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Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 14

Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 14
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periodical Publisher
Browne and Nolan Ltd, Dublin 1913
periodical Editor
[none]
periodical Title
Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music
volume Number
1
issue Content
12UISTORY OF IRISH MUSIC.Au musical persons have read of the world renownedmonastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, but the fact is toooften ignored that its foundation, in the year 612, wasthe work of the Irish saint Cellach, whose name has beenlatinized Gallus or Gall. This great Irishman, a studentof Bangor, Co. Down, the friend and disciple of St.Columbanus, died October i6 h, 645, aged 96, and, athis demise, the fame of his music-school became knownfar and near.About the year 653, St. Gertrude, of Brabant (daugh-ter of Pepin, Mayor of the Palace), abbess of Nivelle, inBrabant, sent for St. Foillan and St. TJltan, brothers ofour celebrated St. Fursey (Patron of Perrone), to teachPscthnody to her nuns. These two Irish monks compliedwith her request, and built an adjoining monastery atFosse, in the diocese of Liege.St. Mailduff, the Irish founder of Mailduffsburgh orMalmesbury, in England, flourished in 670, and com-posed many beautiful hymns. He is best known as thetutor of St. Aidhelm, who tells us that the Englishstudents of his time flocked daily in great numbers to theschools of Ireland of unspeakable excellence, andthat Erin, synonymous with learning, literally blazedlike the stars of the firmament with the glory of herscholars.Davey, in his History of English Music, mentions,with pardonable pride, the fact that St. Aldhelm (d. 7o )is the first English writer who alludes to neu,ns, ormusical notation signs, but he conveniently ignores theequally well-known fact that the illustrious Saxon saintowed his knowledge of neumatic music tablature andliturgical chant to our countrynlan, St. Mailduff.IRISH MUSIC PRoM 6TH TO 9TH CENTURY.13In regard to the so-called Gregorian Sacramentariumwhich Pope Adrian sent to the Emperor Charlemagneby John, Abbot of Ravenna, between the years 788 and790, Dr. Haberl, one of the greatest living authorities onChurch Music, says that it w s altered in the copying,and Gallican elements were introduced. Moreover, itcontained only the Roman Station-festivals, with addi-tions made by Popes that cam after Gregory, so thatDuchesne justly observes that it should rather becalled the Sacralflellt(ZriUm Hadrianum. The Popealso sent two famous Roman singers, Peter andRomanus (author of the Romanian notation) to the Irishmonastery at St. Galls, who brought with them a faith-ful copy of the Gregorian Antiphonarium, but Duchesneconsiders that this great musical work was also alteredby the monks of St. Gall. In any case, owing to thevery imperfect method of notation by neurns (whichreally were only aids to memory, or a form of mnemonicsto indicate the rendition of the liturgical chant as taughtorally), it is only within the past twenty years that ascientific attempt to solve the puzzles of neum-accentShas been made by the learned Benedictine monks ofSolesmes. Certain it is, however, that the Celtic monks,from the time of Sedulius, unquestionably introducedand composed many original melodies for the earlyplain-chant books, and these musical arrangementswere afterwards retained in the service of the Church.As a matter of fact, the name Cautus Gregorianus, orGregorian Chant, is first mentioned in the nInth century,by Pope St. Leo (847-855), in a letter to the AbbotH onoratus, e.g., dulcedinem Gregoriani carrninis.Dungal, an Irish monk, who founded a great school
issue Number
1
page Number
14
periodical Author
Grattan Flood, Wm. H.
issue Publication Date
1913-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music

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