 
SOMERS  CLARKE,  Esg. 
WAK.ELING  DRY,  ESQ. 
REV.  W.  HOWARD  FRERE. 
A.  HUGHES-HUGHES,  ESQ. 


COUNCIL. 

REV.  E.  J.  NORRIS. 
REV.  G.  H.  PALMER. 
A.  H.  D.  PRENDERGAST,  Esg. 
ATHELSTAN  RILEY,  Esg. 
J.  RUSSELL,  Esg. 
PERCY  E.  SANKEY,  ESQ. 
REV.  H.  URLING  SMITH. 
REV.  G.  R.  WOODWARD. 


J.T.  MICKLETHWAITE,  Esg. 


E.  G.  P.  WYATT,  ESQ. 


AUDITORS. 
MESSRS.  GERARD  VAN  DE  LINDE  &  SON. 

HON.  TREASURER. 
E.G.  P.  WYATT,  ESQ. 

HON.  SECRETARY. 

PERCr.  E.  SANKET.  ES^.,  44  Russell  Square,  London.  W.C. 


C&e  Plain0on0 


The  Society  is  founded  for  purely  antiquarian  purposes  with  the 
following  objefts  : — 

1.  To  be  a  centre  of  information  in  England  for  students  of  Plain- 
song  and   Mediaeval  Music,  and  a  means  of  communication 
between  them  and  those  of  other  countries. 

2.  To    publish   fac-similes  of  important   MSS.,  translations  of 
foreign  works  on  the  subject,  adaptations  of  the  Plainsong  to 
the  English  Use,  and  such  other  works  as  may  be  desirable. 

3.  To  form  a  catalogue  of  all  Plainsong  and  Measured  Music 
in  England,  dating  not  later  than  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

4.  To  form  a  throughly  proficient  Choir  of  limited  numbers,  with 
which  to  give  illustrations  of  Plainsong  and  Mediaeval  Music. 

The  subscription  for  Members  is  £i  per  annum,  entitling  them 
to  all  publications  gratis.  Clergymen  and  Organists  are  eligible  for 
election  Associates,  at  a  Subscription  of  2/6  per  annum,  which  will 
entitle  them  to  ihe  annual  publications  at  a  reduced  price. 


1  90 


Address 


requests  to  be  admitted  a  ^Member  (or  Associate)  of  THE 
TLAINSONG   fef   MEDIAEVAL  MUSIC   SOCIETY. 

'Proposed  by 
Seconded  by 

To  be  sent   to  the  Hon.   Secretary,    P.  E.  SANKEY,   Esq,  44  Russell 
Square,  London.  W.  C. 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 

Price. 
THE  MUSICAL  NOTATION  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  (out  of  print) 

SONGS  &  MADRIGALS  OF  THE  1 5th  CENTURY,  containing  14  specimens, 
with  fac-similes  and  rules  for  translating  the  music  into  modern  notation 
(Quaritch) £i.  6. 

GRADUALE  SARISBURIENSE,  a  fac-simile  of  a  ijth  Century  English 
Gradual,  with  an  introduction  giving  a  history  of  the  development  of  the  Graduate 
from  the  Antifhonalc  Missarum  of  St.  Gregory,  with  elaborate  Indexes  to  the 
Offices,  Graduals,  etc.,  and  to  works  on  Liturgiology.  The  volume  contains 
102  pages  of  Text  and  293  pages  of  Collotypes,  and  represents  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Music  of  the  Middle  Ages  (Quaritch)  £4..  2. 

ANTIPHONALE  SARISBURIENSE,  a  fac- simile  of  a  i^th  Century  English 
Antiphoner.  This  work,  when  complete,  will  be  uniform  with  the  Graduate 
SaridntriatK)  and  will  contain  over  700  pages  of  Collotypes.  It  is  being  pub- 
lished in  yearly  parts.  Parts  I,  II,  III  &  IV,  now  ready  with  portfolio,  price  £4.  2. 

THE  SARUM  GRADUAL,  being  the  introduction  to  the  GRADUALE 
SARISBURIENSE  with  four  fac-simile  pages  (Quaritch)  15/9 

EARLY  ENGLISH  HARMONY,  from  the  lothtothe  1 5th  Century.  Vol  I., 
containing  60  Collotype  Plates  of  music  by  composers  from  St.  Dunstan  down 
to  John  Dunstable  (Quaritch)  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  £i.  6. 

The  above  'works  are  folio  and  on  thick  paper. 

MADRIGALS  OF  THE  i;th  CENTURY,  containing  six  Madrigals  in 
modern  notation,  quarto  (Novello)  (out  of  print) 

BIBLIOTHECA  MUSICO-LITURGICA,  a  descriptive  hand-list  of  the 
Musical  and  Latin  Liturgical  MSS.  of  the  middle  Ages  preserved  in  English 
libraries.  Fascicle  I.  and  Fascicle  II.,  making  Vol.  I.,  quarto,  164  pp.  with  13 
facsimiles  (Quaritch)  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  £1.5.6. 

