Two beats or not two beats? That is the question. At least about the Mora Vocis.
ChantHacks with Mark Emerson Donnelly.
The Mora Vocis in all interpretations of Gregorian chant is a long note. Perhaps the most important one. If I didn't say it earlier, Mora Vocis means delay of the voice. While the Ictus in Old Solesmes rhythm governs the overall rhythmic treatment of the chant, the Mora Vocis involves the treatment of the longer notes within the chant, primarily at the ends of musical phrases and the end of a piece: the Mora Ultima Vocis or final delay of the voice.
Now, as a chant is moving along, there are long notes in between; that is, before we get to the end of a phrase or a piece. What do we do at these long notes, which are often notated as Morae Vocis? How we treat these long notes will determine whether the choir stays together with ease or with some difficulty. When considering the Mora Vocis, it's a question of: Two beats or not two beats.
In some styles of singing Gregorian chant, including the Old Solesmes Method, the Mora Vocis is always considered as a double note, the length of two single beats or one compound beat. Those chanters who don't follow these styles may or may not sing the dotted punctum or Mora Vocis double of the single punctum. Since outside of the old method, the Mora Vocis simply means "tarry the voice" or sing this note a little longer, delay the voice. So it could be a bit longer, one and a half times, double or even longer than double. The point is, outside of these styles, the dotted punctum or the Mora Vocis is not a rhythmic sign. It's an expressive sign simply telling you to hold the note somewhat.
In the Old Solesmes Method, the Mora Vocis is always double. Therefore, it has a rhythmic or timed significance. In order to avoid confusion, most people who follow the Old Solesmes Method often use the term "dotted punctum" exclusively and avoid the term "Mora Vocis" altogether. Thus, you either treat the Mora Vocis as an expressive neume based solely on length, that is, one note stretched out to some length, or you treat the Mora Vocis, as in the Old Solesmes Method, as a rhythmic neum, that is, strictly two beats. This is one of the clearest or simplest examples of the difference between the OSM and most other ways of singing the chant.
Those of us who have been musicians for a while, myself professionally for over 40 years, know that we don't always adhere strictly to the time duration as indicated by the notes in the score. You should always be open to a bit of give-and-take, a kind of elasticity to your tempo, open to giving the beat a bit of nuance, unless of course you're a dance band. You don't want couples tripping over each other not knowing where the beat is.
Back to the simple Regina Caeli. Most people will be happy if they can sing it in a prayerful rather than a distracted way. And that's fine. It's good. However, can we sing better? Further, is there a way to sing Gregorian chant better consistently and with unity from one chant to the next? In a way that's teachable rather than simply learning it by rote or following the strongest most confident voice? Let's see how the Ictus, the epizemata, which is plural of epizema, and the Mora Vocis help us out here. Let's look at the two versions of the Regina Caeli again.
To demonstrate, this is the Regina Caeli sung with the punctums or puncta and Morae Vocis only.
[Regina Caeli sung without epizemata]
Not bad. Now this is the Regina Caeli sung with the Horizontal Epizema, the Vertical Epizema or Ictus Mark. So with both expressive and rhythmic signs and the Mora Vocis or dotted punctum as strictly two beats.
[Regina Caeli sung with epizemata]
Did you catch the difference? As I said earlier, in the simple Regina Caeli, the two ways of singing it won't be that different. So what is the difference? Notice where the Morae Vocis were replaced by both a horizontal and vertical epizema. Instead of strictly keeping to the full two beats or one compound beat for that note, I pushed with my voice expressively through those notes to give a sense of joy and elation due to the fact that I'm, one, conversing directly with our Blessed Mother, two, who has borne our Lord, and three, proclaiming that he is risen as he said he would. Also notice that each “alleluia” has a Mora Vocis at the end, which we hold for two full beats. Perhaps because we don't want to shortchange the time we give to our praise for God. Listen again.
[Regina Caeli sung again with epizemata]
Do I think about all this musical and rhythmic stuff as I'm singing it? Yes, somewhat. But I don't have to come up with it all myself because the epizemas are helping me out. Could I have done that with the Mora Vocis in those places? Sure, but what the epizemas show me is, one, how to keep the rhythm, that is, where the Ictus is, the vertical epizema helps me with that, and two, that I should feel free to be nuanced with the rhythm. It, in fact, reminds me to be musical and expressive.
Just so you know I'm not pulling this out of my hat, here's what Dom Gajard said about the horizontal epizema. Charlie Weaver quoted this in his Gregorian Rhythm Wars post of November 13, 2022.
This is Dom Gajard:
The horizontal epizema is thus a shade of expression, which means that its value is in no way mathematical, but depends on numerous factors based on no fixed rules. The interpreter will have to choose the shade of color he thinks best for it. Speaking generally, it is best treated gently. It is an invitation, not to external display, but to enter into one's soul and there to find the indwelling guest. It is one of the elements which greatly helps to give our Gregorian melodies their contemplative value.
