Tonary

A tonary is a liturgical book in the Western Christian Church containing various chant incipits which is organized according to the eight psalm tones of Gregorian chant. It may include antiphons and responsories from the Mass and Offices. Although they can be standalone works, they were frequently used as an appendix to other liturgical books, like antiphonaries, graduals, tropers, prosers, but also included in collections of musical treatises.

Contents

Function and Form

Tonaries were particular important as part of the written transmission of plainchant, although they already changed the oral chant transmission of Frankish cantors entirely before musical notation was used systematically in fully notated chant books.[1] Since the Carolingian reform the ordering according to the Octoechos assisted the memorization of chant. The exact order was related to the elements of the "tetrachord of the finales" (D—E—F—G) which were called "Protus, Deuterus, Tritus", and "Tetrardus". Each of them served as the finalis of two toni—the "authentic" (ascending into the higher octave) and the "plagal" one (descending into the lower fourth). The eight tones were ordered in these pairs: "Autentus protus, Plagi Proti, Autentus Deuterus" etc. Since Hucbald of Saint-Amand the eight tones were simply numbered according to this order: Tonus I-VIII. Aquitanian cantors usually used both names for each section.

The earliest tonaries, written during the 8th and the 9th centuries, were very short and simple without any visible reference to psalmody, the most tonaries which survived until now, can be dated back to the 11th and 12th centuries, some were still written during the following centuries, especially in Germany. The treatise form usually served as a bridge between the Octoechos theory and the daily practice of prayer: memorizing and performing the liturgy as chant and reciting the psalms. This can be studied at a 10th-century treatise called Commemoratio brevis de tonis et psalmis modulandis, which used the Dasia-signs of the Musica enchiriadis treatise (9th century) in order to transcribe the melodic endings of psalmody.[2] 11th-century theorists like Guido of Arezzo or Hermann of Reichenau refused the Dasia tone system, because it displayed tetraphonic tone system and not the systema teleion (corresponding to the white keys of the keyboard) which had all the pitches needed for the "melos of the echoi" (emmelis sonorum). Nevertheless the first example of the eighth chapter in Musica enchiriadis, called "Quomodo ex quatuor Sonorum vi omnes toni producantur", already used the fifth of the Protus (D-a) for an illustration, how alleluia melodies are developed by the use of the intonation formula for the "Autentus protus".[3]

The Different Forms of a Tonary

Tonaries can differ substantially in length and shape:

The Tonary's Function in Chant Transmission

During the Carolingian reform the tonary played a key role in the organization and the transfer of Roman chant, which had to be sung by Frankish cantors according to Charlemagne's admonitio generalis after it was decreed in 789. The historical background was the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 during which Pope Adrian I accepted the Eastern Octoechos reform also for the Roman church. Fully notated neume manuscripts like the gradual and the antiphonary were written much later during the later 10th century, and the oral transmission of Gregorian chant is only testified by additions of neumes in sacramentaries. In the tonary the whole repertory of "Gregorian chant" was ordered according to its modal classification of the Octoechos.

Michel Huglo developed in his dissertation the hypothesis about an original tonary which preceded the Metz tonary and the tonary of St. Riquier.[5] It was probably a coincidence, that Pope Adrian I supported the Eastern Octoechos reform, but it is also evident that Carolingian diplomates present at the synode did not get interest in the communication of the modes by intonations called enechemata for the first time.[6] Nevertheless it was the difference between Greek and Latin chant sources and especially the particular function of the tonary in chant transmission, which led Peter Jeffery to the conclusion, that the huge repertoire of Roman chant was classified according to the Octoechos a posteriori.[7] While early manuscripts of Greek chant always used modal signatures (even before neume notation was used), the fully notated graduals and antiphonaries of the first generation (10th century), written by Frankish cantors, report a lot details about accentuation and ornamentation, but the melodic structure was remembered orally by tropes. Sometimes a tonary was attached to these manuscripts, and the cantors could use it by looking for the incipit of an antiphon in question (e.g. an introit ot [[Communio (chant)|communio), in order to find the right psalmody according to the mode and the melodic ending of the antiphon, which was sung as a refrain during the recitation of the psalm. A Greek psaltes would sing a completely different melody according to the echos indicated by the modal signature, while a Frankish cantors had to remember the melody of a certain Roman chant, before they communicated their idea of its mode and its psalmody in a tonary—for all the cantors who will follow them. In this complex process of chant transmission, which followed Charlemagne's reform, the so called "Gregorian chant" or Franco-Roman chant, as it was written down about 150 years after the reform, was born.

