|
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 |