When you're chanting in a group, you want choral unity, which will help us to sing and pray better. Choral unity is more achievable if we have a kind of systematic method of rhythm and expression, applicable to the whole chant repertoire, that we can duplicate and teach to others. Such a system is the Old Solesmes Method.
You might ask, that's all very well when you're singing by yourself, but does it really produce the unity you're talking about? Won't everyone simply have a different nuance, thus producing cacophony or chaos when singing in a group?
To demonstrate the unity possible through the OSM, using those three basic elements, the Ictus, the horizontal epizema, and also treating the Mora Vocis as having a definite rhythmic value, I tried a little experiment. I have two recordings of the simple Regina Caeli, one by Solesmes in France under the direction of Dom Gajard, and one by the Abbey of Clervaux in Luxembourg. Back in the 1980s, my brother had the Solesmes recording and I had the Clervaux. Both recordings were on vinyl. Now I have them on CD. The original Clervaux recording is from 1959. I believe the Solesmes recording is from 1969, so ten years later, when Dom Gajard was 84 years old. Both Abbeys followed the Old Solesmes Method, that is, both are observing the horizontal epizemas as expressive signs, both are observing Dom Macquereau's rhythmic notation of the Ictus, and both are observing the dotted punctum, or Mora Vocis, as being two beats long. Here is the Solesmes recording.
[Solesmes recording of Regina Caeli]
Okay, now here is the Clervaux recording.
[Clervaux recording of Regina Caeli]
Notice the monks at Clervaux sang with organ accompaniment. Now, here's the two recordings superimposed. The only adjustments I made were speeding up the Clervaux recording by about 4%. (Often when the chant is accompanied by organ, it is sung a bit slower.) The other thing I did was remove the two beats rest after the words Regina Caeli, also in the Clervaux recording. This was necessary as the Clervaux recording had a solo intonation, whereas the Solesmes recording did not. Otherwise, the timing is the same. You'll notice that, aside from a slight disagreement of where to speed up and slow down on the word “portáre”, you'd never know these recordings were made 10 years apart, in different countries, with different singers and different conductors.
Here's the two recordings superimposed.
[superimposed recording of Regina Caeli]
Well, there you have it. Pretty consistent, eh? So, what's this episode's “hack”? Well, it's a triple hack. The Ictus & Ictus Mark, the Horizontal Epizema, and the two-beat Mora Vocis. These three elements really help unify your group of singers, both rhythmically and expressively, thus making it easier to pray the chant together. If I hadn't made it clear before this episode, in ChantHacks, when I'm dealing specifically with the singing and interpretation of Gregorian chant: it is ALL Old Solesmes, ALL the time!
Some have said the Old Solesmes Method is fussy and ploddy. Maybe those musicians didn't have a good teacher of the method. I did, my brother. And he was taught by Denise Le Bon (God rest her soul). She taught many of the cantors at Solesmes and Fontgombault. She also taught both the Abbot and Choir Master at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma.
Go to vocalart.ca [or vocalart.org] and listen to the Pater noster, Ave Maria, and Memento verbi tui, recorded by my group Offitorium, February 2020. Let me know if you think the chants ploddy or fussy. I'm going to reissue soon an album from 1999, All Saints at St. Michael's. I recorded that with the Schola and Polyphonic Choir at St. Michael's Parish in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Listen to the chant on that. You decide if you think it's fussy or ploddy. **BONUS** Here’s a link to one of the chants from that recording, Beati mundo corde.
Now, I'm not saying you can't teach Gregorian Chant any other way or that any other way is unteachable. I just think, from my experience, the Old Solesmes Method is the way to go. If I didn't, I'd teach another way.
This concludes my treatment of the Regina Caeli: [Ep 5] Organum Novi Mundi, [Ep 6 & 7] The Horizontal & Vertical Epizemas, the Mora Vocis, Choral Unity, and the Old Solesmes Method.
If you like these episodes, please consider supporting us at LifeFunder.com/mdonnellymusic. As I said in the last episode, my daughter and assistant, Allanna, did a fantastic job of reordering and editing my text. She also kept prodding me to get it finished so we could move on to the grand launch of ChantHacks.
Your financial support will help me retain Allanna as my assistant and also give me time to compose. That way, we can continue our mission of producing and promoting Music for God and for Souls. If you'd like to commission a musical composition (like the ChantHacks extro music), for a special Mass or occasion, or would like to have me come and work with your choir for a weekend, please contact us at either mark@vocalart.org or allanna@vocalart.org.
Stay tuned for the “Grand Launch” of ChantHacks. Allanna and I will have more chant content coming your way.
I'm Mark Emerson Donnelly. God bless!