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of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saens
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Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music
Author: Camille Saint-Saens
Translator: Henry P. Bowie
Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC ***
Produced by Chuck Greif
[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saens]
ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC
BY
M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
_Delivered at the_
"_Salon de la Pensee Francaise_"
_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-Saens_
ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC
MUSIC 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.
In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its
primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its
prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the
same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of e
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