Gregorian chant

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The notation system

[fragment with neumes taken from the Laon 239 manuscript (Metz), written around 930]

The notation system has undergone many significant changes throughout the centuries. At
first, it was merely a combination of lines and curves written above the text. The information they contain was lost for many centuries, until contemporary scholars rediscovered it : the neumes indicate the rhythm of the chants. The melodic information contained within the neumes is somewhat less accurate, but as most of the singers knew the chants by heart, that was hardly a problem. The evolution in notation stretches from 10th century manuscripts like St.-Gallen or Laon to the contemporary Lagal- or Fluxus-editions.

To illustrate the development from neumes to notes, we take the Offertory Illumina, from
the 10th Sunday. The first version can be found in the Mont-Renaud manuscript from Noyon (10th century). This notation contains only contains relative melodic information (it merely indicates whether the melody rises or drops), so we call it adiastematic.

Laon 239 from Metz (around 930) gives us a little more information as to the melody.

and Chartres 47

Einsiedeln 121 from Sankt-Gallen (970) has added letters, abbreviations of certain musical terms (such as the 't' for 'tenere': hold and the 'l' for 'levare' : rise)

Benevento 33 is a clear example of the transition towards diastematic manuscripts.

The first generation of real diastematic manuscripts, such as Paris B.N.776 (from Albi, probably before 1079), still has the neumes in campo aperto, 'in the open field', with no graphical relation between neumes.

Later diastematic manuscripts, like Paris B.N.903 (from Saint-Yrieix) groups the neumes around a line.

Benevento 34 (end of the 11th century) is the first manuscripts where we discover lines and clefs indicating the semi-tones (C and F).

Graz 807 goes a step further: 2 lines, 4 clefs.

The most extraordinary manuscript of all is no doubt Montpellier H159, with both neumes and letters representing the notes.

But, as we mentioned before, decay set in. Just look at the sad example of the Editio Tournay, published under Clemens VIII in 1620.

The final blow to any kind of subtlety was dealt by the Pustet-edition in 1871, also called Neo-Medicea (named after the infamous 1614 Viennese edition). Nevertheless, it was approved by the Vatican and the editors even got a papal monopoly to print church music for 30 years.

In 1883, Dom Pothier publishes his Liber Gradualis. The most remarkable evolution is the way the notes are grouped. Pothier based his editions on the early findings of the semiologic research.

In 1908, the Graduale is reborn in the Editio Vaticana, mainly under the direction of Dom Pothier. Despite the serious progress Semiology had made by then, the Vatican refused to change the prescriptions about the position of notes, groups and rests. That is why even the latest edition (1974) has the same outlook as the Graduale from 1908.

(Manuscript examples copied by kind permission of Fred Scheyderberg, from his Cursus Gregoriaans, part II, 1987).

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