Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/549

 PROSE

483

PROSE

this connexion it is interesting to quote the remark of William of Hirschau in his "Consuetudines": " . . . pro signo prosae, quam quidam sequentiam vocant". From the single title "Sequentia cum prosa" developed the two titles, "Prosa" and "Se- quentia" (Prose and Sequence), which are now used promiscuously; the first is the older and more ac- curate, the second the more usual. (As a matter of curiosity we may mention that there have been people who took in earnest the interpretation of prosa as = pro sa, i. e. pro sequentia.)

This sketch of the development of the Prose or Sequence explains many peculiarities in the oldest sequences. Originally the text was adapted to a melody which already existed; as the divisions of this melody (clausula-), with the exception of the introductory and closing ones, were usually repeated by alternative choirs (cf. above II, 2), there arose double strophes of the same length and sung to the same melody — in other words, symmetrically con- structed parallel strophes. These somewhat long pieces of melody (a musical division corresponding to the strophe of the text) were further subdivided into smaller divisions, shorter musical phrases with short half-pauses, so that the whole of the melody was divided into a number of short musical phrases of different lengths. As the text had to follow this peculiarity, the strophe was divided into different verses of different lengths. Under these circum- stances it was natural that at the beginning neither rhythm nor metre (still less rhyme, which is of rel- atively late origin) was taken into practical account, and the whole presented an appearance and form very different from what we usually understand by a poem. On the whole then the Prosa was true to its name in being prose, except that the fact that the antis- trophe had to be as long as the strophe and that the end of the verse had, so far as possible, to corre- spond with the end of the word imposed a certain re- straint. Moreover, as it seems, the first writers of sequences felt themselves especially bound by an- other law (frequently observed also in later times), which, it is important to note, prevailed with- out exception in the versus ad sequeiitias, the prede- cessors of the Sequence, and which, therefore, may not be considered the product of a later date; the jubilus of the Alleluia was built on its concluding a, and is thus the melody of the a. This a, the original text of the jubilus, ought therefore naturally to be prominent in the text which was introduced to replace it. As a matter of fact, in all versus ad sequenlias and in many old sequences (especially the earliest), not only the strophes but often all the verses end in a. But we must not overlook the fact that in those of German origin this law is seldom observed or, more properly speaking, is still only occasionally used (cf. Analecta Hymnica, LIII, nn. 1.50, 160, 161, 185, 186), and even then it is not the verses but only the strophes which end in a. As an example of these peculiarities we may quote the first strophes of the sequence "Eia recolamus" (Anal. Hymn., LIII, 16), once a favourite Christmas sequence in all countries: —

1. £ia, recolamus laudibua piis digna

2a. Huius diei carmina, 2b. Noctis interit nebula,

in qua nobis lux pereunt nostri

oritur gratisaima; chminis umbracula.

3a. Hodie aeeculo 3b. Quern tremunt barathra,

maris stetia mora omenta

eat eaixa _ pavet ipsa,

novse salutis gaudia; a quo peribit mortua.

4a. Gemit capta 4b. Homo lapaus

pestia antiqua ovia abducta

coluber lividua perdit revocatur ad eeterna

spolia; gaudia, etc.

Some few sequences of the older period do not show the strophes in pairs, their strophes lacking antis- trophes. A short example is the following Advent- sequence (Anal. Hymn., LIII, n. 3): —

Qui regis Bceptra forti dextra solua cuncta.

4. Praesta dona ill! salutaria.

5. Quem praedixerunt prophetica vaticinia,

Tu plebi tuam ostende magnam escitando potentiam;

a clara poU regia

in nostra.

Jeau, veni, Domine, arva.

All unpaired and unsymmet rical sequences of this sort are thus short, and their origin is probably to be explained by the fact that a few relatively short Alleluia-jubiU were left without repeats. As the divisions of the melody have no repeat, the strophes set to them are also not repeated (i. e. they have no antistrophe or parallel strophe). If this explanation is right, there is no ground for the suggestion that sequences without parallel strophes are older than those with them; they may date from the same period, but they had a very short life, as sequences without symmetrical pairs of strophes soon became so unusual that antistrophes were added to those earlier without them. With the sequence developed in the way thus indicated, viz. by adapting a text to an already exist- ing melody, it became natural in time to have se- quences composed with a melody of their own. The text in this case had no need to follow the AUeluia- jubilus; text and melody would be composed at the same time, and, if need be, the melody might be ac- commodated to the text. This led to a freer treatment of the text, which otherwise would have to follow syllable by syllable the notes of the melody, and so gradually more attention was paid to rhythm and symmetry in the construction of the verse, as is required by the exigencies of poetry.

Even when the text was set to a melody already in use, care was soon taken to observe a certain rhythm in the words. In this connexion rhythm does not depend on the quantity of the .syllables (with which the sequence has practically no concern), but simply on the accent of the word. In many se- quences we find in a few of their verses and strophes this type of symmetrical rhythm (i. e. a rhythm which occurs regularly in a verse and its correspond- ent); in other sequences we find it in almost all the verses (e. g. in two sequences, for St. Stephen's Day and the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, ascribed to Notker Balbulus). In the St. Stephen sequence "Hanc concordi famulatu" (Anal. Hymn., LIII, n. 215) the rhythm in the first two pairs of strophes which follow the introductory verse is of this kind; the acute accent placed above the words represents the natural intonation of the words: —

2a. Auct<5ris ilUua

example

ddcti benlgno 3a. O St4phane.

signifer r^gis

b6ni, n6a exaddi,

2b. Pro pf rsecut6rum

precdntis

fraude sudrum. 3b. Proffcue

qui es pro tliis

^xaudftus (nimicis.

Exactly the same rhythm in strophe and antis- trophe, in the verse and its parallel, can be seen in the Apostles' sequence which follows the same plan: —

2a. Eccl^siam v^atria

doctrinia

illuminiltam 3a. Nam D6minu3,

P^tre, cffil6rum,

tfbi cldvea d6no d^dit

2b. Per circulum ti5rr£E

prec^tus

ddluvet vaster. 3b. Armigerum

BSniamin, Chrfstua

t6 acit sdum vjisque el6ctum.

In both these sequences the end of all the strophes is paroxytone.

Like rhythm, assonance, the precursor of rhyme, was also gradually introduced; now a single verse, now several verses, began to end with the same or equivalent vowel (e and i, o and u). This was the beginning of that process which gradually led to the development of sequences characterized by regular rhythm and rhyme and complete uniformity in the construction of the verses (frequently also of the strophes), and thus revealing in structure and tech- nique a strong contrast to the older types, in which