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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