This one is called Gregorian Musical Values, by Dom J.H. Desrocquettes (1963). It is striking to think that it went to print just before the deluge and disaster for the chant tradition. One reads this with some sense that all that was left for the chant movement was to refine further its technique. Still, there is wisdom here, probably worth applying now.
Some choice passages:
Unfortunately, Plainsong is not always well sung; and even where its technique is more or less correct, all too often its spirit is missing. In the present little book. we wish to help all those who love the Chant of the Church to interpret it in the spirit in which it was composed, to penetrate its technique with this spirit, in order to achieve the praise of God and our own sanctification….
But the Solesmes ‘ictus’ or method of counting has also itsvdangers. Measure and time are never mechanical and rigid invmusic that is artistically executed. still less in Plainsong. Because of its ancient origin. its long oral tradition and its neumatic notation. Plainsong is very much like folk-song, whose natural suppleness of interpretation modem notation has some difficulty in suggesting. Many who claim to follow the rhythm of Solesmes, in reality follow only its material mechanism: 1-2, 1-2-3, not its rhythm. Measure and mechanism must be informed by rhythm, since that alone makes music come to life and become prayer. We are quite convinced that Solesmes with its rhythmic editions and principles (properly understood and applied) possesses the best method of interpreting melody and text with the qualities mentioned above: that is, in a manner which is at once practical, artistic and objective….
Since Gregorian Chant is essentially music with words – music to express the meaning of these words-the first step is to understand the meaning of the text. Most of the texts are from Holy Scripture, hence they must be studied first in their Scriptural context, then in their full spiritual meaning, and lastly we must discover the exact sense in which the Church uses them for a particular feast or season….
It is by communicating in this divine energy and even enthusiasm that individual feelings are raised up into this fuller life. and are able to give to the Chant something of its real meaning. Also we will realize its immense variety. from the different forms which this prayer takes: meditation. supplication. adoration. praise. atonement. etc. This variety must be expressed by the different ways in which the pieces are sung. This is an important and integral element of technique itself….
The colourless voice all too frequently adopted for Plainsong is undoubtedly not only dull and tiring for the singer. but unsuited to the Chant. The voice must be free, round, mellow, with its full timbre, controlled sufficiently to rid it of any roughness….
