| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
300 CURIOSITIES OF MUSIC. |
||
|
|
||
|
Milanese church-chant of to-day, we have but little proof of the nature of his reforms. That it was deeply impressive we have the testimony of St. Augustine who eulogises, without accurately describing it,* but it is certain that his reforms were founded in part upon the Greek music, and that in the Gregorian and Ambrosian chants of the church, we have a legitimate descendant of the ancient Greek music. The reader must remove one impression from his mind; the music of the early Christians, though certainly crude, was by no means simple; on the contrary, it contained many flourishes and rapid embellishments, most of which were of oriental origin. The reform was in the nature of simplicity, and added dignity to a service, which already, in its words, possessed beauty and poetry.
He cast aside much of the cumbrous nomenclature of the Greek modes, and retained of them only what was beautiful and easily comprehended. He did not aim at any sweeping reform, as is evident from his letter to his sister St. Marcellina, wherein he says that he is endeavoring to regulate the mode of singing the hymns, canticles and anthems in his own church,f and St. Augustine}" says that it was done after the manner of the churches of the Orient.
The modes which he chose for his compositions were the following:—
•Confessions, Book IX., Chap. 6.
fAmbros Geschicht-* der Musik, toI. 2, p. 14. Fetis, Biographic Univ. y. 1. p. 85. tConfes8,IX.,7. |
||
|
|
||