The history of a curious tone

Abstract

The so-called tonus peregrinus, a distinctive recitation tone associated with the performance of specific psalms and canticles, may not be immediately familiar to many performers or scholars. Unlike the eight tones of medieval psalmody with their fixed recitation pitches, the tonus peregrinus—befitting its name—literally ‘wanders’: the pitch of its first semi-verse, usually notated as a, falls in the second semi-verse to g before concluding with a descending termination figure to d. This curious tone became associated early on with the recitation of Psalm 113, In exitu Israel, normally performed at Sunday Vespers with its framing antiphon Nos qui vivimus; much later, the tonus peregrinus was adopted for the vernacular Magnificat in the German Lutheran tradition, Meine Seele erhebt den Herren. At first glance, the history of the tonus peregrinus may seem a rather small and unpromising niche for an extended study like Mattias Lundberg’s new book, one that will succeed or fail to the extent that musical applications of the tone can be seen as a tradition truly distinct from the broader history of polyphonic psalmody. To a degree, Lundberg’s Tonus peregrinus does demonstrate the unique qualities and potential of the tonus peregrinus, a tone whose diversity of musical expression is due in no small part to its ‘irregular’ nature.