THE STORY OF PLAINSONG

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 131, 26 December 1941, Page 12

THE STORY OF PLAINSONG

GREAT deal of music A suffers from having a misleading name, plainsong as much as any other. "Plainsong" is not "plain song" — it comprises the many very beautiful traditional melodies used in the ritual of the early western Christian church, and its story is interesting. Listeners who heard a recital of plainsong conducted by Dr. F. H. Walsh and the choristers of the Wellington Basilica over 2YA on Sunday, December 14, will have discovered something about the sound of this music. This is believed to be the first time a performance of plainsong has been broadcast in New Zealand. It was called cantus planus to distinguish it from two. other kinds of cantus-mensuratus and_ figuratus--a_ distinction made: necessary by the rise of secular music in the early centuries of Christianity. It was neither "measured" nor "figured." Its rhythm is the free rhythm of speech, so that "bar lines" and the other metrical subdivisions of

our music are not employed; and it is sung in unison, so that "harmony," as we know it, is also absent. Yet the great body of the "chants" that were collected and edited by Pope Gregory the Great at the end of the sixth century contained some melody that was so beautiful as to cause Mozart to say he would give all his works to have written it. The character of plainsong is best exemplified in the familiar simple psalm tone. Usually there is an opening note or two ("intonation") leading to a monotone (‘reciting note") on which a text is chanted for some time; the note then merges into a_ half-way cadence, is resumed, and the piece closes on a final cadence. The monotone is always on. what is known as the " dominant" of the mode. "Modes" in those days, were the equivalent of what we now~call " keys." The liturgical collection of melody that accumulated in the first centuries of Christianity was first set in order by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan (in the fourth century), and later under the direction of Pope Gregory. Further reform was attempted in. the sixteenth century, but not without mishap. Palestrina was commissioned by the Council

of Trent to do the work, and died soon afterwards. His son professed to have the revised manuscript, but it was found to be a forgery. A lawsuit followed, and the manuscript found its way to the pawnshop. Another familiar name in the history of plainsong is that of Charlemagne, who in the 8th century invited singers from Rome to his court at Aix-la-Chappelle. There he founded a school of song which he personally supervised. The earliest manuscripts and treatises date from this period. More recently, a lot of work has been done by the Benedictines of Solesmes in France. They set to work and photographed manuscripts in all parts of Europe to determine the true plainsong, and separate it from many spurious and inferior editions. The present "Vatican Edition" was edited by them, and in 1908 was declared obligatory for the entire Roman Catholic Church. Plainsong was first introduced to England by St. Augustine (sent by Gregory to convert King Egbert in A.D. 597). Augustine approached the King on the Isle of Thanet singing a certain piece of plainsong.