MUSIC IN EUROPE FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY.
In proceeding to briefly sketch the curious facts of musical history in
the dark ages, we shall necessarily confine ourselves to pointing out
only what is chiefly remarkable, and shall not enter into the field of
dispute regarding systems and notations, for this period of Musical
History is a very hazy one. It is but natural to suppose, that when
general barbarism spread over Europe, music was not likely to be either
much practised or written about. The last writer on the previous systems
was Boethius (the last of old Roman writers), who lived at about the
same epoch as Gregory (he was put to death by Theodoric, the Goth, A. D.
525).
In his work, he uses the letters of the alphabet, to designate musical
notes, but does not repeat the letters at the octave; his nomenclature
therefore does not end at G, but continues on, to _N_, _O_, and
_P_.[256]
Musical progress was at a stand still from the time of Gregory, until
the reign of the Carlovingian kings. Charlemagne at the end of the
eighth, and beginning of the ninth centuries, took all art and music
under his powerful protection. He loved to compare himself with King
David, and had in many respects, good reason to, for he possessed both
the virtues and the failings of that ancient monarch.
He gathered about him a number of musical and literary friends, and we
can judge of the pleasant manner of their intercourse by the names of
antiquity which each one was known by. Alcuin, was dubbed Flaccus
Albinus; Riculf, Archbishop of Mayence,—Damoetas; Arno,—Aquila;
Angilbert,—Homerus, etc.[257]
In addition to the literary and musical schools founded throughout his
empire, in his own palace was one devoted to the education of the
children of his servants. Books were read, and music sung to his
courtiers, during the hours of dining or other leisure.
The singing at his court, he often conducted himself, and every one was
obliged to participate. If a stranger arrived, he was also obliged to
stand with the chorus, and even if he could not sing, at least to make
the semblance of doing so.
In the conservation of ancient legendary songs Charlemagne was very
active, and many which have come down to our day, owe their existence to
his wise and thoughtful care.[258]
In church music he was, most of all, interested, and remarked with much
concern, the variations between the Gregorian and French singing. To put
an end to the matter, he sent to Stephen IV., the reigning pope, for
ecclesiastical singers; the latter responded by sending, (in imitation
of the twelve apostles,) twelve clerical singers to teach his empire.
But these twelve apostles, turned out to be _all_ Judases, for jealous
of the rising civilization of France, they agreed among themselves, not
to aid in its rise. When therefore, they had been received at the French
court with every honor, and were sent to their various fields of labor,
it is said, they began to sing in a most wretched manner, and not
content with that, they _taught_ this abomination to their pupils. But
when Charlemagne celebrated Christmas at Tours that year, and in Paris
the succeeding year, he heard other Roman vocalists sing in a manner
totally different, and lost no time in making complaint to the pope,
who, calling back the untrustworthy teachers, punished them, some with
banishment, and some with perpetual imprisonment; and in order that a
similar deceit might not again be practised, he persuaded Charlemagne to
send two French Ecclesiastics to Rome, where under Papal supervision
they learned the true Gregorian style of song.[259]
There also exists another anecdote of the ruling of Charlemagne in
church singing, which will show how high partizan feeling ran in musical
matters at this era. It is as follows,—
“The most pious King Charles having returned to celebrate Easter at Rome
with the apostolic Lord, a great quarrel ensued during the festival,
between the Roman and Gallic singers. The French pretended to sing
better and more agreeable than the Italians; the Italians, on the
contrary, regarding themselves as more learned in Ecclesiastical music,
in which they had been instructed by St. Gregory, accused their
competitors of corrupting, disfiguring, and spoiling the new chant. The
dispute being brought before our sovereign lord the king, the French,
thinking themselves sure of his countenance and support, insulted the
Roman singers; who, on their part, emboldened by superior knowledge, and
comparing the musical abilities of their great master, St. Gregory, with
the ignorance and rusticity of their rivals, treated them as fools and
barbarians.”
“As their altercation was not likely to come to a speedy issue, the most
pious King Charles asked his chanters which they thought to be the
purest and best water, that which was drawn from the source at the
fountain-head, or that which after being mixed with turbid and muddy
rivulets, was found at a great distance from the original spring?”
“They exclaimed unanimously, that all water must be most pure at its
source; upon which our lord the King, said, ‘mount ye then up to the
pure fountain of St. Gregory, whose chant ye have manifestly corrupted.’
