Semiology Sacredmusic

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    I he Ntivc, Looking ta>\.

    SEMIOLOGY AND THE INTERPRETATIONOF GREGORIAN CHANT(This article was published in Divini Citltit* Splanion. a Fe^kilirift prepared in honor of JosephLennards of the Netherlands on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Mr. Lennards has devotedhis life to the study of Gregorian chant and its teaching through the Ward method. The translationfrom the French was made by Virginia A. Schubert.)

    It is fitting to honor a recognized Gregorianist like Joseph Lennards, enthusiasticdisciple of Dom Andre Mocquereau, with a discussion of the ideal of the founder of theschool of Solesmes.This ideal was proclaimed throughout a long scientific and artistic career which beganwhen a young monk of Solesmes undertook a study of chant more by duty than bychoice, and consequently came to realize its incomparable value. Thus, beginning withthe general introduction to La Palcographic mu>kalc of 1889 and continuing to theMonographic Crc'gorknnc 17/, written in 1926 to refute Dom Jeannin's theory of dividingchant into measures, one finds different formulations of the same very clear affirmation:"It is in the great variety of notations of neums that one must seek the light on everyaspect of Gregorian chant." (Patiogriiphic niu^iuilt, XI, p. 19) The path was thus laid out,

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    but it was a long and difficult one to follow.Is this surprising? When a musical repertoire, which was first only memorized andthen fixed on parchment by procedures that were more or less precise, was submittedover several centuries to a deadly and sometimes sytematic degradation, the result isthat such a repertoire is so deformed that its true nature can no longer be imagined. Forall intents and purposes its tradition has truly been destroyed.Efforts attempted to correct the resulting errors have the expected results, for themeans employed are generally taken from the principles of classical or modern musicand are not adapted to the special characteristics of Gregorian chant. The risk, is thatsuch attempts to correct errors really result in deforming the chant in another way. It is avicious circle. If one observes that Gregorian chant is evolving in a negative way, onedoes not know how to correct that state, being ignorant of the way it was sungoriginally.Instead of beginning by attempting to define Gregorian chant and to classify it as onetype of music or another, it must be studied in itself, and its notation must be re-constructed as best one can. Before commenting on the interpretation of a musical workthat one can no longer hear, the musical score must first be studied. According to theprogram of Dom Mocquereau this brings us back to the original notation as the onlyprimary source since the first medieval theorists have almost nothing to say on thesubject. The least we can do is study these notations, which are the oldest and richest inall kinds of indications, in every way possible so that no precious detail escapes us.Every manuscript and every family of notation should be examined carefully beforeenlarging the investigation by comparing the diverse families among themselves.The first job, which is paelographic in nature, consists of deciphering and classifying

    the various ways of writing the neu ms. This foundation is necessary before undertakin gmore refined and interesting research.When the same manuscript includes signs for neums that are different in form butinten ded t o represe nt the same series of sounds (there are at least twe lve different formsfor the torculus in the first documents from St. Gall), it must be observed first that thechoice made between these signs is conscious and coherent. A certain sign is used in allthe cases where the same musical context is found. As soon as the intention of thewriter is thus verified for each of the signs, one must ask what is the meaning (logos) ofthese signs (semeia) that are so clearly differentiated and used w ith such care? W hy doesthe neum take this form here and another there? The answ er to this question is the veryobject of semiology. A comparison b etwe en the w riting used to represent the neum s ondeforming musical compositions more or less severely.It follows then that in a chant competition the elimination of a candidate would givesanction to a serious blow struck at "traditional data" for we would no longer have trueGregorian, but something else that would not be of the same interest to us.Interpretation necessarily takes place beyond and above the "semiological date."Starting with material that is re-established in this way as exactly as possible it willcreate authentically beautiful pieces. Just as in all music, the person interpreting it musttake a position personally, using his taste, his sensitivity and culture, while respectingthe limits established by semiology. Semiology marks off the terrain in which one canmaneuver at will. However, if one moves outside of the limits, one will fall intosubjectivity or fantasy.

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    I t is therefore not the role of the contemporary musician to decide the value of acer ta in Gregor ian per formance i f he does no t f i r s t have the p roper t ra in ing . Whether heapproves or condemns, his judgment will not be justif ied. If he shows a preference for aper form ance tha t does no t respect his to rica l t ru th , such a per form ance wo uld in no w aybe justif ied. If , to the contrary, he cr i t icizes another that follows the indications of themost ancient manuscripts, i t would in no way effect the science of semiology. Theperformer does not attain his goal if he does not manage to give to the chant the l ife thatbelongs to i t in a str ictly Gregorian ethos, satisfying at the same time prayer and musicalart . This is for us an excellent reason to justify the publication of instruments of studiesthat allow the re-discovery of what Gregorian chant was l ike in i ts origins.

    In 1863-64, Michae l Herme sdorff had already ed ited in Trier his Graduate in whichpaleographic signs in type face were placed above the staff. Do m Mo cq u e r eau d id m o r eby copying in his own study copy as well as in his choir copy the neums from the oldestmanuscript from St. Gall . The Gradual Neione was under taken wi thout any idea o fpublis hing i t . Th e goal was simp ly to facil itate and supp ort a greate r familiar i ty wi thGregor ian chan t which was becoming ever be t te r unders tood and apprec ia ted . Thepubl ica t ion was on ly dec ided on la te r because o f constan t requests f rom studen ts .T o d ay th e Graduale Triplex which adds to the square notes of the off icial edit ion theneu ms of Laon 239 an d St. Gall perform s a st il l great er serv ice.

    W ho wo uld e ver ha ve the idea of advising all the faithful to use these perfec tedbooks? They are fo r those who know how to read and for those who want to learn andperfect t hem selv es in the mo st authe ntic trad it ion. I t is an eff icacious a ntid ote a gainstempiricism and the inevitable errors of too simplist ic methods.

    As fo r those who con t inue the o r ig ina l c r i t ic ism d i rec ted against Dom Mocquereauon the differences in the various families of notation or those who propose to put offun t i l doomsday the app l ica t ions o f recen t semio log ica l scho larsh ip , they seem to beignora nt of two things. O n the one hand, they do not take into cons iderat ion the factthe one hand and the word and the melod ic tex t in which they are found on the o therhand prov ides wel l -known cr i te r ia .

    Ho we ver , the re la t ionsh ip tha t ex ists be t we en sem io logy and in terpre ta t ion is lesswel l unders tood . S emio log y is no t a me tho d for per form ing G regor ian chan t as som ehave believed. I t is rather a science that searches for and learns to read what the f irstwr i te rs wro te , and even , what they in tended to wr i te . Semio logy be longs to the rea lmoi solfeggio, for i t br ings out the diverse values between sounds and re-establishes anor ig ina l h ierarchy be tween them tha t must be fo l lowed in per formance a t the r i sk o ftha t appearances are o f ten dece i t fu l . Var ious ways o f wr i t ing neums, even those tha tseem a t f i r s t opposi te , can lead to the same per formance when one knows how toin terpre t the neu ms in the con tex t o f the ir own n o ta t ion . O n the o ther hand , on e canask if it is possible to ima gine an end to the re-disc overy of Gr ego rian chant? S em iolo gyis an historical science, and con seq uen tly, i t is called upo n to investig ate ind efinitely. I tis a facile and w orth less evas ion to wait for the end of the research before perf orm ing.

    Placed as we are dur ing a per iod w hen there is an undeniab le renew al o f Gre gor ianchant , we canno t d isappoin t the hope tha t is born especia lly amo ng the young . W emust do eve ry th in g in our pow er to g ive them a so l id and au then t ic ins t ruc t ion w hichcor responds to the i r asp i ra t ions .

    DOM EUGENE CARDINE, OSBSEMIOLOGY

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    Raphael. Detail of angels from the Virgin of the Baldaquin. Pitti Gallery, Florence.

    GREGORIAN SEMIOLOGY: THE NEWCHANT. PART I(This is the first of a series of four articles on contemporary study of Gregorian chantand the findings it has produced.)

    The decade of the 1960s was a time of searching for all denominations in theChristian church, but for lovers of Gregorian chant it proved a time that seemeddisastrou s. Even thoug h the decisions of the Second Vatican Council proclaime d thatGregorian chant should maintain its "pride of place" as the revered music of theCatholic Church, reality saw to it that the chant went out the door with the Latin.Congregations that had been silent for over a thousand years were suddenly ex-pected to sing and the frantic, on-going search for a music they could call their ownbegan. So great was the fear that a century of research and devotion would slip intodisuse that the French Assembly, realizing that the chant was really a Gallic art moreclosely related to Charlemagne and his empire than it was to Rome, declared it anofficial art treasure and directed the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to offer regularclasses in chant interpretation.

    The chant had been dealt near fatal blows before. In the sixteenth century, afterthe Council of Trent, re-acting to the pressure of the Lutheran chorales and Huguenotpsalm tun es, some authorities witho ut a man date ordered the chant to be pared of allits "gothic excess," being the melismatic ornament that the medieval Church used todecorate its intonations, in the same way that the medieval artist decorated thecathedrals. The chants were reduced to the more or less syllabic versions whichremained in vogue until the early twentieth century. In France the revolutionarygovernment threw out the chant with the rest of the Church where it remained untilthe restoration in the 1830's.