The tonary's function within chant transmission explains, why local schools of Latin chant can be studied by their tonary. Hence, the tonary was still substantial for every chant reform between the 10th and the 12th centuries, like the reform of the Cluniac Monastic Association (tonaries of Aquitania, Paris, and Fleury, but also in Northern Spain[8]), the reform of a monastic orders like the one around Bernard of Clairvaux for the Cistercians (Tonale Sci Bernardi), a papal reform, like Abbot Desiderius realized at the Abbey Montecassino (Tonary of Montecassino), or the reform of some monasteries of a certain region, as Abbot William of Volpiano did for certain Abbeys in Burgundy and Normandy (William of Volpiano's Toner-Gradual and Antiphonary).

The Carolingian Names or "Byzantine" Intonations for the 8 Tones

In Carolingian times each of the eight sections was opened by an intonation formula using the names like "Noannoeane" for the authentic and and "Noeagis" or "Noeais" for the plagal tones. In the living traditions of Orthodox chant, these formulas are called "enechemata" and used by a protopsaltes to communicate the basis tone for the ison-singers (a kind of bordun) as well as the first note of the chant for the other singers.[9]

Aurelian of Réôme asked in his theoretical tonary "Musica disciplina" a Greek about the meaning of the syllables used in Latin tonaries:

“ Caeterum nomina, quae ipsis inscribuntur tonis, ut est in primo tono Nonaneane, et in secundo Noeane, et caetera quaeque, moveri solet animus, quid in se contineant significationis? Etenim quemdam interrogavi graecum, in latina quid interpretarentur lingua? respondit, se nihil interpretari, sed esse apud eos laetantis adverbia: quantoque maior est vocis concentus, eo plures inscribuntur syllabae: ut in authento proto, qui principium est, sex inseruntur syllabae, videlicet hae Noeane Nonannoeane; in authentu deuteri: in authentu triti, quoniam minoris sunt metri, quinque tantummodo eis inscribuntur syllabae, ut est Noioeane. In plagis autem eorum consimilis est litteratura, scilicet Noeane, sive secundum quosdam Noeacis. Memoratus denique adiunxit graecus, huiusmodi, inquiens, nostra in lingua videntur habere consimilitudinem, qualem arantes sive angarias minantes exprimere solent, excepto quod haec laetantis tantummodo sit vox, nihilque aliud exprimentis, estque tonorum in se continens modulationem.[10] ”

My mind was usually moved by the names, which were inscribed for the tones, as "Nonaneane" for the protus, and "Noeane" for the deuterus. Did they have any significance? So I asked a Greek, how these could be translated into Latin. He answered that they did not mean anything, but they were rather expressions of joy. And the greater the harmony of the voice, the more syllables were inscribed to the tone: as in the "Autenthus protus" which was the first, they used six syllables as "No[neno]eane" or "Nonannoeane"; for "autentus tritus", which was smaller in measure, five syllables as "Noioeane" were inscribed. In plagal tones the letters were similar to "Noeane", as "Noeacis" according to them. When I asked him, if there might be something similar in our language, the Greek added, that I should rather think of something expressed by charioteers or ploughing peasants, when their voice had nothing else than this joy. The same contained the modulation of the tones during their intonation.

