Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

there will be a future opportunity of saying a few words in limitation of the claim set up on behalf of the Gregorian chant, so as to relieve its advocates from the objection that they wish to exclude the most elaborate works of musical art from being consecrated to the glory of GOD in His sanctuary. Surely all they ask is that they should be confined to their proper place, and not used when they interfere with other important ends.

To persons who feel our want of system in the ordering of Divine Service, it must be very striking to observe the rapidity with which the plain song as established by S. Gregory was adopted through all the Churches of the Roman Patriarchate, and the jealous religious care with which it has been preserved, down to our day, in the Latin Church. Councils and Popes interfered to guard it against the encroachments of corruption, not of course with uniform success, but still so as to keep it pure on the whole. John of Fulda* says that all the Roman Pontiffs were either musicians or men who delighted in music, which makes more remarkable their self-denial in not being innovators. Our own country was one of the first which received the Gregorian chant. It was brought by S. Augustine into England before the close of the sixth century. Doubtless, these were the solemn tones to which the little company of monks chanted their Litanies as they approached the city of Canterbury in procession, supplicating for God's mercy upon our heathen ancestors, "consonâ voce," in unison.† In like manner, S. Paulinus introduced the ecclesiastical chant at York. When he departed from his see, we are told that he left behind him James, the deacon, a holy ecclesiastic, and profoundly skilled in singing, who taught many to sing after the use of Rome or Canterbury, which thus appears to have been one and the same. After the death however, of the chanters who came from beyond sea, the church music was much corrupted. Bede§ says that the knowledge of the Gregorian chant was for a long time confined to Kent, and that from thence it was propagated into other parts, in particular by S. Wilfrid, at York, as one essential part of the Catholic mode of life. Thus, of Putta, whom Archbishop Theodore consecrated Bishop of Rochester, it is said that he was instructed in ecclesiastical discipline, and especially skilful in the Roman style of church music, which he had learned from the disciples of the Blessed Gregory. Some years afterward,¶ John, arch-chanter of the church of S. Peter, at Rome, and Abbat of the monastery of S. Martin, was invited over to this country by Benedict Biscop, to teach the Roman use of singing and reading in his monastery of Wearmouth, and many resorted thither from all parts for his instructions. About the year 709, Acca, Bishop of Hexham,* ,** sent for a celebrated chanter called Maban, who had been taught the tones by the successors of the disciples of S. Gregory in Kent, to instruct himself and his clergy, and retained him twelve years, that he might teach them the ecclesiastical chants of which they were before ignorant, and restore to their former state those which had degenerated, either

* Mores Catholici, B. v. c. 4.

† Ven. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 25.

Ven. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 20. § Ven. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. c. 2. Catholicus vivendi mos. ¶ Ven. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. c. 18. ** Ven. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. v. c. 20.

through length of use or neglect. Of the Bishop himself this character is given, that he was a most expert singer, as well as most learned in Holy Writ, most pure in the confession of the Catholic faith, and most skilful in the rules of ecclesiastical discipline. We see that skill in chanting was a most important ingredient in the character of a good Prelate.

About half a century after this time, we are told that the Council of Cloveshoe* enjoined the use of a simple and solemn melody, in the recitative of the Divine Office, according to the usage of the Church. And in a later decree the same Council insists upon an "uniform tone, in accordance with the Roman practice, that so all the faithful may praise GOD, as with one mind, so with one mouth."

As respects foreign countries, the Gregorian chant soon crossed the Alps into Germany and Gaul. John the Deacon, however, complains bitterly of the way in which the coarse organs of the Transalpine barbarians murdered the sweet tones. He says that the words come out of their mouths with a confused noise, like waggons drawn over steps; at least this seems the meaning of his hard, quaint Latin. Charlemagne was passionately fond of the ecclesiastical chant, and used to sing himself in the church, morning, noon, and night, we are told by Eginhard, but only in undertone, perhaps because conscious of such a tuneless voice as John the Deacon attributes to the Franks. That he might restore church music to the sweetness of the Roman use, as Bona calls it, he sent for two chanters from Rome, that they might teach the Roman song at Metz, and from Metz it was propagated over all France. It does not seem to have been introduced into Ireland till the twelfth century. S. Bernard says, that S. Malachy was the first to establish it there according to the custom of the whole world.

