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| The activity of the venerable monastery of Solesmes in the 19th century was characterized by an approach that influenced the successors, too: they gathered and analyzed a great number of plainchant sources with the aim of recovering the 'original' forms and of helping reconstruct the 'authentic' melodies. We may mention here a parallel phenomenon in the field of liturgy, too: the work of Dom Hesbert. His Corpus Antiphonalium Officii again dealt with a great number of sources in order to reach the 'original form' or prototype of the Office; he did not consider the very multiformity of the documents as the object of historical science. And although a great number of monographs have been written about particular topics during the last century, the influence of the primary approach is still perceptible. It can best be demonstrated by the trend of the well-organized 'school of semiology'. This also seeks to discover an authentic form ('Urform'), in this instance in the field of rhythm. But while its predecessors tried to arrive at the original form by scrutinizing hundreds of manuscripts - on a path leading through the many to find the one -, the semiological school contents itself with a rather narrow layer of 'early' sources, which it submits, no doubt, to a more detailed investigation. |
| We can understand - moreover appreciate - the desire to find the 'one' in the shortest possible way and to regard the 'many', the 'different' as intermediate steps only. In this case research went hand in hand with the daily practice, and the latter could gain justification from the 'authentic' melodies, radiant in the light of special veneration. The Solesmes monastery had to launch a campaign against the misleading 'reform' movements of the l7th-l9th centuries and wanted to return to the ancient sources, by demonstrating the traditional values of original forms. It was inspiring to presume the existence of such a prototype, particularly for an institution which regarded the liturgy as a manifestation of dogma and focused attention on the ceremonies similar to that of the depositum fidei. In the liturgy the word and melody seemed to be so closely connected that the best working hypothesis was to consider the rich liturgical and musical heritage as two sides of the same creative process. Seen in this light, everything that differs is suspected of representing a deviation from the 'Urform'. Even if we decline to accept this disregard of the late sources, we have to take into consideration the psychological motivation of the scholar, too, who feels to be in a more distinguished position when working with the more highly appreciated ancient manuscripts. After having understood the characteristic attitude of meny scholars during the last century, we can nevertheless set against it the following thoughts: |
| Plainchant became the foundation of the entire music life in medieval Europe. Its significance points far beyond the ecclesiastical sphere, it was the vehicle of the whole musical culture, the educating force and manifestation (receptor and preceptor) alike of both the creative power and the performing practice. A science of real historical interest cannot remain satisfied with a study which analyzes the rich source material of the chant inquiring after the supposed primary conditions only. The source material exists first of all as a document of its own age and that age has to be accepted with all its internal unity and variety, its simplifying and embellishing tendencies. We have to study the hundreds of chant manuscripts first as witnesses of a musical life differentiated in time and space. In a logical sense it is only as a second step that they can be used as starting points from which to reach backwards to the initial 'one form' (or several forms) of this heritage. Is it permissible to underestimate source material which bears such vivid witness to its own vigour and historical qualities? Will it not mislead us, if we use the late sources as a raw material for investigating the past and disregard (or denigrate) them in respect of their relationship to their own age? |
| We think we have to give at least a chance to a liturgical and musical research of the kind that takes the plainchant sources as objects of a strictly historical analysis, i.e. one that investigates the many for the sake of 'many', alongside with the other approach which uses the many to arrive at the one. |
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