ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC
BY
M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Delivered at the
"Salon de la Pensée Française"
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
San Francisco, June First
Nineteen Hundred
& Fifteen
DONE INTO ENGLISH
WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY
HENRY P. BOWIE
SAN FRANCISCO:
THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY
1915
Copyright, 1915
by M. Camille Saint-Saëns
ON THE EXECUTION OF
MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY
OF ANCIENT MUSIC
USIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to thethirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (Plain Chant) made itsappearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introitshad not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadoursappear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeblenote of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats ortriple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, inhis treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted,considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high,sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals,offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since inplace of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we haverecourse to voices both heavy and low.
In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to itsprimitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to itsprodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely thesame musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanationsgiven by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of theChristian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of noteswere chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins ofthe Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws beganto be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards moderntonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods.The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads orperfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although sometraces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music,ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical totry to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders,in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of PopeMarcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose fromthe grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music.
In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown;when it wa