After this our lord the king, applied to Pope Adrian (the first) for
singing masters to convert the Gallican chant; and the pope appointed
for that purpose Theodore and Benedict, two chanters of great learning
and abilities, who had been instructed by St. Gregory himself; he
likewise granted to him _Antiphonaria_, or choral-books of that saint,
which he had himself written in Roman notes.”
“Our lord the King, on his return to France, sent one of the two singers
granted him by the Pope, to Metz, and the other to Soissons; commanding
all the singing masters of his kingdom to correct their _antiphonaria_,
and to conform in all respects to the Roman manner of performing the
church service.”
“Thus were the French _antiphonaria_ corrected, which had before been
vitiated, interpolated, and abridged at the pleasure of every choir man,
and all the chanters of France learned from the Romans that chant which
they now call the French chant, which is entirely as the Roman except
that the French do not execute the tremulus and vinnulas, the bound and
staccato notes (_collisibiles vel secabiles voces_), with facility, and
give a rather rude and throaty manner of singing. The best style of
singing remained in Metz, and as superior as Rome is to Metz, so
superior is Metz to the rest of France, in its school of singing.”[260]
Both the above anecdotes, although quoted very frequently, must be taken
_cum grano salis_, for as Ambros and Fetis well observe, the two
singers, if they had received instruction from Gregory, and also taught
in the era of Charlemagne, must have been about _two hundred years of
age_, which is certainly too old for active service. Another historian
gives the names of the envoys as _Petrus_ and _Romanus_, and it is
certain that one of these did go to Metz, and that a famous school of
singing was founded at Soissons about the same time. Both the teachers,
also must have instructed the French, in the musical characters then
used in notation, and known by the name of _Neumes_.
The _Neumes_ which were in use for musical writing from the eighth to
the twelfth century were short lines, twirls, and hooks, which were
written above the words of a song to denote the melody.
The origin of these marks, is buried in oblivion, for they seem to have
been developed, not at one time, but gradually, and from the simplest
beginnings. Although we have not space to describe the theories
concerning them, a short explanation of them is necessary, for from
these Neumes gradually came our modern system of notation. At first
these marks were only meant as guides to memory; to aid the singer to
sing an air which he had previously learned. Thus the first bar of “Home
Sweet Home,” would be represented by a _Scandicus_ signifying three
upward moving tones, the first two short, the last one long.
The exclamation and interrogation point, are in language, what _Neumes_
were at first in music, they roughly sketched out the inflection of the
voice. The connection between them, and our modern notation is very
evident; in our musical notation the requirements of the eye, have been
well attended to; not entirely perhaps, as regards the length of notes,
but certainly in the matter of ascending and descending passages,
etc.;[261] the old Greek notation, with its upturned and fragmentary
letters, meant nothing to the untutored eye; but the _Neumes_ of the
middle ages, were the first attempt to express a meaning _by their
arrangement_. Thus the _tripunctum_ ({tripunctum}) would denote three
notes ascending, though not which ones; it might mean
C, D, E, or E, F, G, or F, G, A,
do, re, mi, mi, fa, sol, fa, sol, la,
etc., the _bipunctum_ ({bipunctum}) two ascending, or ({bipunctum})
descending notes; the _plica ascendens_ ({plica ascendens}) an upward
spring of a third, etc.
It being a system which was evolved by slow degrees, it is not
astonishing that there are various signs, about which opinions differ.
The system though seemingly barbarous, was in reality an improvement;
although not developed so extensively as the Greek notation which
preceded it, it bore the germ of a more natural style of musical
characters.
But the constant change of, and addition to the _Neumes_, bore evidence,
that it was but a pathway to a more complete system. The next great
reformer in music gave his attention to abolishing the uncertainty which
clung around the _pneumata_.
Hucbald, Monk of St. Amand, in Flanders, (born about 840, died 932,)
made the first practical effort to fix notes permanently. To him is due
the germ of the idea which afterwards culminated in the modern clefs and
staff.
He took (unfortunately) the Greek system for his starting point, and
this led him into many errors, and much lessened the permanent value of
his work. He took the tetrachord (or succession of four notes) as the
foundation of music, but he applied it in a most strange manner; his
scale was as follows:[262]
G, A, B flat,
C, D, E, F,
G, A, B natural,
C, D, E, F sharp,
G, A, B, C sharp,
it will be readily seen that the above scale contains some
incongruities, which are precisely similar to those noticed in the music
of the Hindoos; that is the octave comes out a semi-tone sharp; B
natural being octave to B flat, F sharp to F, etc.
