Mensuralism
The Mensuralismus interpreted melodies so that every single sound in the amount of time (see scale ) corresponds to a whole number. A special form of mensuralism is equality , in which all individual tones have the same time measure.
Emergence
The Gregorian chant has been handed down orally in the first centuries AD, and his only unanimous tunes were from the 9th century by Neumen be recorded. The interpretation of these chants was very much based on the texts that were sung, and they showed a clear and varied rhythmic differentiation.
On the one hand, through the establishment of the square notation , but also through the emergence of polyphonic music from the 9th to the 14th century, awareness of the original interpretation of Gregorian chant was increasingly lost.
Starting with the homophonic organum with parallel intervals to music in modal notation in the 12th century to music in mensural notation in the 13th century, the rhythms of polyphonic melodies became more and more complex. The increasing polyphony made it necessary, for practical reasons, that all individual voices orientate themselves to the same time measure. The use of meters and measures became more and more popular.
As a result, there were more and more choral books for Gregorian chant , such as the Editio Medicaea edited by Felice Anerio and Francesco Soriano during the Renaissance , which were edited in a mensuralistic or even equivalised manner and no longer reproduced the original complex rhythms of the melodies.
restitution
It was not until the 19th century that the restoration of the original Gregorian melodies began. In the Editio Vaticana of 1908, many of the original group neumes were initially available again, but without any rhythmic differentiations being fully reproduced.
Since the details in the square notation could not be represented well, the Graduel Neumé was published in 1969 in which handwritten neumes were added to the Editio Vaticana. After the publication of the Graduale Romanum with pure square notation, the Graduale Triplex was also published a few years later , in which a neumen manuscript was added above and below the music lines for almost all chants.
Examples
On the basis of written evidence from different centuries, the Introitus Nos autem is intended to clarify the clear differences with which the rhythm of the Gregorian chant was recorded. This introit was originally used for the celebration of the finding of the cross and is sung today at the beginning of the Maundy Thursday liturgy .
text
The text reads based on Paul's letter to the Galatians ( Gal 6:14 VUL ):
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Medieval manuscript
Using the example of the manuscript from Codex Sangallensis 338 with neumes from the middle of the 11th century, this chorale is represented as follows:
The neumes are shown without pitches (adiastematic), but rhythmically very differentiated and can therefore be interpreted differently. In addition to all group neumes and episemes , the two tristrophae with their repercussive singing can also be recognized. The Pausae are usually not explicitly indicated in older manuscripts.
The following audio sample is rhythmized according to this handwriting:
Late manuscript
A parchment manuscript in square notation, which was made around 1500, shows the introitus clearly mutilated by subsequent processing. The initially mensural notation was later removed by scratching out (obviously after the revision of the Gregorian chant initiated by the Council of Trent and the publication of the Editio Medicaea at the beginning of the 17th century), which can be recognized in the manuscript by the breaks in the corresponding staves , so that an equalistic representation arose:
The following audio sample is an interpretation of this handwriting, which was subsequently made equal:
Editio Medicaea
The Editio Medicaea published by the Pustet publishing house in Regensburg in 1890 also shows this equalistic variant of this introitus:
Choral book early 20th century
The Editio Vaticana of 1908 already presents this introit in a mensuralistic way:
All repeated notes are available again. After the first restitutions, a few morae and episemes were added in an unofficial edition , which depict the rhythm in a better differentiated way, but still do not allow a detailed differentiation of the many different neumes :
Individual evidence
literature
- Jean-Pierre Schmit: The decadence of Gregorian chant. In: History of Gregorian Choral Singing. Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1952.
- The rhythm - the question of rhythm. In: Dominikus Johner, Maurus Pfaff: Choral School. 8th edition, revised. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1956.
- Bruno Stäblein: The rhythm of the Gregorian chant. Equality and mensuralism. In: Bruno Stäblein: Music and History in the Middle Ages. Collected Essays. Edited by Horst Brunner and Karlheinz Schlager. Kümmerle, Göppingen 1984, ISBN 3-87452-552-X , pp. 63-101 ( Göppingen works on German studies 344).
- Franz Caiter: The rhythmization of the Gregorian chant. A study of André Mocquereau's life's work. RG Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-89501-267-X .