    The restoration saw the re-opening of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes underDom Prosper Gueranger with the express purpose of restoring the liturgy and itscha nt to a state wh ich was as faithful to the early me dieval practice as possib le. Th isinvolved a seventy-year study of manuscripts which were collected, copied or even-tually photographed from all over Europe, backing up through history from thesquare notation that they could read to the ancient, tenth-century neumes whose

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    meanings remained largely obscure. This was perhaps the most enormously pains-taking and methodical chore in the history of musicology. Every syllable of everychant for the church year, bo th the Mass and the office, was charted with columnsshowing the versions from as many as twenty-five or more different significantman uscripts. From these charts, the monks deduced wha t was to become the officialchant for the entire Church in 1908.While the musicological world applauded the monks' efforts in restoring the an-cient melodies, the rhythm of these melodies remained open to great dissension.Neither the familiar square notation or the ancient unheightened neumes seemed togive any conclusive evidence of rhythmic pattern . F urthermore, despite the p lethoraof treatises which describe medieval thoughts on modes and counterpoint, there isnot a single extant work devoted to a discussion of rhyth m. The few w riters that evenmention in passing with such phrases as "as one to tw o" or "longer and shorter" areseparated by one or two hu ndred years and write in terms that are open to misunder-standing at this historical distance. Gregorian rhythm seemed to be the victim of oneof those blind spots in history that occur because the subject was so obvious in itsday that no writer saw any reason to discuss it!The restoration of the chant by the abbey took place in tandem with the rise of theart of musicology in the late nineteenth century and the matter of rhythm has beencaught in a dichotomy ever since. The research musicologist is dedicated to theunravelling of mysteries and often cannot conceive of a concerted music without adefinite, metered rhythm to lean on. For the ecclesiastical world, the chant is not amusical performance but a sung prayer. Therefore, in order to perform it they had toaccept some workable rhythmic system, authentic or not. However, even among themost ardent mensuralists in the musicological camp there has never been any systemthey could all agree on. The original theory at Solesmes under Dom Joseph Pothierwas that, since the chant was an ornamented intonation and in no way related todance or folk music, the music should move in a conversational flow. This theory,

    however logical for prayer, did not satisfy the mensuralist camp and the battle ragedon.By the turn of the century, the Vatican under Pius X was anxious for the Church tobe united under one system of chant and the deliberations, which resulted after hismotu proprio, began. The German musicologists still agreed that there must be somemensural system but had no agreement as to which one. In the meantime, DomAndre Mocquereau, who had become chantmaster at Solesmes, had devised a sys-tem based on a single, indivisible beat for each note and grouped the chant melodiesinto groups of two or three-note patterns according to his "rhythmic ictus." Thistheory was based on no historical evidence at all, but it did have the advantage ofenormous aesthetic instinct and rationale and it did have at least a steady beat. Thissystem won out, and Solesmes Abbey got permission to print the chants in theirrestored versions with D om M ocquereau's editings: the horizontal episema, the dots,and the controversial vertical episema. The restored chant was spread throughoutthe Church, where it prevailed until the advent of the vernacular service in 1965.During the years between 1903 and 1965, the chant rose from obscurity to an artform. Even though badly done by those who took Dom Mocquereau's indivisiblebeat too literally, in the hands of an artistic, knowledgeable conductor it took itsplace beside the masterpieces of any o ther epo ch. Dom Joseph Gajard, Dom M oc-quereau's successor, not only gave the world its first comm ercial recordings featuringthe monks of Solesmes but travelled widely, teaching choirmasters and students thebeauties of the Solesmes interpretations which, of course, involve the whole spec-trum of choral beauty and worshipful sound, not just the rhythm. He establishedSEMIOLOGY what is still the basic sound and atm osphere of Gregorian chan t.

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    By the time of Dom G ajard's death in 1970, the chant world hadbeen hit with twostaggering blows. The first was Vatican II. The second came from Solesmes itself.Dom Eugene Cardine, a paleographer and monk of Solesmes who also taught at thePontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, had uncovered new meanings in theancient, unheightened neumes that were not according to Dom Mocquereau's theo-ries and which pointed out misunderstandings and errors in the Vatican Edition ofthe chant.Research into the middle ages, after all, did not stop with themotu proprio and theabbey continually kept at its dedicated probing into unlocking the secrets. Whilestudying the charts from which the Vatican Edition was made, Dom Cardine beganto marvel at the incredible similarities that existed in the manuscripts even thoughthey originated anywhere from Ireland to Sicily and Spain to Poland. Why was it,for instance, that even though the ancient neumes had as many as twelve differentvariations in the design used to notate a three-note group, there was an amazingsimilarity in the neume chosen, even in different manuscript schools? It becameobvious that with the advent of large square notation some indications had beeneliminated. Further study proved that theearly notations gave many directions as tointerpretation even though they gave very few as to exact pitch. All this was lost withthe advent of square notation in the twelfth century.Cardine's discoveries lead to his publication, in 1970, of his treatise, SemiologieGregorienne, semiology being the art of understanding symbols. Because of itsimportance, it exists in the original Italian and in French, Spanish, Japanese, Ger-man, and in English as translated by this author. Despite the excitement with whichhis revelations were received by many both within the Church and without, generalhistories of medieval music do not as yet reflect the findings, and most of theCatholic Church in the United States, having divested itself of the chant, is not evenaware of the changes. Chantmasters who were artist interpreters under the formertradition have been reluctant to change and one especially ardent supporter even lefta two-million dollar endowment to maintain the theories of Dom Mocquereau. (Amusicologist of Mocquereau's standing might even have been elated by the newfindings!)

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    Besides the Semiologie, the abbey has now published a new Graduate which is inkeeping with the post-Vatican II ritual. The old Liber Usualis, the music student'shandy source for Gregorian melodies, is out of print. The new Graduate Triplexcontains all the music for the new Mass with three different notations: the squarenotation which gives the exact pitch plus the neumes from the German school of St.Gall below the staff, and those from the French school at Laon above the staff. Theabbey is presently at work on adding the same to the Antiphonale, the music for theoffice. Thus the square notation still provides us with the melody but the tenth-century neumes guide us in the rhythmic nuance for its interpretation. (The rhythmicsigns of Dom Mocquereau are also still on the square notation for those who wish tocontinue the earlier practice, but they, of course, have no use in the more recentinterpretations.) SEMIOLOGY

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    Cardine's discoveries have resulted in significant diversions from the former tradi-tion. First of all, the chant proceeds in a basic syllabic rhythm, in line with theoriginal instincts of Dom Pothier. The syllables, however, are longer or shorteraccording to the normal Latin pronunciation and the type of neume used. This basicdifference might be shown in English by the differing speed of an off-hand "cer-tainly," a more deliberate "probably," or a determined "by no means." These differ-ences first appear in the use of a dot (.), the punctum, a dash (-,/), the tractulus orvirga, or an episema (-

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    Detail, "Circle of Angels and the Elect" from the Last Judgment by Fra Angelico, 15th c. Academia, Florence.

    GREGORIAN SEMIOLOGY: THE NEWCHANT. PART II(In reading these articles, it is suggested that the reader consult the Graduate Triplexand the English translation of Gregorian Semiology, both of which can be ordered fromthe Abbaye St. Pierre de Solesmes, F-72300 Sable-sur-Sarthe, France.)

    The previous article was devoted to a quick resume of the history of Gregorianchant so far as its interpretation is concerned. It pointed out that the style of singingknown to most chant lovers today had existed, in reality, for only some sixty yearsbetween the motu proprio of 1903 and Vatican II in 1965. The interpretive discov-eries of Dom Eugene Cardine, published in his treatise Semiologie Gregorienne in1 9 7 0 , disclosed the fact that the ancient, unheightened neumes from the tenth andeleventh centuries were filled w ith indications regarding the movem ent of the c hant, THE NEW CHANT

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    its expressive nuance and its melismatic designs even though they have very fewindications as to exact pitch. The little books in which they appear were intended forthe chantmaster's use, only. By the time notation on staffs had appeared in thetwelfth century the monks and the clergy had become literate and the chants werecopied out on huge choirbooks in square no tation that the whole choir could see, bu twith the change in notation the expressive signs disappeared, leaving a distinctmelody which evidently had no rhythm.Regardless of whether these earliest, unheightened neumes were borrowings fromgramm arian signs or intended to m imic the chantmaster's conducting signs, C ardinehas shown that the monks of the Carolingian era developed systems of notation inwhich the movement of the melody was directly related to the ease with which thescribe could move his pen. The designs follow the direction of the melody, with thefirst element always showing the relative lowness or highness of the first note inrelation to those that follow. The first m ark literally says, "It's that direction." Thus,the simple sign */ shows us that there is a starting note at the bottom C^Owhich is followed by a higher note C /* ) . Or, in the other direction, a higher note(^ fo llo w ed by a lower note ^>O , combining as / \ . This elaborate system ofdots, lines and curves which appeared above the text of the ancient chantmaster'slittle book enabled him to remind his largely illiterate monks of the subtleties in themelodies that they had already memorized.This article will outline the most significant indications to be found in theseneumes which are now printed above and below the square pitch no tation in the newGraduate Triplex and in the future Antiphonale Triplex. Since the square notationgives the actual pitch , there is no need to discuss pitch indica tions unless they have todo with the interpretation or are needed to clarify the meaning of a neume.Before discussing the actual neumes, there are certain small letters, often calledRomanus letters, which appear in the old manuscripts which concern tempo, andthere are others which are merely warning signs of unusual pitch factorsleaps,unisons, etc. The latter have been taken care of in the standard square notation butthe Vatican Edition was often inconsistent and in error as regards the tempo indica-tions. Where the scribes wrote a small t (tenete: hold) or less often an x {expectate:(wait) the Vatican Edition normally added a dot or a horizontal episema to indicatewhat was believed to be a doubling of the time value. This is no longer taken as astrict doubling but merely a lengthening to give emphasis to a note. Where thescribes wrote a c (celeriter: speed) the Vatican Edition ignored it completely becauseit could not fit into the concept of an indivisible beat, even though the old neumesdistinctly prescribed a quicker movement through the note or notes indicated. Some-times these letters were lengthened to indicate their application to a whole group ofnotes.(jC . 7 ri y There were also modifying letters such as m (mediocriter: (alittle bit) o r b (bene: quite a bit). Mystery still surrounds the use of a few rarely usedletters such as / (fretnitus: roaring or murmuring), g (guttur: throaty) or k (klangor:noisily). The frequent letters s (written in old script as V ), a and i are warnings ofunusual upward leaps; e indicates a unison, and i or d downward leaps. Occasion-ally the small letters seem to contradict the neume they are placed by, which indicatesthat the scribe made a mistake and is correcting it with the letter.Even though the Graduale Triplex uses both the St. Gall and Laon neumes, thisarticle will be mainly concerned with those from St. Gall. For the performer, they liebetween the text and the square notation and are easier to see. In most instances theyalso agree with the Laon notation, although, as the next article will point out, attimes there is an interesting artistic choice which can be made between the two,

    THE NEW CHANT regardless of the square notation. For each of the neumes discussed, its symbol in

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    square notation will be followed by the series of variations on that same neume thatare possible in the early notation, showing immediately the inadequacies of the laternotation in relation to the subtelt ies possible by the earlier , supposedly more primi-t ive notat ion.

