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Views from the Choir Loft

A Striking Approach To Performing Gregorian Chant

Christopher Mueller · September 21, 2015

283 Cappella Pratensis HERE IS A WONDERFUL men’s ensemble out of the Netherlands called Cappella Pratensis. In January, 2015, they sang and video-recorded a concert entitled, “Josquin in Rome,” featuring music written by composer Josquin Desprez (c.1455-1521) for the choir of the Sistine Chapel, during the time that he was singing with that ensemble (1489-1495). This ensemble sings polyphony from manuscript part-books, and also sings selected Gregorian chants from manuscripts, both of which require a certain amount of scholarly interpretation of the proper way to execute these hand-notated scores.

Josquin was the pre-eminent composer of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and his polyphony as sung at this concert is stunningly beautiful. I expected that.

What I didn’t expect, though, was the way that this ensemble sings plainsong. A commenter had posted, “Their metrical chant is a revelation!” which piqued my curiosity. Listen as the tenors chant the Gradual TOLLITE PORTAS or the basses chant the Alleluia AVE MARIA, GRATIA PLENA, and you’ll hear the fruits of this scholarly research. Listen again, as you view modern chant editions of the scores. (The “Tollite” is on p. 622 of the Gregorian Missal (1990), and the “Ave” right next to it, on p. 623.) A number of observations leap to mind:

1. By metrical, we mean chant with a regular pulse. Unlike the Solesmes method, of interpreting chant in melodic units of undulating two- and three-note groupings, eschewing a regular “beat,” the chants as sung here have a clear and regular pulse, which lends them a certain inexorable forward momentum.

2. Following the Solesmes-prepared scores in the Gregorian Missal reveals numerous subtle changes in the melody: the occasional note added, taken away, or modified in pitch. Considering all the variance amongst manuscript sources, such differences between a late printed score (drawn from several manuscripts) and a single early manuscript are not unexpected.

3. What is strikingly different is the absence of Solesmes rhythmic markings: they are not found in the manuscripts, and are not sung here. Markings to indicate lengthening of tones, such as episemas (lines) above some notes, or dots on other notes, are absent, and so the melody presses forward with consistent motion. Contrarily, the diamond-shaped neumes (rhombus) are sung with half the value of the other pitches — in effect, little groups of eighth notes that subtly animate the progress of these melodies.

The result is unlike any other performance of chant that I have heard, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It is, indeed, a revelation.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Christopher Mueller

About Christopher Mueller

Christopher Mueller is a conductor and composer who aims to write beautiful music out of gratitude to God, Author of all beauty.—(Read full biography).

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20 January 2021 • REMINDER

We have no savings, no endowment, and no major donors. You can help us (please) by subscribing to our mailing list. It’s incredibly easy; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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“Edwin Fischer was, on the concert platform, a short, leonine, resilient figure, whose every fibre seemed to vibrate with elemental musical power.”

— Daniel Barenboim (1960)

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