The names of many of the mediæval musicians have come down to us. Many of them were distinguished for piety and learning, and some were of high rank in the Church. It will be sufficient to mention two of the most famous. John, the monk of Fulda, a disciple of Rabanus Maurus, was a poet and musician, who first composed with varied modulation, artificial song in the Church in Germany, a country in which it took such deep root, that in no other country of Europe was it more assiduously cultivated. Guido,‡ of Arezzo, a Benedictine monk, about the beginning of the eleventh century, invented the present system of musical notes, for which we are told he was so highly honoured, that the Pope sent three messengers to invite him to come to him. He is entitled in a contemporary work, Musicus et monachus necnon eremita beandus." Thus, an obscure and devout recluse made a new epoch in the history of music. This is one of those many cases in which the world has profited out of the riches of the Church. Kenelm Digby quotes the following passage from the prologue of his work, in which he speaks of the success of his invention with an affecting humility. Since my natural condition and the imitation of the good made me diligent, I began, among other studies, to instruct boys in music. At length the Divine grace was with me, and some of them, by * Oakeley's Preface to Redhead's Psalter. + Vide Mores Catholici, B. v. c. 4. Mores Catholici, ibidem.

[ocr errors]

the use of our notes, learned, within the space of a month, to sing at sight new and most difficult pieces," and then he begs the prayers of those who, in after times, would be able with the greatest ease to learn the Ecclesiastical chant, whereas before they could scarcely in ten years obtain an imperfect knowledge of singing. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, there seems to have been a great school of music at Cambray, by which all the north of France was instructed. Of course, among many composers, it was to be expected that some innovators should be found. For instance, at the time of the Norman Conquest an attempt seems to have been made to corrupt the Gregorian chant by Thurstin,* who had been made Abbat of Glastonbury by the Conqueror, and who tried to compel his monks to substitute the melodies of one Wilhelm, a Norman monk-an attempt which threw the whole House into confusion. In the following centuries the great mediæval writers indignantly bewail the corruptions introduced into the Church music. In particular, John of Salisbury, in the reign of Henry II., deplores the "light and secular style of music which profaned the sanctuary-destructive alike of edification and reverence." Popes, and Bishops, and Synods, strongly condemned the profane theatrical music, which began to creep into Churches. Martin Gerbert, a Benedictine monk, of the Monastery of S. Blaise, in the Black Forest, composed his great work on Ecclesiastical Music if possible to stem the evil. About the time of the Reformation, it arrived at such a height, that the Council of Trent deliberated whether they ought not to abolish all music in the Churches, except the Gregorian.

In our own country, figured and harmonized music seems to have been much used in Churches, long before the Reformation. The degenerate monks seem to have delighted in sweet song, as it was called in opposition to the plain chant. We have read somewhere that they used to sing the genealogy in S. Luke set in counterpoint, as an anthem. Indeed we believe that Church music was one of those points in which an attempt was made to revive the simplicity of the ancient discipline. Merbeck's notation of the Book of Common Prayer in plain song, preserves very many of the ancient Gregorian melodies in a form somewhat simplified. In the First Prayer Book, the Epistle and Gospel were prescribed to be sung to a plain tune like the Lessons; and the language of Cranmer in the "Reformation Legune" makes it plain that it was designed to make a change in the music corresponding to the alterations in the Office itself.†

Much of Tallis's music bears a great resemblance in its melody to the ancient tunes.

* Knyghton, of Leicester, de eventibus Angliæ, lib. ii.

The words of the Archbishop remind one of the decree of the Council of Cloveshoe: Suâ propter partitè voces et distinctè pronuncient, et cantus illorum sit clarus, et aptus, ut ad auditorum omnia sensum, et intelligentiam proveniant. Itaque vibratam illam, et operosam musicam (quæ figurata dicitur). Auferri placet, quæ, sic in multitudinis auribus tumultuatur, ut sæpe linguam non possit ipsam loquentem intelligere."-De Divinis Officiis, cap. v. The Archbishop's private opinion upon this subject is expressed in a letter to the King in reference to Merbeck's projected notation of the Service Book. "In my opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto should not be full of notes, but, as near as may be, for

Indeed his well-known chant is merely the first tone sixth ending, harmonized. And he certainly reformed the vicious harmonies of the preceding age of musicians, nearly at the time when Palestrina was restoring the gravity of the ancient church style in Italy. It cannot be denied that services of our English composers in that and the following age, unite great sweetness, with much devoutness and gravity of expression. But they seem to have taken license to introduce new music rather in composing "services" and anthems, than in inventing new chants for the Psalms. The Gregorian tones were commonly sung in our choirs till long after the restoration. And up to the great rebellion the use of them seems to have been the rule, and modern chants the exception. Probably these more brilliant compositions were reserved to aid in the service on great festivals: just as those days are now marked by singing the responses with the organ. Some usage of this kind is indicated by a practice which still survives in the choir of S. Mary Magdalene College in Oxford; where on the commemoration days of founders and benefactors the proper Psalms are sung to the grand chant; but the contrast with the diversified and showy double chants in common use, makes the effect anything but festive.