    I so la te d n o te s * ~ * } > / ' j ' " ~ j x * t """*

    The simplest neumes are those which indicate a single note for a single syllable:the dot or punctum C ') ; the virga C"""} ; an d the da sh or tractu lus C 5 . Th etractulus and the virga both signify a standard, syllabic beat, not a metronomic beatbut one that varies with the speech rhythm of the word. They are equal in value butthey differ in design because they often denote changes in pitch level, changes whichare readi ly seen now in the square notat ion. When the scr ibe wished to denote alengthening of a note, he added an episema, the top of the letter t (tenete) whichcaused him to l if t his pen from the parchment and hence slowed down the move-ment. This lengthening is not intended as any arithmetic multiple but simply as anadded emphasis on the note, and hence the syllable that goes with i t . To shorten avirga, the scribe had to add the letter c (celeriter) and some manuscr ipts did the samefor the tractulus.

    The isolated punctum appears only in one manuscr ipt , the Cantator ium of St .Gall (St. Gall 359) which is also the most perfect and precise of the early tenthcentury manuscripts. I t is always used as a shortened tractulus, indicating a lowernote, and appears in a series of unisons. The sign denotes a l ighter, quicker motionsuch as is appropriate to those syllables of a word which lead up to the accentedsyllable. As we will see later, the punc tum has this same m eanin g of l ightness wh en itis combined with other symbols into a three or four note neume.

    " , * 1 4 S

    Analysis of Gregorian melodies shows that most of them can be shown to beornamentat ions of intonat ions on the dominant or tonic notes of the mode. For thisreason, neumes wi th more than one note per syl lable should be thought of as suchand should move a l i t t le faster than the isolated neumes in a f low that is oftenreferred to as melismatic tempo. There is, of course, enormous difference betweensome of the simple antiphons and the soloistic graduals, but the principle of orna-menting important scale degrees with turns, passing tones, etc. st i l l holds.

    With the clivis, we find seven possible variations on the neume for which theVatican Edition has only one sign. I t always denotes a two-note pattern in which thefirst element is higher than the second. The basic example consists of only twoelementsa l ine point ing up and a l ine point ing downwhich a scr ibe could makewith one easy movement of the hand. The longer second arm of the second examplewarns that the last note is a third or more lower than the first . The remaining signs,however, are interpretive. The c on #3 reminds us that both notes should move fasterthan usual. The following signs prescribe lengthening: #4 says to lengthen bothnotes; #5 is a rare form which emphasizes the lengthening by making a square signand also adding an episema; and #6 and #7 both tell us to lengthen the second notebecause of the added episema. Some scribes used the letter t instead of the episemaan d we occ asio nally find bo th used for em ph asi s. THE NEW CHANT

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    Pes (Podatus) J = */ *S %/ S |_ */" i/ /* \Here again the Vatican Edition has only one sign for seven possible variatio ns. The

    pes is a two-no te neume in which the first note is lower than the second. The roundedform of 1 is an easily drawn hook in which the first part points down and thesecond part up, both notes moving lightly in accordance with the design. The epi-sema on the top of #2 tells us to emphasize the second note , whereas the square formof #3, which requires a more deliberate use of the scribe's pen, emphasizes bothnotes. #4 is a rather rare design which was used to warn the singers of a higher pitchfor the first note than they might expect but its rhythmic value is the same as thesquare 3 . The last three designs involve unisons and will be discussed later.X X ? fPorrectus p ^ = /\/ /IS /%, /%/

    The po rrectus is a three-note neum e in which the second note is lower than the firstand th ird, actually a clivis combined with a pes. (There are some instances where thesign denotes a high note followed by two lower notes at the same pitch, as would beshown in the square notation.) Again, the Vatican Edition often uses the same signfor all four variatio ns. The first sign is a quickly drawn figure which indicates that allthree notes move at the melismatic tempo. In sequences that include more than oneporrectus, the scribes often added a c to make sure that the movement did not lag.The episema on #2 lengthens the third no te, the one on #3 lengthens both of the firsttwo notes, and the one on #4 lengthens all three because of the caesura (cutting)between two and three, as will be discussed in detail later.Torculus /^ :

    The torculus combines a pes and a clivis into a three-note neume in which thesecond note is the highest. The first flowing sign indicates melismatic tempo andoften has a c added for a reminder not to linger on the first note. The second sign isthe same except that it has a longer third member to warn of a drop of a third ormore. Sign #3 requires a more deliberate movement of the pen and almost alwaysappears in cadence figures where a slowing down is in order. The fourth and fifthsigns, besides warning of a lower or higher first note, also indicate an emphasis onthat note because of the caesura which follows it. The two neumes under #6 indicatea light first note followed by two longer ones, as is sometimes emphasized by anadded c. Numbers seven and eight are also forms that indicate an emphasis on thelast two no tes. The same holds true for 7 and #8, but they differed in design becauseof their particular use in melodic passages.The foregoing discussion establishes the basic principles behind the interpretivesuggestions inherent in the earliest notation but they cover only about a fifth of theCardine treatise. Most of the remaining neumes are combinations of the foregoingneumes, operating on the same principles: dots indicate a light movement; dashes,the normal movement; curves, a melismatic flow; and squareness, the addition of anepisema; or the breaking of a neume, a more deliberate movement or emphasis on aparticular no te. Thus the climacus C /*' ) and the scandicus y J indicate a seriesof light notes, but if a dot is replaced by an episema {V ^i . ) that note should beTHE NEW CHANT given an emphasis that is not shown in the Vatican Edition. The same holds true for

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    the various four-note neumes such as the porrectus flexus \V ) 7, the pes subbipunc-tis (yi*) , the scandicus flexus i-^J , or the torculus resupinusSt ropha 9 W * "9X

    Another group of l ight neumes is made up of var ious combinat ions of dots orapostrophes. Often these carry indications of unison notes but they also indicatelight mov em ent unless there is an add ed episem a. Prob ably the mo st significantchange which concerns the interpretation of these neums is that , contrary to thetheories of Dom Mocquereau, two or more notes on the same syllable that are on thesame pitch are not sung as a sustained sound for the value of all the notes but mustbe l ightly repercussednot actually divided from each other but pulsed with thevoice. The Vatican Edition shows these as a group of square notes in unison but i tdoes not show that the last note of a group often has an episema. In the case of thebivirga or tr ivirga (/? /?{J the unison notes should receive even more deliberaterepercussion since they are used to underline syllables which call for a greater em-phas is in pro nu nc iatio n. Th e tr igon ^***/ also indicates a series of l ight notes, thefirst two at the unison, but i t also may have an episema on the last note.Oriscus

    The or iscus C 7 / is a sign which indicates a unison pitch and i t app ears espe-cially in cadence figures as a substi tute for the mo re com mo n pes , clivis or sca ndicu s.Without going into all possible variations, the folowing list gives the most commonforms.Pressus major. {/^ ) This neume indicates two unison notes followed by a lowernote and in i ts most common form requires three syllabic beats. Possible variationsinclude ( T^ J in which the first note is long but the others light, and a recliningform f/^1 in which all notes are l ight.Pressus minor. ( ' ' O It is always in uniso n with its preceding note and , in fact , issom etimes t ied to i t. If the preceding note is long, the pressus min or is nor ma lly l ightor, if the reverse is true, the pressus minor may be lengthened with a tenete. It mayalso be shortened with a celeriter where there is any possibil i ty of a misunderstand-ing. In some instances the proper interpretation is best found by comparison with theLaon nota t ion .Virga strata. [/*'/ This can indicate either two unison notes or i t can replace a pesin particular si tuations, a factor which was sometimes mis-transcribed in the VaticanEdition. In any case, i t represents two light notes.Salicus and pes quassus.^?> *-/jThe salicus is subject to the same variations indesign as the scandicus, but the presence of the oriscus here prescribes a note whichleans towards the succeeding note, which is the important note of the neume. By thesame token, the presence of the oriscus as the first element of a pes is an interpretivesign which denotes a leaning towards the following note.Quilisma J^?I - u/

    This is one of the most controversial signs in the squabbles between the mensural-ists and the Solesmes School. Because i ts appearance looks somewhat l ike a mordentand ear ly manuscr ipts say i t should be sung wi th a " t remulous" sound, many musi-cologists feel that i t is a sign for a mordent or a shake, somewhat in the baroquesense. However, "tremulous" not only means "shaking" but "t imid." The SolesmesSch ool ha s alw ays held tha t the latter inte rpre tatio n sho uld prevail an d that the no te THE NEW CHANT

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    should be passed through lightly. In its original form it was indeed a sort of orna-ment. It appeared in the earliest manuscripts as a note which added the scale degreeinside a minor third in pentatonic chants. To understand what a startling sound thiscould have been, sit at the piano and play a chant-like mixture of notes using onlythe pentatonic c-d-f-g-a for about five minutes. Then add an e between the e and the /and the shock will be apparent. The original signs were taken from medieval ques-tion marks (***/ or ^ } , and they indicate the same lightening of the voice oneuses when asking a question, showing that the dissonant ornament must not beemphasized. This agrees with the standard interpretation except that Cardine pointsout that the sign carries no rhythmic significance whereas the earlier practice calledfor singing it as an eighth note preceded by a dotted quarter note.Liquescence

