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Norah DuncanIV
Tim Sharp[lang ]sharp[commat]rhodes.edu[rang ] (EDITOR)
Editor's Note: Dom Daniel Saulnier, OSB, is a Benedictine monk and Director of Musical Paleography and Gregorian Studies at Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, France. The following interview took place in June 2003 at the conclusion of the Second Annual Gregorian Institute of Detroit.
Duncan: As the one in charge of the investigation of Gregorian chant at the Abbey of Solesmes, what is the focus of your research?
Saulnier: Much of my research has been about modality in the Gregorian modes, because they are an essential musical language of chant which was lost during the centuries. In modern music, we have perhaps two modes. In Gregorian chant, we have many modes, officially eight, but in practice much more.
I am also researching the origins of notation, studying its beginnings in the Middle Ages, between the tenth and twelveth centuries. It was during this time period that people began to write down the melodies and created a notation of music which had not existed before.
The study of medieval music notation is very interesting because our relationship to music in modern times is very intellectual and very conventional. We have theory and we have the notation. In the Middle Ages, before the invention of the notation, all was more intuitive, more spontaneous. It is quite fascinating to study the relationship between the musician and the music that was produced.
Duncan: Would you discuss the history of the study of Gregorian chant at the monastery of Solesmes?
Saulnier: The Benedictine life of monastery of Solesmes was restored in the middle of the nineteenth century after the French Revolution. The restorer of the monastery, Dom Prosper Gueranger, wanted to restore the liturgies of antiquity, the liturgies of the Fathers of the Church, and their songs-their chant. So, he began a collection of manuscripts or photographs of manuscripts of Gregorian chant from the main libraries of Europe, and with the comparisons between various manuscripts, he began to reconstitute the early medieval melodies of Gregorian chant.
Research into Gregorian chant received additional impetus through the liturgical movement began by Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20 th century. He promulgated in the beginning of his pontificacy a ...