My schola has had some difficulty while rehearsing the Alleluia for Candlemas. I determined that the problem spot was precisely where the Solesmes edition marks the salicus with a horizontal episema instead of a vertical one at the end of puerum. The same thing occurs at autem, just after the first half bar. See also the Alleluias Justus ut palma and O quam bonus. Are there other examples of this use of the horizontal episema in the rhythmic editions? Any idea why they might have chosen to do it in these chants, despite the aforementioned difficulty in writing it? That, in fact, is precisely the problem for my men: the episema is positioned so closely to the adjacent note that they find it hard to read.In a salicus of three notes, the note marked with the vertical episema must also be lengthened as though it were marked with a horizontal episema (Cf. above : Salicus). Were it not for the difficulty of writing it, the latter would have been used instead.
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