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XIX.—On the Use of the Greek Language, written phonetically, in the early Service Books of the Church in England; and on the earliest system of Musical Notation upon lines and spaces, one hitherto unnoticed, and seemingly peculiar to English use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

While collecting materials for a new history of music I had occasion to examine many of the earliest Psalters and Books of Antiphons for the service of the English Church, and then noted three distinctive peculiarities, which seemed worthy of attention by the literary antiquary and by the historian. The first was, that parts of the service, such as the Gloria in excelsis and the Nicene Creed, had been sung occasionally in Greek, and that the Greek was written phonetically in English characters. The second, that the hymns and sequences differed from those which had been sung on the continent of Europe, and therefore few, if any, are included in the printed collections by Daniel, by Mone, or Morel; and, further, that many of them are remarkable for the intermixture of Greek and of Græco-Latin words. Not only did our ancestors substitute protus, deuterus, tritus, and tetardus for primus, secundus, tertius, and quartus, but also employed such addresses to the deity in their hymns and sequences as “Kyrie eleison, o theos agye” —“Pater, creator omnium, tu theos ymon”—“Pater ymas te exoramus;” half Greek and half Latin.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1881

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References

page 390 note a A fac-simile of this, and of the Third Litany, which supplies the date, will lie found herewith. (See Plate XIX.)

page 391 note a Preceding his metrical account of the miracles of S. Swithin. See MS. Reg. 15, c. vii. fol. 54, or Acta Sanctorwn Ordinis S. Benedtcti, by Mabillon, , fol. Paris, 1685.Google ScholarSaeculum, v. p. 630–1.

page 400 note a Secundum.

page 400 note b The Hypodorian organ was a small instrumeut used only for ecclesiastical chanting. It had no sharp or flat key in its three octaves except for B flat.

page 401 note a In the Salisbury Gradual the above was to be sung on Trinity Sunday, instead of on Whitsunday as here directed.