Musica et scolica enchiriadis
The second half of the treatise, the Scolica enchiriadis, contains instruction on how to sing
the short office antiphon Ego sum via. The text speaks for itself in providing valuable
evidence of such antiphons being sung to a beat.
Latin: Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum ed. Martin Gerbert Vol 1 p182-183
English: Gregorian Rhythm in the Gregorian Centuries, Dom Gregory Murray, 1957
The rhythm and the assignation of notes to syllables of the second version of the melody
shown here is taken from Hans Schmid's edition. He uses metrical signs to indicate the long
and short notes. The long notes are there found on the first F, the second D and the last G.
One passage in particular may relate to overall tempo change. The master seems to
command Ego sum via to be sung through three times, with all note lengths doubled the
second time through but not doubled on the third time through. The technique would have
the didactic aim of developing the pupil's grasp of simple and duple durations of notes.
Numerosity here is apparently not a mere matter of counting syllables.
Pupil: What is rhythmical singing?
Master: It is to observe where to use the
more prolonged durations and where the
shorter ones. As we observe which
syllables are short and which long, so too
which sounds are to be prolonged and
which shortened, in order that the long
concur proportionally with those that are
not long, and the melody may be scanned
[lit. beaten] as though in metrical feet.
Now let us sing for practice. I will clap the
[musical] feet and lead; you follow me:
Only the last notes in the three members
are long, the rest are short. So to sing
rhythmically means to measure out
proportional durations to long and short
sounds, not prolonging or shortening
more than is required under the conditions,
but keeping the sound within the law of
scansion, so that the melody may be able
to finish in the same tempo with which it
began. But if any time you wish for the sake
of variation to change the tempo, i.e. to
adopt a slower or a faster pace either
near the beginning or towards the end, you
must do it in double proportion, i.e. you
must change the tempo either into twice
as fast or twice as slow. . .
[Let us sing in measure: first let there be a
contracted tempo [lit. delay], let a
protracted one follow, then a contracted
one again.]
This numerical proportion is always
seemly in skilled song and adorns it with
very great dignity, no matter whether the
singing be slow or fast, or whether it be
rendered by one or by many. Furthermore
it follows that, as in rhythmical singing, no
one sings either more slowly or more
quickly than another, the voices of a
multitude sound like that of one man.
D. Quid est numerose canere?
M. Ut attendatur, ubi productioribus,
ubi brevioribus morulis utendum sit.
Quatenus uti quae syllabae breves,
quae sunt longae, attenditur; ita qui
soni producti quique correpti esse
debeant, ut ea, quae diu, ad ea, quae
non diu, legitime concurrant, et veluti
metricis pedibus cantilena plaudatur.
Age canamus exercitii usu; plaudam
pedes ego in praecinendo, tu sequendo
imitabere.
Solae in tribus membris ultimae
longae, reliquae breves sunt. Sic
itaque numerose est canere, longis
brevibusque sonis ratas morulas
metiri, nec per loca protrahere vel
contrahere magis quam oportet, sed
infra scandendi legem vocem continere,
ut possit melum ea finiri mora, qua cepit.
Verum si aliquotiens causa variationis
mutare moram velis, id est, circa initium
aut finem protensiorem vel
incitatiorem cursum facere, duplo id
feceris, id est, ut productam moram in
duplo correptiore seu correptam
immutes, duplo longiore. ...
Canamus modo: prima sit mora
correptior, subiungatur producta, tunc
correpta iterum.
Haec igitur numerositatis ratio doctam
semper cantionem decet, et hac maxima
sui dignitate ornatur, sive tractim sive
cursim canatur, sive ab uno seu a
pluribus. Fit quoque, ut dum numerose
canendo alius alio nec plus nec minus
protrahit aut contrahit, quasi ex uno ore
vox multitudinis audiatur.
g g g a'g f g f g a' c'd' d' d'f' c'b' g a' b' a' g g
E go sum vi - a ve ri tas et vi - ta Al - le - lu ia Al le lu ia
g g g a'g f g f a' a' c'd' d' d'c' c'b' g a' b' b' a'g g
E go sum vi - a ve ri tas et vi - ta Al - le - lu ia Al le lu - ia