Bars in Plainsong Hymn "Concito gressu"
  • FKulash
    Posts: 79
    Usually, hymns in "Sapphic" meter (11.11.11.5) are printed with a quarter-bar dividing the 11-syllable lines into 5- and 6-syllable sections. However, the hymn "Concito gressu" appears in Liber Hymnarius (pages 377-378) with the last 11-syllable line undivided, except for stanza 4, as shown in the attached image, with the quarter-bars in question circled in stanzas 3 and 4.

    Are there any other hymns where the 11-syllable lines are divided like this? Why is this hymn different from all (or most) other hymns in this meter?
    Why (in stanza 3, to give just one example) is the line "Ipsa praedicis fore te beata" similar to "Spriitu fervens penitus loquente", and why are both of those different than "ac Deum cantu celebras amoeno"?
    Why is stanza 4 different from all the other stanzas? (I suspect that is a mistake. the same hymn appears in Antiphonale Romanum 2.558 and Les Heures Gregoriennes 3.250 with all stanzas divided 5.6.5.6.11.5.)
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I don't know about the bars in the hymn, but hymns are often sung in bars.
    Thanked by 3bhcordova ServiamScores tomjaw
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,465
    Indeed, I wouldn't mention anything about bars with this group....
    Thanked by 2bhcordova ServiamScores
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,152
    francis, you always seem to find a way to crack me up!
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