The practice of using abstract syllables for the intonation, as it was the common for the use of enechemata among Byzantine psaltes, was obviously not familiar to Aurelian of Réôme. It was probably imported by a Byzantine legacy, when they introduced the Greek Octoechos by a series of procession antiphons used for the feast of Epiphany.[11] Although the Latin names were not identical, there is some resemblance between the intonation formula of the echos plagios tetartos νὲ ἅγιε and the Latin name "Noeagis", used as a general name for all four plagal tones. But there are some more obvious cases as particular names like "Aianeoeane" (enechema of the Mesos Tetartos) or "Aannes" (enechema of the echos varys) which can be found in very few tonaries.[12]

The Later Practice of the Intonation verses

The oldest tonaries, especially the Carolingian like those of St. Riquier, Metz, Reichenau and the earliest tonary in a troper of Limoges (F-Pbn lat. 1240), only used the so called "Byzantine" intonation formulas, as they were discussed by Aurelian of Réôme (Musica disciplina), Regino of Prüm (Tonarius), and Berno of Reichenau (Tonarius).[13] But since the 10th century, also biblical verses are used. They were composed together in one antiphon with each verse changing the tone and referring to the number of the tonus according to the system of Hucbald (Tonus primus, secundus, terius etc.), similar to Guido of Arezzo's solmisation hymn "Ut qeant laxis". They were several different antiphons as they can be found in the Hartker-Antiphonary or the treatise collection of Montecassino (Ms. Q318, p. 122-125), but no one became so popular than a compilation of verses taken from the New Testamente which starts with "Primum querite regnum dei".[14] In some tonaries each verse is finished by a long melisma or neuma which clearly show its potential to become a tool of improvisation and composition as well. The origin of these verses is unknown, in some tonaries they replaced the Carolingian intonation as in the tonary by Berno of Reichenau, but usually they were written under it or alternated with it in the subsections like in a certain group which Michel Huglo (1971) called the "Toulouse tonaries" (F-Pbn lat. 776, F-Pbn lat. 1118, GB-Lbl Harley 4951), but also in the tonary of Montecassino. Concerning the earliest fully notated chant manuscripts, it seems that the practice of singing the intonation formulas was soon replaced by the practice that a soloist intones the beginning of an antiphon, responsorium, or alleluia, and after the intonation of the beginning the choir continued. This changes were usually indicated by an asterisk or by the use of maiuscula at the beginning the chant text.

Nevertheless the tonary was not replaced by these manuscripts. While the first generation of notated manuscripts became less and less readable until the end of the 10th century, the production of tonaries as useful appendix to some of them highly increased, especially in Aquitania, the Loire valley and Burgundy. Obviously the oral tradition of the melody was no longer properly working in the early 11th century, when the monk Hartvic added some Dasia signs for certain differentiae as a kind of rubric or comment on the margin (Tonary of St. Emmeran). He obviously learnt them from the treatises Musica and Scholica enchiriadis which he copied in this manuscript, and thus he discovered a new way of using them: as an additional explanation or second pitch notation of the adiastematic neumes.

