The teaching and accompaniment of plainsong . nt ofsyllabic Plainsong as used in metrical hymns andin the Psalms. The rhythmical treatment of themelodic phrases has been comparatively now have to deal with those specimens of theChant in which melodic decoration appears. Wefound that, in analysing such melodies as Ave mavisstella, there are two kinds of stress to provide there is the verbal accent which safeguardsthe rhythm of the words, and then there is thesecondary musical stress which gives life andmeaning to the decorative notes. In the first lineof the hymn there are t
The teaching and accompaniment of plainsong . nt ofsyllabic Plainsong as used in metrical hymns andin the Psalms. The rhythmical treatment of themelodic phrases has been comparatively now have to deal with those specimens of theChant in which melodic decoration appears. Wefound that, in analysing such melodies as Ave mavisstella, there are two kinds of stress to provide there is the verbal accent which safeguardsthe rhythm of the words, and then there is thesecondary musical stress which gives life andmeaning to the decorative notes. In the first lineof the hymn there are three strong syllables comingon single notes, and three weak syllables fittedwith two or more decorative notes, the first of eachreceiving a musical stress less intense than thatgiven to the verbal accent. The plan adopted toprovide an accompaniment for an example like thishas been to change the bass on the verbal accent, 74 THE TEACHING OF PLAINSONG but not upon the secondary musical stress when thelatter falls on a weak syllable:— ma - ns. De - i Ma ter al ma, -4 At - que sem - per—X- :q*=qv 1- m T vir go, Fe - lix cae - li por ta. - B s s==fc (S>-* 4, ?*—-it _ r , h_ Thus the organ marks the primary verbal accent,but leaves the secondary musical stress alone,relying upon the voices to do justice to that. Thereis only a single exception to this plan in the aboveharmonization, namely on the last syllable of Stellain line i, where it is impossible to avoid changing thebass from D to A. This plan of marking the verbalaccent on the organ and of leaving all secondarystresses to be shown only by the voices seems to bea perfectly sound one. But there is a certain school ACCOMPANIMENT OF PLAINSONG 75 of accompanists on the Continent which holds thatthe organ should ignore the verbal accent in caseswhere it occurs in the neighbourhood of melodicdecoration, in order to emphasise the subsidiarymusical stress. The reason given for this contentionis that Nature requires that in a
Size: 3016px × 829px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidteachingaccompan00burg