    The liquescent neumes, those that appear in the square notation as smaller notes,are warning signs for careful pronunciationdiphthongs and certain combinationsof consonantsand they appear in the old notation as loops added to the lastelement of a neume. The Vatican Edition uses only one sign. The old neumes use asmall loop if the letter involved is to be pronounced very clearly without adding tothe value of the note, thus in effect shortening the actual phonated sound, and theyuse a large loop if there is to be an emphasis which actually lengthens the notesomewhat. At the present state of knowledge some confusion remains as to thesubtelties implied by these old neumes and the subject is still open to clarification.Regardless, they are warning signs of the need for careful enunciation, especially inthe reverberant halls where most chant was sung.Caesura

    Possibly the most significant of all Cardine's deductions was the unravelling of themystery surrounding the caesura, the neumatic break or neumentrennung. For in-stance, if a scribe could easily have written C / 7 or its equivalent in the variousmanuscript styles why did they consistently write their equivalent of _ ^7 in partic-ular instances? Or why were the notes of long melismas always grouped the sameway, regardless of varying notational schools? Obviously some principle was in-volved beyond the whim of the copyist. Cardine provides extensive examples toprove that a melisma which could have been copied out in a great variety of ways, ifonly the pitches were involved, was actually noted in a way that divided it intodesign groups which were mirrored by the copyist's pen and possibly also by theconductor's hand. And in line with the initial theory behind his discoveries, the briefpause of the pen at the end of each grouping determined the point at which a slighttenuto on the final note caused the designs to be obvious to the listener. The neumaticbreaks are actually expressive indications which the copyist never failed to show.

    The final article in this series will show many instances in which this expressivedevice not only adds emphasis to important syllables but mandates musical designsin passages that were often sung as a meandering, rather senseless succession ofnotes. These beautiful gothic designs were prime targets when the late renaissancechurch musicians trimmed the chant of its "barbaric excesses!"

    The foregoing article gives a quick synopsis of the findings of Dom Cardine. Theentire treatise covers many occasional exceptions not possible to discuss here, alongwith exhaustive proof of the validity of his opinions. The concluding article in thisseries will discuss the interpretation of particular selections from well-known chantsas they can now be sung in the light of the earlier neumes.

    THE NEW CHANT ROBERT M. FOWELLS10

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    GREGORIAN SEMIOLOGY: THE NEWCHANT. PART III(This is the third and final article in this series by Dr. Fowells.)The tw o previous articles discussed the history of the mysteries surroun ding medi-eval chant and gave a summary of the findings of Dom Eugene Cardine regarding therhythmic and interpretive implications contained in the medieval notation whichdisappeared w hen the large, square notation denoting exact pitch came into vogue inthe twelfth century. The revelations of his research become truly amazing whenviewed as part of the Gestalt which is made up of the combination of the text, themelodies, and the subtleties of the interpretive indications. No later notation wasever developed which conveyed the kinds of nuance found in these ancient neumes.Cardine's theories replaced the rhythmic system conceived by Dom M ocque reau atthe turn of the century and in some ways revert to the original instincts of DomPothier in the nineteenth century. Cardine has shown that the basic chant rhythmdepends first of all on the natural speech rhythm in which important words or

    syllables receive more emphasis in one way or another th an the un im porta nt ones. Aseries of single notes may vary in length according to the movement of the Latin. Ifone says in English, "W here in the wo rld are my glasses?" the word s where, worldand glasses get more emphasis and a lit t le more time than in the or are my eventhough they are not strictly counted out as quarter notes or eighth notes. To say eachsyllable as a quarter note would make the reader sound moronic. Despite the mensu-ralist contention that a choir needs a steady pulse to stay together, current practicewith semiology has proved this to be untrue. Any musical performance relies onphrasing and nuance for a truly musical effect and any listener to Dom Gajard'srecordings wou ld realize instantly that even he did not adhere to a strict, u nbend ingtempo. An interpretation based on semiology admittedly requires a greater flexibil-ity, but it is a flexibility that is mandated by the flow of the language and theno ta t ion .

    The hardest change for the traditional Gregorianist to accept is that neither thevertical episema or the division of the chant into groups of two or three notes is anylonger valid. Instead, the music moves generally in two types of motioneither thesyllabic beat which agrees with the movement of the spoken word or the melismaticbeat which is a somew hat faster mo vement that takes into consideration the fact thatneumes with multiple notes and melismas are actually ornaments and, as such,should be treated with less emphasis than the single pitches. Within these twomovements one also finds an occasional c (celeriter) which reminds the singer to singa note or a group of notes a bit lighter and faster than usual. One also finds thevarious ways of adding some emphasis and length to a notethe episema, the t(tenete) or the caesura. Thus, awareness of the types of tempo plus the neumaticvariations and alphabetical signs (the Romanus letters) forms the basis of the morerelaxed and even dramatic sound of the chant a la Cardine.

    An exciting musical phenomenon of the late twentieth century is the final marriagebetween the musicologist and the performer. Thanks largely to the popularity ofhigh-fidelity recording, artists with concert caliber imaginations have applied thefindings of the musicologists to old music and discovered beauties formerly un-known. Previously, early music was primarily the hobby of learned amateurs andmost performances of medieval music tended to be stiff and bland. We now knowthat their music can be as impassioned as their buildings or their l i terature. Themedieval musicologist has usually claimed that there was no madrigalism in thecha nt, that it was by na tur e dignified and san ctim oni ou s. All indica tions of wo rd THE NEW CHANT

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    painting were dismissed as accidental phenomena to be ignored because there wereinstances of the same designs where no pictorialism was possible. Would we applythe same theory to Bach just because he sometimes applied his baroqu e vocabularyabstractly and thus ignore the exquisite examples of word painting in his vocalworks? Hardly! Medieval warnings against excess dramatics should not be taken tomean that none was intended.To offer some specific examples, let us first examine a rather simple but lovelychant, the introit for Christmas midnight Mass, Dominus dixit ad me.

    . . Ps. 2, 7. If. 7. 2.-f r J . ,0- MI- NUS df- xit? "ad me :

    Tf T 7 /r v v: _F i - l i - us me- us es tu,

    1 ,> I -A\.n - . n .A.1 -di - e ge- nu- i te.

    T HE NE W CHANT

    This entire chant is an ornam entation of the tonic and dom inant tones of Mode II (dand f), the falling m inor third w hich characterizes so much of medieval and primitivemelody. In the text the Christ Child is speaking from the manger, saying, "The Lordhas said to me, 'Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten you.'" The chant beginswith an ornamented f, a scandicus with a c beside it to remind the singer that theclivis should be sung as lightly as the two dots that preceed it. Starting the chantwith a light ornament shows the gentleness of the baby's voice. The light repercus-sion of the unisons in the tristropha continue in the same mood. The Vatican Editiondots the single tractulus on -nus but neither the St. Gall or the Laon notation suggestit . All of the notes on dixit are also light. The St. Gall scribes used a tristropha with alowered first member to show the upward leap, the e {equaliter) simply remindingthe singers to start on the same pitch as the previous note. The Laon notation uses apes followed by an oriscus but the c confirms the same light movement as in theGerman notation.Speaking at a more adult pitch, the Lord is quoted on the ornamented tonic (c),the notes moving in an easy, melismatic flow except for the emphais on meus (my)where the pitch not only rises above the central pitch of recitation but the St. Gallscribe added an episema to the clivis on me- and used a square pes on -us, both ofwhich underline the importance of the word.The second half of the chant is a variation of the first half. The neume on the firstsyllable of ego, however, now has an m (mediocriter) beside it, reminding us not tobe flippant this time because the Lord is speaking. (Notice that since ego andDominum are both part of the Trinity, they share the same melody.) The small s, inits old form, stands for sursum (rise) and reminds the singer to return to the tonicafter the lower cadence on c. The final words, genui te (begotten you), provide asmall, balanced form in themselvesan ornamented tonic on ge , an emphatic re-minder of the dominant with the bivirga on nu , a light ornament on the final syllableat the top of the melody on -i, and then a gentle return to the tonic on te .How does one learn all of these irregular variations? O ne learns them, to use M.Clement Morin's expression, as "little musical words." Each word and each group ofneumes in a melisma has its own musical design and personality which soon be-comes indelibly fixed into an entitythe word, its melody and its nuance becomingone thought. Once learned, one needs only the reminder from the neumes and theconductor's hand to achieve a unison performance.

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    CO. VI rrPs. 709, 3

    ,y ffN splcnd6- ri-bus sanct6- rum,* ex u- te- ro '

    an- te lu- ci- fe-rum - ge- nu- i teIf the concept of using light notes to depict the Christ Child's words seems far-fetched, let us look at the communion from the very same Mass. Here the Lordspeaks, saying, "In holy splendor, from the womb before the daystar have I begottenyou." This time, the notes abound with signs for lengtheningmadrigalesque dig-nity! In the first phrase, only the unimportant syllables lack emphasis as they dipdown to the minor third below the note of recitation. Is it entirely an accident thatthe highest note appears on the word "daystar" and that it is the only note in the

    chant that leaps out of its original hexachord? If the birth of Christ can be embla-zoned in stained glass as a visual aid for the non-reader when plain glass would havelet in the light, should we strip the sung text of all drama? Evidently they did not.The descriptive content of the chant is by no means new at Solesmes. A detailedexposition of the sensitive setting of these two chants appears in a recent publicationfrom the abbey, a volume of writings by Dom Gajard which was published by theabbey in hono r of his centenary. (Les plus belles melodies Greg oriennes comm enteespar Dom Gajard, Solesmes, 1985.)