Naturally, in singing it is not to be conceived that the singers took
any such outlandish system as to substitute this for an octave, but it
must have allowed great license to the singers, and the whole must have
given rise to much ambiguity.
His improvement in the method of notation consisted (a perfect
anticipation of clef and staff) in placing the letters of the notes
employed, before each line of the words, and then writing each syllable
of the song, opposite to (and level with) the note to which it belonged.
As he adopted the clumsy Greek method of lettering (using only four
letters, and placing them upright, reversed, backwards, and sideways) we
will give an example with English letters.[263]
A _______a-________________________
G ____da-__te_______num____________
F Lau-___________mi-____de-________
E ____________do-__________e_______
D ___________________________cœlis
The words being “Laudate Dominum de cœlis.”
The harmony of Hucbald was as peculiar and barbaric as his scale system.
He followed the principle of the ancients in treating intervals of
thirds and sixths as _dissonances_, and therefore did not allow them to
appear in his works. In common with some of his predecessors, he held
that the only pure intervals were fifths and fourths. To us this
succession of discords appears most appalling, but it is probable that
in the practical use of music it was ameliorated somewhat. At this time
when the organ was in such a primitive state that the organist struck
the keys heavily with his _fist_ in playing, the left fist was sometimes
allowed to hold a tone (in the manner of an organ point), while the
right played a succession of tones with the singers. The constant
rejection of sixths and thirds as impure intervals, must ever remain a
mystery to us; yet the effect of even this harsh and uncouth singing was
deep on those who heard it. History tells us that King Canute was deeply
impressed on hearing the monks chant, while being rowed in his boat,
near a monastery, and a lady upon hearing the music of the first organ
erected in France, went raving mad, from excess of emotion.
We will leave the rude harmonies of Hucbald, with a final example
showing the succession of fourths used in his _organum_ (or art of
composing).
The letters T, and S, signify tone and semitone.
_______________Do-_____________________________
T_________________mini_________________________
T_Sit_____oria_________in_____cula________bitur
S_____glo-_____Do-________sae-_________ta______
T_________________mini_____________lae-________ } etc.
T_Sit_____oria_________in_____cula________bitur
S_____glo-________________sae-_________ta______
T__________________________________lae-________
Sometimes four voices were thus written on a staff of fifteen lines.
Although this system was so cumbrous, yet the right path had been
attained, and the progress was continual; little inventions followed one
upon the other, and many of the modern usages in music date their rise
to this obscure age of Musical History.
The next great name, in the art, is that of Guido Aretino, or of Arezzo,
a monk of the Benedictine order, born at Arezzo. He flourished about A.
D. 1030 though the date of his birth and death, is not accurately known.
His work has had more influence in shaping modern music, than that of
any one before him. Yet much of his life and work belongs to the hazy
realm of legend. He attained such celebrity that every invention to
which his successors could not find a father, was attributed to him.
Guido’s great success lay in the fact that he was a _specialist_. He did
not undertake, like Gregory and Ambros, to shine in all art, science,
and enterprise; his position precluded that; he says “The ways of
Philosophers are not mine, I only occupy myself with what can be of use
to the church, and bring our little ones (the scholars) forward.”
There was need of such a man; for though music teachers were sought in
every country at this time, and those from Italy, Greece, France and
even Germany, were highly prized, yet there were many who presumed on
this state of affairs, and the consequence was that incompetent teachers
were the rule. To remedy this great evil was the aim of Guido’s life.
He says some of these would-be teachers, “If they sang in their aimless
manner, every day, for a hundred years, they would not invent even the
slightest new Antiphon, and he who cannot easily and correctly sing a
new song, by what right can he call himself a musician or singer?
“At the service of God, it too often sounds, not as if we were praising
Him, but as if we were quarrelling, and scolding among ourselves.”
He devoted himself greatly, to the teaching of a most important branch
of singing, i. e., _sight reading_, and soon brought his cloister class
to such perfection in this that they astonished all beholders. He was
not however, as mild-mannered a reformer as his predecessor in art,
Hucbald. His bitter sarcasms on his brother monks, soon brought a
result, and he found himself though not actually chased from his
convent, yet ostracized in it.
