Friday, July 05, 2013

What are those strange squiggles in the Graduale Triplex?

Sacred Music is the name of the quarterly journal of the Church Music Association of America. In the most recent issue, I have an article entitled 'The Solesmes Chant Tradition: The Original Neumatic Signs and Practical Performance Today'. The article is based on a talk I gave at the CMAA Colloquium in Salt Lake City in 2012 and is intended as an entry into the world of Solesmes and Semiology, in other words how the monks went about the process of deciphering the early chant manuscripts and converting them into a universal and singable performing edition. I know that many readers of the NLM blog are very knowledgeable about this particular field, however this may be of interest if you want to know what semiology is, what is meant by 'Old Solesmes' or if you have simply always wondered what those strange squiggles are in the Graduale Triplex:


I have posted the article here and I am grateful to the CMAA for allowing me to do so. If you would like to subscribe to the journal, you can do so here. It represents good value at $48 a year, however you can donate more to this extremely good cause should you wish and help support the CMAA's vast plethora of projects. You can also browse the online archive of previous editions.

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For more articles, see the NLM archives: