Tristropha: duration or rearticulation?

barnabus1898

Ok chant scholars, I have a question, but first I must give a little context by retelling a little of what happened in rehearsal last night.

While going over propers of the Third Sunday of Lent for our EF Mass this weekend, my organist (who is a student at the local university) brought up for the second time that any repeated neumes (bistropha, tristropha) must be rearticulated when on the same syllable. The Communion Antiphon for this coming Sunday is full of tristrophas (3 neumes on the same line or space in a row for one syllable of a word).

I pointed out last week when he brought it up that this was not any common practice that I have ever heard of or read about. He said it was according to the Solesmes Method. I have not read this in any of my Solesmes literature (yet). When I attended a Winter Chant Intensive hosted by CMAA, this was not the method taught either.

My question is two fold: Is there somewhere in the Solesmes Method that states this is the common practice? (Please let me know what document if possible)

Is there a place in the Solesmes Method that I can site that would say contrary?

I know that there are several books, and I have not read them all. I would appreciate a fast track to some information I could share on the subject so that I didn't have to rely on "I'm running the Schola, so we'll do it my way" response.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Chris Hebard

See the discussion on p. xxiij in the Liber Usualis (no. 801, 1963). "Formerly each of these two or three notes was characterised by a slight stress or impulse of the voice; in practice, we advise the joining of the notes in one sound." They also discuss crescendo or decrescendo, and a gentle repercussion on the ictus of a new distropha or tristropha on the the same pitch and syllable.

melofluent

Practical experience at colloquia and a couple of intensives- I recall that the "one sound" interpretation of, say "1-2-1" tristophas was taught uniformly by the likes of Turk, Ostrowski, Morse et al. Unison repeated neumes were re-iterated. That's all I got.

barnabus1898

Thanks for the page reference Chris! My only Winter Chant Intensive, Ostrowski conducted the men, so that's exactly where I first learned it Melo!

David Andrew

The answer depends on the approach you are taking, performance practice-wise.

In strict Solesmes style, one follows the instructions in the Liber Usualis.

When observing the semiological approach, not only are bistrophi and tristrophi re-articulated, they're done so more rapidly than a standard punctum. Fr. Columba Kelly describes it as a form of vibrato. It creates a "shimmering" effect in the proper acoustic, and actually intensifies the sound. The effect is quite often applied to words that carry greater importance in terms of text meaning and text painting.

As always, YMMV, and I'm sure there'll be at least a 3-car pileup of opinions since I've opened the semiology-versus-Solesmes lane to all traffic.

BruceL

AHH THE FACE-OFF POSTING WE WERE ALL LOOKING FOR!!!!!!

Adam Wood

Sing it like it's music.

Liam

I think they should be articulated by coughs.

M. Jackson Osborn

A semi-rapid re-articulation of the pitch is indeed the correct way to perform multi-strophas. Your organist seems to be aware that scholarly opinion and practice have evolved considerably since the 'Solesmes Method' had its day. Liber Usualis is hardly the last word in chant interpretation and scholarship. (And, I'm not being catty or argumentative.) The 'Solesmes Method', if you wish to employ it, has all the 'authority' of any other of numerous historical, dated, and curious approaches. Familiarise yourself with the teaching of Fr Columba Kelly, Dom Cardine, and read Gregorian Semiology. And, you might profit from attending Fr Columba's week-long workshop this summer at St Meinrad's Archabbey. (By the way: at Solesmes they haven't for quite a long time used the so-called 'Solesmes Method', and never did, really.)

CHGiffen

Bring on the goats!!!

But the really hard work is of course the goat trill.

...

The goat trill, to be sure. It's an old ornament and, mark my words, there's hardly anyone left who can still deal with it. It's produced by expelling the breath very gently and rhythmically, and perhaps you can imagine the effect this creates, at least if you do it properly: the voice opens and shuts with incredible speed and the tone, which is sustained at the same pitch, lets itself go, waives all reserve and begins to shimmer.'

Most often, it is performed (executed?) badly.

Ben_Whitworth

I treat the tristropha as a single note of (roughly) three times the duration that one would give to a punctum in the same position. But I've done the re-articulation thing when I've sung under other directors, and done well, it works. You know, I might try it at practice tonight. It's good to keep the schola on their toes.

"I'm running the Schola, so we'll do it my way"

Ultimately this is a perfectly valid argument.

Liam

Returning to seriousness, my understanding was that reemphasizing (even if not actually rearticulating) the series would discourage going flat over its duration, with some directors encouraging singers to think ever so slightly sharper. YMMV.

