Aug. 21. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



179 



ought to be re-written ; yet, although our musical 

 historians, Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney, 

 liave not made very deep research on tliis point, 

 much information may be gathered by the careful 

 reader from their valuable labours, though I regret 

 to say the Church song has been sadly overlooked 

 by both. 



When or where these tones first took their 

 origin is shrouded in obscure antiquity : whether 

 they were the temple music of the Jews, the mystic 

 liynms of the Pagan worshippers, a compound of 

 both, or the exclusive production of the early 

 Christians, I think no one can decide. That they 

 were in use early in the Christian Church there 

 can be no doubt; but from whence they came 

 jiiuch conjecture has been made, the slight evi- 

 <lence of history being always made subservient to 

 the zeal or prejudice of the author. The most 

 current account we have is, that St. Ambrose 

 of Milan knew o? four tones in his day, and that 

 he added four others to them, the former being 

 those termed authentic, the latter the plagal 

 modes. That this is not mere conjecture may be 

 demonstrated from the fact, that some years since 

 the renowned French theorist, Mens. Fetis, went 

 to Milan for the express purpose of consulting the 

 celebrated " Book of OfSces," written by St. Am- 

 brose in his own handwriting, which is there pre- 

 served ; and in his work, published in Belgium, he 

 says that he collated them with those known and 

 received amongst us, and that the variations were 

 of the slightest possible character, the tones being 

 ostensibly the same. There appears to me to be 

 but one way to prove the age and genuine cha- 

 racter of the tones, viz. by a comparison of them 

 as given in the offices of all the branches of the 

 Church in which they are or have been used, 

 either in the East or West. This is not so difficult 

 as it may at first appear, for I have seen several 

 early liturgies of the Eastern Church icith the 

 7iiusic by points, in the MS. department of the 

 British Museum. Thci'e are also to be seen nu- 

 merous offices of almost every diocese in the 

 AVestern Church ; and were any person acquainted 

 with the language and musical characters of the 

 ancient British Church previous to the arrival of 

 St. Augustine, I believe there are ritual MSB. 

 still in existence that would show us the use they 

 followed, and whether what we understand by the 

 Gregorian tones did or did not form part of their 

 celebration offices. 



Although much has been written on this subject 

 of late years, still it is curious to observe that no 

 one has taken the pains to look into the early Gal- 

 ilean and Mozarabic liturgies ; nor has any one, 

 to my knowledge, consulted a very curious set of 

 seven books, printed in Russia about 150 years 

 since, in which are the whole of the musical offices 

 of the Russians (before their reformation), with 

 the ritual in the Sclavonic character. To sjive 



your correspondent all the authorities that could 

 be hunted up on this subject would be to fill 

 several numbers of " N. & Q. ;" but amongst the 

 many of ancient date may be mentioned Guide, 

 Glareanus, Fux, Kircher, Eveillon, Mersenne, 

 Dovvland, and Lorente ; among the moderns, 

 Dyce, Jones, Webbe, Spencer, Jebb, Helmore, 

 and Dr. Gauntlett, the latter being a very great 

 authority, and who has not been inaptly termed 

 " tJie English Palestrina." 



To the portion of the Query respecting the legi- 

 timate manner of using them, I shall only venture 

 to offiir my own opinion. Music is a progressive 

 art ; and it is as absurd to tie us down to the bar- 

 baric harmonies and faburdens of the ninth, tenth, 

 eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, when 

 the Guidonian scale was only in its infancy, as it 

 would be to model the theological discourses of 

 the present day to the exclusive dicta of the 

 schoolmen of those ages. If the tones are used 

 by us (and, as the common property of the Church, 

 we have as much right to them as those who affect 

 to hold them exclusively as their own), we may 

 in perfect good faith apply either the most simple 

 forms, as recommended by the Rev. W. B. Heath- 

 cote, or we may with equal propriety adopt the 

 massive, choral, elaborate, and musician-like treat- 

 ment of Dr. Gauntlett. 



"With the hope that these rough hints may prove 

 acceptable, though they may not " satisfy " your 

 correspondent, who appears to have carefully se- 

 lected the most knotty points, and some of which 

 are unanswerable, I shall be glad to have had it 

 in my power to point out a " glimmering in the 

 dark." Matthew Cooke, 



(Late of Her Majesty's Chapels Royal). 



Allow me to refer your Querist f to the follow- 

 ing sources of information : 



1 . Accompanying Harmonies to the Psalter Noted, 

 by the Rev. Thomas Helmore, M.A. (8vo., pre- 

 face, &c. xvi. pp., work 38 pp.), published by- 

 No vello, London, 1849, price 3*. 



2. A. Concise Explanation of the Church Modes, 

 Sec, by Charles Child Spencer (small 4to.) : Bell, 

 London, 1845. 



From these works he will learn that the eccle- 

 siastical toni (modes or scales) in which Gregorian 

 chants are composed are eight in number, and are 

 as follows : — The Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and 

 INIixo-Lydian modes, adopted by St. Ambrose in 

 the fourth century : the Hypo-Dorian, Hypo- 

 Phrygian, Hypo-Lydian, and Hypo-Mixo-Lydian, 

 added by St. Gregory in the sixth century. To 

 these were subjoined at a later period, the iEolian, 

 Ionian, Hypo-^olian, and Hypo-Ionian. 



I do not remember to have met with any really 

 satisfactory definition of a Gregorian chaunt ; that 

 is to say, any definition which would supply a test 

 by which Gregorian might be distinguished from 