Perhaps similar customs may remain in other choirs. Playford, Low, and Clifford give chants either the same with, or nearly resembling, various forms of the ancient tones. As the melody only is noted, with the exception of two chants in Low's book which are harmonized, it appears to have been the Anglican practice to chant them in unison.

There is very little doubt that it was not the florid ditties to which our ears are accustomed, but the ancient hereditary music of the Church, that drew from Hooker his eloquent defence of chanting the Psalms. He is not defending services, or anthems, but the singing of Psalms by course, against the Puritans. The more refined among them, with their poet Milton, could appreciate "service high and anthem clear," as matters of taste and sentiment, just as modern Puritans can sit out an oratorio-but they could not endure the stern ecclesiastical chant, in which, as they express it, the Psalm was tossed from side to side. Instead they desired to bawl doggrel, all at once, to more awakening tunes. But though Hooker defends the Church style, yet his language is that of a man who saw a great corruption rising, against which he protests. "In church music, curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as every syllable a note, so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly, as be in the Mattins and Evensong, the Hymns and all the Psalms and Versicles. As concerning the 'Salve festa dies,' the Latin note (as I think,) is sober and distinct enough." -Collier's Eccl. Hist., Vol. ii., p. 206. The same sort of syllabic music (as it may be called,) is recommended by Queen Elizabeth in the 49th of her Injunctions, 1559. (Sparrow's Collection, p. 80.) After providing for the continuance of all such endowments as were intended "for the maintenance of men and children to use singing in the church," she willeth, "that there be a modest and distinct song used in all parts of the common Prayer in the Church, that the same may be understood as if it were read without singing; and yet nevertheless, for the comforting of such as delight in music, it may be permitted, that in the beginning or the end of Common Prayers, either at morning or evening, there may be a hymn (or such like song,) to the praise of ALMIGHTY GOD, in the best sort of melody and music that may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence of the hymn may be understanded and perceived." The Reformers evidently wished to restore plain song in the service while they allowed sweet song to be superadded as a decoration.

only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind or degree of those impressions, which the matter that goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave, in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, than add either beauty or furtherance unto it." Again, he fully justifies what has been said above, of the importance holy men have always attached to the exclusion of a vicious style of music. "In harmony,* the very image and character even of virtue and vice is perceived, the mind delighted with their resemblances, and brought, by having them often iterated into a love of the things themselves. For which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony: than some, nothing more strong and potent unto virtue." And when our sweet singer, George Herbert, said that his days spent in prayer and church music, were his heaven upon earth, it is pleasant to think, that he most likely had in his mind those majestic tones which his dear Mother, the Church of England, had inherited from the ancient Church before the division of the East and West, into whose teaching, like Bishop Ken and other holy Anglicans, he sought with a free and loyal heart to throw himself. Surely no music deserved this praise so much as the Gregorian.

Sweetest of sweets, I thank you; when displeasure

Did through my body wound my mind,

You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure
A dainty lodging me assigned.

A sweetness pre-eminently soothing and consolatory is the chief quality which is ascribed to the ecclesiastical chant by those who are most familiar with it. Thus Bona habitually speaks of its "dulcedo." Some of our readers perhaps can understand from experience the full meaning of this phrase. Amid the manifold sorrows and perplexities of the last twelve months, we know that some have found the consolatory influence of the ancient music, in soothing and steadying the mind, when wounded, not through the body, but by the sharp edge of its own painful thoughts. But of this soothing sweetness and other characteristics of the Gregorian music, we trust to speak more at large hereafter.

JOHN MILTON.

(Concluded from page 265.)

BEFORE this fierce attack upon the king was published, the writer had been appointed by the Council of State in whom the parliament had invested the government, if such it might be called, of the country, to the office of Secretary for foreign tongues, a post for which his republican principles, not less than his learning, fitted him. From the many references to his labours in the minutes of the council, his pen appears

Of course Hooker uses the term in its large sense, as equivalent to music in general.

« AnteriorContinuar »