Salieri

Based on what I've heard/read from Dr. Ed. Schaeffer, Dom Saulnier, et al. the strophas (bi- & tri-) are an ornament unique to the Gallican tradition. When the Old Roman melodies were adopted in the Fankish kingdoms and replaced the authentic Gallican Chant, the Gallican cantors introduced into those melodies their own ornamentation, creating the hybrid Romano-Gallican Chant we today call "Gregorian".

I encourage my choir to re-percuss, ever so slightly, on the strophas, with an extra "push" from the diaphragm at each punctum, with a slight crescendo - always moving forward. I have two reasons for this:

1) It keeps the music moving, preventing the feeling of "taking a break" on the strophas before moving on again. I am constantly telling my choir that chant shouldn't feel like Mastodons stuck in a tar-pit.
2) It helps the choir keep together because they have to give three notes-duration to a tristroph, and two to a bistropha. I found that without re-percussing the strophas, people cheated, making the tristropha worth only about two 'beats', and the bistropha more like a single punctum with an episema.

But above all, heed Adam's injunction: Sing it like it's music.

MarkThompson

Sing it like it's music.

Sing it like it's words, I would say.

M. Jackson Osborn

Mastodons stuck in a tar pit:
Priceless!
This describes all too many chant performances I have heard... even from otherwise highly qualified and gifted musicians in important places.
Some chant, of course, is meditative and its performance should reflect this.
But, far from those mastodons in a tar pit, a great portion of the chant repertory should sound like rabbits or deer skipping through the forest, or gazelles darting over the savannah.

melofluent

Ooh ooh ooh, animal metaphors for chant, a new diversion.

Chant is (for) cheetahs. 8 speed automatic transmission, agile, and smoove, always smoove.

barnabus1898

I have had great success with my Schola crescendoing through bi and tristrophas. I think this has much to do with my own example. Since my Schola is entirely volunteer (besides myself and the organist) we have little musical training cumulatively. I guess I will simply go with preference and stick to what I've been doing. It's working for the group (besides the grumbling from mr. smartypants behind the organ).

Carl D

This would be a perfect thing for someone to demonstrate on YouTube, because it's really subtle. And hearing these various techniques done consistently by a schola could help us know what ideal we're shooting for.

I suggest YouTube because it's not uncommon to be able to better interpret the technique when you can see someone doing it.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

The mastodon bit is priceless! I'm stealing that.
I understand the history of the repercussion ornament in the way Salieri describes it. The purpose seems then to be both practical and ornamental.

I do differ in how I ask singers to make the articulation. It has to do with re-articulating the vowel, and therefore onset of the tone.

Funny, I just took time last week with my schola to review how to coordinate the onset to articulate repercussion, and they really appreciated it. I think I might put something on YouTube, but I'd ask some colleagues to review it first.

Agreed also with commenters that repercussion has to be musically pleasant, AND it has to ultimately serve the text. In the case of repercussive ornaments on long melismatic passages, where text is less of a concern, the articulation needs to be connected to the overal line/direction of the phrase, to be musical.

matthewj

The GradualeProject from YouTube shows some of the best demonstrations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUz0Qju9uM&list=UUXaC8yYyepCDr2QsLiUEjTg&feature=share

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Here's a generalization for you-
I strongly suspect that people avoid repercussion because
1) they've heard it done in an ugly way
2) they don't know how to instruct singers to articulate it beautifully

I don't see it as a case of old solesmes vs. semiology, since practitioners from both camps routinely (though not always) repercuss.

Kathy

I told my youth schola it was like a wa-wa pedal. Then I had to explain what a wa-wa pedal is. It was certainly the long way around, but they remembered it very well!

Earl_Grey

It creates a "shimmering" effect in the proper acoustic,

THIS

It really depends on the acoustic space as to how much (if any) repercussion sounds musical. And when actual repercussion doesn't quite work due to the room or the choir, I find that simply re-articulating the vowel mentally works to keep the choir together and stay on pitch.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

The acoustic matters greatly.
It's also helpful to crescendo through tristrophas especially.

And, in many cases, the value of the last note of a tristropha is stretched slightly, as indicated in the Laon and St. Gall MSS.

melofluent

Well, in any case, "they" should never involve the glottus, right MACW?

G

Fr Larry Heimann, ( a "disciple" of Cardine's,) of blessed memory, directed the slightest of re-articulations and it gives a fantastic energy and urgency to some chants.

I missed that a lot when I first attended a CMAA function.

But at the same time, sometimes an individual chanter chosen by Fr Heimann over-did it, to my ear.

I directed a children's schola once, (concert, not liturgical setting,) and the audience found the effect electrifying.

I think all scholas, or at least all chant masters should try it before dismissing it out of hand.

