On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music

Published by Good Press, 2019

goodpress@okpublishing.info

EAN 4064066223021

Table of Contents

ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

EXPLANATORY NOTES

ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC

Table of Contents

BY

M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Table of Contents

Delivered at the
"Salon de la Pensée Française"
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
San Francisco, June First
Nineteen Hundred
& Fifteen

DONE INTO ENGLISH
WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY
HENRY P. BOWIE

SAN FRANCISCO:
THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY
1915

Copyright, 1915
by M. Camille Saint-Saëns

ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC

Table of Contents

USIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the thirteenth century, when Plain Song [1] (Plain Chant) made its appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have recourse to voices both heavy and low.