Luogo e data di registrazione		Abadía De Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos (Spagna) - 7/12 ottobre 1968
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Production		Harald Baudis
	Recording supervision		Harald Baudis
	Prima Edizione LP		ARCHIV - 2533 163 - (1 LP - durata 50' 14") - (p) 1974 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		ARCHIV - 435 032-2 - (4 CD's - durata 78' 14"; 73' 13"; 71' 18" & 73' 54" - [CD3 18-29; CD4 1-10]) - (c) 1993 - ADD
	Cover		Ms. London, British Museum, Add. 30 845 (10. Jh.), fol. 144'/45. 36,5 cm x 26,4 cm. Altspanische Liturgie: Officium in diem Sancti [Ae]miliani ad Vesperas. (Benediktinerkloster San Millán de la Cogolla, Altkastilien)
	Note		-

 

The Tradition of the Gregorian Chant (III) Santo Domingo de Silos - Ancient Spanish Chants from Ordinarium and Proprium missae Before the final acceptance of the Roman Gregorian form as the sole liturgy of the entire Church about the eleventh century, numerous liturgies were in use in various parts of the Latin West, each of them influenced by the ethnic characteristics of a particular race and its social structure: the ancient Gallican liturgy as a rite of the State religion of Merovingian France, the Irish-Celtic rite of the numerous monasteries in the Emerald Isle, that of Milan - for centuries the most important of Italian cities -, the court ceremonial of the southern Italian dukedoms, the two rites of the Roman liturgy, and finally that of the Iberian Peninsula, which is especially interesting on account of its colourful nature and the distinctive stamp given to it by the national character. This liturgy attained its highest fulfilment during the 7th century in what was then the kingdom of the Visigoths (Western Goths) which had Toledo as its capital, both as a political and religious centre. The renowned polyhistor Isidore of Seville (died 639) was less concerned with the evolution of this liturgy than the three great princes of the Church at Toledo and poet-musicians, the highborn Visigoth Eugene III and his successors Ildefons and Julian. Soon afterwards (711) the Visigothic kingdom was destroyed by the Arabs, but the Moorish domination of large areas of Spain, which lasted for seven centuries, brought about no decisive changes in matters of religious observance and ritual. In general Christians were not greatly hindered in the practice of their religion. They were even known as Arabs or Mozarabs, i.e. false Arabs, and their Visigothic ritual as Mozarabic. The situation changed only when, after about the beginning of the 11th century, with the gradual reconquest of the Peninsula, the ancient Visigothic-Mozarabic liturgy and its chants, which had remained untouched under the Moorish regime, were gradually replaced by the liturgy of the Roman Papacy. We must therefore distinguish between two liturgics: the ancient Spanish liturgy, known as Mozarabic, of the Visigoths (record side 1), and the liturgy of the Roman Papacy which from about 1050 onward gradually came into use throughout Spain (record side 2). We possess numerous documents of the former, the genuine ancient Spanish liturgy and its chants. One example is shown in the cover illustration, taken from a 10th-century manuscript from the Benedictine monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in Old Castile (now in London, British Museum, Add. 30845); in the left-hand margin a typical melody to the second syllable of (all-)le(-luia) winds its way upwards - there are perhaps 175 notes -, an example of ancient Spanish delight in melody. In the next column there begin the prayers and hymns for the feast of the monastery’s patron saint, a stylized portrait of whom is shown, the OFFICIUM IN DIEM/SANCTI [AE]MILIANI (the Spanish San Millán) AD VESPERAS; after the introductory chant the sono (the vernacular form of sonus) begins in the penultimate line, and several antiphons follow on the right-hand side. The text is in the ancient Visigothic script, and the musical notation is in the form of neumes, which indicate only the direction taken by the melodic line, not - a very regrettable fact for us today, as we do not know the melodies of which this notation was intended merely as a reminder - the exact intervals. Unfortunately the ancient Spanish neumes were not transferred to notation on lines, enabling us to read the melodies precisely, as occurred throughout the rest of Western Europe about the year 1050. Thus the whole melodic treasury of ancient Spain remains a closed book, one of the most regrettable losses in the whole of musical history. Not all is lost, however. Archbishop Ximenes of Toledo, “one of the greatest national personalities of Spain” (died 1517) preserved what had survived through word-of-mouth tradition, which had been passed down with incomparable fidelity right through the middle ages. These survivals were documented in two ways: in 1500 Ximenes had the melodic formulae for the Mass which were sung by the priest or in alternation with him published (most readily accessible in Volume 85 of Migne’s Patrologia Latina), and he had the actual melodies written out in three extensive volumes known as Cantorales, choirbooks which are preserved in the Capilla Mozarabica of Toledo Cathedral. A number of these melodies (23) were published by the two Benedictines from Silos, Casiano Rojo and Germán Prado, in their monograph which is still a principal source of information today. While at least a large number of the melodies contained in the printed volume of 1500 may be accepted on stylistic grounds as being of genuinely ancient Spanish origin, this cannot always be assumed in the case of chants given in the Cantorales. It has been shown that none of these melodies correspond to any of the chants indicated by means of neumes in ancient manuscripts (although the texts are almost identical); nevertheless it must be said that they are full of Mozarabic “feeling”, and that they fit into none of the known stylistic categories of plainsong in existence around 1500, so that they may well be regarded as neo-Mozarabic melodies. Even if they are not wholly authentic, at least some of them may be. (There is still scope for further research into this subject). These Mozarabic and neo-Mozarabic melodies occupy the first record side. Two of them also appear on the second side (Nos. 5 and 9), which is devoted to the Mass according to the Roman rite, predominant in Spain from the end of the 11th century onwards. With the coming of the Roman Mass its principal sections and their settings - Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus - began to occur in large numbers in Spanish books. Much of this material came from neighbouring southern France, whose system of musical notation was employed to an ever-increasing extent in the Iberian Peninsula, soon becoming the only one in use. The twelve chants on side 1 of this record represent various selected portions of an ancient Spanish Mass, as it may have been visualized at Toledo around 1500. (1) The Mass begins with the Prolegendum (also known as the Praelegendum or Officium); at its centre a soloist sings a section of psalmody (Induit dominus...), whose individual verses are introduced and concluded by the choir in the manner of a refrain; here and in other similar responsorial neo-Mozarabic chants the soloist and choir sing the same melody, a practice which would be unthinkable in Roman Gregorian chant. (2) The ancient Spanish Tractus, with its free construction and its F tonality (like that of the preceding Prolegendum), has only its name in common with the Roman Tractus (the piece here recorded is only the beginning). (3) The lesson of the Gospel was followed in the ancient Spanish Mass by a sometimes very extensive chant known as Laudes (or Lauda); the neo-Mozarabic melodies preserved in the Cantorales of Ximenes, including the one recorded here, are considerably shorter. - More probably genuinely ancient Spanish are the two following prayers declaimed by the priest: (4) the monks of Silos offer only a short section from one of the Preces, which were so greatly loved that they were even copied into the books of the ancient Gallican Church beyond the Pyrenees; (5) to the same melodic formula the deacon sings the “Nomina offerentium”, a long enumeration and invocation of saints, in spiritual union with whom those present participate in the Sacrifice of the Mass. (6) The melody of the antiphon Pacem meam, sung in alternation, was at least conceived in the archaic spirit of ancient Spanish plainsong. (7) Undoubtedly of genuine ancient Spanish origin, as is proved not only by its length but also by its archaic formulation, is the Illatio, the Spanish counterpart to the (much more concise) Roman Preface. (8) As in the Roman form the Spanish Illatio leads into the Sanctus; (9) while in Rome the continuation is prayed silently, in Spain it is sung to the Illatio melody. (10) To a single note, varied slightly only at the ends of principal sections, all present in the church sing the Creed, a particularly solemn moment in an actual service. (11) To a formula of great antiquity, which also survives in the Roman liturgy (e.g. in Gloria XV and in the 4th psalm tone) the priest sings the individual supplications of the Pater noster, to each of which the congregation here respond with Amen, an impressive and original manner of presentation not known to have existed anywhere else. (12) The singing of Psalm 33 (Anglican Psalm 34) at the Communion has come down to us from the dawn of Christianity, on account of the verse “O taste, and see, how gracious the Lord is”; again, it may be said of the melody given in the Cantorales that its neo-Mozarabic character is spiritually akin to that of ancient Spanish forms. The first of the three Kyrie melodies at the beginning of the Roman Mass (2nd record side, 1-3) reveals to the attentive listener an entirely different style, marked especially by wide interval leaps foreign to ancient Spanish chants. From the 9th/10th century onward musicians in Western countries from England to Sicily produced many hundreds of Kyrie melodies, a considerable number of which found their way to Spain following the adoption there of the Roman rite. The three examples recorded here, taken from a manuscript which originated at San Millán, are typical of a large proportion of all Kyrie melodies in that the second of the three textually identical supplications is sung at a lower pitch than the others; the fine balance thus established is emphasized by alternation between solo singer and choir. (4) A manuscript from the Benedictine monastery of San Juan de la Peña on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees (at present in the Huesca Cathedral Library) is the source of the simple Gloria, centred upon a single note. (5) The beautiful Sacrificium (corresponding to the Roman Offertorium), taken from one of the neo-Mozarabic Cantorales, creates the atmosphere of the ancient Spanish chants, partly owing to the fourfold repetition of the notes F E D at Offerte domino (and later at Gloria et honor). (6) The Sanctus is sung to a melody found in many parts of Europe, including Northern France and Sicily. (7) The first Agnus, probably French in its origins, is marked by the fact that each of its three supplications descends to a slightly lower pitch. (8) The second, very straightforward Agnus has come down to us only in the manuscript at Huesca mentioned above (4), so it is likely to be a relatively late Spanish composition. (9) The beautiful neo-Mozarabic piece entitled Laudes, to the words Statuit dominus, although it has not yet been discovered in the earliest sources of melodies for the Visigothic/Mozarabic rite, is marked by stylistic features which suggest that it may well be a genuine ancient Spanish piece. (10) The origin of the melody to which the third lesson of the evening service on Good Friday was chanted is uncertain; each of its three sections, consisting of three verses from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, is introduced by one of the Hebrew letters Aleph, Beth, Ghimel (A, B, C), also set to music, all nine passages being sung to the same powerfully expressive melody. The Abbey of Santo Domingo in the little village of Silos, with its famous Romanesque cloisters, lying in isolation in the mountains a little less than halfway along the road from Burgos to enchanting Soria (with the ruins of Numantia nearby), is one of the oldest among the Benedictine monastic establishments still standing in Spain. The tradition that it was founded during the Visigothic era (end of the 6th century) has been confirmed by archaeological discoveries. In its heyday under the great Abbot Domingo (Dominicus, 1041-73), to whom it owes its name, the services were celebrated and sung according to the ancient Spanish rite, as is proved by the substantial number of manuscripts which have survived from that time (now in London, Madrid, Paris, and at Silos itself). The library at Silos also contains much important documentation of the period following the adoption of the Roman rite. Bruno Stäblein