    ^J) r ..S 4 Is. 9, 6 ; Ps. 9 7

    l ~ U-ER * na- tus es t no- bjs, et fi- li- us

    da- tus est no- bis17! *cu- ius impe- r i - um su-p er

    hu- m e- rum e-

    Any chant for which we have the old notation shows examples of signs whichdeny the sameness of all notes and which add designs that underscore syllables andenliven the movement of the melody. In the introit for the Mass for Christmas day,Puer natus est, we find first a square pes on the first syllable of Puer telling us to bedeliberate in the announcement of the news and, incidentally, imitating a trumpetsignal. The first phrase is an ornamented intonation on d and the letter c turns theneume on the first syllable of nobis into a simple "baroque" ornament. The worddatus (given) is emphasized by virtue of the caesura which adds emphasis to the firstnote. The importance of the word imperium (government) is shown not only by thesquare pes which rarely appears at the top of a melody but by the height of the topnote, being the only one in the chant that exceeds the original hexachord. The phrasecomes to a cadence on the word eius (His) which is melismatic both by virtue of itsimportance and because it is cadential. Without semiology we would have a mean-dering nine-note figure. With semiology we have a definite designa lengthenedclivis at the beginning and the end with a turn figure between them which is light-ened by the c. THE NEW CHANT13

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    / Ay> / / /rme- a.

    j

    MD6mi-

    k.B PL*f ( .^ /fnus :

    A lovely example of the gracefulness that a simple tenete can add to an otherwisecommon figure appears twice in Domus mea. Although on different scale degrees,the same figure is used for mea and Dominus (being the same). Sung with equalemphasis on each note the melody is common; adding a slight hold at the top note asindicated gives the figure an elegant lilt.Any chant we turn to would provide examples of the interpretive signals discussedabove. To apply the principles, one needs simply to study the tables of neums givenin the front of Gregorian Semiology, noting the shape of the neumes in their mostsimple forms and then the multiplicity of variations possible. The R omanum lettersare obvious and the changes made by episemas or square forms present n o problemonce the original design is familiar.It takes a little more familiarity to identify the neum atic breaks, the caesura, bu tthese constitute Card ine's most impor tant discovery. The fact tha t the note before thebreak must be emphasized and slightly lengthened not only throws emphasis onimportant syllables but, in the case of long melismas on a single syllable, changeswhat would o therwise be a meandering series of notes into intelligible groups "littlemusical words"groups which incidentally agree with the w ords which w ere addedlater in medieval troping as memory aids.

    VIII

    For example, look at the melisma which is sung on the word Ave in this AveMaria. Transcribed into note-heads, this is a formless succession of pitches withalmost no sense of direction.

    THE NEW CHANT

    veBut if it is sung with the note before the caesura slightly lengthened it breaks intofour, easily remembered designs. Considering the number of Alleluias and cadentialmelismas in the repertory, this discovery has changed wh at w ere once performancehurdles into attractive designs.

    4A L-le-lfi-ia. ' JU14

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    In this melisma on the last syllable of the Alleluia of Dies sanctificatus the caesurasbreak the the pattern into four, four-note figures, each one ending with a tenete toemphasize its separation from the next pattern, th e last one also being extended w iththe quilisma figure which re-iterates the former tenete pattern. The word "break,"incidentally, does not mean a break in the sound but a slight lengthening of a notewhich interrupts the regular flow.

    - pnn-ci-pes i A . / "

    In the gradual, Constitues eos, the setting of principes (princes) amounts to a seriesof four-note groups in the type of melisma that was probably intended to serve as ameditation on the word. The first four set the entire word, using a deliberate clivis on-pes. The next two groups also end with two deliberate notes, although the VaticanEdition does not accurately reflect the tenete in both the St. Gall and Laon versionsbecause the lozenges are used to notate both the punctum (dot) and the tractulus(dash), the first signifying light motion and the last normal speed. The third groupwarns of a change in pattern with the tenete on the first note and it also ends with atenete. Th e final figure begins with three lengthene d notes an d, in effect, lengthen sthe fourth again by virtue of the pressus which repeats the note instead of holding it,and then cadences onto the final note.

    In the gradual, Locus iste, the final es t before the double bar provides an excellentexample of the deliberate notation of the caesura. It could have been notatedas /njjl//in/l OT

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    the first being a sort of up-beat, and the second having both a tenete and a caesura.The next two re-iterations of the note are ornamented with the upper half-step. Thehigh notes on the following Domine are emphasized by both the caesura and thetenete; the middle syllable has simply a familiar ornament, and the final syllableagain has a tenete on the reciting note as well as the final cadence.

    V I-de-runt Q- mn es * fi-nes ter- r a e -For a f inal example of the function of the caesura in emphasizing important wordsand in delineating melodic designs let us examine the first l ine of the gradual,

    Viderunt omnes. The f irst phrase is an o rnam ented intonat ion on mi an d sol of ModeV. The neumes on Viderunt move at a simple, syllabic tempo as they set us thor-oughly in the mo de. However , the word omnes (all) is greatly expanded, probably toemphasize i ts meaning. The first note on omnes should be st ressed, as shown by thecaesura between the first and second notes of the podatus ( J ) wh ich could have beenwritten in its usual form (y) if nothing but pitch direction was intended. After thatfirst note there follows a nine-note ornament made up of three three-note figures setoff from each other by the tenete at the end of the first two groups. The word omnesis set to this balanced design, . Except for two neighboring notes, the textfines terrae (ends of the earth) uses only re-i terations of the mi and fa, making it al lthe more necessary to derive some sort of pattern to avoid monotony. The two-notefigures on fines are stressed by using a square pes and a clivis with a tenete, contrast-ing with the faster melismatic tempo of the preceeding word. On terrae the repeti-t ions are broken into patterns by the two figures marked c, the last three-clivis figurewith the celeriter in the middle being a common cadence pat tern.

    This series of articles, intended n ot o nly to brin g the church m usician u p to date onmatters of Gregorian interpretation, but hopefully to encourage the use of theChurch's greatest musical tradit ion where i t may be appropriate in the new service,has been devoted to an expose of the theories of Dom Eugene Cardine on Gregorianrhythm and the interpretive indications inherent in the ancient, unheightenedneumes. For the full story, the reader should refer to the following books:

    1. Gregorian Semiology by Dom Eugene Cardine, t ranslated by this author f romthe original Semiologie Gregorienne. Both are published by Solesmes Abbey.2. Graduale Triplex, the complete l i turgy for the Mass printed with not only theusual square notation for the pitch but with the ancient neumes from St. Gall belowthe notes and those from Laon above, from which the singer reads the performance

    directions discussed in the semiology. This is also published by the abbe y a nd it is thebest reference source to date for the music history student. I t not only contains theold notation, but i t agrees with the new li turgy which the Liber Usualis does not .For those who read French, there are numerous other works of interest to the chantlover available. Simply write for the catalogue from Abbaye St. Pierre de Solesmes,

    F-72300 Sable-sur-Sarthe, France.Although these new interpretations may seem complex at f irst , singing the chantin this manner is infinitely easier for the uninit iated than i t was with the former

    system with i ts groups of twos and threes. With the new discoveries the chant has anew life, an even more beautiful f low, and hopefully a more authentic sound in i tsfaithfulness to the medieval original in keeping with Solesmes' tradit ion.THE NEW CHANT RO BER T M . FOW ELLS16

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    THE ROLE OF SEMIOLOGY(This pape r was originally presented at a conference on G regorian semiology, June 26-

    28 , 1988, at California State University, Los Angeles, in cooperation with the Hun-tington Library.)

    During the la te n ineteen-f i f t i es , the ro le of semiology in the task of res tor ing theGreg o r i an r ep e r t o ry was co n s i d e red t o b e a r a t h e r b i za r r e , an d i n d eed t o a n u m b er o fm y R o m an i n s t ru c t o r s , a s o m e wh a t s u s p ec t en d ea v o r . I t wa s d e f i n it e ly t h e "n ew k i do n t h e b l o ck " a t t h e P o n t i f i ca l In s t i t u t e o f S ac red M u s i c i n R o m e d u r i n g t h o s e y ea r s .O n t h e i n t e rn a t i o n a l s cen e , t h e w o rk o f r e s t o ra t i o n h ad cen t e red a ro u n d t wo o p p o s -i n g cam p s o f i n t e rp re t a t i o n , ro u g h l y c l a s s i f i ed a s : 1 ) t h e eq u a l i s t ap p ro ach an d 2 ) t h em en s u ra l i s t ap p ro ac h . Th ere s eem e d to b e n o ro o m fo r a t h i rd ap p ro ac h i n t h i s fi e ldo f en d eav o r . Th e ro ad t o t h e accep t an ce o f s em i o l o g y as an e s s en t i a l t o o l i n t h eres t o ra t i o n o f th e Greg o r i an r e p e r t o r y p ro m i s ed t o b e l o n g an d h a r d , i f n o t i m p o s -s i b l e . B u t t h en wh o co u l d h av e r eck o n ed t h a t Do m M o cq u ereau h ad p rep a red s u ch aw o r t h y s u cces s o r fo r t h i s t a s k , a s D o m Eu g en e C ard i n e ?

    Acco rd i n g t o t h a t t i m e-h o n o red s ay i n g , "Al l ro ad s l ead t o R o m e!" I t ce r t a i n l y h e l dt ru e fo r Do m C ard i n e , a s we l l a s fo r myself. I wi l l begin wi t h my " roa d to Rom e" an dt h en t h a t o f Do m C ard i n e ' s .