S.  GREGORY  AND  THE   GREGORIAN  MUSIC      2/8 

THE  ELEMENTS   OF  PLAINSONG,  edition  de  luxe  (out  of  print) 

THE  ORDINARY  OF  THE  MASS,  edition  de  luxe  (guaritch)  ...          7/10 

PLAINSONG  HYMN-MELODIES  &  SEQUENCES,  edition  de  luxe  (QuantcX)  7/10 

RECENT  RESEARCH   IN   PLAINSONG,  edition  de  luxe          3/3 

The  above  editions  consist  of  numbered  copies  to  'which  the  issue  is  limited. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  PLAINSONG,  cloth,       3/9 

A  GENERAL  OUTLINE  OF   PLAINSONG  (being  Chapter  I.  of  above)  3^. 

"CHOIR  RESPONSES        3^. 

DEPRECAMUR  TE  (as  sung  by  St.  Augustine  and  his  companions)      ...  id, 

THE  INVITATORY  PSALM  (Venlte  exultemus),  set  to  its  Proper  Melodies 
in  the  IHrd,  IVth,  Vlth  and  Vllth  Modes  each  3^. 

THE   PASCHAL  ANTHEMS  (Pascha  nostrum)                $d. 

TE  DEUM 3</. 

MAGNIFICAT  &  BENEDICTUS  set  to  the  Peregrine  Tone jrf. 

THE  CANTICLES $d. 

ADDITIONAL  SETTINGS  of  certain  of  THE  CANTICLES,  being  the  four 
previous  publications  in  one  volume ...  ...  ...  ...  lod. 


Price. 

RESPONDS  AT  VESPERS  for  ADVENT,  CHRISTMAS-TIDE,  LENT, 
and  COMMON  OF  SAINTS  (Others  in  preparation)  ...  2/3 

*THE  PSALM  TONES  &  OFFICE  RESPONSES  ...       $d. 

THE  SARUM  PSALTER     (Gio.  BELL  &  SONS.) 2/10 

THE  INTRODUCTION  to  ditto,  with  the  Tone-table  and  Examples         ...        %d. 

*THE  LITANY  &  SUFFRAGES      Bound    8</. 

THE  ANTIPHONS  TO  MAGNIFICAT 4/4 

*THE  ORDINARY  OF  THE  MASS  (7  Masses  in  English)  2/9,  Cloth    3/9 

*THE  PLAINSONG  OF  THE  HOLY  COMMUNION,  two  easy  melodies 
for  the  Kyrie,  Sanffus,  Agnus  &  Gloria  in  excclsis,  with  the  Creed  &  Choir 
Responses  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ~jd. 

MISSA  REX  SPLENDENS  (Organ  accompaniment  by  Dr.  Pearce)  ...        1/2 

*THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  MASS  FOR  THE  DEAD,  adapted  to  the  English 
Text  from  the  Sarum  Manuale  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  1/8 

VESPERS  OF  THE  DEAD 5</. 

THE  ORDER  OF  THE  BURIAL  OF  THE  DEAD        ...          ±d. 

PLAINSONG  REQUIEM  SERVICES,  being  Vespers,  Mass  &  Burial  of  the  Dead  2/8 

•PLAINSONG  HYMN-MELODIES  AND  SEQUENCES             2/9 

The  WORDS  only  of  the  SEQUENCES  together  with  sundry  EUCHARISTIC  HYMNS  and 
ANTIPHONS  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  jd. 

A  SELECTION  OF  INTROITS,  GRAILS  &  ALLELUYAS     2/4 

EUCHARISTIC  HYMNS  &  ANTIPHONS           iod. 

SALVE  !  FESTA  DIES  for  5  Great  Festivals             7d. 

RULED   MUSIC  PAPER,  per  quire               Sd. 

Organ  accompaniments  can   be   obtained  in  MS.  from  the  Community  of  S.  Mary 
the  Virgin,  Wantage. 


*A  reduction  allowed  to  Choirs.     Prepayment  is  necessary  in  all  cases. 

The  above  prices  include  the  postage,  and  copies  can  be   obtained  upon  application  by 
letter  -with  remittance  of  the  Hon.  Secretary — 

PERCY  E.  SANKEY,  Esg. 

44  RUSSELL  SO.UARE,  LONDON,  W.  C. 

The  Society  has  arranged  for  instruction  in  the  correct  rendering  of  plainsong 
to  be  given  to  Clergy,  Organists  and  others,  also  for  a  Choirmaster  to  assist  Choirs 
adopting  the  music.  For  particulars  apply  to  the  Hon.  Secretary. 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY 


ML  Wyatt,   Edward  Gerald 

3082         P enfold 

W9  St.  Gregory  and  the 

Gregorian  music 


Kusic