Rhythm and metre in French Classical plainchant

Abstract

A substantial portion of the French Classical organ literature consists of relatively short pieces intended for alternatim performance. Yet today, performers routinely present the organ versets only without any singing in between; furthermore, when audiences are fortunate enough to hear plainsong, the performance practice often follows the Solesmes school of chanting—quick, unmetred and unaccompanied—which makes chant versets last about a tenth of the time of organ versets. This article will investigate several French Classical documents that can assist organists and choirmasters in presenting historically informed performances of alternatim works, with particular focus on rhythm. Pierre-Benoît de Jumilhac’s La science et la pratique du plain-chant (1673) provides valuable insight into the normal rhythmic values of neumes used in period chant books. A. Hardy’s Méthode de serpent (1810) instructs serpent players in how to improvise accompaniment to plainchant, even converting chant melodies that were previously only presented in neumes into modern notation. Together, these and other documents throughout the French Classical period and beyond indicate that chant performance was, in fact, practically the opposite of Solesmes aesthetics, which also creates a much more reasonable ratio of chant to organ verset lengths. At the end of this article, I will present the application of Jumilhac’s ideas about rhythmicization with Hardy’s examples in the form of two reconstructions of plainchant hymns that can be sung in a regular musical metre.