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Explanation of the Fluxus-notation home
Cantatorium of Saint Gall (early tenth century; CH-SGs
359)
Fluxus (late twentieth century) Fluxus is, along with traditional square notation,
Lagal and some other notations,
an alternative musical notation for gregorian chant. In Fluxus tenth-century adiastematic
neumes from Saint Gall are placed on lines. Therefore all rhythmic
(semiological), expressive and ornamental indications from the oldest sources
together with the pitches from later times are easy accessible through one
single notation. Fluxus was
first presented in: Tijdschrift voor Gregoriaans 22 (1997) 67-76. On
August 29, 2009 during the 15th meeting of the IMS Study Group CANTUS
PLANUS (Dobogókő, Hungary)
a paper was presented on the Fluxus notation. In
June 2011 at the international symposium
Notarum Figura Auxerre (France) the
book Scores for Tenth-Century Chant was
presented, in which many chants, sometimes difficult to find elsewhere, were issued
in Fluxus notation. This book can here be
ordered. In the book the question of the notation is linked
to a critical alternative for the principle of Dom Prosper Guéranger
(1805-1875, founder and first abbot of the monastery of Solesmes). The principle
was formulated by Guéranger in his "Institutions Liturgiques"
(1840-1851). On the base of this principle the monks of Solesmes collected
hundreds of medieval manuscripts and copied the melodies on large
"tableaux" which at last resulted in "the gregorian
phrase" of the Roman Gradual of 1908. At the congress of April 1904 in
Rome, Dom André Mocquereau (1849-1930) speaks about this principle as the fundament of the school
of Solesmes. Even today attemps at critical editions of gregorian chant are
largely based on this principle (e.g. in the Beiträge zur Gregorianik). The critical alternative to the principle of Solesmes is not based on "most" votes, but on the "best", that are primarily
the tenth-century St Gall manuscripts, and second, the early adiastematic manuscripts as a whole, and only thirdly the diastematic manuscripts
from South, Central and North Europe. At Angelis suis and In longitudinem you find typical notations
from manuscripts and modern editions. Here you find ten responsoria and five
offertoria (with verses) in Fluxus-notation. Since the
overviews of notations referred to above, especially two important scientific
studies have been published (including digital editions): Katherine Eve
Helsen, The Great Responsories of the
Divine Office, Aspects of Structure and Transmission (Regensburg 2008) Rebecca
Maloy, Inside the Offertory, Aspects of
Chronology and Transmission (Oxford 2010) Unfortunately
the editions accompanying these publications are unusable for performance. Therefore
you better consult the so-called "restitutions" from the semiological
movement: Dominique
Crochu: Responsories at gregofacsimil.free.fr
Anton Stingl:
Offertories at gregor-und-taube.de |
