Gregorian Psalm Tones with English Texts? - National Association ...

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NPM Chant Section Steering and Editorial Committee Rev. Anthony Ruff, osb Ms. Bridgid Kinney Dr. Peter Jeffrey Dr. Ed Schaeffer Dr. Paul Ford Rev. Columba Kelly, osb Mr. Joe Balistreri EditoR, Custos: Rev. Anthony Ruff, osb Beginning in 2010, the co-editors of Custos will be Bridgid Kinney and Joe Balistreri. Custos The Latin Psalter goes for long stretches with nothing but 2s and 3s. 1 Almost all lines end with some combination of 2s and 3s. This is important because several of the cadences of the Gregorian tones are pointed according to the last two accents of the line. 2 For example, Mode 1 has two accents for the cadence at the half-way point (the “mediant cadence”): Mode 5 has two accents for the cadence at the end (the final cadence or “termination”): Any accent pattern fits well with these 2-accent cadences, whether 22 or 23 or 32 or 33: Several important effects result. The reciting tone (A in the first example above, C in the second) is the modal center. The accents are a foil to this center. The fact that these foils fall on accents means that the foils receive a certain emphasis. This gives a wonderful balance between stability and variety: stability from the reciting tone, variety from the emphasized foils. It is precisely this which gives the Gregorian tones, when sung to a Latin text, their lyrical quality and aesthetic satisfaction. There are exceptions to these accent patterns in Latin, but they are rather rare. On rare occasions a one-syllable word such as “me,” which in effect takes an accent, falls at the end of a line. An example is “erípuit mé” at Psalm 34:5, which we will use with the mediant cadence here for explanatory purposes. This accent pattern would be called 31. The conventional solution is to pretend that the accent falls on the last syllable of “erípuit,” what we might call a “shadow accent,” so that the text can be forced into a 22 pattern, like this: Sometimes Latin texts have more than two unaccented syllables between the accents, such as “me-mó-ri-am e-ó-rum” at Psalm 34:17. This accent pattern would be called 42. The conventional solution is to put a shadow accent between the two accents so that there are no more than two unaccented syllables in a row, like this: As an aside, I might mention that this shadow accent solution has been used by Solesmes only since 1903. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Solesmes treated cases like this in a manner true to the text accents, with no shadow accent:
While this solution is preferable from a textual standpoint, it has not been used for nearly a century. (If you used it now, I suppose some might think you are making a mistake or do not know the rules of Latin psalm pointing.) It bears repeating that the above two exceptional accent patterns, 31 and 42, are uncommon in Latin. Predominating by far are the accent patterns 22, 23, 32, and 33. Characteristics of the English language The most important thing to say about the English language is that its accent patterns are very different from those of Latin. This is what makes it so difficult to employ the Gregorian tones convincingly in English. What is rare in Latin is quite common in English. For example, an accent on the last syllable of a line occurs in all of the first six lines of Psalm 34: I will bless the Lord at all tímes, his praise always on my líps; in the Lord my soul shall make its bóast. The humble shall hear and be glád. Glorify the Lord with mé. Together let us praise his náme. Two cases of these six have the accent pattern 31—“Lórd at all tímes” and “héar and be glád.” English also has cases of an unusually large number of unaccented syllables in a row, such as (to take an example not from the Psalter) “foundátion of the apóstles.” And there are many cases of two accents in a row, which is very rare in Latin, such as “divíne chárity.” In the example from Psalm 34 above, depending on how you treat the English language, “áll tímes” is very close to being a case of two accents in a row. Because the Grail translation of the Psalter has been intentionally crafted with accents occurring regularly across each line, these two accentual difficulties do not occur that often. But they do at times. One can readily see how the widely varying accent patterns of English make it difficult to employ the Gregorian tones. As noted above, the aesthetic perfection of Latin psalmody is the way in which the modal notes of the melody interact with the regularly recurring accents of the text. Use of the English language with the Gregorian tones will never quite have this sort of aesthetic perfection. The English language simply does not allow for it. The First Approach: Literal Gregorian Melodies In the years immediately after Vatican II, Gregorian psalm tone melodies tended to be employed quite literally, without adjustments for the sake of the accent patterns of the English text. I suspect this is because the old Solesmes school of rhythmic interpretation was so widespread at that time that many people were accustomed to think only of the chant melody without much regard for the text. In the old Solesmes method, especially when its equalism was applied rigidly and without nuance, the Latin text had virtually no effect on the rhythmic interpretation. Adaptors probably felt obliged to preserve the original melody, or else they saw no aesthetic problem in doing so, even if it did not fit the English text very well. Custos
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