But he was well able to sustain such a strife, and continued his work
with zeal unabated. His style of teaching sight reading was far in
advance of his competitors, for he taught his scholars to sing
intervals, not by referring to the monochord, but instead of it to think
of some similar interval in any hymn well known to them, thus combining
thought, memory and musical ear, in a practical manner.
He was struck with the regularly ascending intervals of the first
syllables of each line of the hymn in honor of St. John, and with the
inspiration of genius attached the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, to
the notes, and caused his scholars to memorize each interval, thus
forming a new and easily comprehended system of _Solfeggio_. The hymn
which inspired this wonderful stride in music runs,
_Ut_—queant laxis.
_Re_—sonare fibris.
_Mi_—ra gestorum.
_Fa_—muli tuorum.
_Sol_—ve polluti.
_La_—bia reati.
Sancte Johannes.
The fame of his wonderful results in choir-training, soon reached Rome,
and the Pope, John XIX.,[264] sent an invitation to the still ostracized
monk, to come to Rome.
Guido is credited with having made many changes in the notation and
harmony of his day. The hexachord system is attributed (justly or
unjustly) to him. He also is said to have introduced lines of different
colors into the staff, for the purpose of aiding the singer to recognize
certain notes with more facility. He says in his _Micrologus_[265] “In
order that sounds may be discerned with certainty, we mark some lines
with various colors, so that the eye may immediately distinguish a note,
in whatever place it may be. For the third of the scale [C] a bright
saffron line. The sixth [F] adjacent to C is of bright vermilion, and
the proximity of others to these colors, will be an index to the whole.
If there were neither letter, nor colored lines to the Neumes, it would
be like having a well without a rope—the water plentiful, but of no use
to those who see it.”
While Guido does not lay claim to having invented the colored lines, it
is probable that he brought them, by his influence into much more
general use.
He certainly invented a modification of the line system of Hucbald.
Instead of the inverted letters, and fragments of letters which the
latter used, he employed the vowels only, to designate the pitch, thus,—
________________________________________________
____________________________________tu-____|_u_|
______________so-______________________os__|_o_|
F__ri-_____ri____lis________u-_____________|_i_|
________ve-_____________ter___ber-_________|_e_|
Ma-___a______________Ma-__________a________|_a_|
“Maria, veri solis mater, ubera tuos.”
Guido, altered Hucbald’s _Organum_ in so far, that he rejected
consecutive fifths, as being too harsh, and substituted a series of
consecutive fourths as being milder.
It may not be out of place to remark here, that the present scrupulous
avoidance of all consecutive fifths, in modern composition of strict
school, is simply a reaction from the rude taste of past centuries,
which employed them _ad nauseum_; there is no valid reason for their
complete ostracism, any more than there was cause for the banishing of
all sixths and thirds from the harmony of our ancestors. To Guido is
also attributed the invention of the method of the harmonical hand
(Guidonian hand, as it has been named after its supposed originator).
This consisted of marking certain notes and musical signs on the tips of
the fingers, and by this means more readily committing them to memory.
As before stated, many of the inventions credited to Guido, are only
adaptations. The Sol-faing system was almost an accidental occurrence;
yet only genius can derive full profit from accidents. The hymn which
gave rise to it (quoted above), is a most prosaic invocation to St. John
to save the throats of the singers from hoarseness, in order that they
may fittingly sing his praise. A very diplomatic way of requesting it.
Musical history in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries is at its
darkest; hence little is positively known of the life of Guido. It is
certain that he was in great favor at Rome, and that other countries
applied to him for his musical services to reorganize their
ecclesiastical chanting, and also that his health failing, he returned
to his monastery, forgetting and forgiving the ill treatment he had
received there, and in its cloisters peacefully ended his days.
The date of his decease is not known.
Other names appear in this misty epoch in musical history. Franco of
Cologne, Walter Odington, an English Monk, Heeronymus von Maehren, etc.,
wrote works upon the theory of music, while Adam de la Hale (of Arras,
France) wrote music in four-part harmony, about the year 1280. But in
the midst of this darkness there came a glorious sunburst in the shape
of chivalric bands who elevated music to a broader sphere by adding to
the ecclesiastical chanting a secular school of composition, both
warlike and lyrical.