Angels Making Music. Around 1510 Matthias Grünewald from the Isenheim Altar (Colmar, Alsace, France, Unterlinden Museum)

 

 

DEPICTIONS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN PATRIARCHS
MENTIONED ON THIS TOPIC'S MAIN PAGE

SOME COMMENTS ON METHODS FOR THE RECORDING OF THE MELODIES

Riemann (p. 33) discussed that the melodies of the early Christian plainsong were first passed down 'verbally' by being sung by teachers and choir leaders and by being learned by their students and, in this way, having become common knowledge.  He also mentions that one melody was often used for a great number of texts.  

Still older than any form of early Christian notation of melodies was, according to Riemann (p. 33-34), an early form of conducting, the so-called Cheironomy, whereby the choir leader indicated the melodic shape by his hand movements.  

From this, Riemann continues, developed the oldest form of the so-called Neume notation system, which, in contrast to the form of musical notation practiced in ancient Greece--which was closely related to the letter system of the alphabet--, was characterized by a graphical depiction of the melodic shape from lower notes to higher notes, without, however, initially referring to single notes.    

That this form of musical notation had developed out of cheironomy can, according to Riemann, be seen in the Neumes of early Greek Christianity, in which one can still find cheironomic elements which, however, only served as a by-product.  As Riemann (p. 34) further reports, in the continental Europe of the early 10th century, the so-called Frankish musical notation by letters had been developed to facilitate musical notation for the then-emerging first instruments that were used in church, namely the organ and the rota.  

With respect to the so-called Neume notation, we can offer you the following link for a brief overview:

THE CHURCH MODES

At the same time, at which cheironomic notations began, namely in the 9th century A.D., as Riemann reports (p. 35-37),  there also emerged first attempts at developing schematic systems for the melodies of plainsong, which eventually led to the introduction of the so-called church modes.  The following links offer a brief overview on this topic:  

ORDINARY MASS AND MASS PROPER

As Rieman and Grove explain, with respect to the chants occurring in the liturgy of the Latin Mass, one has to differentiate between the so-called 'Mass Proper' and its differentiating texts (according to the events of the 'Liturgical Year'), namely those of the introitus, graduale, the alleluja (the sequence and the tractus), as well as the offertorium and the communio, and the so-called 'Ordinary Mass' with its unchanged texts of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.  To this overall topic, the so-called 'Ordinary Mass' is of particular importance due to the fact that in all compositions for the Latin Mass, thus also in Beethoven's Missa solemnis, those texts were set to music.   

With respect to the chronological development of these texts, Grove writes: 

"The early history of the KYRIE ELEISON remains controversial.  . . . The only certainty is that the Kyrie was originally a litany of some sort.  It is frequently said to have lost its supplications under Gregory I (590-604), who wrote in his letter to John of Syracuse:  'In daily masses we omit the rest that is usually said, and say only "Kyrie eleison" and "Christe eleison".  But Ordo Romanus I still refers to the Kyrie as a litany that was concluded only when the pope signalled to the Schola to do so.  In any event the late 8th-century Frankish-Roman Ordo of St Amand (Ordo romanus IV) described the Kyrie in its classic medieval form, that is, a threefold Kyrie, threefold Christe and threefold Kyrie" (Grove: 62).

"The GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO had its remote origins in the Christmas story of Luke's gospel, where the angels sing 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men'.  It was expanded during the first centuries of Christianity into a prose-like hymn that had a prominent place in the morning Office of the principal Eastern ecclestiastical centres.  It made its way into the Roman Mass only gradually, being restricted at first to Christmas Day and later to episcopal services.  By the 11th century it was sung at most masses other than those of penitential occasions" (Grove, 62).

"The CREDO is a Latin translation of a creed or 'symbolum', which was recorded first in Greek at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.  The Chalcedon text was an attempt to summarize the doctrine of the councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), hence its title the 'Nicene' or 'Niceno-Constantinopolitan' Creed.  Like the earlier Apostles' Creed, its original liturgical function was to serve as a profession of faith for the newly baptized.  It found a place in the eucharistic services of several Eastern rites of the earlier 6th century, and made its first appearance in a Latin liturgy later that century in Spain, where it was recited before the Pater noster.  Charlemagne (d 814) introduced it into the Frankish-Roman Mass, but it was not included in the Roman Mass itself until the period of German liturgical influence during the 11th century" (Grove, 62).

"The SANCTUS, which occupies a prominent place in the Eucharistic Prayer as a sort of concluding doxology to the Preface, has a complex and controversial early history.  Its original portion, the 'tersanctus', derived from Isaiah vi.3 (and Revelation iv.8), would appear to have been adopted from Jewish liturgical practice, but it does not figure in every preserved version of the early Christian Eucharistic Prayer.  It had become almost universal, however, by the later 4th century.  Its second portion, 'Benedictus qui venit' (Matthew xxi.9), from the narration of Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, is first attested by Caesarius of Arles (d 542).  The Benedictus closes with the exclamation 'Hosanna in excelsis'; eventually this was added to the Sanctus portion of the chant as well.  In performances of the polyphonic Sanctus, the two portions were separated, with the Benedictus being sung after the Elevation" (Grove, 62). 

"The introduction of the AGNUS DEI ('Lamb of God') into the Roman Mass by Pope Sergius (687-701) appears to have been an act of theological defiance against Byzantium.  The chant was sung in Syria (Sergius himself was Syrian) but was not allowed in Constantinople because of a ban on depicting Christ in animal form.  The Agnus may originally have been a litany; it was in any event at first repeated as often as necessary to cover the actions of the Fraction, always with the response 'Miserere nobis'.  By the 11th century the chant was limited to three repetitions of the Agnus, and the final response was changes to 'Dona nobis pacem' ('Dona eis requiem' in the Mass for the Dead), a reference to the just completed Pax" (Grove, 62).