Adoption of the Roman chant in the Frankish realm

Shota

Παλαιό Μέλος
Here are two amusing accounts on the adoption of the Roman chant in the Frankish realm. The first one is by John the Deacon, a 9th c. biographer of St. Gregory the Great, who writes from the Roman positions. The second story is by an anonymous monk (possibly Notker of the St. Gall abbey), who represents the Frankish position.
 

Attachments

  • John.rar
    571.9 KB · Views: 14
  • Anonymous.rar
    561.6 KB · Views: 9
E

emakris

Guest
Could you, please, give us the bibliographic reference? Thank you very much.
 

Laosynaktis

Παλαιό Μέλος
Could you, please, give us the bibliographic reference? Thank you very much.

It must be, methinks :))), from the new enlarged edition (by Thomas Mathiessen?) of the "Source readings on music", originally translated and published by the late Oliver Strunk.
 

basil

Παλαιό Μέλος
But our patrician Charles, the king of the Franks, disturbed when at Rome by the discrepancy between the Roman and the Gallican chant, is said to have asked – when the impudence of the Gauls argued that the chant was corrupted by certain tunes of ours, while on the contrary our melodies demonstrably represented the authentic antiphoner – whether the stream or the fountain is liable to preserve the clearer water. When they replied that it was the fountain, he wisely added: "Therefore it is necessary that we, who have up to now drunk the tainted water of the stream, return to the flowing source of the perennial fountain." Shortly afterward, then, he left two of his diligent clergymen with Hadrian, a bishop at the time, and, after they had been schooled with the necessary refinement, he employed them to recall the province of Metz to the sweetness of the original chant, and through her, to correct his entire region of Gaul.

I'll have to remember that analogy next time I'm having a conversation with someone who thinks that Byzantine music came from John Sakellarides (or Basil Kazan). :)
 

Shota

Παλαιό Μέλος
It must be, methinks :))), from the new enlarged edition (by Thomas Mathiessen?) of the "Source readings on music", originally translated and published by the late Oliver Strunk.

Indeed, they're taken from a revised edition of Strunk's book. Here's a link to the Amazon page.
 
E

emakris

Guest
But our patrician Charles, the king of the Franks, disturbed when at Rome by the discrepancy between the Roman and the Gallican chant, is said to have asked – when the impudence of the Gauls argued that the chant was corrupted by certain tunes of ours, while on the contrary our melodies demonstrably represented the authentic antiphoner – whether the stream or the fountain is liable to preserve the clearer water. When they replied that it was the fountain, he wisely added: "Therefore it is necessary that we, who have up to now drunk the tainted water of the stream, return to the flowing source of the perennial fountain." Shortly afterward, then, he left two of his diligent clergymen with Hadrian, a bishop at the time, and, after they had been schooled with the necessary refinement, he employed them to recall the province of Metz to the sweetness of the original chant, and through her, to correct his entire region of Gaul.

Well, my comment would be something different than Mr. Crow's: This is exactly the way that local chant traditions were wiped out in the West, and the musicologists are still searching for them. I don't think it is a good example to follow...:)
 

Shota

Παλαιό Μέλος
I attach an article by S.J.P. van Dijk (S.J.P. van Dijk. “Papal Schola versus Charlemagne.” In Organicae voces. Festschrift Joseph Smits van Waestberghe angeboten anlässlich seines 60. Geburtstages, 18. April 1961. Amsterdam: I.M.M. Instituut voor Middeleeuwse Muziekwetenschap, 1963, pp. 21-30) which contains a discussion of both passages (his interpretation is somewhat strenuous).

A (philosophically) different perspective is offered by Theodore Karp (Th. Karp. Aspects of orality and formularity in Gregorian chant. See here).
 

Attachments

  • Aspects.rar
    424.2 KB · Views: 8
  • VanDijk.rar
    1.2 MB · Views: 10

basil

Παλαιό Μέλος
Well, my comment would be something different than Mr. Crow's: This is exactly the way that local chant traditions were wiped out in the West, and the musicologists are still searching for them. I don't think it is a good example to follow...:)

I think you misunderstood me. I never claimed that it was a good example to follow in general. In fact, I agree with you that it is a bad example to follow in general. I implied that it might be a good example to follow in the case of local "chant" traditions which stray too far from the established parameters of Orthodox chant. In my opinion, several such traditions exist in North America. Whether or not you agree with me (which is a separate discussion), I don't think that these traditions are in danger of being wiped out anytime soon. For example, the works of the two composers I mentioned are both preserved in Western notation in several books, most of which have been digitized.
 

Shota

Παλαιό Μέλος
Differing musical tastes, Kenneth Levy tells us (Kenneth Levy. Gregorian Chant and the Romans. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 5-41), led to the Frankish rejection of the qualities characteristic of the Roman chanting style. An example of the processional antiphon Collegerunt shows that the Frankish musicians were not devoid of sense of humour :D
 

Attachments

  • RoFrSt.jpg
    114.9 KB · Views: 11
  • LevyExample.tif
    198.3 KB · Views: 11
  • Collegerunt.tif
    75 KB · Views: 9
Top