    In t h e s u m m e r o f 1 9 5 6 , I wa s s u m m o n ed o n e ev en i n g t o t h e ab b o t ' s o f f ice . B efo re Ico u l d co m e t o a fu l l s t o p b e fo re h i s d es k , h e b eg an t o o u t l i n e wh a t wo u l d b eco m e m ym o n as t i c w o rk t o t h e p res en t d ay . He ca l m l y an n o u n ced : "You wi l l m a k e s o l em nprofess ion on Augus t 6 th , then you wi l l go to Sant ' Anselmo in Rome to get al i cent ia te in theology. Whi le you are there , you are to l earn I ta l i an so that you wi l l beread y t o b eg i n y o u r s t u d i es a t t h e P o n t i f ica l In s t i t u t e of S ac red M u s i c . W h en y o uh av e acq u i re d t h e d o c t o r a l d eg ree , y o u wi l l r e t u rn t o b e t h e ch o i rm a s t e r fo r t h eco m m u n i t y . " Wi t h t h a t , I was o n t h e ro ad t o s em i o l o g y an d a s e r ie s o f wo n d er fu le n c o u n t e r s w i t h t h e w o r k o f D o m C a r d i n e .

    M y b ack g ro u n d a t S t . M e i n rad h ad b een t h a t o f t h e eq u a l i s t ap p ro ach , b u t w i t h av en g ea n ce ! D u r i n g t h e ea r l y 1 9 5 0 ' s, S t . M e i n r ad h ad a t a s t e o f t h e d eb a t e b e t w eent h e eq u a l i s t s ' an d t h e m en s u ra l i s t s ' i n t e rp re t a t i o n s . I t wa s d u r i n g t h i s ti m e t h a t D r .Wi l l i Apel spent several months wi th us in order to make use of our l ib rary for worko n h i s n o w f a m o u s b o o k , Gregorian Chant. O n e o f o u r y o u n g m e m b e r s , R o b e r tS n o w, was ap p o i n t ed t o a s s i s t Dr . Ap e l i n h i s r e s ea rch . B efo re h e cam e t o u s , S n o wh ad b een a s t u d en t o f Drag o n P l am en ac a t t h e Un i v e r s i t y o f I l l i n o i s . D i s cu s s i o n sam o n g t h e m u s i c i an s o f t h e co m m u n i t y d u r i n g t h o s e d ay s were a l way s l i v e l y an dsomet imes even heated . You can get a fa i r ly accurate feel for our d i scuss ions byrev i ewi n g t h e f i n a l p ag es o f ch ap t e r t wo o n "Th e P ro b l em o f R h y t h m " i n Dr . Ap e l ' sb o o k . ' Wh a t was t h e ro l e o f t h e La t i n accen t ? Wh a t were t h e s u b t l e n u an ces o frh y t h m t h a t t h e m an u s c r i p t s s eem ed t o b e i n d i ca t i n g ? Ho w d i d o n e r ea l i ze t h em i nac t u a l p e r fo rm an ce ? H o w co u l d o n e t each t h a t to a ch o i r of m u s i ca l l y u n s o p h i s t i -ca t ed m o n k s fo r u s e i n t h e i r d a i l y s u n g o f f i ce? Un d ern ea t h a l l t h a t d i s cu s s i o n r an gt h e wo rd s of Gu s t av e R ees e : " . . . wh i l e ad m i r i n g t h e b e au t y of th e S o l es m es i n t e r -pre ta t i on s , one sho uld not ove r loo k the fact tha t they are h i s tor ica l ly suspec t . . .'"

    I n t h e s u m m e r of 1 9 5 5 , o u r c h o i r m a s t e r a t t e n d e d t h e G r e g o r i a n c h a n t w o r k s h o ps p o n s o r e d b y t h e M a d a m e s o f t h e S a c r e d H e a r t a t M a n h a t t a n v i l l e C o l l e g e . U p o n h i sr e t u rn , h e b eg an a r e fo rm o f o u r ch o ra l p e r fo rm an ce p rac t i ces . F o r t h e s ak e o fp ed a g o g i ca l s i m p l i c i ty an d c l a r i t y , i t t u rn e d o u t t o b e an eq u a l i s t i n t e rp re t a t i o n , w i t ha v en g ean ce ! Ev ery s y l l ab l e an d ev e ry n o t e o f a n eu m at i c g ro u p was t o b e s u n g wi t han ab s o l u t e l y eq u a l d u ra t i o n . P au s es a t t h e m ed i an t cad en ce o f a p s a l m v e r s e were t oreceive exa ct ly tw o co un ts . W e kn ew he w as ser io us ab ou t th i s w he n he ap pe ar ed a t SEMIOLOGY

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    the first community chant practice with a metronome to mark the beats! Needless tosay, this particular "reform movement" soon collapsed.I left for Rome the following year with many more questions than answers aboutthe restoration of the Gregorian repertory. In a sense, I had been well prepared formy encounters with Dom Cardine.My first encounters with Dom Cardine were the chant rehearsals that he con-

    ducted at Sant ' Anselmo for the students. During those rehearsals, he brought theGregorian repertory to a level of vibrancy and spiritual depth that I had never beforeexperienced. At the time, I knew nothing of the semiological principles he wasutilizing. I was only aware of their marvelous results. The knowledge would comewith exposure to his courses at the institute in the fall of 1959.I learned of Dom Cardine's "road to Rome" in bits and pieces of private conversa-tions during my annual summer encampments at Solesmes from 1960 to 1963. DomCardine saw his mission as continuing the kind of research that Dom Mocquereauwas unable to continue. That research was later to lead to what we now call semiol-ogy and the conclusions it has made possible. In a very fundamental way, DomCardine's mission began w ith Dom Moc quereau's meeting with Pope St. Pius X in

    the spring of 1904.This is how Dom Cardine recounted that meeting to me. During the course of themeeting, the Holy Father asked Dom Mocquereau: "now just how long will i t takeyou to produce a critical edition of the Gregorian repertory?" At that point, DomMocquereau took a deep breath and answered: "Oh, about fifty years, Your Holi-ness ." Shaking his finger at him , Pope Pius X solem nly replied: "No , it won 'ttake you fifty years, you will do it within the next few ye ars!" The rest is history. T heKyriale in 1905; the Graduate Romanum in 1908; and the Antiphonale Romanum in1912.Now, the immediate challenge was no longer that of producing a critical edition ofthe Gregorian repertory that would be faithful to the groupings and divisions of theneumatic elements as found in the best manuscript traditions. The challenge hadbecome much more pragmatic: what practical method should one use to perform thechants as they would be found in these new editions? It was at this point, that DomMocquereau shifted his attention to the pressing problem of providing a method forperforming the repertory.

    Dom Cardine recounted how concerned Dom Mocquereau was that responsibleresearch continue a critical edition of the repertory. By 1906, Dom M ocque reau hadalready seen the rhythmical importance of.certain types of graphic separation. Hegave it the name "division." By this he meant the graphic separation of the last noteof the group that precedes the quilisma, the clivis, the torculus, the climacus and soon. The last reference to this line of research in his writings is to be found in thearticle "La tradition rythmique Gregorienne" which was published in Rassegna Gre-goriana in 1906.3 With Dom Mocquereau's encouragement, Dom Cardine quietlycontin ued t hat line of research. A s if in fulfillment of a proph ecy, that research bega nto bear fruits after Dom Mocquereau's response to Pope St. Pius X! Dom Cardine's"road to Rome" was complete when the president of the Pontifical Institute of SacredMusic, Monsignor Iginio Angles, was successful in obtaining him as instructor ofGregorian paleography at the institute.

    During those years after the death of Dom Mocquereau in 1930 until the 1950's,Dom Cardine had continued patiently in his daily round of singing in the monasticchoir and studying the written legacy of those chants as it had been carefully collatedon those massive comparative tables in the paleography room at Solesmes. As herecounted to me years later, he began to realize more and more just how subtly andSEMIOLOGY wi th w ha t great prec ision the living W ord of Go d had bec om e enfleshed in tha t

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    repertory. Permit me to paraphrase the words of T. S. Eliot in attempting to capturethe spirit of those years: "Where shall the word be found, where will the wordresound? Not here (amid all the noise of too hastily fashioned theories), there is notenough silence (amidst all the sound and fury of debate, there is). No time to rejoice(in sung prayer) for those who walk among the noise and deny the (Holy Spirit's)voice." My apologies to T. S. Eliot, who wrote his poem "Ash Wednesday" in thatfateful year, 1930.

    Semiology was indeed the "new kid on the block" in Rome during the 1950s. Indiscussing the problem of Gregorian rhythm in a book published in 1986, JohnStevens could say that "Recent research, notably that of Leo Treitler, . . . has shiftedthe direction of the enquiry away from 'origins,' as conceived in a somewhat re-stricted paleographical sense, towards function and context'the study of notationsin the light of their use in particular conditions,' especially the condition of a long-established oral tradition."1 He goes on to say that: "the 'shift of focus' is frompaleography as traditionally practiced to semiotics, concerned with the 'functionalrelationships of sign systems and what they signify' in the social and historicalsituation of those who use them."51 witnessed Dom Cardine do precisely that almostthirty years ago! As if echoing some of Dom Cardine's class presentations, Stevenstells us that: "the function of the notation was principally to guide the singers 'inadapting language to melody, and in giving the right sounds to the melodic turns.'The earliest notation. . . is directly related to sentence punctuation, the function ofwhich was to help the reader 'bring out the sense of a text as he read it aloud.'Notation was similar to punctuation: 'it did its work by marking off the sense unitsof the text."01 would only add a summary sentence: "in the beginning was the WORD(spoken, or sung); and the WORD was made visibleby the nod of the head, thegesture of the hand, and the flow of the pen."

