The quest for myriad strains

In the era in which the web is fully demonstrating its archival potential, more and more composers make use of sound, melody and computer library repositories. It is a clear trend in popular music, which is increasingly being extended also to ‘academic’ composition: today authors can access and contribute to a vast array of audio materials, of procedures and languages, where historicity and innovation coexist in an eternal present. At first glance it may seem a revolution. However, a closer look reveals ancient roots in the history of music that audio reproduction has made only more evident: the fixation of music on tape, at first, has led some composers (e.g. Bruno Maderna) to create sound libraries to be reused in different works, thus blurring the borders of the Opera; later on, the dematerialization and atomization of procedures in IT have pushed towards a philosophy of sharing (e.g. libraries for Computer Assisted Composition systems) – exalted today by the capillarity of the lightning-fast web distribution – raising deep questions about the concept of author itself. Moving further backwards, to the re-uses in Rossini and Mozart, or to the anonymous formulas in Gregorian chant, could we not find the recurrence of a quest for that world of «myriad strains that once shall sound», where the composer can stretch forth a hand for a musical idea, so wonderfully glimpsed by Busoni in his Sketch for a New Esthetic of Music?

Paying a Church Musician in the Nineteenth Century: Between Possibilities and Necessities

In Europe, the nineteenth century had its own kind of an impact on the development of church music: fellowships that looked over the repertoire of music played in churches and encouraged research into the sources of the old church music and the Gregorian chant started emerging in many different countries. In the middle of the said century, the Holy See released documents that repeatedly and strictly regulated music and especially the music played during masses. Bishops were ordered to establish new music schools, reinforce the existing ones, and form committees in charge of the repertoire, musical performance and care of musicians in dioceses. The salary of the members of church chapels depended on the length of their work and the level of their professionalism. Sometimes the best musicians earned as much as the chapel leader. The leader, who received a certain amount of money to be spent on salaries from the seniors of the church every quarter of the year, distributed it on their own accord, taking into the account the intensity and quality of the instrumentalists’ performance. Each choir singer received the same amount of money, and the salary of the organist depended on the number of masses. Gregorian chanters received smallest salaries. Often the musicians were paid in kind: in food, candles, clothes, footwear, vodka, beer, honey, and the like. Some church chapels even had a cook who prepared breakfasts and lunches specifically for the musicians. Unfortunately, at the end of the nineteenth century, the financial situation of church chapels the financial situation of church chapels changed for the worse much worse.

The Liturgical Usage of Translated Gregorian Chant in the Korean Catholic Church

For centuries, Gregorian chant has served as a monophonic song written for the religious services of the Roman Catholic Church, but Korean Catholics first encountered this chant in the early nineteenth century. Korean Catholics ultimately became more attracted to the Korean translations of these chants, as opposed to the original Latin versions. This article introduces some issues related to the language translation of Gregorian chant, especially for chants performed in Holy Week. The issues include discrepancies in the number of syllables, shifts in melismatic emphasis, difficult diction in vocalization, briefer singing parts because of space limitations, challenging melodic lines, and translation losses from neumes to modern notes.

Christ lag in Todesbanden. Egy korál útja a középkortól Luther Mártonon át Johann Sebastian Bachig

"Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death). A Chorale’s Journey from the Middle Ages through Martin Luther to Johann Sebastian Bach. One of the focal points of Martin Luther’s work as a reformer can still be discovered in his compositions. He wrote several lyrics in which he formulated essential dogmatic insights. These include the Easter song Christ lag in Todesbanden [Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death] based on the mediaeval Gregorian chant Victimae paschali laudes and its later version Christ ist erstanden, in which not only the joy over Easter and the resurrection of Christ can be found, but it also gives a picture of the reformer’s theological insights into the death of death and sin. After nearly two hundred years, Johann Sebastian Bach processes all seven verses of Luther’s song in his cantata of the same title (BWV 4), shortly after the death of his first wife. The Lutheran hymn of the resurrection will thus become a personal creed, an ars poetica, but at the same time we can find an exciting musical representation of Luther’s theological view of death in Bach’s composition. Keywords: Martin Luther, Johann Sebastian Bach, Protestant choir, death, resurrection "

Primate Stefan Wyszyński – An Eulogist of Gregorian Chant

The article shows the unknown aspect of the activity of Primate Stefan Wyszyński related to sacred music, which included in particular the promotion of Gregorian chant. The author extracts from his speeches the most important statements considering the singing and emphasizes its value and topicality in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The Primate’s respect for the singing is a testimony and manifestation of pastoral care to preserve the identity of the Church’s musical tradition.

Conclusion

Western art music developed at the most fundamental level out of the desire to elaborate on and heighten the body of Gregorian Chant that lay at its heart. As this development unfolded, musicians settled on a scheme to slow the chant down, place it at the bottom of, or later within, a polyphonic texture, and adorn it with their own musical ideas and inventions. Such a long-note cantus firmus served as the foundation of sophisticated composition for an astonishingly long time; indeed, thanks to Johann Joseph Fux, one could say that it has never entirely disappeared from compositional engagement. By the end of the fifteenth century, musicians had been laying out their most sophisticated music, whether improvised or composed, on top of and surrounding such a cantus firmus since at least the high Middle Ages, and this music thus had its structural foundation largely determined for it at the pre-compositional stage. The musicians’ goal, then, was to adorn this foundation with all of the variety they could provide....

The value of good liturgical music

It is disturbing that in recent times, the worshiping community in the capacity of some church ministers, composers and musicians have deviated from the specifications of liturgical music even as recommended by Vatican Council II (The Constitution of The Sacred Liturgy). Also misunderstood and misappropriated is the idea of inculturation that permits composers in different countries to write music using the language of the locality as well as the indigenous instruments. This is partly due to inadequate enlightenment and training on the part of the liturgical music practitioners on the real meaning of liturgical music. A lot ofproblems have come up from these misconceptions and misinterpretations which include but a few making noise in place of music, negligence of the core features of liturgical music ranging from little or no attention to the solemn nature of the liturgy to relevance for some unimaginable selfish interests. In remedying these challenges, the researcher has made lots of recommendations. One of them is that the practitioners of liturgical music be exposed through seminars and workshops to relevant church documents on liturgical music from time to time. It is necessary and most pertinent that the church retains its solemnity in worship as against the recent mediocrity which has come to envelop the liturgical music making practices. The great value of good liturgical music needs to be sustained. Keywords: Liturgical Music, Gregorian Chant, Sacred Polyphony, Instrumental Music, Catholic Church, Liturgical Musician, Choir, Congregation

Choralo mokykla (The School of Plainchant) by Teodoras Brazys within the Context of International Studies on Gregorian Chant in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Among the books on the history and theory of music written in Lithuania in the past, there are some works that have made a significant impact on the development of the Lithuanian musical culture and which, however, are quite forgotten nowadays. One of these is the handbook of Gregorian chant Choralo mokykla (The School of Plainchant) by Teodoras Brazys (1870–1930), the renowned Lithuanian priest, composer, and musicologist of the first half of the twentieth century. The handbook was published in 1926, in the early years of the restored Republic of Lithuania. However, it could still be considered as the best written methodological aid in this field. The article deals with the circumstances and the motives of writing this handbook, along with a discussion of the European context of the movement for restoration and promulgation of Gregorian chant, especially after the pontificate of Pius X and his notable motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. It also analyses the impact of the authors that Brazys mentions himself and the works and methods used by them. In addition, the article examines the level of originality of the handbook and attempts to trace the books and handbooks that made the biggest impact on Brazys and his work.