st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

214 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
One more topic remains to be noticed, and on this
we may speak with perhaps the least reservation or
qualification of all. That is,
the merit of John of
Damascus as the author of hymns
still used in the
services of the Church. It is one testimony to his
greatness in this respect, that many hymns are attri
buted to him, which in all probability were not his,
the whole system of modern church music
and that
is sometimes referred to him as well. A sort of haze
surrounds him, from this point of view, which it is not
easy to penetrate. Gerbert, in his "History
of Sacred
1
makes him perform the same service for the
Music,"
Eastern Church that Gregory the Great had done for
the Western ;
that is, as far as I understand it, employ
what we call notes, instead of letters of the alphabet, to
indicate musical sounds, and certain marks or charac
ters to betoken the intervals of the ascending or de
scending scale. While in Latin service books, adds
this authority, musical notes are not found before the
1
"DeCantuetMusica sacra, "auctoreMartino Gerbert o, 1774,
vol. ii., p. I. He describes the invention as "novum facilioremque
cantandi modum per notas musicas, loco Grsecorum
characterum onum [sic, lege tomtm~\ seu chordam indicantium."
The invention of marks to denote intervals (the scale ?) Gerbert
assigns to Damascene on the authority of Zarlino. But the
merit of this invention is denied him by Fetis, "Biographic
universelle des Musiciens," 1862, t. iii., p. 433, although he
admits that Damascene "doit etre considere comme le reformateur
du chant de l glise grecque, c est a dire, comme ayant
attache son nom a 1 un des faits les plus importants de 1 histoire
de 1 art." The second volume of Mr. Chappell s "
History of
Music," which would cover this period, has not yet, I believe,
been published.