Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/781

PLAIN SONG. character of the antient Melody, though it is undoubtedly preferable, that, wherever it is possible to dispense with the instrumental support, the Voices should be left to themselves. The misfortune is, so very few Organists are willing to confine themselves to the only Harmonies with which Plain Song can be consistently accompanied. The Ecclesiastical Modes are wholly unsuited to diversified combinations, which have no more affinity with them than mediæval architecture with that of the Parthenon: and the needless introduction of Diminished Sevenths and Augmented Sixths into the Accompaniment of the Psalms is as grave an offence against good taste as would be the erection of a Doric Pediment in front of Westminster Abbey. Until this fact is generally recognised, there will always be a prejudice against Plain Song among those who judge by results, without troubling themselves to enquire into the causes which produce them: for no well-trained ear can listen to a 'Gregorian Psalm,' with Chromatic Accompaniment, without a feeling of disgust akin to that which would be produced by the association of Chopin's wild Melodies with the Harmonies of Orlando Gibbons.

On the other hand, an intimate connection exists between Plain Song and true Polyphony—which indeed was originally suggested by and owes its very existence to it. Almost every class of Melody we have described has been treated by the Great Masters in Counterpoint of more or less complexity; and that, so frequently, that we possess Polyphonic renderings of the Music used at High Mass, at Solemn Vespers, and in the awful Services of Holy Week, in quantity sufficient to supply the needs of Christendom throughout the entire cycle of the Ecclesiastical Year. The Psalm Tones have been set, by Bernabei, and other learned Contrapuntists, with a full appreciation of the grave simplicity of their style, and a careful adaptation of the four- and five-part Harmony of the mediæval Schools to the Modes in which they are written: and Palestrina, Felice Anerio, the two Nanini, Luca Viadana, and a host of their contemporaries, have supplemented them with innumerable original Faux Bourdons intended to alternate with unisonous Verses of the simple Chaunt. A fine MS. collection of them was discovered, in Rome, by Dr. Burney, whose autograph copy of it is now preserved, in the Library of the British Museum, under the title of 'Studij di Palestrina'; and many others are in existence, both in MS. and in print. Of works of greater pretension, the number is inexhaustible. iVithout reckoning the great Masses and Motets founded on Plain Song Canti fermi, which naturally fall into another category, we possess no end of harmonised Plain Song, in the form of Litanies, Responses, Hymns, and other movements of inestimable value. Some of the finest of them will be found among the 'Cantionea sacræ' of Tallis and Byrd; but, for the most perfect work of the kind we possess, we are inlebted to the genius of Palestrina, whose 'Hymni totius anni,' published at Rome by F. Coattinus, in 1589, contain a series of forty-five of the Hymns most frequently sung in the various Offices of the Church, in each of which the antient Canto fermo is made to serve as the basis of a composition of the rarest beauty, no less remarkable for the skill displayed in its construction, than for the true artistic feeling with which that skill is concealed beneath the rugged grandeur of the original Melody. [See, vol. i. 7606.]

We find ourselves, then, after the lapse of more than eighteen centuries, in possession of a treasury of Plain Song, rich enough to supply the Church's every need, so long as her present form of Ritual remains in use, and sufficiently varied to adapt itself to any imaginable contingency. Though we can bring forward no evidence old enough to enable us to trace back the earliest of our treasures to their origin, and thus establish their purity beyond all possibility of doubt, the comparison of innumerable mediæval MSS. justifies us in believing that the materials which have been handed down to us have suffered far less deterioration than might reasonably have been expected, when their extreme antiquity is taken into consideration. The scrupulous care which has been bestowed upon these MSS. within the last thirty years leaves little room for fear that the written text will be corrupted in time to come: but, that the style of performance is neither free from present corruption, nor from the danger of still greater abuses in the future, is only too painfully evident. Those, then, who are really in earnest in their desire to preserve both the letter and the spirit of our store of antient Melodies from unauthorised interference, will do well to fortify their own taste and judgment by careful study; remembering, that, however worthy of our reverence the true Music of the Early Christian Church may be, modernised Plain Song is an abomination which neither gods nor men can tolerate. [ W. S. R. ]