    Dom Cardine's pedagogy taught us to study the neumatic forms, never in isola-tion, but always according to their function in the verbal context in which they werefound. Today, he would find himself no longer alone in that endeavor. He has beenjoined by such diverse scholars as Berkley Peabody,7 Walter Ongs and David Hiley,0as well as Richard Norton in his recent book entitled Tonality in Western Culture. InNorton's remarks on cantillization, I can still hear fragments of Dom Cardine'slectures on Gregorian psalmody: "(it) was created for the elevated delivery of reli-gious texts of high moral quality. It directs behavior . . . it is the word ofGod . . . (in it) the individual note is of little importance; nor is the individual wordof great importance either. Only the whole thought or sentence, with its caesura andcadence, makes a musical unit. The early Christian singer heard tones as portions ofa tonal whole, each needing to be complemented and each pointing in some fashionbeyond itself. In this sense the whole was known before the parts. Through gram-matical structure, the melos was conceived as a whole framework thathoused . . . the sentence itself."10 In the beginning was the WORD, and then theneum!

    Drawing on the findings of the psycholinguist T. G. Bever, Edward D. Hirsch inhis book, Cultural Literacy, describes how language, both oral and written, mustfunction. Since our short-term memory lasts just a matter of milliseconds, our mindscannot reliably hold in short-term memory more than about four to seven separateitems. That particular constraint is hard-wired into our systems. We are able to readbecause we chunk letters into words and words into phrasal units. In fact, all lan-guages must form brief bursts of words in clauses. Every known language divides itssentences into semi-complete clausal units that are small enough to be structuredwithin the limitations of short-term memory. He goes on to add that (1) "the clause isthe primary perceptual unit; (2) within each clause we assign semantic relationswithin major phrases."

    11 ' SEMIOLOGY

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    F o r t h e m ed i ev a l n o t a t o r , i t wa s b u t a s h o r t s t ep f ro m t h e g rap h i c s ep a ra t i o n an dg ro u p i n g of a tex t acco rd i n g t o s en s e u n i t s fo r o ra l p ro c l am at i o n , t o t h a t o f t h eg rap h i c s ep a ra t i o n an d g ro u p i n g o f a m e l o d i c s e t t i n g o f t h es e t ex t s acco rd i n g t o t h ei n d i v i s i b l e m e l o d i c u n i t s . P ro d u c i n g a t ru l y c r i t i ca l ed i t i o n o f t h es e ch an t s i n v o l v es ,of necess i ty , a h igh degree of f idel i ty to these or ig inal groupings . In th i s context , afavor i te bete noire o f Do m C ard i n e was t h e r ep res en t a t i o n o f t h e s can d i cu s f l ex u s i nt h e Va t i can Ed i t i o n a s a p o d a t u s fo l l o wed b y a c l i v i s . Need l es s t o s ay , t h e rh y t h m i cdi f ference i s cons iderable!

    A n ex am p l e o f t h i s can b e fo u n d o v e r t h e accen t o f t h e w o r d Domine in the verseo f t h e g rad u a l In Deo speravit.12 Th ere we f i n d a n eu m o f s ev en n o t es , n o t a t ed b y S t .Ga l l 3 5 9 a s a s can d i cu s f l ex u s fo l l o wed b y a t o rcu l u s . Th e g rap h i c s ep a ra t i o n o ccu r sa t t h e b as e o f t h e m e l o d i c cu rv e , s o n o n e o f t h e n o t es r ece i v es an y s p ec i a l rh y t h m i ce m p h a s i s . M o r e o v e r , b o t h L a o n 2 3 9 a n d t h e B e n e v e n t a n f a m i l y h a v e j o i n e d t h et o rcu l u s g ro u p t o t h e p reced i n g n o t es t o fo rm o n e s i n g l e n eu m at i c en t i t y ! In t h eB en e v en t an n o t a t i o n , t h e n eu m i s p ro d u c ed b y o n e s in g l e f l o w o f t h e p en ! O n e i s l edt o t h e co n c l u s i o n t h a t t h e n o t a t o r s d i d n o t n eces s a r i l y t h i n k o n l y i n t e rm s o f b i n a ryor t ernary groups , bu t a l so in four , f ive , s ix and in th i s case , o f seven notes groups .W h i c h a s t h e ex p e r t s t el l u s , is ab o u t a ll t h a t o u r s h o r t t e rm m em o r y can m a n a g e .

    W h a t H i r s c h c a ll s " c h u n k i n g , " D o m C a r d i n e c al l e d g r o u p i n g . A n e x a m p l e w o u l db e t h e m ed i ev a l n o t a t o r ' s u s u a l p rac t i ce o f g ro u p i n g a s e r i e s o f r ep ea t ed n o t es a t t h eu n i s o n i n t o g ro u p s o f t wo s an d t h rees , wh i ch we ca l l t h e d i s t ro p h a an d t r i s t ro p h a .D o m C a r d i n e p o i n t e d o u t o n e e x a m p l e in w h i c h o n e m a n u s c r i p t g a v e a c o n t i n u o u ss e r i e s o f s i x s t ro p h a , an o t h e r g av e t wo g ro u p s o f t h ree , an d y e t an o t h e r g av e t h reeg ro u p s o f t wo each fo r t h e s am e p i ece ! In t h i s p a r t i cu l a r i n s t an ce , i t was n o t t h er h y t h m , b u t v i s u a l c l a r i t y t h a t h a d d e t e r m i n e d t h e g r o u p i n g s .

    S u ch an o ra l co n t ex t fo r t h e s t u d y o f t h e Greg o r i an r ep e r t o ry cam e n a t u ra l l y t oDo m C ard i n e . H i s t each i n g d ay i n R o m e b eg an an d en d ed wi t h t h e s i n g i n g o f t h o s ech an t s i n t h e m o n as t i c ch o i r a t S t . J e ro m e ' s Ab b ey . In f ac t , o u r m o n as t i c an ces t o r s ,l i k e t h e an c i en t s g en e ra l l y , p ro n o u n ced wh a t t h ey r ead i n an au d i b l e f a s h i o n . S t .B en ed i c t d es c r i b es a t y p i ca l s cene i n C h ap t e r 4 8 o f t h e Ho l y R u l e : " . . . a f te r S ex tan d t h e i r m ea l , t h ey m ay r e s t o n t h e i r b ed s ( i n t h e d o rm i t o ry ) i n co m p l e t e s i l en ce ;s h o u l d a b ro t h e r w i s h to r ead p r i v a t e l y , l e t h i m d o s o , b u t w i t h o u t d i s t u rb i n g t h eothers ." 13 B y t h e en d o f h i s n o v i t i a t e , a n o v i ce was ex p ec t ed t o h av e m em o r i zed t h een t i r e p s a l t e r s o t h a t h e co u l d t ak e h i s t u rn a t p ro c l a i m i n g an d s i n g i n g t h e p s a l m sd u r i n g t h e d i v i n e o f fi ce. In f ac t , B en ed i c t in s i s t s t h a t : " i n t h e w i n t e r s eas o n . . . i nt h e t i m e r em ai n i n g a f t e r v i g i l s , t h o s e wh o n eed t o l ea rn s o m e o f t h e p s a l t e r o rr ead i n g s s h o u l d m em o r i ze t h em (R B 8 : 3 ) . " Ho wev er , n o o n e was t o p res u m e t o r eador to l ead the s inging in choi r un less he could do so to the benef i t o f h i s hearers (RB4 7 : 3 ) ! Th u s , i n t e ll i g ent p h ras i n g , g o o d d i c t i o n , s en s it i v e w o r d rh y t h m an d ac cu ra t ei n f l ec t i o n were a l l n o rm a l ex p ec t a t i o n s o f t h e m o n as t i c co m m u n i t y w i t h r e s p ec t t ot h o s e wh o wo u l d l ead i t s co m m o n p ray e r . Dav i d H i l ey i s o n s o l i d h i s t o r i ca l g ro u n dw h e n h e r em ark s t h a t : "S i n ce (t h e r ep e r t o ry ) ev o l v ed o ra l l y i t i s n o t s u rp r i s i n g t h a t i tr e l ie s h eav i l y o n m e l o d i c fo rm u l as d ep l o y ed i n s i m p l e s t ru c t u re s , a l l o f wh i ch co u l db e m em o r i zed . " 1 4

    I t was p rec i s e l y w i t h i n t h e co n t ex t o f t h es e s i m p l e s t ru c t u res t h a t Do m C ard i n e l edu s i n t o t h e h ea r t o f h i s s em i o l o g y l ec t u res fo r f i r s t y ea r s t u d en t s . Th e I t a l i an ed i t i o nb y Dr . N i n o A l b a r o s a o f Do m C ard i n e ' s c l a s s n o t e s fo r fi rs t y ea r s t u d en t s b ea r s t h i so u t .1 5 In C h ap t e r VI of t h o s e c l a s s n o t e s , y o u wi l l f i nd h o w h e u s ed t h o s e s t e reo t y p edp a t t e rn s t o l ead u s i n t o t h e p r i n c i p l e s o f Greg o r i an co m p o s i t i o n . F ro m t h e cursusplanus p a t t e rn s , 1 6 fo u n d i n t h e p s a l m o d i c p a t t e rn s fo r t h e i n t ro i t an t i p h o n s of t h eM as s an d m ad e f am o u s b y P o p e S t . Leo t h e Grea t i n h i s h o m i l i e s , t o t h e m o re

    SEMIOLOGY f lex ib le pa t te rn s tha t we re de vel op ed for use in the ps al m od y of the d iv ine office an d

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    S t . J e ro m e ' s v u l g a t e t r an s l a t i o n , t h e co n s t an t t h em e was t h e p res i d i n g ro l e t h a t wasp l ay ed b y t h e La t i n accen t .