I also remember that shortly after "discovering" this in a class with Fr Heimann, I read, (in the introduction to a green kyriale shoved in the back of a drawer of long abandoned music in the loft of an old Catholic church,) that this was the authentic old practice, but best to ignore it nowadays.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Melo, agreed. The glottal onset is to be avoided when possible. And it's almost always possible to avoid it in Latin.

David Andrew

Not to set up a rabbit hole, but my women's schola is getting a real kick out of singing about the "turtledoves" in this weeks Communion chant. I'm making extra certain that they truly execute the "cooing" effect created by the repetitions of liquescent "r" in "turtur".

At the heart of it all, whoever said that Gregorian chant is dull, boring, lifeless and dirgy clearly never got beyond "sing these shapes according to these rules" approach to chant.

dad29

with a slight crescendo

That's SOP for any long-duration note, unless ending a phrase, when decrescendo is appropriate. Adam's correct: it's music, not Ming chinaware.

Salieri

it's music, not Ming chinaware

I'm stealing this.

G

That's SOP for any long-duration note, unless ending a phrase, when decrescendo is appropriate.

"With a long note, you must do something, and the thing you must do is.... something.
--- The Mahrt

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Kathy

My instinct is to crescendo throughout and rearticulate on the third note.

quilisma

When approaching the question of whether or not bi/tristropha should be re-percussed, I have had the following ideas, which tend to suggest that they shouldn't be.

1. If all groups of puncta are repercussed, how would the composer of the melody convey to us that he wished us to sing a long continuous note (a minim, for example)? A solid continuous line of x puncta glued together would not work as no one is going to fetch our their ruler to measure it to determine its duration. Hence, such a long note is represented by two or three 'units' grouped together.

2. In the example above the text is Tibi dixit, but what the listener actually hears is Ti-bi dix-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-t. Perhaps this is a rather extreme example but the text is, to my mind, deformed by such an interpretation, which I thought, was against the general principles.

Robert

In a live acoustical environment, repercussion helps to mitigate the effect of a repeated pitch building up into an unintended excessive lingering crescendo that could create unwanted dissonances with subsequent pitches.

Cantus67

Sing it sans vibrato. (is my hangup about pure tone showing?)

matthewj

I think the text of the Tibi Dixit (cor meum) is by far best expressed by the repercussions. Like the beating of the heart that the text speaks of, the repercussion shows us the beauty of the internal rhythm God has given us. The thought of not repercussing the neumes in that Introit disturbs me greatly. In fact, I regularly have nightmares of that introit being sung without the repercussions.

mahrt

The problem with the performance of Tibi dixit is that all the neumes are sung with a repercussion on each note. The trispropha is sung about right, but the rest of the neumes need to be smoother, an integral gesture.

My own approach to the strophic notes is to have them sung with impulses of the voice, without breaking the sound. The problem for my choir is that they tend to stop and wait on long notes, not counting carefully enough, with the result that they do not sing the next note together. But if they give a discreet impulse, there is motion and vitality to the note, and they do it together.

Ben

I do as Dr Mahrt does. No break in sound, just a pulsing in energy and volume on each note. Also, I try to so a general growth on long phrases so that in addition to the individual pulses on each note, there is also an overall crescendo.

Adam Wood

I think the text of the Tibi Dixit (cor meum) is by far best expressed by the repercussions. Like the beating of the heart that the text speaks of, the repercussion shows us the beauty of the internal rhythm God has given us.

When I read this, I thought you were being a bit hyperbolic.

Then I listened to the recording again, and it was all I could hear.
I agree with you, and would even say (at least in the case) that the repercussions aren't a matter of performance practice or interpretation, they are most definitely integral to the composition.

Try imagining a thousand years from now, and some musicians are arguing about the best way to interpret our current notation conventions:

"The distinct articulation of of each of the three notes in the opening phrase of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is really a matter of interpretation. In a large concert hall, it was probably necessary to separate each note. But in smaller, more intimate settings - or with less experienced singers not well versed in the latest musicological research - it's probably prudent to simply slur them together, perhaps with a slight crescendo. Either way, don't lose sleep over it - take comfort in realizing that your audience won't know the difference either way."

incantu

For better or for worse, here is my contribution to the tristropha performance:
Illumina oculos (the solo verses are full of them). I assure you there is a separation of sound between each of the repeated notes, but you'll find that in a lively acoustic the sounds blend together. It is perceived more as a variation of intensity. For this particular interpretation, I have also chosen a slight variation in pitch on the strophae, which would justify the scribe's transcription of three notes rather than one long note in spite of this mélange of rearticulated sounds.

M. Jackson Osborn

Many, many, many thanks for the above recording. Real chant lives!

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