References

  1. ^ The modal patterns, memorized by a short formula, and the deductive classification of chant played an active part in the process of oral transmission, so Anna Maria Busse Berger dedicated a whole chapter of her book (2005, pp. 47-84) to the tonary, in which she described the relationship between music and the medieval art of memory.
  2. ^ An early copy of the Commemoratio brevis in a music theory collection written about 1000 (D-BAs Var.1). A list of the sources can be found here: "Commemoratio brevis". http://www.musicologie.org/sites/c/commemoratio_brevis.html. Retrieved 4 January 2012. 
  3. ^ See the copy from the Abbey St. Emmeran "(D-Mbs clm 14272, fol.156)". http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00034237/image_157. Retrieved 4 January 2012. 
  4. ^ The practice differentiae which were also called "divisio, diffinitio", or "formula", corresponded to the melodic beginning of the antiphons and developed during the later 9th century. Hence, the different endings of psalmody became a subsection of each section dedicated to one tone. There are tonaries which exemplified the whole psalmody with the small doxology ("Gloria patri") written out with neumes, but there was the abridged form to notate just the ending over the vowels EVOVAE of the last six syllables: "seculorum. Amen." Often the eight sections for the eight tones were repeated for other chant genres without psalmody (Responsories, Alleluia, Offertories etc.).
  5. ^ Huglo (1971).
  6. ^ In a long essay dedicated to the Latin treatises and the knowledge that Latin cantors had about music theory, Michel Huglo (2000) referred to an episode of a Byzantine legacy in Aachen, who celebrated troparia (processional antiphons) for the feast of Epiphany. Walter Berschin and Oliver Strunk (1964) had already published about this visit.
  7. ^ Jeffery (2001).
  8. ^ The Taifa kingdom Toledo, an important domaine of the Mozarabic rite, was conquered by the the Castilian King Alfonso VI in 1085. After he gave his daughters in marriage to Aquitanian und Burgundian aristocrats, the Council of Burgos had already decreed the introduction of the Roman rite in 1080. Hence, reforms can be studied by the distribution of Aquitanian manuscripts in Spain.
  9. ^ It is not easy to prove this or another practice for medieval chant, neither for Greek nor for Latin singers, but concerning performance practice this is quite a controversial topic which is solved in different ways. It is possible that the Orthodox practice today help the singers to sing subtle intonations changes, which are no longer practiced in Western music, while maqam singers usually sing without ison, it is as well possible to perform florid organa in a monodic way without the cantus in the tenor as a second voice.
  10. ^ Aurelianus Reomensis: "Musica disciplina" (Gerbert 1784, p. 42).
  11. ^ Huglo (2000).
  12. ^ For example in the 11th-century treatise compilation "alia musica" (Gerbert 1784, "AIANEOANE": p.133; "AIANNEAGIES": p.149; "AANNES": p.137), and some tonaries are of particular interest as Hartvic's copy of the Chartres tonary and the second tonary of the Troper-Sequentiary of Reichenau, which uses "ANANEAGIES" for the "Autenticus Protus" and "AIANEAGIES" for the "Autenticus Deuterus". Unlike the Guidonian concept of "b fa", the plagios tritos which was called echos varys ("heavy mode") by Greek psaltes, did not avoid the tritone to the basis and finalis F. The pure fourth was only used by the enharmonic phthora nana. According to Oliver Gerlach (2011) the very sophisticated intonation of the diatonic Mesos Tetartos, known by the name ἅγια νεανὲ among Greek psaltes, was imitated by Latin cantors for certain phrygian compositions of the Gregorian repertory, among them the Communio Confessio et pulchritudo.
  13. ^ The verses inserted before the tonary of Reichenau are obviously a later addition: "Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Msc.Lit.5, folio 4 verso". http://bsbsbb.bsb.lrz-muenchen.de/~db/0000/sbb00000127/images/index.html?id=00000127&fip=62.98.50.176&no=2&seite=12&signatur=Msc.Lit.5. Retrieved 3 January 2012.  This version has very elaborated neumae after each verse.
  14. ^ A list of all tonaries which use these verses, can be found here: "Écrits anonymes du Xe siècle sur la musique". musicologie.org. http://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/a/anonymes_10.html#Primum%20querite. Retrieved 2 January 2012. 

Bibliography & External Links

Sources

Manuscripts

Carolingian Tonary (8th century)
Lorrain Cantors
Gradual-Sacramentaries
Alemannic Cantors
Aquitanian Cantors
Cluniac Cantors
Cistercian Cantors
Parisian Cantors
Italian Cantors
English Cantors
Norman Cantors

Editions of Theoretical Tonaries

Studies

Recently under construction.