    Ye t, in t h e h a n d s o f ex p e r i en ced s i n g e r s , sen s i t i v e to t h e d e m an d s o f o ra l p ro c l am a-t i o n , t h es e s t e reo t y p es were p ro fo u n d l y m o d i f i ed an d even ab an d o n e d . H i s ex am p l efrom the codex S t . Gal l 381 of the psalm tex t quoniam Dom inus spes ejus est17 is acase in poin t . In a number of h ighly reveal ing cases , that same sens i t iv i ty to ora lp ro c l am at i o n l ed t h e Gre g o r i a n co m p o s e r t o p res e rv e f a it h fu ll y t h e o r i g i n a l H eb re wp ro n u n c i a t i o n o f ce r t a i n p ro p e r n a m e s . O n e o f h i s f av o r i t e ex am p l es fro m t h e m o -n as t i c an t i p h o n a l was t h a t o f t h e Magnificat a n t i p h o n Montes Gelboe, with i ts use ofthe "pass ing to ne" form of the specia l curs ive torculu s to ar r i ve a t the c l ima x of themelodic l ine on the f inal sy l lab le of the word Gelboe.16 M y fav o r i t e ex am p l e f ro m t h eGraduate Triplex i s t h a t o f t h e 8 t h m o d e o f fe r t o ry an t i p h o n Precatus est Moyses.'No co m p o s e r o f g ran d o p e ra h as s u rp as s ed t h e rh y t h m i ca l an d m e l o d i c t r ea t m en t o ft h e p h r a s e : mem ento Abr'ham, Is'ac, Iacob. Yes , Vi rg in ia , there are insp i r ing exam-p l es o f h o w t o h an d l e a wo rd o r p h ras e , i n wh i ch t h e p r i n c i p l e accen t o ccu r s o n t h el a s t s y l l ab l e . Th ro u g h ex am p l es s u ch a s t h es e , we g rad u a l l y cam e t o r ea l i ze t h ep ro f o u n d i m p l i ca t i o n s of h is s i m p l e s t a t em en t t h a t : " fu n d am en t a l l y , i t is a l way s t h etex t that insp i res the melody and i t s rhythmic express ion ." 20

    In t h e b eg i n n i n g was t h e W O R D , an d t h en t h e re was th e n e u m . F ro m t h a t p e r s p ec -t ive , h i s def in i t ion of a ne um ma kes em ine nt ly go od sense : "A ne um c ons i s t s of a l lthe notes to be found over a s ingle sy l lab le , the rhythm of which i s ind icated by them an n er i n wh i ch t h es e n o t es a re g ro u p ed o r s ep a ra t ed . " 2 1 Thi s i s inde ed nei th er a neq u a l i s t , n o r a m en s u ra l i s t , ap p ro ach t o t h e p ro b l em o f Greg o r i an rh y t h m . As h i ss t u d en t s , we co u l d n o l o n g er ex am i n e t h e ev i d en ce a s i s o l a t ed m ark i n g s i n a m an u -s c r i p t . F ro m n o w o n , v e rb a l co n t ex t an d o ra l fu n c t i o n h ad a l wa y s an d ev e ry w h ere t ob e t ak en i n t o co n s i d e ra t i o n .

    In h i s ar t i c le on nota t ion in the New Grove Dictionary, Dav i d Hi l ey n o t es t h a ta l t h o u g h desagregation has long been recognized as of rhythmic s igni f icance, i t susual ef fect has not been h ighl ighted , namely , that " i t may be connected wi th chei ro-n o m i c p rac t i ce , wh ere t h e g o a l o f t h e can t o r ' s g es t u re ' a t t r ac t s ' r h y t h m i c we i g h t . " 22Un for tu nate ly , i t i s a t th i s po in t tha t he leap s to a t em pt in gly s im ple conclu s ion . Aco n c l u s i o n b as e d o n th e wo rk o f D o m Gre g o ry M u r r ay i n 1 9 6 3 i n wh i ch t h e h i g h l yn u a n ce d " rh y t h m i c we i g h t s " i n d i ca t ed b y t h e m a n u s c r i p t t r ad i t i o n , a r e r ed u ced t os i m p l e l o n g a an d b rev i s p ro p o r t i o n s . I can s t il l s ee D o m C ard i n e ' s ey es t w i n k l e a s h ere m ark s : "Yes, there is inde ed a d i s t in ct ion b etw een so cal led ' shor t ' no te s and ' long 'n o t e s b u t some are shor ter , o r longer , than othersl For heavens sake, don ' t beselec t ive. Be fai thful to al l t h e m a n u s c r i p t ev i d en ce !"

    In d eed , I can n o t r em e m b er a c l a s s i n wh i c h Do m C ard i n e d i d n o t s i n g an d g es t u rewi t h ch a l k in h i s h a n d o n t h e b l a ck b o a rd , t o d em o n s t r a t e h i s ex am p l es . Th e o p en i n gmel i sma for the offer tory Ave Maria was the c lass ic example for d i scover ing theindiv i s ib le m elod ic en t i t i es of wh ich i t i s con s t ru cte d . E ach en t i ty i s an indiv i s ib leuni t o f e lan and repose: a s ingle movement to the goal of the mot ion , regard less oft h e s p ec i f i c n u m b er o f p i t ch es i n v o l v ed i n t h a t rh y t h m i c f l o w . Th e n o t a t i o n l i t e r a l l ycam e a l i v e b e fo re o u r v e ry ey es !

    One of h i s favor i te t eaching devices was to g ive us a ser ies of p i tches , wri t t en ins temless note heads on a four l ine staff, wi t h ce r t a i n p i t ch es en c i r c l ed . We were t o l d :" t h e en c i r c l ed p i t ch es a re rh y t h m i ca l l y i m p o r t an t . I f y o u were a t en t h cen t u ry co p y -i s t a t S t . Ga l l Ab b ey , h o w wo u l d y o u n o t a t e t h e m e l o d i c m o t i v e?" P ag es 2 2 -2 8 i nD o m C ard i n e ' s a r t i c le en t it l ed "N eu m " in Vo l u m e X o f Etudes Gregoriennes i s a goodi n t ro d u c t i o n t o t h i s l ea rn i n g ex p er i en ce . On e s o o n l ea rn ed t h a t ev en i f a l l t h e s t em -l es s n o t es ap p ea red t o b e eq u a l i n v a l u e , t h e ac t o f r e t r ac i n g t h e n eu m at i c d es i g n ssoo n tau ght one that "som e note s are m or e equ al tha n o th ers !" SEMIOLOGY

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    These highly nuanced "rhythmic weights" would produce an extremely complexscore in standard modern notation. But we can take solace in the remarks of one ofour contemporary composers. Aaron Copland expressed the problem in his Nor tonlectures at Harvard University in 1951 this way: "I wish our notation and ourindications of tempi and d ynam ics were (as) exact (as the metron om e ma rkings seemto indicate), but honesty compels me to admit that the writ ten page is only anappro xima tion; i t's only an ind ication of how close the composer w as able to come intranscribing his exact thoughts on paper. Beyond that point the interpreter is on hisown."23

    As Pierre Boulez has remarked: "A Gregorian melody is unquestionably morecomplex than a tonal melody, since i ts structural pointing is much more subtle. Wecann ot speak of a 'progress' from m on od y to polyphon y, o nly of a shift ing of interestthat enriches one element and impoverishes another." 24 For medieval singers, thesesubtle rhythmic nuances were part of the air that surrounded them. Air that re-sounded with the solemn proclamation of the Word of God in the daily round ofliturgical services and the private reading of sacred scripture. It is in this context thatDom Cardine could proclaim his basic stance that: "Fundamentally, i t is always thetext that inspires the melody."

    25"Both the melody and i t s notat ion depend upon thetext, are informed by the text, and are modeled on THE TEXT." 26

    "Verbal context" and "oral function" were hallmarks of Dom Cardine's semiology.Unfortunately, we have yet to understand adequately their full implications. JohnSteven's research, published in 1986, is a case in point. His use of the term "isosylla-bic"27 to express the rhythmic value of a given melodic unit as found over an individ-ual syllable of the text, is to miss seeing the forest because of the trees. Melodic unitsof exactly the same, equal length, are not the norm. As Dom Cardine has indicatedin his article on the "Neum," 28 the graphic representations of these melodic unitsindicate an elasticity of these notes in relation to a syllable of average rhythmicweight. The example he gives in footnote 17 is very enlightening: none of the fivesyllables in Veni Domine has exactly the same rhythmic weight, or durational value.Elasticity reigns supreme!Like the purloined letter in Edgar Allen Poe's famous story, the key to Gregorianrhythm has been there in front of usall the time! The proof of that stance has beenborne out for me by my experience as choirmaster at St. Meinrad. I t is a musicallyunsophisticated community. Music in standard modern notation containing complexrhythmic patterns, will stop them cold in their tracks! Yet, Gregorian chants taughtthem according to Dom Cardine's semiological principles, will be comfortably sungwith all the intricate rhythmical nuances that the text and neum groupings indicate.

    Gregorian semiology, as i t was taught by Dom Cardine, is what we would calltoday a "wholistic" approach. An approach that puts us in contact with a standardmedieval monastic practice. A practice in which singers were to allow their activityto absorb the whole spiri t and body. Their voices were to make audible a poised,attentive spirit dwelling upon the inner meaning of the text, sensitive to its musicalnuancesnuances that were at the service of the inner meaning of the text. Remem-bering Dom Cardine's total engagement in the act of singing, even in the midst of themonastic choir at Solesmes, I am reminded of the assertions made by Walter Ongand Berkely Peabody: "spoken (and sung) words are always modifications of thetotal , existential si tuation, which always engages the body. Bodily activity beyondmere vocalization is not adventit ious or contrived in oral communication, but isnatural and even inevitable."29 One of the roles of semiology has been to show ussome of the meanings of that connection.As a Benedictine monk, I found Dom Cardine's l ife and work to be a l ivingSEMIOLOGY com m en tary on St. Bened ict's instru ction on ho w the divin e office sho uld be cele-

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    brated: "Let us consider, then, how we ought to behave in the presence of God andHis angels, and let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are inharmony with our voices."30The role of semiology has indeed been that of "shifti